What is Taijiwuxigong?

In this article, Sarah Bartlett shares what Taijiwuxigong has meant to her and how it has become such a central part of her life.

In a couple of months’ time I will have been teaching Taijiwuxigong for twenty two years. What a truly life affirming journey it has been! I’d like to tell you some of my story, how Taijiwuxigong so profoundly improved my well-being and how it remains a continuous and living source of learning; guiding me and keeping me steady and strong. There may need to be a part two! What I hope is that something catches your interest enough that you try for yourself. Taijiwuxigong has to be experienced!

My childhood was both beautiful and terrible. I lived on a farm and was surrounded by animals and the natural world. I had a lot of physical freedom. However, my parents had a very volatile relationship and I was often extremely traumatized by what I saw and heard.

When I was eight I had my first bout of Alopecia. At thirteen a friend’s grandfather sexually assaulted me. From then on, throughout my teens and early twenties, I experienced and put myself through, many traumatic and sometimes violent situations and was often unwell. My outlets were nature and art. I was very creative, writing songs, poems and plays and singing and painting. I also enjoyed sport as I liked to push myself physically. These things were a real source of release and expression for me but they weren’t enough to clear the ‘sick’ information that I had absorbed. By the time I went to University I was mentally and emotionally unwell, self-medicating through drugs and seeking answers from religion and philosophy. My greatest love was singing and I had some really wonderful opportunities come my way. I’d take them up for a while but I was just not mentally well enough. The drive to find healing and peace was stronger than anything. In 1990, a year after the birth of my son, I was diagnosed with an overactive thyroid. I was extremely sick, skeletal, very depressed, and had a large goitre, exophthalmos (protruding eyeballs) and Alopecia yet again. The need for health and some peace within, was stronger than ever, especially as I now had someone else to care for.