Is a Tai Chi technique of stepping back to remain powerful with structural integrity and ‘politely’ pushing the monkey god of mischief away. We don’t want to invite mischief into our life so we ensure to repulse him politely and gently.

This is a strategy of life. We are always encouraged to be active and push forwards, to attack and conquer both others and ourselves. But it’s not always the best action.

Sometimes it’s better to step back, it doesn’t mean that we have to be weaker, we can keep our structural integrity, take a wider perspective to see things more accurately and deal with them more strategically.

This can apply to situations and people. When others are telling us to take action, it’s not always in our best interests even if it is theirs. Often they will be encouraging us to act just to see us fail or to suit their salacious desires.

When I stepped back and stopped contacting so many others, I realised that they didn’t contact me, it was always one sided and it was me that was doing all the running. I was always quick to help and support others but they never returned the favour when I needed it. Others only contacted me when they wanted something and never because they were interested in my welfare. This enabled me to free up a lot of time and spend what time I had with my real friends.

Developing the ‘soft front and strong back’ meant that wherever possible I didn’t instantly react to situations or attacks but took the time and space to assess them more accurately and react with better timing and more appropriate strategies.

This strategy also helped me to ‘let go’ of anger and fear that were immediate reactions to attacks and situations and deal with everything more calmly. This gave me a happier life and a better nights sleep.

So maybe it’s time for you to consider ‘stepping back and repulsing your own monkeys’.