TMW is all about inviting people to move – both in a physical way and also within themselves; to move away from negative patterns towards positive patterns of behaviour. Movement is also important where healing is concerned as something static and frozen cannot heal. For there to be health, wellbeing and healing we need to encourage flow in the aliveness of ourselves.
There are three ways in which we do this:
The movements of TMW begin the invitation to move physically, but only to the limit of where the body stays relaxed and soft. Why? Because when there is tension, there is automatically tightness and therefore less flow. So to ‘do less’ is to achieve more!
To add breathing is to bring another dimension of movement in, especially when we move with the natural breath rather than controlling the breath to work with the movements. One comes from control and the other from a deep place of let go, where just to relax into the breath means that the breather has already softened control. When movement and breathing are combined, the bellows effect increases circulation and the oxygenation of the blood.
However, there is a further layer that we use which is unique to TMW and Tai Chi – the use of ‘inner flow’. This means that we follow the direction of the movement with our minds – coming from the feet, via the legs and waist, up the spine and out through the arms and fingers. So, the mind is completely focussed on the sense of movement in the body.
As we combine these three things we get a movement of the mind, combined with the movement of the body and the breath. This is very powerful. It creates a wave of movement through the body which massages the lymph and circulatory systems. Because the mind is moving, it refreshes and in some cases recreates the synaptic connections or finds new ways past blockages and damage – very important for conditions like Parkinsons and strokes as well as a host of others.
So move, breathe and let the mind move to create a wave that nourishes and brings us into deeper wellbeing!
Richard Farmer
