"Life is Yoga when done mindfully and with the intention to love" - graeme

After spending the last 15 years of my life studying Meditation, Reiki, Psychotherapy, Yoga, Spiritual Philosophy and Martial arts I met my Tai Chi teacher Jason Chan, Jason taught me his system of Infinite Tai Chi. I found this to be incredible and beyond anything I had previously experienced for opening me spiritually and healing my body, mind and emotions at very deep levels. Infinite Tai Chi, Infinite Chi Gung and Infinite Meditation became so powerful for self healing that I spent 4 years training to be a Tai Chi instructor with Jason.

After completing the training and receiving double distinctions as an instructor of Infinite Tai Chi, Chi Gung and Meditation I then set off back to India this time with the hope of receiving an International qualification to teach traditional Hatha Yoga. I completed this training at the Yoga Vidya Dham a highly respected Yoga training College in the mountains surrounding the Sacred City of Nashic being awarded an Internationally recognised Yoga teacher qualification.

I have developed a unique approach to Yoga and Tai Chi, Chi Gung and meditation drawing on various spiritual practices and movements for a unique and enlightening experience. Regular participants to my class will experience an increase in health, sense of well being, peace, energy, strength, flexibility and spiritual awareness.

I offer a unique form of Tai Chi and Yoga that gets back to the original spiritual and energy based systems of these ancient healing arts.

Tai Chi Shen means Tai Chi Spirit and will give you a strong healthy and flexible body, it will bring emotional calm and incredible peace of mind through the physical work of Tai Chi and Yoga and the inner work of meditation.

I have spent the last 15 years of my working life in different roles from sales manager to working for over 7 years in various Youth worker roles, working in mental health, as a community drugs worker and most recently now teaching yoga and Tai Chi full time. I run my own classes in the Wirral and Manchester. I also work in a mental health unit teaching Yoga and Tai Chi to the patients. I have assisted in the creation of Living Arts Seated Yoga and Tai Chi to assist in the rehabilitation of stroke victims and to make it easy people with disabilities and the elderly to access these healing systems.

I am now setted and living happily in the Wirral with my beautiful partner Jacky and wonderful step daughter Teagan. My plans are to keep on developing as a Yoga and Tai Chi practitioner and to hopefully train enough people in seated yoga so it can be expanded into hospices and to wheel chair users.

Graeme Waterfield has a Diploma in Person Centred Counselling, NLP practitioners certificate, Advanced cert. in Stress and Anxiety Management and a Diploma in Past Life Regression, Cert in Motivational Interviewing and Reiki Level 2 certificate.

ideas

Spirituality Spirituality is the quest to live in harmony with the spirit that resides in all things everywhere. The quickest way to become more spiritually aware is to practice loving and being peaceful as often as you can and examine what stops you being able to do that and what helps you in doing that. As you become more aware of these obstacles and assistances, you simply put more effort into the things  that help you to love more and put less effort into things that leave you feeling disconnected from compassion and happiness.

War very few wars often have a winner, the person or country that is overpowered by force is left with a bitter taste that never truly goes away. Countries often take the first opportunity even after hundreds of years have passed since the last conflict to get one over on there attacker in any way they can, verbally or physically, especially when they see a weakness in there opponents armour and so the circle of violence often continues. Through peaceful dialogue, patients, understanding and most importantly the intention of resolution the greatest obstacles to unity can be overcome. Mahatma Gandhi and Dr Martin Luther King have provided living examples of this philosophy. The quickest way to peace is through a trouble free heart and a silent mind. 

Thought There is no such thing as a peaceful thought although a thought can lead to peace, a thought that leads to inner peace is a thought that leads to not thinking. Thought is a tool, a servant that is there to make our feelings into expressions of ourselves in the physical world. Everything we see, touch and take in through the senses is a thought that became reality. Therefore the quickest way to change the world we experience around us is to first change the way we think. Thoughts become the physical world of things and experiences.

Thoughts is the greatest hypnotist on earth in a moment it can carry you away in a million different directions taking you as far away from your pure self as it is capable. Yet there is not much wisdom in these daydreams only a continuous spinning of the mind and endless sea of confusion. Inspired thought is different it rises from stillness, it is certain and direct, inspired thought comes like a soft flash of lightning and ends not in a constant spiral but in a feeling of knowing and certainty and stillness.

On Detachment  - We are surrounded by happiness all the time, even in this very moment we can find reasons to be happy when we let go of our attachment to thoughts that cause misery.  True happiness comes through stillness of thoughts. emotions and physical senses. It might not be that our thoughts or body stop moving, instead that we consciously sit in stillness within ourselves, connect with our breath or the sensation of our body and observe our thoughts and emotions with detachment.

In my experience renunciation and detachment often are misunderstood as running away into the hills or having to become a monk. This is not my experience. In my experience non-attachment simply means doing the things that help you experience happiness without being worried about not having them or losing them.

Contentment The best Sex, the fullest bank account, the highest lifestyle can never give even a glimpse of the peaceful contentment that can be found in the refuge of the soul. The soul already is and has everything within it therefore needs nothing, the soul can't be grasped through learning or the thinking mind. Only through unlearning and stillness will the door to your soul eventually open.

Feelings We try and avoid pain in the body, mind and emotions. Yoga postures don't cause pain they just reveal the pain that is already in the body. As we age the body moves away from this hidden pain subtly causing distortions in the posture leading to aches pains and even conditions needing surgery. The same happens when we deal with our emotions, we often think that we avoid a person because of there behaviour or beliefs. In actual fact we are avoiding the feelings and emotions that we experience in that persons presence.

All of life is happening within us and when through meditation and self examination we start to be able to manage and learn from our emotions and thoughts life becomes much smoother and more peaceful. A person who cant swim looks at the ocean as a place of great danger and is scared to go swimming even when the water is calm. Whilst a good swimmer sees the ocean as a place of joy and freedom, even when there are waves and white water this can add to the excitement.

Deep water is like your self. Meditation, Yoga and Tai Chi allow you to swim deep within the depths of your being. Bringing to the surface and releasing emotional, psychological and physical debris and rubbish. The experience of spiritual practice is therefore a mixture of inner freedom and cleaning the pool of your consciousness. One by one all the negative feelings and tensions have to be realized and released for the sake of your own happiness,

The cleaner your mind becomes the more it reflects the light of pure consciousness, when this happens your only job it to enjoy the show.
 
The point of self discovery is to vanish completely into the soft mellow light of pure consciousness, when even the breath melts away. On the path of self discovery don't seek to become something, instead strive to become nothing. Within nothing you will find the greatest secrets of the universe.

Freedom is not something you will find in this world, it has to be found within, although there are things in this world which may temporarily trigger a feeling of inner freedom. The greatest threat to your freedom is the feeling of fear, when you become free of fear you will know complete freedom. Nobody and nothing has power over you unless you give it to them. The opposite to fear is love, so to love without fear is the purpose of life. The purpose of life in contentment, happiness and bliss. The gateway to bliss is fearless love. 

 - graeme