Tai Chi for health & wellbeing
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.
By Chris 3 Comments
During my various forms practice I’ve been focusing on keeping my balance while standing on one leg.
As I raise one leg I imagine a line shooting through my supporting leg and foot deep into the ground. This visualisation helps anchor my leg thereby maintaining my balance.
Here’s an exercise that can help your balance when standing on one leg:
Can you get a cardiovascular workout from just standing still?
Well, recently I experimented with the basic Embrace the Tree posture which involves standing with your feet about shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent and holding both arms out in front of your chest, forming a circle.
As a rough guide I used the following generally accepted formula:
The other day I taught my oldest student ever. She was 95-years-old and was part of our Chair Chi exercise session which was held at a local aged care center. She was seated just behind the main circle and doing some of the exercise I was teaching the other residents.
I only found out her age after the session when she was introduced to me and when I was told she was 95-years-old I said, ‘ah, you’re only a spring chicken’ which got a bit of laugh from her and her carer.
A little while ago I was in Shepparton for a holiday. On one of the sunny days, Sue and I decided to veg out beside the lake so we set up our picnic table, chairs, lunch and just kicked back and watch the world go by.
After a while I got itchy Tai Chi feet and decided to walk over to the edge of the lake to practice some Tai Chi and Chi Kung. I felt energised and to finish off my practice I got into the embrace the tree posture (standing meditation).
Adults, children, and the odd dog walked, ambled, trottered by, glancing over towards me. I ignored them and stayed focused on my stance work.