Last night I was practising one side of a san shou on my own (for those who haven't tried san shou, it's a two person set), and was happily just thinking about where my feet were and what they were doing. This is the essence of mindfulness - feeling one part of your body, rather than being subject to the storm of thoughts.

My own teacher complimented me afterwards on how peacefully I'd been doing it and I realised that my form had improved generally through just one thing.

I've been having some of my classes test out just concentrating on one or other part of their body at a time, not for the peacefulness effect, but to get their minds out of worrying about how they are doing their form. So many people worry if they're doing it right or not. It's natural to think that way, but tai chi needs the opposite approach of not worrying, for someone to make progress.

So putting their minds in their feet, or in their head-top, or wherever else, should help them in their posture and accuracy of that part of the body, but also help them in not worrying so much, and therefore in feeling peacefulness. Tai chi has been called "meditation in motion" and that means feeling this kind of peacefulness. It takes a while and isn't something that people feel at first. But keep practising and keep feeling your feet or wherever and the peaceful feeling will come too eventually.