Many people are so uncomfortable in the absence of noise that they will leave the television on even when no one is watching. I have passed people on lonely mountain paths carrying radios that were blasting out rock music. They like the scenery but fear the silence. 

We are overwhelmed by noise pollution which keeps us from being able to relax and which wreaks havoc on our nervous system.

(John Lash)

Oasis

Week in, week out, people attend tai chi classes. The instructor is always friendly. The lessons are always stimulating. Your fellow students are always courteous, well mannered and nice.

Your personal life may be in turmoil, your work life may be tedious or disappointing, yet tai chi class remains a constant: comfortable, familiar, friendly and fun.

Instead of being met by rivalry, one-upmanship and stress, you encounter friendship and warmth.

Freedom from stress

A tai chi class is a quiet place, yet somehow neither boring nor lacking in stimulation. There are no mobile phones, no TV screens, no computers, no concerns, worries or deadlines.

Instead, you can relax, let go and get some much needed 'me' time.
When the incessant noise and distraction ends, you will start to feel different. Tai chi will assist you in becoming quiet inside.

A calmer mind?

Most people have minds that are like adverts chattering noisily: worrying, flitting and unsettled. Qigong and tai chi slowly encourage you to become quieter inside.

By moving slowly and calmly, you are aware of what is happening as it happens.

Talking less

It is good to talk, yet talking is also a problem. If your mind is never still and quiet, you cannot possibly feel relaxed and at peace.

For many people talking is a compulsive habit, serving to mask the anxiety within. Without the chatter, people feel alone and isolated.

Immersion

Tai chi creates a situation where your attention is absorbed with where you are and what you are doing, so the mind becomes quieter automatically.

Unlike concentration, you allow the mind to open and become expansive. You feel, hear and see everything around you. The chattering of your thoughts will begin to fade.

Find the calm

There are calm places to be found in every town. A tai chi class is a good example. Calm voices, settled emotions and an atmosphere of friendship and camaraderie will be immediately apparent.

This may feel most unfamiliar to you, odd even. Don't panic. Give yourself time to adjust to something different. Just stay with it and enjoy. A feeling of serenity and peace may settle upon you.

Invest in loss

To find calm places you need to become a little lost yourself. Not lost in drink, drugs, illusion or stimulation. Quite the opposite. You will need your wits about you.

You need to step off the familiar pathways of your life and walk somewhere different.

Chattering monkey

If you do not commit time to calming activities and rest, your mind may never know stillness. Even in the midst of stunning beauty and peace, tranquillity will elude you.

Seek out the calm

Finding quiet places requires some degree of effort. They may be subject to time, day or season. You might need to get up very early or stay up very late. These places can be found.

In order to find these places, you must slow down. You must want to step off the treadmill, into the shade and find peace.

Outdoors

There are quiet places to be found in every city and every town. You just have to seek them out. Lost places, where people seldom go. Leaves overgrown the streets and wildflowers are abundant.

Nature flourishes. The air is cleaner and there are no cars and few people.

A bubble of stimulation

Most people exist in a bubble. They wake in their own home, get into their car and then go to work/shops/wherever. There is seldom any time spent being calm.

Homes, cars and public places are usually filled with noise and stimulation. Visual images, flickering screens, twittering voices, gossip... Where is the peace in your life? The stillness?

 With today's round-the-clock access to news we can now receive a twenty-four-hours-a-day parade of mostly negative information about random shootings, drug wars, environmental disasters, racially motivated hate crimes, rampaging serial killers, and gruesome sex crimes. As they say in the world of television news production, "If it bleeds, it leads." The news, in fact, has become so stressful that health experts recommend 'news fasts' to improve psychological health.

(Dr Bradley Wilcox, Dr Craig Wilcox and Dr Makoto Suzuki)

Relax

The 'relaxing' aspect of tai chi is a culmination of 3 factors:

1. Emotional awareness

2. Physical ease

3. The calming of thought

Tai chi gently encourages people to slow down, take time over things and be patient. There is no pressure at all. Things are allowed to unfold in their own good time.
Ready to begin de-stressing?

Look after yourself

Our tai chi classes offer an excellent way to:

• Find balance
• Discovery new ways to cope with difficult situations
• Relax
• De-stress
• Calm down and find your own pace
• See alternatives
• Slow down
• Re-frame potential problems
• Avoid confrontation

Take it easy

Sifu Waller adopts a Taoist approach to exploring tai chi; there is no rivalry, competition, anxiety, winning or losing.

Whilst there is a detailed syllabus and a clear method of development, students are free to proceed at their own pace.

 There was a man

who was so disturbed
by the sight of his own shadow
and so displeased
with his own footsteps,
that he determined to get rid of both.

The method he hit upon was
to run away from them.
So he got up and ran.

But every time he put his foot down
there was another step,
while his shadow kept up with him
without the slightest difficulty.

He attributed his failure
to the fact
that he was not running fast enough.
So he ran faster and faster,
without stopping,
until he finally dropped dead.

He failed to realize
that if he merely stepped into the shade,
his shadow would vanish,
and if he sat down and stayed still,
there would be no more footsteps.

 (Chuang Tzu)