Slow down | Slowness is energy

I have always been fascinated by people who practice tai chi in public places. The first time, I found it strange – “but what are these people doing?” » –, believing in an artistic performance. Then, when a trend took hold, I wondered if it wasn’t a bit of a pose, then I ended up thinking that maybe it was an activity for old people and esoteric people.

In my life, I did yoga, pilates and meditation, nothing intense, but tai chi remained a mystery that I did not really dare to unravel, until the idea of ​​this collective file about the importance of slowing down. Tai chi is a very slow thing, and by exploring it, I could satisfy my curiosity at the same time. Because ultimately, what I find really curious about tai chi is precisely its assertive slowness.

Having always had a lot of difficulty with meditation, I never believed that tai chi was for me. It’s stupid, but meditation stresses me out, I can’t do it. The little hamster in my head runs too fast, my ideas go in all directions – that sentence I read earlier, what’s for dinner, call the accountant for taxes – and I count the minutes until the session ended, discouraged with myself. That’s if I didn’t fall asleep on the mat during the floor poses.

However, tai chi is in a way a “meditation in movement,” explained Marie-Eve Gamache-Perron, from the Art du Chi Montréal school, whom I contacted to participate in a group workshop at Laurel Park.

To my amazement, I really liked it. We feel a form of meditation, but the very gentle sequence of movements prevents the mind from going elsewhere, by anchoring us in our body without rushing it. This mind that the attention economy is constantly eating away at us.

In fact, if the mind wanders, we simply can no longer follow the movements, which I didn’t know. The beginner must remain focused, but imagine what another level of concentration he reaches when he has integrated the gestures. And that’s without counting the seconds to maintain a difficult posture or the number of repetitions to strengthen a muscle.

After a session, I certainly do not pretend to tell you what tai chi, an age-old practice, is. The Art of Chi Montreal, which belongs to a network with several centers around the world, offers teaching based on the Stevanovitch method – because there are several traditions, schools, approaches and philosophies. “Our school was founded by a great chi master in the 20th^e century, Vlady Stévanovitch, now deceased, explains Marie-Eve. He studied with masters from different disciplines – Japanese, Chinese, Indian – and sought common points between them. »

In fact, there is no real word in French to properly define what “Chi” is, which we try to define with the expression “vital energy”. “Chi is more something that is felt, that is experienced,” summarizes Marie-Eve.

At Laurier Park one Sunday morning, suffering from a slight hangover from having celebrated my mother too much at Mother’s Day dinner the day before, I participated with around ten people in a session led by Johanne, a seasoned teacher. She reminded me of Josée, a cool friend of my late mother-in-law, who practiced tai chi for a long time. The same Olympian calm of the face. There were as many men as women, including a couple.

I thought I would sit on a bench to observe them and not disrupt their session with my ignorance, but I was invited to participate in the qi gong routine. I don’t think I disturbed anyone, because everyone was focused on their actions.

At first, a little nervous, I copied their movements by going too fast, as if I wanted to prove that I understood and that I could be good, but very quickly, I adjusted to the rhythm of the group. Tai chi has nothing to do with performance.

In a break between two sequences, while I was questioning the participants about their reasons for doing tai chi, Deva, deadpan, provoked laughter and protests from everyone by saying that yoga requires too much work and that tai chi is for lazy people, playing on clichés. These people seem to be looking for something more than being “in shape”, want to move without pressure and without hurting themselves, to share without comparing themselves, more to experience something than to accomplish something – this is my very personal reading.

“What’s important is that it feels good,” recalls Marie-Eve. In this school, it’s very “comfort first”, there is nothing authoritarian. Afterwards, we feel lighter, it feels like our “body pajamas” are looser. » She bursts out laughing. “Usually, our attention is focused on the outside, on speed, and already bringing our attention back to the level of the body slows something down and allows us to open up to other things. Not only on us, but also on others, on the environment. »

I was surprised to learn that tai chi is also a martial art. And for real, while looking for chi one Sunday morning at Laurier Park, I had the impression of repeating gestures from my childhood, when we imitated Bruce Lee’s karate in slow motion as in his films, with the same joy. To dance too, with graceful movements, I who most of the time have the feeling of being a bull in a china shop.

Hidden behind the slowness, these are postures of inner strength, I think. Tai chi focuses a lot on the pelvis, breathing, balance, relaxation of the upper muscles and concentration. That day, in the faces of a few passers-by who were looking at us, I recognized this somewhat mocking curiosity that I have always had in front of a group doing tai chi. But this time, I was inside, and I wasn’t bothered at all, too busy feeling the wind on my skin, the smell of the budding trees, and how perfect the temperature was, despite the gray clouds.

I don’t know if I will continue my discovery of tai chi, but I know now that when I see people doing it in a park, I will be more envious than amused.

A major launch practice will take place this Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., at Sir Wilfrid Laurier Park in Montreal. Practices will continue every Sunday at the same location until August 25. Free and open to all.

Visit the Art du Chi school website