Michael's Journey
My journey began when I was born thirty eight years ago. I came here with a purpose (everyone does) and that purpose revealed itself ever more as I gained experience through living life always trying to live to the fullest. I always felt different and I believe everyone does. We are meant to be unique and shine out our own light. Conditioning from what's around tends to get in the way however and we can tend to start living a story and live a lifestyle that's simply just not us, it doesn't resonate with who we are and who we want to be.
It was obvious to me by 17 years of age that I was passionately interested in the psyche and that's why I started studying psychology at this time. However psychology didn't seem to give me many answers and for a lot of reasons it didn't make much sense. At the same time I quickly got a job as a personal trainer in the gym I worked at as a high schooler. I quickly discovered that people in the gym and my own training seemed to offer more therapeutic benefit mentally and physically than counselling or my study at University did. Both the paradigms of psychology and fitness training operated as if they were separate paradigms. Mental health had nothing to do with physical health and vice versa. Although I did learn much from combining both fields into a unified paradigm, life (or nature if you prefer) told me I was missing something. This something was necessary for not only my own mental and physical health but also my destiny.
Enter... Chi
Chi translates roughly as energy, information and consciousness. My university professors were not interested in 1000+ year old personal development systems of the east such as tai chi and yoga (systems that cultivate chi). They said they were not evidenced based. Chi was the missing link for me. I believe that both western psychology and eastern systems of psychology such as tai chi/daoism and yoga developed in their own context to produce down the track complimentary sides of one coin, yin and yang. Westerner's are on the whole whole dominated by their intellect and head. We need body based methods to get back in our body to resolve psychological ills and feel great.
Chi based cultivation methods were revolutionary for me if combined with weight training. Over the years I noticed that infact weights training sped up my cultivation of chi when practising tai chi, yoga and kungfu. Both practices gave me a balanced psychological profile and I could resolve my psychological ills by using both systems to process my pain. This led to a much more happier and balanced me.
My training in psychology and counselling provided insight to what a lot of people were missing. Not many teachers have a rigorous understanding of both worlds and I have found it is the combination of eastern and western methods in one session that provide the greatest benefit. And that is a very brief overview of my story with the exciting and painful times left out (there were many but I will share another time).
In Tai Chi we don't look at our past as bad, we see that our past provides the roots for our destiny to blossom. My past not only lead me to develop a unique therapy to help people develop positive mental, physical, spiritual and emotional health it is also part of who I am. I have been to the dungeons of the soul and now I am fortunate enough to guide people out of their pain and into what most of us want, joy and happiness.
