Q & A with Dr. B.

Dr. Larry Berkelhammer and his teacher, Grandmaster William C.C. Chen in May 2015

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: What does tai chi have to do with self-acceptance?

ANSWER: My teaching of tai chi chuan is with an emphasis on tai chi as a mindfulness practice, a form of meditation in movement. This mindfulness-based approach to tai chi results in the ability to introspect without judging. When you become aware of self-judging, tai chi allows you to physically relax into those harsh, self-critical thoughts. Resistance to and suppression of such thoughts only strengthens them, whereas acceptance of them, learned through the tai chi principle of yielding, results in diminution of self-critical thoughts.

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.