answer would be something like taking in
details in your environment to try to
understand your environment but I think
it goes a little bit deeper you have to
take into consideration the individual
their past their personal growth may be
just what they tell themselves on a
daily basis and it allows you to
understand what the mind is going
through and what you can take away from
the environment what you can what light
the mind paints the environment in so
much of our present moment is dictated
and explained internally by past
experience when i started in Tai Chi it
was about 10 years ago and shortly
afterwards I was diagnosed with sciatica
or na ritis and the nerve that runs
through my left leg had become damaged
and inflamed they started in my left
foot ran all the way up into my back and
I was partially paralyzed I walked
around trying to work it out never
helped helped at all it was about six
months of just self-doubt and limping
well I was going to doctors and
chiropractors and all of them would tell
me the same thing that they didn’t know
why or how to fix it but that I probably
wouldn’t walk right again after these
six months of just pain and suffering I
was going to this chiropractor and he
told me do not stop doing Tai Chi I
don’t know why I listened but I picked
the art back up there was a lot of pain
there was a lot of self-doubt there was
a lot of this word never in my head I
couldn’t walk so I didn’t think I would
be picking back up a martial art of all
things but I did and after about a month
I started getting the movement back in
my leg and my condition just steadily
improved from there and then about four
years ago
I’ve had poi discover me I just was
fascinated by the way they moved the
flow to it there’s this kinship there i
guess i was watching this one spinner
and of course you know they’re doing
fire on chains and I started with tennis
balls on dog leashes and that’s a rough
start um so I you know was just so
fascinated and bewildered when I would
watch them do this stuff but when this
one spinner was spinning I noticed that
his moves were just Tai Chi I don’t know
how I didn’t notice before I’d seen them
do it countless times but this one
spinner just spoke to me something about
the way moved and I started thinking
getting back into it and reapplying the
the Chi into the art and there’s an Tai
Chi they say pay attention to circular
patterns and there’s one move that I
find to be very relevant and it is the
holding of the ball and moving that ball
whether it be through symmetrical arts
like the cloud hands or dropping back
into a roll back or even something as
simple as just a basic energy clearing
to push the energy out but i would like
to show you this ball now this is the
essence of my ball and i will shrink
this ball down and i will turn it and
it’s not a ball that you can physically
see and if i drop it you won’t hear it
but it is there I can feel it I can
visualize it and it changes reality as I
know it and as long as I keep it going
it’s something kind of akin to like
maybe how a star pulls planets into
orbit or maybe the way electrons go
around the nucleus of an atom and I can
hold this ball all or I can drop this
ball
or I can become this ball or shrink it
down onto the lines themselves or just a
and when it comes to things like
intuition and memory I started thinking
that we’re recreating these senses in
our head we we visualize situations but
there’s no eyes in there but we do see
it it’s there in the mind’s eye and we
hear these thoughts that we tell
ourselves but we don’t really hear them
we don’t have ears in there but we
listened as best we can and it made me
wonder how often these internal
recreated senses are constantly
dictating what’s going on in our lives
we’re kind of letting them run rampant
how often have you had a smell take you
away to a place that isn’t manifest
right here a different time maybe how
often have you not been able to shake a
vision that you saw or maybe just can’t
turn off your own internal dialogue
there’s there’s so much into this is
just it maybe bewilders me and I want
everyone to see this uncritical how
often have we stopped worrying and tried
to make a ball of our own energy and use
it to heal ourselves or how often have
we just tried to make the most of a
situation and just see the best in it if
we could just pay attention to that
uncritical and it’s a long journey it
takes a lot of practice like everything
does but we need to shake off these
self-imposed limitations and I invite
you all to throw out this word never
thank you [Applause]