Tai Chi for health & wellbeing
While practicing my Chair Chi exercises this morning I focused on the theme of grounding.
Grounding is the ability to stabilise yourself by allowing the Chi to flow through your legs and deeply into the ground. It’s similar to a tree stabilised by its deep and spreading roots.
Footwork: Practice your 45, 90, 180 and 360 degree turns (left & right) on a regular basis.
Tai Chi does not mean oriental wisdom or something exotic. It is the wisdom of your own senses, your own mind and body together as one process.
Chungliang Al Huang
I was in contact with a student wellbeing teacher at a secondary school recently regarding our conneXions (Y9), Top Tens (Y10), and Success and Resilience (VCE) workshops. We discussed the possibility of running workshops with all her Year 10 students.
She wanted to know if I could run a workshop with a large number of students, as it would be cost effective because of their limited budget.
It was tempting, but I explained to her that I no longer run workshops for large groups of students at secondary schools because I don’t think they are effective when compared with working with a small group. Particularly when it involves a very interactive physical art such as Tai Chi.
Well, it’s that time of the year where I’m contacting secondary schools here in Melbourne about our Top Tens (Year 10) and VCE Success and Resilience workshops.
It’s high energy stuff mixed in with Tai Chi meditation so it certainly makes me work. I sometimes feel like a duck paddling across a lake. On the surface everything looks calm but below the surface the duck is furiously paddling its little feet along to propel itself forward.
I’m sure most teachers can relate to the ‘duck’ analogy.