Watcha doin'?

"Watcha doin'" has got to be the most common question we ask others.  And when we're asked ourselves, we'll take time out of our busy schedule to answer.  "Oh" we say "I finally got the garage cleaned out.  And I  took all those books over to my neighbours yard sale.  I've just finished washing the car and now I'm driving the kids to soccer practice."  A typical Saturday?  Too bad!

In my opinion, our rush-about society puts far too much emphasis on doing.  We need more practice at just "being".  I know there's a lot of pressure not to be idle, not to waste time, to squeeze in just one more thing between finishing the laundry and putting the kids to bed.  So how do we make time to just "be"?

Sneak it in!  Hide it in the doing!  A great way to accomplish this is through Tai Chi. 

 
Tai Chi takes a lot of doing at first.  You attend classes to learn the postures and the names of the movements.  Depending on the form of Tai Chi you choose, you'll have between 30 - 100 movements to learn.  Memorizing the sequence can take some time, but once you've got it, you can start to focus on the application of the movements (remember Tai Chi is a martial art!).   Then, with continued practice Tai Chi becomes moving meditation.   As you learn to relax your mind and rely on muscle memory, the movements begin to gently flow one into the other.  The doing seems to melt away, leaving only the being. (It sounds wonderful because it is!)

So from the outside, people can see you're busy doing...attending classes, performing the sequence, applying the postures.  But on the inside your meditating, relaxing, just being....it's the perfect cover.