Infinite Way

I think I attended my first Tai Chi class some time around October 2005. At the time I had had a few years of very bad health and no doctor had given me any clue or idea as to what might have been wrong or how I could go about recovering. At that point I realised that if I was going to recover most of it was going to be down to me. By this time I had realised that some of the probable causes of my illness were down to exhaustion of doing more than and I should have been doing and living what some people might call a destructive lifestyle for some years. I also realised it was due to a serious lack of attention to my body which had experienced almost no exercise for many years since I've spent most of my working life sat at a desk and not taken part in any physical pass times for a long time.

I calmed my life down and got plenty of rest and started to think about how I could address the problem of not getting exercise, I knew that if I'd tried anything too strenuous it would do far more harm that good, walking up a small hill at the time would have quite possibly put me on the floor (and on occasion it had done exactly that) so I knew I had to be careful. As a youngster I'd had a promising and enjoyable but very short lived time learning Karate, the passion to learn martial arts had always stuck with me but I had long given up on actually doing it again. So taking all these things into account it didn't take me long to decide that at some point I might start to give Tai Chi a go. I knew very little about it but it was a particular art which had captured my interest from a young age. I was under the impression that Tai Chi was a slow, relaxing exercise that wouldn't be demanding on my body yet provided me with some exercise, I also knew it held martial content but I had no idea how it manifested itself which intrigued me. On top of all that it was supposed to be good for you and apparently was well known for improving health. All in all it sounded like it was just what I needed...while I truly believe this was the case lets just say it was not what I expected.

So I knew I wanted to give it a try at some point but I didn't know where to look for a teacher or when I might start. Just by coincidence a friend who I had not seem for some years started to do some work editing a Tai Chi video in the building where I worked so one day I asked if he knew of any teachers in the area, the next day he handed me a small publication called Sparkly Light with an article on Michael Henley, shortly after I made the call and found out when and where the nearest classes were held.

I turned up for my first class and was met with a friendly smile from Michael who then proceeded to tell me that he liked to keep his classes relaxed, informal and friendly and that I should just not worry and try to follow along, so that's what I did. We ran through a few warm up exercises and and then just stood there, Michael was explaining how we should be standing and what we should be concentration on and I was giving it all my best although couldn't help wandering quite what I was doing there, it also wasn't long before I noticed this was a little bit more work than I was expecting as muscles started to ache. After that we ran through some movements which were taken from the form (although I didn't know it at the time). Next up we were to get a partner and try some free sticking exercises, I had no idea what I was doing but my helpful parter instructed me to just "keep contact and see where it goes" so I did. Again I didn't know why I was doing this but I found this interaction and freedom fascinating and fun. We did this for a while, occasionally stopping for Michael to explain or demonstrate something, by now we were running out of time so we finished off with a little bit more standing and closing down exercises. By now I had realised that while I didn't really know much more about Tai Chi yet, I knew it was far more than I had first thought and there was a lot of fascinating things to be learnt, my interest really picked up and I couldn't wait to find out what all this stuff was for and what other interesting things might there might be.

The next class I attended happened to be a full day course the following weekend, there were quite a lot of people and we started of in a similar way to the class I had attended but we spent much more time and detail with each exercise, movement and posture. As Michael was explaining as we went along more and more things started to make sense and I started to understand more about what we were actually doing. We did some more partner work with some more of that enjoyable sticking stuff, but then also looked at how some of these movements started to translate into martial applications. After lunch we then started to run through forms, these were familiar to me, this is what I had seen of Tai Chi before. I was quite some way behind most other people here, while only a handful of people attending at this time knew the complete forms everyone else knew a fair sized chunk where as I knew nothing...I'm not one to get put off by this however, it seems to only makes me more determined so I just joined in. At the end of the day I was absolutely exhausted but had thoroughly enjoyed myself and just wanted more.

From that point on I attended the class every week as well as weekend courses whenever they came up. Over the coming months everything we were doing and had done was clearly explained, Michael is not one to hold on to information and "secrets" in fact its a rare occasion when he stops explaining all the details and information needed to learn this art, his passion for the art seems to drive a desire to pass on as much of what he knows as the students are willing to take, as a student I find this is fantastic! Also now as the new person in the class I was somewhat behind but with some individual help from Michael and some of the other students in the class I started learn Dr Shen's Taiji 37 form and catch up with where the rest of the group were with the form. It was not long before I felt part of the group and started to understand what we were doing. Every class held something new; be it a feeling, an exercise or a piece of advice. I did have a few moments where my illness got the better of me and I had to stop and rest for a while, Michael always made it very clear though that I was to do what I felt I could do and if I needed to stop and rest then that was no problem and I should do so.

I had been learning with Michael for a couple of months now and was thoroughly enjoying it, the only problem I had was that I had to wait a whole week for each class and that didn't seem like enough to me, I couldn't make it to any of the other classes because they were too far away. That is when I found out that Matthew Berry, one of the other people who attended the class was teaching his own weekly classes, I asked Matt if I could attend and he said of course I'd be welcome. The following Friday I went along to Matt's class. Matt was teaching much the same stuff here but being a different person he had a slightly different way of doing it.

Yet again I was behind the rest of the class since Matt was teaching the Chen Men Ching form rather than Dr Shen's one which I had been learning. Again Matt helped get me and the other beginners up to speed and soon enough we were all part of the class. It's been interesting learning from too different people, while everything is essentially the same I've got to witness how the same thing changes slightly and evolves with each person.

The first few months for me were all about the movement shapes and techniques; trying to put my foot in the right place, arm in the right position and remembering what came next in the form. There was often a mention of Qi but for me I just decided that it was a nice idea which it is nice to think exists but I was never going to see any real proof either way...I then started to feel things! The first time was a real shock, we were doing an exercise and I felt I was doing it badly and started to get a bit bored of it, after a while I just gave up inside. I decided to no longer focus and I just use the least amount of effort to make it look like I was doing what I was supposed to be doing, at that moment I just felt something start supporting all my body, adjust my shape and carry my movement, this was fantastic, like some magnetic force supporting everything I did. Sadly just as I felt this Matt brought the exercise to the end but now I knew there was far more to this than what I had seen with my eyes. Since then I've experienced all sorts, far too much to go into detail about but I've felt forces push through my body in and sorts of different way with different results, also to some tiny extent I have now started to discover how this can be used to fix things which aren't quite right in myself.

It is now getting on for 3 years since I attend that first class and I still find everything as exciting as when I first started, I look forward to every single class and attend weekly Tai Chi, Qigong and Meditation classes as well as all the courses I can get to. I have have learnt a vast amount since I started yet it all seems insignificant to the limitless possibilities yet to come. Without a doubt what I have learnt so far has had a huge effect on the rest of my life, and many things I'm sure will stick with me for the rest of my life. At the classes and course I've also met and made friends with many wonderful people and both Michael and Matt have both been not only fantastic supportive teachers but helpful and supportive with my health problems and life as well as being great fun to be around - thank you for everything over the last few years, I look forward for the many more to come!

Tom