Stenciled on the door of Tom Gohring's T'ai Chi & Yoga School is this phrase:

"Have faith that you can accomplish that which you seek for you would have never decided upon it if it wasn't meant for you to accomplished."

Those are fitting words for a school that began in Gohring's back yard -- literally. Before he could afford to lease a site for the school, he would teach classes behind his residence.

The ancient Chinese martial art, known as T'ai Chi, uses several forms to keep energy, or "chi," in continuous motion throughout the body. Movements in tandem with focused breathing are done slowly and deliberately to establish equilibrium between the mind and the body.

Gohring, a 1996 graduate of the University of Texas business school, holds a fifth-degree black belt in Hung Gar Tiger-Crane kung fu, holds a second-degree black belt in internal-external kung fu and is a certified yoga instructor.

The 32-year-old Texan has taught T'ai Chi, kung-fu and yoga almost 20 years, studying martial arts voraciously since he was 14 years old. He produced and starred in two T'ai Chi videos.

Gohring knew early on that he would venture into some sort of alternative medicine. While a student at UT, he taught classes at Lake Austin Spa & Resort and the UT Health Center. After encouragement from some of his peers to explore the business side of his passion, Gohring entered what he describes as the "highly competitive" undergraduate business program at UT.

The education paid off.

In 1996, he founded the school with $3,000 in personal funding -- an inheritance left after his mother died in 1991. Gohring took advantage of the more yielding real estate market of the mid-1990s and leased a small but affordable site on Airport Boulevard to house his school.

As Gohring's business has grown, so has Austin's interest in T'ai Chi. Gohring's school is one of about four T'ai Chi schools in Austin, he says.

"It's very popular in Austin," says Geoff Ryan, secretary/treasurer of the T'ai Chi Society of Texas, a nonprofit organization.

"In Austin, especially around the university, it seems that there are a lot of competing forms of T'ai Chi."

Gohring markets to Austin businesses -- offering on-site training since 1992 to UT, 3M Corp. and Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc. He has also worked with Motorola Inc. to offer three six-week training sessions, which had waiting lists.

"3M thinks nurturing innovation and creativity is good business," says Jennifer Eldridge Houser, a spokeswoman for 3M's wellness program.

"Employees who have tried yoga and T'ai Chi report greater clarity and increased energy in their workday. Our wellness program links resources like Tom Gohring's School of T'ai Chi to the 3M workforce to help them fulfill their definition of a balanced lifestyle."

Studies support the belief that T'ai Chi contributes to a balanced lifestyle.

According to a study conducted by Emory University, people who participated in a 15-week T'ai Chi program reduced their risk of falling by 48 percent. The National Institute on Aging found that T'ai Chi helped adults maintain strength and balance, while the Arthritis Foundation has endorsed it as a way to relieve the pain of joint disease.

"The strategic thinking and aesthetic sense T'ai Chi teaches is both a wonderful method to understand Chinese culture and to learn some very practical lessons," says Charles Pearce, a T'ai Chi instructor in the kineseology department at Indiana University.

"T'ai Chi is something like golf in this country -- a nice exercise where friends can meet and practice the management skills that are so much a part of their professional lives."

In recent years, alternative practices designed to reduce stress and maintain health have gained popularity in the United States because of their sharp contrast to the fast-paced work world, says Steve Rhoades, editor of Qi Journal, a quarterly magazine specializing in traditional Eastern health care. It is published by Anaheim, Calif.-based Insight Publishing.

"T'ai Chi, and traditional Chinese medicine in general, teaches moderation and looks at the health of a person in a holistic way. T'ai Chi has remained constant for many years, yet continues to slowly evolve to stay relevant in modern times," Rhoades says.

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