The other day I ran into Starfire, a wonderful Tai Chi teacher. We hadn't practiced together for a long time, so I asked him what he was working on. He said he was focusing on "yielding" as he practiced the form.
Tai chi is all about balance, black and white, yin and yang, yielding and resisting; so I wondered why the emphasis on yielding. I decided to try it in my own practice and discovered, much to my delight, the lack of balance I had in my own practice. (Oh boy, something new to notice and work on). Unconsiously, I had been emphasising resisting much more than yielding when I did the form.
This stands to reason since I started practicing martial arts in order to "defend" myself more ably and become stronger and more powerful. Even though both Tai Chi and Aikido stress gentleness and flow, throwing people more effortlessly and with less muscle was how I enterpreted those ideas. Many of my teachers also stressed harmony, but their ideas sort of bounced off me without taking root. I couldn't figure out what they meant. Harmony with what? The attacker? The form itself? How could I use the idea of harmony to be stronger and more powerful? And throw people better.
Practicing yielding, I began to understand the idea of harmony. I realized that my body felt softer, more opened, and more available to what was around me. I enjoyed the feeling of peace and depth the practice gave me. Suddenly I was struck by the realization of a simple truth: yielding to what is means totally accepting what is, and when you accept completely what is, you are in harmony with it.
There is no more powerful place to be then in a harmonic relationship with the universe.
When I made my practice about resistence, I was anticipating conflict and preparing myself for it. When I practiced yielding, I noticed that I anticipated nothing and was therefore more able and available to flow with life. As I practiced I also noticed that I felt more and more like an integral part of the natural world.
That's what we all are, of course, but in our attempts to control our environment and those around us we lose touch with those subtle forces that help us feel our connection to it all.
Yielding demands that we trust: ourselves, each other, the world around us, and life itself.
Today's message from the Universe? Yield.
This is a fascinating practice. Try it and see what harmonizes with you, and what you harmonize with.
What beautiful music you will make.
Love, Kristine
