A practice in self-love

As Valentine’s Day approaches, it is important to embrace the practice of self-love.  Self-love leads to self-care.  Self-love does not equate with selfishness.  Self-love is a spiritual principle.  This spiritual principle can be applied to tai chi practice as well as to daily life.
In Taoist teachings humans are the connection between heaven and earth.  Standing in the Universal Stance we honor our place as this connection.  We practice moving from our center.  Our center is one of balance.  I like to coin it as center of self-love.  In tai chi, as in the rest of life, we practice moving from our center.  When we do this we do not over do, but rather conserve our energy.  We don’t force or control, but we deflect forces coming towards us that could harm us.  We listen to our limits.  In life if we have absorbed too much news, we turn it off.  If we are exhausted, we replenish ourselves by resting more.  We are aware of our active and worried minds or “monkey minds” and how our monkey minds can cause us to lose our center.  We calm our monkey minds.  Tai chi can help us reconnect back to our center.  The slow and gentle movements with deep breathing help to calm our bodies and our minds so we can practice self-awareness and self-care.  Then we can practice the spiritual principle of self-love.  Happy Valentine’s Day!

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