As student you may sometimes encounter situations in which it seems that somehow you just can't get it right. Whatever you do, somehow your teacher asks you to do the opposite: if you make it rounded it's not straight enough, if you extend it's not relaxed enough. Turning to the classics can add to the confusion, as there you may find instructions along the lines of "find stillness in motion". What are we to make of this? I propose Tai Chi practice embraces a dialectical training method. The seeming paradoxes that arise in practice stem from the effort to balance polarities: relaxation and extension, stillness and motion, hard and soft, etc. If there is an excess of one, we balance it with its opposite. It's simple, but it can be far reaching in it's applications and effects. For example, you can apply it to how hard to push yourself in training: if you push too hard you risk injury, but if you don't push hard enough you risk not freeing yourself from restrictions and limitations. So effort and patience need to be balanced wisely. You can also apply it to how to integrate your practice into your life. It is well-known that Tai Chi practice has innumerable benefits for health and well-being which suggest to practice as much as possible; on the other hand, most of us we do have other responsibilities and commitments such as work, family life, etc. Thus, a dialectical (Tai Chi) approach would suggest that we should balance care of ourselves with care for others. Looking at Tai Chi practice as a method of balancing the polarities then allows you to take the practice out of the studio and apply it to the reality of your life. In the studio as well, practicing the balancing of polarities is what can propel the development of your skill: if you're too soft, work on developing structure; if you're too stiff, work on relaxation, etc. In this way the paradoxes resolve and you develop balance and integrity. I submit that this method can take you a long way. Consider the Tai Chi Classic: "You must know yin and yang. To adhere is to yield; to yield to adhere. Yin never leaves yang and yang never leaves yin. When yin and yang complement each other, this is interpreting energy". Contributed by Sifu Warren Miller of Doc-Fai Wong Martial Arts Center, San Francisco, and Shaolin Martial Arts Center, Sausalito.