Tai Chi for health & wellbeing
A long clip 22.47 but worth watching if you want to practice Qigong lying down on the floor or in bed. It’s from Acupunx and contains several short segments of breathing and moving exercises.
I may develop my own staff training program so staff can teach aged care residents with restricted mobility issues, in the aged care sector – if there is interest
Raise your arms up and out in front of your body until they are parallel to the ground. Now lower your arms to the sides of your body.
Repeat this eight times.
As you slowly move your arms up and down think of the phrase ‘hardly moving’ – this will help slow your movements.
Remember the slower you go the more you will feel the Chi flow.
Eddie rarely moves while lying in his tub chair – he usually just watches or falls asleep during our Chair Chi sessions.
I always gently try to encourage him to participate, but for the past several sessions he had barely moved.
Then this day it happened! He moved his arms and legs – surprising and delighting one of the staff members watching nearby. It also delighted me, so I kept encouraging him and he began participating in the activities for much longer than in previous sessions.
Because I’m at this aged care centre only once a month for an hour of Chair Chi, I don’t fully get to know residents’ levels of physical ability or cognitive awareness. All I can do is observe and be guided by their reactions.
But when you get a staff member who knows the residents and reacts in the way this one did when Eddie moved, then I know I’m on the right track.
One of my favourite quotes from the 1960s American television show, Lost in Space, was uttered by Dr Smith.
He would often cry ‘oh, the pain the pain’ when facing a difficult situation. It always provided me with a good laugh.
But it is not laughable when you are the one suffering pain.
Last year I was running our Aged Care Chair Training Level Two workshop which has a Pain Management component and I received positive feedback from a participant. He also provided me with information about two leading researchers in the area of ‘pain management’ who run conferences called Explain Pain.. Their next conference was scheduled for Christchurch, New Zealand later that year so I decided to attend to learn what the current Western research is on pain management.
While in Christchurch I also took the opportunity to deliver our own first international Aged Care Chair Chi Training Level One workshop after the Ease Pain conference.
Anyway, when I got back from the conference and with the help of my colleague, Sue James, I decided to create a workshop called Ease Pain … the Chi way using practical skills from Tai Chi and Chi Kung (energy work).
This year we launched our first Ease Pain … the Chi way in Sydney and it was well received. We’ve scheduled more workshops in various Victorian Country areas and interstate and I’m looking forward to our next Ease Pain .. the Chi way workshop in Echuca on the 25th of June. Here’s a link to our complete Australian and New Zealand 2018 schedule.
This particular workshop is designed for anyone, not just aged care staff.
So if you find yourself saying ‘Oh, the pain, the pain’ then come along to one of our workshop and learn how to ease the pain.
If I can ever reach the level of Sung Grand Master Hershey then I know I have improved. 🙂