Breath by Breath: How Tai Chi Is Restoring Confidence at Passavant Community

This story begins where most wellness narratives end: with patience, uncertainty, and six people learning to trust themselves again.

On a Tuesday morning at Passavant Community, a half dozen students stand in a row, feet grounded, shoulders loose, breath slow, as Jeremy Hill’s voice moves through the room with the same precision and calm as the movements he is about to teach. Outside, life keeps rushing by. Inside, time has agreed to slow down.

This is ASPIRE Wellness at work.

The weekly Tai Chi class has become an escape for many residents. It is led by Hill of Jeremy’s Holistic Training, who has been teaching the ancient practice for more than a decade.

As the class unfolds, curious passersby occasionally slow their steps and pause at the glass wall lining the room. Some linger for a moment. From the outside, it looks almost like a moving meditation. From the inside, it’s a workout of a very different kind.

Hill stands before the room with an easy calm, offering instruction without urgency and correction without criticism.

“Tai Chi is the sacred practice of eye, mind, body, and breath,” Hill explains. “You don’t rush it. You listen to it.”

Once a week, he returns to Passavant Community to guide residents through slow, deliberate forms that appear simple until you try them. Arms float upward. Knees bend slightly. Weight shifts from one foot to the other. Each gesture is small, but together they create a steady rhythm of balance, focus, and control.

“The body teaches the length,” Hill says gently during class.

He is referring to structural expansion. The spine lifts naturally. Joints open. Tension releases. There is a sense of being suspended from above while remaining grounded below. Over time, this length improves posture, reduces discomfort, and allows the body to move more efficiently, teaching people to move with strength instead of strain.

“Everything starts to layer up,” Hill tells his students. “You build it piece by piece. Your legs give you stability. Your arms find flow. Your breath sets the rhythm.”

On this particular morning, the class includes one newcomer and many familiar faces. Some students have been attending since Hill first began teaching at Passavant Community. They know the sequence. They know the pauses. They know when he will remind them to soften their shoulders or release unnecessary tension.

They also know the results.

Over the years, Hill has watched residents gain confidence in their bodies. Balance improves while coordination sharpens. Posture straightens. Stiff joints loosen. They move with more awareness and they trust their bodies again.

For many, that trust is priceless.

“There is no bad Tai Chi,” Hill says with a small smile. “Only good. And you get better over time.”

He includes himself in that belief, often reflecting on his own first class and how far he has come since then. The practice, he says, taught him that growth is gradual and that no one starts behind.

Among the regulars is Nancy Hesch, a longtime resident who has made the class part of her weekly routine. She laughs when she admits she has been away for three weeks.

“I’ve been gone, and you can tell the difference,” she says. “I felt it right away.”

Still, she is quick to talk about the bigger picture. Since joining the class, she has noticed steady improvements in her balance, greater stability, and more confidence as she moves through her day.

“It gets my mind straight,” Hesch says. “It brings everything into alignment. My thoughts, my breathing, my body. I leave feeling centered.”

Her words reflect what many in the room feel.

Through ASPIRE Wellness, Lutheran SeniorLife has created spaces where residents can reconnect with themselves. The Tai Chi class is one small example that wellness does not end with age and that growth is still possible at every stage of life.

As the session ends, Hill closes the class with a hug for each student, a simple gesture that reflects what the hour has been about all along: connection and Care.