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[...]

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[...]

It is a New Year. If 2017 was the year of inescapable stress, let’s make 2018 the year we begin to master stress. Let’s use it to inspire us to evolve beyond our current limits to new heights of good health, prosperity, and happiness. We need an empowering new choice in how we manage things like stress and conflict so that we can enjoy more beneficial results and less destructive consequences.