Life with all its complexities and contrasts creates a necessity to chalk out ways to make young impressionable minds better equipped to handle its exigencies. Holistic education is so much about grounding in connectedness as much as it is about intuitive understanding that, harmony in the mind body connection is a way of life and living.
An education in empathic behavior becomes paramount in a materialistic world. A lot of misconception about empathy needs clarification.
Empathy is seeing with another, listening to another acknowledging them as they are, in a nonjudgmental space and being with another sensing the feelings and caring to reach out with support through words action and deeds …
Empathy can be sensed in a touch a nod or a smile or in the simplicity of silence, doing nothing but just being there ….
Empathy is a sharing, a feeling, a bonding, a being, a seeing, a sensing, a trusting and believing in hope, in faith, in life and grace.
Empathy is about caring, as a way of being. Empathy is not always about bearing the suffering and sensing another’s pain or being in a state of sorrow or pain. There can arise great empathy when dancing together or in a classroom environment where the teacher feels one with the student’s frame of mind and speaks to address that … or hearing or performing a song or play together with unbridled sense of bonding and enthusiasm. This empathy can be reflected time and time again in striving to consciously stay aware of the mutually creative fulfillment it brings to our lives. Positive benefits of empathy can become a mirror to gradually inducing greater empathic behavior in our lives towards ourselves and others.
Our movements have the power to change our moods, as much as our thoughts can bring a change in our way of being. It doesn’t matter who believes in your empathic way of life, what matters is you believe in it yourself. And that is the first step in making a positive difference. When there is an empathy in action, it is mirrored in our minds to create, generate loving and caring thoughts as a response to the action.
Every empathic thought finds its way into expression thoughts words or deeds creatively. With increasing empathic thought and action there is unknowingly a connectedness, valuing the interdependence in this web of life and living as a way of being.
‘My first intentional practice of Tai Chi began years ago on a rainy day in the month of June. The sweet cadence of the rain in all it’s rhythmic glory, the cleansing nature of the rain was just as wonderfully comforting as much as the experience of Tai Chi, with its movement in stillness and the stillness of its movements.
As I tried to move in unison with breath and learned to direct the momentum for the movements from the central core of the body to the outward, I could draw the parallels of the simple yet profound principles of Tai chi giving a lifetime’s guidance.
A life lived in the middle path gives one equanimity to see beyond the obvious. To envision the duality of existence enough to understand joy and sorrow, are not something eternal. Life becomes simple and just as easy to live as we make it , letting go of excesses of any kind, which ultimately works towards healing oneself from within.
It only adds to the fact that this moderation makes you want to work at building progressively, instead of pushing the boundaries and stretching beyond your abilities to the point of probably injuring yourself and giving up altogether.
The rain’s rhythmic tapping on my open window sill, the occasional bursts of cool breeze surrounding me now and then was in tune with my learning to release and melt away the accumulated stresses through conscious gentle outward movements . I felt a few varied sensations coming to me vying for attention, but as soon as my focus returned to simply witness the flow of breath in the movements the very same sensations completely vanished.
It was so peaceful to end the practice with breath awareness and mindful movements that I must add that like everything else in life, Tai Chi must be ideally learned under the guidance of a good teacher to experience the gamut of life enriching experiences it surely has to offer.
As I completed my practice for the moment , suddenly there was thunder and lightning signifying the release of feel good endorphins and hopefully parting with some of the tensions within me. This is after all the essence of Tai chi , to be one with Nature and learn to nurture it .
A humble dedication to Tai Chi form and the powers of the supreme in and around us.
Love and hope to bridge the divide Faith and patience to move beyond Courage and understanding to dare Peace and passion to create some more Healing and strength to help yourself Beauty and freedom to enjoy this now! Take what you need But always remember… Wiser to take that which we feel we really need this moment and maintain the state of positive abundance for others too. After all there is so much good within all already! So simply take what you really need.
