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.
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
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: