Perception
The short answer to the question 'are we fully aware of our external world including the obvious effect of gravity' is not always! Burgess (2025) suggests; ‘The thoughts in our mind are shadows, reflections, a mirror of reality, but not the real thing they represents. We often delete, add, color, and rearrange reality with our mind. It may be our personal reality, but it is not true realty.’
One of the first things we discuss in Embodied Tai Chi classes is our relationship with gravity. An example is walking. After we take those first tentative steps at around one year of age our balance with the force of gravity becomes largely a function of our unconscious autonomic nervous system. Generally we are not aware of the need to balance with gravity when we are simply walking.
Sedentary lifestyles further disconnect our awareness of the effect of gravity. An extreme example of this is people needing help to walk when returning to Earth after spending time in space. The lack of gravity or exercise results in not only muscle wastage but potentially the neglected functioning of the neurological feedback within our autonomic nervous system. As Burgess (2025) suggests; ‘This is why we practice somatically. We want to link the real with the conceptional. The sensations changing or static, we receive internally are a result of our body's connection with the physical reality outside our body.’
This suggests our perception of gravity can be largely unconscious. The slow movement of tai chi requires us to become more aware of our balance with gravity. A somatic - interoceptive approach to tai chi takes this further through continuous awareness of our own muscles, tendons and facia as we move. Repeated over time our neurological sensitivity towards these internal physiological actions increases as we move through the force of gravity.
When shopping in a supermarket our attention is mainly focused on our external world, 'doing' the weekly shop. When practicing the movements of tai chi there is also intention on 'doing' the external posture but there is also somatic attention towards internal sensation. We pay attention towards what is generally the realm of our autonomic nervous system at that moment in time. We become a human 'being' in motion rather than just a human doing.
So this way of mindful internal somatic movement requires us to become more conscious of our self acting against gravity. Outwardly others often perceived this as slow, controlled or graceful movement. The greater the sensitivity we develop towards the internal sensation of our physical body acting against gravity the greater our perception of the force of gravity becomes. We can consciously 'dance with gravity'.
Cautionary end note: developing greater personal sensitivity towards our external world can also put us at risk of being overwhelmed by external influences. Traditional indigenous teaching also includes developing posture and breathing techniques that enable us to better access the calming effect of our parasympathetic nervous system.
Reference
Burgess Keni Lee (2025) Tai Chi for Health Facebook Post: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1177034009006224/permalink/24091927830423517/ , accessed 4th July 2025