What Does Tai Chi Know About Calm That the Rest of Us Are Still Chasing?

Calm is the most misunderstood kind of power. We treat it as the absence of force, the absence of stress, of effort, of push. Tai Chi makes the opposite case: calm is force that has learned to flow, power that no longer needs to harden in order to be strong. It is a martial art that looks like meditation, that refers to combat and yet heals, that is dance-like and yet is not dance. What sets it apart is one quiet, patient commitment: the soft overcomes the hard.

We are all writing a story with our bodies. The question is whether we write it rooted and flowing, with the full power and the full grace available to us, or braced and forcing. Britta von Tagen has been writing hers, rooted and flowing, since the first time she stepped onto the mat.

Britta is a Nia Trainer who has taught since 1995 and trained teachers worldwide since 2002, a sword dancer who teaches Tai Chi Straight Sword and Kung Fu Broad Sword, and the co-creator, with Adelle Brewer, of the Nia routines Dragon and Mystery, both built around the martial-art personality of Tai Chi. She runs a studio in Boise, Idaho, brings twenty years and a degree in Elementary Education into her Creative Movement for Kids work, and carries a single intention through all of it: Peace on Earth. She doesn't shape the body to fight. She shapes it to root, to soften, and to flow — replacing force with flow, and aggression with intention.

This is a conversation about what it looks like when someone treats their body, their business, and their life as a single practice, observed through the eyes, heart, and body of the Tai Chi practitioner. Britta von Tagen has done exactly that. And in doing it, she has built something her students, her community, and her family can stand on.

Learn more about Britta Von Tagen:

www.brittavontagen.com

Learn more about Debbie Rosas:

www.debbierosas.com

www.nianow.com

www.niaondemand.com