Environmental Activism and Tai Chi
Come Back to Self – Gently Stop – Then Move On
When we can stop, come back to our self, we reset and can then start a new action in a much more focused and effective way.
Caring about our environment during the time of an unrelenting climate emergency can be overwhelming. Becoming overwhelmed can trigger an anger, fear or freeze response. Yet as Monbiot (2024) suggests; ‘We are not born with our core values: they are strongly shaped by our social environment’ and can result in a culture where people are ‘drawn to external signifiers, such as fame, financial success, image and attractiveness. They seek praise and rewards from others.’ This cultural way of being can result in ‘higher levels of stress, anxiety, anger, envy, dissatisfaction and depression’. This suggests a social conditioning that can both lead to environmental harm and at the same time result in a depressive state of being that prevents us from taking action to prevent that harm. Of these natural human responses to social conditioning the freeze response may be on one hand less evident but on the other more impactful;
"The refusal to feel takes a heavy toll. Not only is there an impoverishment of our emotional and sensory life, flowers are dimmer and less fragrant, our loves less ecstaticâ but this psychic numbing also impedes our capacity to process and respond to information. The energy expended in pushing down despair is diverted from more creative uses, depleting the resilience and imagination needed for fresh visions and strategies." Attributed to Joanna Macy by A-Z Quotes (2025)
Even if you do not consider yourself an environmental activist the daily news of floods, wild fires and human displacement can have a negative impact on our personal wellbeing.
While the need to support the wellbeing of people who care passionately about the environment (Prentice 2003) has proved successful (Transition Town Totnes 2025) it is suggested that some simple and gentle physical exercises may offer an accessible additional way of reaching a greater number of people. We can come back to our self by simply directing our attention towards our internal sensations (interoception) by adopting some lessons from traditional Chinese Tai Chi practice.
This is not a new concept, the environmental movement has integrated bodywork in its methodology either directly or implicitly. In terms of physicality a somatic Embodied Tai Chi approach (Hunt 2025) may be compared with Macy and Brown (2014b) ‘Cradling’. In the Embodied Tai Chi propreoceptive posture exercise we pay attention to inner sensation seeking to cradle our self in a dance with gravity. A dance that like ‘Cradling’ can unfold a ‘widening of our awareness and quietening the mind’ tapping into deeper levels of knowing - ‘the wordless wisdom of life’ (Macy and Brown 2014b). In the Embodied Tai Chi interoceptive breathing method we pay attention towards the sensation of the diaphragm and abdominal muscles. Combined with the propreoceptive posture exercise we can let go and relax these muscles as we breathe out. The result is like the ‘simple openness’ of the Macy and Brown (2014a) ‘Breathing Through’ exercise.
However, what is suggested here is not a therapy or treatment. It shares simple practices that can draw our attention back from the overwhelming clutter generated by our external world so allowing us to become more of a human ‘being’ rather than just a human ‘doing’. Rather than going down the rabbit hole of trying to ‘think our way out of over thinking’ we simply learn to pay attention towards the internal sensations of our physical movement.
This in turn can unfold an idea of ‘self’ suggested in Roberto Assagioli’s psychosynthesis (Wikipedia 2025); a self going beyond a day to day consciousness towards our deeper centre of identity -- an enhanced sense of life direction and personal creative potential - a deeper perception of being grounded in a stable centre or core of life.
Mindful interoceptive movement can allow us to come back to ‘Self’ and support connection with our environment and other beings (Branham 2024). By slowing down and becoming more sensitive towards physical movement our mind and body can gently ‘Stop’. From this point of calmness it may be possible to more effectively ‘Move On’ and take action breaking the freeze response in societal conditioning. During a time when trust in others has been eroded it suggests a way of stopping and paying attention to that core self.
David Hunt Tai Chi
For further information including open source material; https://embodiedtaichi.org/documents/new
Reference
A-Z Quotes (2025) https://www.azquotes.com/author/17779-Joanna_Macy , accessed 28th July 2025, Doc; 20250724 Prentice
Branham L (2024) Embodied earth kinship: interoceptive awareness and relational attachment personal factors predict nature connectedness in a structural model of nature connection; Front. Psychol. 15:1400655. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1400655 , https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1400655/full , accessed 22nd July 2025
Hunt D (2025) Embodied Tai Chi; David Hunt Tai Chi, www.embodiedtaichi.org
Prentice Hilary (2003) COSMIC WALK: AWAKENING THE ECOLOGICAL SELF: Psychotherapy and Politics International, 1(1) 32–46, 2003, Whurr Publishers Ltd. , https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/psychotherapy-politics-international/article/view/94 , accessed 1st July 2025
Macy Joanna and Brown Molly (2014a) Breathing Through; from chapter 13 of Coming Back to Life by Joanna Macy and Molly Brown; second edition, published 2014, open source material from the Work That Reconnects at www.workthatreconnects.org and in the book Coming Back to Life by Joanna Macy and Molly Brown, https://workthatreconnects.org/resources/breathing-through/ , dated 01/01/2014, accessed 28th July 2025, Doc; 20250724 Prentice
Macy Joanna and Brown Molly (2014b) The Cradling; from chapter 8 of Coming Back to Life by Joanna Macy and Molly Brown; second edition, published 2014, open source material from the Work That Reconnects at www.workthatreconnects.org and in the book Coming Back to Life by Joanna Macy and Molly Brown, https://workthatreconnects.org/resources/the-cradling/ , accessed 28th July 2025, Doc; 20250724 Prentice
Monbiot George (2024) The Values Ratchet; www.monbiot.com , 10th June 2014, published in the Guardian 11th June 2014, pdf; The Values Ratchet
Transition Town Totnes (2025) Inner Transition; https://www.transitiontowntotnes.org/project-groups/inner-transition , accessed 1st July 2025, Doc; TTT
Wikipedia (2025) Psychosynthesis; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychosynthesis, accessed 28th July 2025, Doc; 20250724 Prentice