Q&A with Dr. B.

Dr. Larry Berkelhammer

The purpose of this blog and the entire website is to provide evidence-based information on how to live a vibrant, meaningful life while living with chronic health challenges or other life challenges.

Every Tuesday I post a new, very brief video from my presentations or interviews. Every Friday this Q&A column appears.

Here is this week’s question:

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION:  Say more about tai chi as a way of life.

ANSWER:   My approach to tai chi involves going with the flow, which relates to Taoism and mindfulness. It is about practicing a way of life that revolves around giving 100% to every activity throughout the day. This commonly results in a high degree of success in every endeavor. Even when things don’t go as planned, a Taoist and mindfulness-based attitude means that those situations that would otherwise be seen as failures are actually appreciated as learning opportunities.

 Striving and grasping for a specific result is often counterproductive and is always in contradiction to tai chi, Taoism, and mindfulness. If you learn how to recognize all the mindless chatter spewed out by the brain, and you learn how to mindfully return your attention to your task at hand, you increase your odds of being successful. This is true for work, play, and relationships.

 The beauty of playing with tai chi principles throughout every daily activity is that it results in healthy habits. Healthy ways to use your body become automatic.

There are times, such as during periods of injury or illness, which become more frequent with aging, when this automatic optimization of body mechanics becomes a lifesaver. Fatigue, malaise, injury, and other symptoms tend to reduce awareness, which increases the likelihood of falling and having other bodily mishaps. This mindfulness approach to tai chi, when practiced as a way of life, reduces the odds of those mishaps by allowing you to automatically practice good body mechanics, even when not feeling well.

This website is offered as a free public service, supplying information that has been found helpful to certain people living with chronic health challenges or issues related to wellbeing. No treatment is offered on this website. The advice is general, and may or may not apply to your individual situation, and is not a substitute for psychotherapy or medical treatment.

What questions do you have about living a life of mindfulness-based mastery or about the relationship between the mind and health or wellbeing?

Just scroll down and type your question in the comment box below. An answer to your specific question may not appear in this column. The reason for that is I wait until I get a certain number of related questions, then I pick one that covers them all and I answer that one. People attending my presentations asked most of the questions appearing in this column, and I repeat them here so you may benefit.