Most of us experience a sense of being 'on edge' or jumpy. This is really a habitual over-reaction to our environment. One way of deepening your understanding of this is to experiment with habitual patterns of reacting to a familiar stimulus, such as a door-bell or a telephone ringing.

 (Michael Gelb) 

Life

Life presents us with countless situations that test our mettle.
We have the opportunity to behave in a variety of different ways and make a whole range of choices.
How and what we do stem from who we are.

Our actions reflect what sort of person we are.

Shaping

We shape our reality relative to our perception of it. In essence, we see the world that our mind generates for us.

People forget that our eyes are not windows or cameras.
Our eyes receive data and the brain shapes the information into a format that we can comprehend and interact with.

This inevitably distorts what we see.


Seeing what we want to see

We smile at a stranger and they respond according to how they interpret the smile.

A person with a generous, kind spirit will most likely smile back.
A mean, greedy person may well be suspicious and uncertain.
A shy person may feel self-conscious.
An angry person may see a challenge or a threat.

Yet the smile is constant. How it is perceived is what changes.


Tai chi

The art is shaped to represent how you are - friendly, aggressive, superficial, show off, practical, studious...

It is a mirror of our inner self.

If you are impatient, the tai chi looks hurried and flighty. If you are aggressive and macho, the tai chi reflects this too.

There is no hiding who we are. It shows through.


Change

Studying taoism and zen is very useful. It has the potential to promote change.
Our fixed, narrow ideas soften and relax.
We become more expansive and receptive, open to the unknown and eager to explore.

Our outer behaviour mirrors our inner self.

If you go through life struggling with other people, constantly encountering conflict and resistance, then something may be wrong.
It may be possible to let-go, to flow, to move more smoothly through life.

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Page created 2 April 2007