Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it and I shall move the world. -Archimedes Give an activist enough energy and a platform on which to stand and they will change the world. -Shifu Ed

In a recent online Tai Chi class, an honored new student asked: "How is your style different from other Tai Chi I find online?" A very important question for anyone interested in Tai Chi. It all comes down to lineage and purpose. Martial? Meditation? Both? Read ahead to find out what makes this essential for all of us with the demands of the pandemic reality we face.

People are suffering. Stress is the suspect. Everything bad is stress. Stress makes everything bad. Many avoid stress whenever possible, resign themselves to what they can't avoid, and seek relief whenever possible. It is as if they believe more in the power of stress than they do in the power or energy. People relate to stress like it is the bogeyman of a horror movie and it is out to get them. Given the absence of energy management in the current models of stress management, they are not wrong, and for most people, it plays out like a horror story. I dislike horror movies. I do not enjoy victimization as entertainment. In a horror movie 15 victims run and scatter and the bad guy monster picks them off one by[...]

Our current reality is the sum total of our best thinking and efforts. Unless you have given up completely, you have to be a little dissatisfied. We can collectively do better. If the current models of change were sufficient and efficient to dynamically evolve our problems toward better solutions at an inspiring rate, we would be evolving. They are not bad, some are quite genius, they all contain a fundamental omission: Energy. None of them address the Energy Paradox that fuels the Extraordinary person to Inspire Innovation and Drive Change. Energy—the capacity to do work or

EMPOWERING LEADERS TO Inspire Change What if change was essentially a movement of energy? It is. What if social and personal change was as well? What if it was a matter separate from philosophy, psychology, religion, or education? What if all of these are manifestations of how energy flows through them? The Chinese believed this. The movement of energy through humanity and nature formed the groundwork of their theories of medicine, martial arts, and human relations. Just as life is a manifestation of sunlight, every endeavor from work to play is a movement of energy in and through matter.

Do you feel tired when you feel happy, fit, or healthy? Do you feel energized when you feel sad, injured, or sick? Have you ever noticed your energy level when you were happy or sad? Healthy or sick? Fit or injured? It is simple, our sense of wellness reflects our energy level. When we have an abundance of energy, we feel great. When we have too little, we feel bad. When life demands more energy than we have to spend or wish to spend, we feel stressed. Most people do not associate the presence of stress with a feeling of wellness. Usually, wellness involves the absence of stress, but as we know, all the vacation in the world cannot free us from stress. Have you ever felt stressed AND well? If you have the[...]