Tai chi at the Jerwood (photo: Kim Kish).

Tai chi, a door to mindfulness

Michael Mulkerrin, a psychotherapeutic counsellor, recently renewed his acquaintance with tai chi and was straight away back in the groove, as he recounts.

Mindfulness has taken over from CBT – cognitive behavioural therapy – as the flavour of the month in the therapeutic world. They talk about it on Radio 4. The NHS run mindfulness-based cognitive therapy groups. Practitioners all over the country have either been jumping on the bandwagon or muttering, “I told you so,” and vainly pointing out that they have been aware of the benefits of mindfulness for donkey’s years (a donkey’s year is the same length as a human year but with a long face).

I recently enrolled on a tai chi course. This was something I tried briefly many years ago as an adjunct to my meditation practice. Revisiting it after about 20 years I only have a vague recollection of the few moves I once learned. And yet, from the moment I began again, the sense of calm that rolled over me was as familiar and warming as a hug from a long lost lover.

I don’t know if the actual moves are that important – perhaps I could just make them up. But the quality of the moves: the slow careful placing of the foot, the shifts of weight, the poise and balance, the conscious breathing: all contribute to a gentle joy in being a physical creature alive on earth at this moment. And that is the important thing – this moment.

In tai chi, every moment is a moment of mindfulness. Every breath is conscious. Every footstep is deliberate. You are gloriously aware of being alive as you move through space and time. Try it. You won’t regret it.

Oh, and the classes are in the Jerwood Gallery, a beautiful space – with or without the art.

For more information contact course teacher Kim Kish on 07737 690 520 or at kim@meiquan.co.uk

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