Tai Chi is ‘simple and easy’, it’s only one thing that we view through many different windows to increase our understanding.

The first aware breath you take in neigong makes you better than you were before you took it. Your first lesson where you’re taught to ‘stand tall, breathe deep and focus your mind’ makes you better than before you attended.

It makes you feel better, healthier, more happy and positive. From that point on you can only improve these skills. Always practice with an inner smile knowing that you can only get better.

It takes years to ‘master’ musical instruments, painting, dancing, gymnastics, mathematics, swimming and tai chi. But we all start by happily splashing around in a pool or playing simple tunes. Tai chi is no different.

Don’t believe anything you’re taught. Pay attention to it, give it a chance to work its magic and challenge it. Disregard anyone using ‘smoke and mirrors’ to make you feel inadequate (and there’s a lot of them in tai chi). Find your inner locus of power, never give it to someone else and enjoy trying new ways to look at and do things to improve without losing that initial enthusiasm.

There are many reasons to practice tai chi and they are all valid, some look through a very narrow lens and denigrate anyone who’s not as narrow minded as them, but the wider your perspective, the more windows you can look through, the more you get to realise how simple and easy (because it ‘eases’ your body, emotions, mind and outlook) tai chi really is.