Chris Chi

Tai Chi for health & wellbeing

 

 

Invest In Loss

By 2 Comments

‘Invest in loss?’

When I first read this Chinese quote years ago it didn’t make any sense.

How can you invest in loss?

But several years later in my Tai Chi training I finally understood what this quote really meant.

And when I made that realisation I looked at every opportunity to ‘invest in loss.’

The losses are essentially my mistakes and the investment is in learning and applying the correct technique.

Here are some examples how I invested in loss.

Push Hands
–  thrown head over heels – sink the chi

Form
– too rigid in my movements – relax, let go but maintain the correct structure of the posture

Self Defence
– sparring and getting hit on the nose – maintain seven stars posture

There is a lot of wisdom in Chinese quotes and it is only through practice, awareness and examination can one really understand a quote such as ‘invest in loss.’

Tai Chi Facilitator

By Leave a Comment

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the work I do with Sue in our AQ/KQ seminars and the way I describe myself.

In the past I’ve described myself as an instructor in Tai Chi but eventually I stop doing that  because now  it infers all I do is give instructions.

I now use the term ‘Teacher’ because that suggests a deeper sense of helping people to learn.

It’s not about giving instructions, its about finding different ways, depending on the learning styles, for participants to learn a Tai Chi concept or skill.

For example the three basic learning styles are:

  • Visual – learn by watching
  • Auditory – learn by listening
  • Kinaesthetic – learn by doing

But I discovered another term to use when I was recently talking to Sue about facilitation.

The word facilitation’ is not easily understood by most people but it can be described  as ‘to make easier, to help bring about.’

When asked what do I do I sometimes use the words ‘teach Tai Chi’ because for most people it is easier to understand.

But, what I really am is a ‘Tai Chi Facilitator’ because I ‘make it easier and help bring about’. And that leads to change in awareness, feeling and understanding of a Tai Chi concept or skill I’ve explained to a participant in our AQ/KQ workshops.

And once you are aware, feel, and understand then you  have captured the essence of that concept or skill.

I suppose in some ways  I am a facilitator of change.

Tai Chi Lollies

By Leave a Comment

30449625When I started Tai Chi 22 years ago I was like a little kid in a lolly (candy) store.

I wanted all the lollies, every colour except the black ones and I wanted them now.

In my first year I watched various students practice weapons, do some boxing drills, push hands and I wanted to do all of that straight away.

Well, all I did was learn the Tai Chi form and basics and it took a while before I was slowly introduced to push hands, weapons forms and self defence.

I realised that Tai Chi was not something you can knockover in a few months. If it was I’d be bored and leave.

So 22 years on I feel I’ve hardly scratched the surface. In the early years it worried me because I didn’t feel I was making much progress.

As the years crept by I stopped worrying about comparing myself to others who were more experienced and talented.

I just kept plugging away, practicing and now realise there is no end to the journey.

Just as soon as you feel you have climbed a mountain top, you look up and there are higher mountain tops.

I can now understand it is the journey that is important not the destination.

I haven’t trained at a club or with a partner for some time now because running our business has taken up most of my time.

However I will get back into training with a partner in the near future and until I do I will keep practicing on my own.

So I suppose I’ve come a long way from that little kid in the lolly store who wanted everything now.

I’m more patient now.

Push Hands Relationships

By 3 Comments

Sue and I ran our AQ/KQ of Change workshop the other day and used Push Hands to demonstrate the nature of healthy work relationships.

The two themes we concentrated on were ‘adherence’ and ‘listening energy.’

It certainly made our audience focus on these themes in a physical way and it was something very different with regard to their experiences in understanding relationships.

The group consisted of leaders and managers who were there to learn about change.

Adherence was used to demonstrate that you need to stay in contact if you are to develop and maintain good relationships at work.

When you let go and there is no adherence, gaps exist and that’s where problems can creep in and affect the quality of a relationship.

Listening energy was also emphasised.

From a Tai Chi point of view, listening energy makes you aware of your opponents’ moves at all times.You can sense their energy through your arms.

From a relationship viewpoint, listening energy is the ability to focus and really hear what the other person is saying.

There were other aspects of Push Hands we went into regarding relationships – but that’s another post for later.

It was a great fun introducing the group to Tai Chi exercises and concepts in a practical way.

And we had a very good response from the group.