Wellbeing & Performance - the Tai Chi way
While practicing my Embrace the Tree stance I count each breath I take for the entire 20 minutes.
That’s 540 breaths – one per 2.2 seconds.
Here’s why I count my breaths:
My challenge now is to slow my breathing down further to get a deeper and calmer workout.
Things are getting very busy here so it’s difficult to fit in my Tai Chi training during the day.
When I’m working in my home office I can regulate my 3 sessions of training throughout the day but out on the road I have to find the time to practice my Tai Chi.
I may have Chair Chi sessions for aged care centres or wellbeing programs for primary, secondary students or major assignments in facilitation and training which I run with Sue James my business partner in BJ Seminars International; sometimes it involves interstate and the occassional trip overseas.
Here’s an easy exercise to do so you can get an understanding of the importance of opposites (Yin Yang) in Tai Chi.
Step One
When holding up the arms, the qi is threaded together continuously.
When the left side is heavy, it then empties, and the right side is already countering.
When the right is heavy, it empties, and the left is already countering.
A couple of days ago I ran another Chair Chi session for an aged care center and the residents ages ranged from 90 to 103 years-old. That’s over 1543 years of age!
What an amazing experience. It certainly reaffirmed my belief that age is not a barrier to practicing Chi exercises that can help calm and also energise when required.