By Dr. Michelle Greenwell | Greenwell Center for Holistic Health
As we continue our 16-week journey with the Magnifying Peace Project, this week’s spotlight turns inward through gentle movement and mindful breath — with Tai Chi as our guide.
Our latest video, Episode 2: The Peaceful Power of Tai Chi, offers a simple yet profound insight:
“How we experience the world is shaped by the energy we carry.”
Tai Chi invites us to slow down, to feel deeply, and to allow peace to emerge — not as an abstract concept, but as a living, breathing experience.
✨ Why Inner Peace Comes First
Many people talk about wanting peace in the world — peace in communities, relationships, even governments. But peace is not something we can force into being around us if we don’t first recognize and nourish it within us .
🌀 When we are feeling unsettled — anxious, overwhelmed, or disconnected — we are more likely to:
- React instead of respond
- Judge instead of understand
- Pull away instead of connect
Creating inner peace is not about perfection or escape. It’s about grounding ourselves in awareness, developing self-trust, and giving our nervous system the space to rest and reset.
đź“š The Science of Peace and Presence
The benefits of spending even a few minutes a day focused on peace and calm are well-documented in the research:
🧠Mental Health:
- A 2018 study in The Lancet Psychiatry showed that mindful movement practices, including Tai Chi, significantly reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression.
- Practicing daily calm-enhancing activities helps regulate the amygdala, the brain’s fear center, promoting a more stable emotional baseline.
- The movement of the shoulder and hip seams signal our brain about our status as a physical being, and this provides support that we are safe and able to engage with confidence and peace.
đź’Ş Physical Tension:
- According to Harvard Health, Tai Chi can improve balance, reduce muscular tension, and lower cortisol (stress hormone) levels.
- Just 10–15 minutes of slow, mindful movement per day is enough to release physical holding patterns and create more ease in the body.
- As we develop our physical awareness vocabulary, we begin to recognize quickly when the tension is increasing and what we are thinking or doing at that time to change the tension.
đź’— Emotional Stress:
- Engaging in rhythmic, flowing or open movements like Tai Chi activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which supports emotional regulation and deep relaxation.
- Peaceful states are contagious: when you hold peace in your energy field, others around you are affected. It creates a ripple effect of calm and connection.
- Movements like “Ward off the Monkey” and “Parting Horses Mane” are ways that we calm and tame the emotions to not ‘react’, but to realize and to ‘decide’ on action.
🌱 Tai Chi: A Peace Practice in Motion
Tai Chi is more than exercise — it is embodied intention.
Each slow, sweeping movement reflects a dialogue between breath, awareness, and energy flow.
In this week’s video, I share how simply observing Tai Chi can shift your internal state.
And when you participate — whether through full form or simple hand gestures — you become part of a living peace practice that speaks to every cell in your body.
“When we slow down, we can feel the pulse of peace moving through us.”
If we are not comfortable with the idea of peace, we may feel the tension increase, and we can use the experience of Tai Chi movement to help us learn and grow with the feeling at ease in peace, with a calmness we may not have known before.
To learn more about Tai Chi classes, consider joining in-person with Tai Chi Cape Breton. You can see the weekly schedule in the calendar. In West Kelowna, BC, you can join the classes with Wine Country Tai Chi Society. You can find their schedule and information here. For online classes, please check out the Movement and Music class currently offered with recordings. And, join the blog to get the release of our new event for August! Details being released very soon.
đź’¬ Reflect & Share
👉 How do you feel when you slow down and move with intention?
👉 What activities connect you to your inner calm?
👉 Where in your life could you create more space for peace to flow?
Use the hashtag #MagnifyingPeace and tag us in your peaceful moments. Let’s build a global archive of inspiration.
đź”” Join the Journey
Each Wednesday, we release a new short video to help you take small, meaningful actions toward peace — for your body, your mind, and your community.
This 16-part series includes art, movement, tea, breath, intention, and more. You don’t need to be an expert — just willing to pause and explore.
🎥 Watch Episode 2 and please…
📌 Like • Comment • Share • Subscribe
💖 Let’s build a wave of peaceful energy, together and for those loved ones in our lives that we hope and dream more for.
Click here for our first Episode!
Tea Highlight!
As part of our broader intention to cultivate global wellness, the Magnifying Peace Project is deeply aligned with the values of our Mission4Change CommuniTEA. Through every sip, every movement, every act of creative expression, we are building a network of peace that stretches beyond individuals and into communities in need. You can learn more about the Moyo family which is supported by the purchases of Mission4Change CommuniTEA. Check out this weeks blog or the stories section of the Tea area. We support education, empowerment, and sustainable change for the Moyo family and their community in Malawi. Peace becomes more than a feeling — it becomes a force for compassion, connection, and community growth.
With calm and connection,
Dr. Michelle Greenwell
Greenwell Center for Holistic Health
www.greenwellcenter.com