Yielding

The Chinese word shooing means to yield, to relax, to lose to give up. It is said that when Cheng Man Ching trained with the famous Yang Chen-Fu he would be reminded daily to be shooing to be really really shooing."If you are a little bit not shooing you are in the state of a looser and in T'ai Chi you will be defeated."To me this means that as I practice I need to yield to each moment, to completely relax my body in each step and between each step. By becoming conscious of each disturbing thought, feeling or tension and letting them go as they arise, we yield to our practice. We become present in the moment not repressing or avoiding but yielding to and accepting what is here and now. In learning to do this we learn to live consciously rather than on automatic. Then instead of reacting in habitual manner to events in our lives we become more free to respond in new and fresh ways.