One of the major tenets of Taiji (if not the major one) is to be as lazy as possible in your movements. My teacher has to emphasize this with Americans because our society is very much no pain, no gain–give it 110% (which drives me crazy when people say that because it is literally impossible. You cannot give more than your best. You just cannot.). She has to tell newcomers over and over again that the goal is not to push yourself or to go as hard as possible. One of the saying is, “No hurry, no worry.” When I told my mom that and the philosophy behind it, she immediately changed it to, “No hurry, no going too slowly” or some nonsense like that. Taiwanese culture is pretty go hard all the time as well. I sighed and told her that she got it wrong. There is no ‘too slowly’ in Taiji.
I’ll admit it. I’m pretty lazy to begin with so this saying appealed to me. But it makes sense in conservation terms as well. The point is not just to be lazy, but to use as little energy as possible to get the maximum result. So it’s not saying don’t use any energy as a general rule, but not to waste energy. It’s so American to push as hard as possible, which means wasting energy. If I can push something with an energy level of 2 to get it where I want it to go, why use a level 10 energy?
The point of this is that when I started Taiji, I had the mentality that I had to push myself as hard as possible. It took me several years to shake myself of that mentality and I still struggle with it sometimes. When I’m unsure of a move, I’ll instinctively go harder. Then I’ll relax, but it’s not easy.
It’s well-known that I don’t like the Taiji Solo Form. The long form, at least. I struggled with it for years and it’s still my least-favorite part of Taiji. In the first few years, I would hurt every time we did the Solo Form. It was in my back and sometimes my knees. It would start at the end of the first section and by the third section, I could barely move. For whatever reason, though, I kept it to myself and just tried to power through the pain. And this was pain, not just ache. I finally brought it up with my teacher maybe four years into my practice and she was able to suggest a few things that vastly helped the situation. One was that I was collapsing my knee or overextending it. The other was dropping my shoulders. By paying attention to one of these things every time I practiced, I was able to correct both problems (not 100%, but enough to make a vast improvement) and make it through the Solo Long Form without being in excruciating pain by the end.