Tai Chi for health & wellbeing
So far I have delivered two Chair Chi workshops in the aged care sector. One for a nursing home and one for a retirement village. Next week I have two more sessions booked so my workshops are starting to take off.
And what a pleasure it is in working with elderly people.
It was fun and inspiring not only to share the Chi exercises but also the wonderful conversations and stories during the session.
By Chris 2 Comments
It’s taken me over 25 years but I finally achieved my goal of practising Tai Chi in China.
Sue and I just came back from a business trip to Qingdao where we ran a three day workshop on Appreciative Inquiry for an international school. Part of the workshop included my Tai Chi energisers and I was pleased with the reaction as everybody seemed to listen closely, practice the skills and haved a good time.
It was a short stay, 5 days, and I was super busy day and night but managed to practice my stance work in the hotel room while there.
There are four possible ways of learning Tai Chi. They range from the easiest to the almost impossible.
The first two are easy as they are available to everyone who has an interest in learning Tai Chi.
Becoming an indoor student is only available to a select group of students who show dedication, skill and good character. Indoor students receive more in depth instruction than students from a general class. Usually it takes several years of training before a teacher considers a student for indoor training.
The family lineage door is only available to those born into a Tai Chi family and who also can demonstrate dedication, skill and good character before the art is handed down to them.
The key difference between the doors is choice and circumstance. In doors one and two you are able to choose and in doors three and four you are depended on other people’s choice and circumstance.
So if door three and four are slammed shut don’t worry. Just focus on opening door one and two and enjoy the Tai Chi journey.
It’s taken sixteen weeks but I’ve gradually built up my standing ’embrace the tree posture’ to sixteen minutes.
And I haven’t had any major problems with my knees reacting against the stance. Apart from some minor soreness, the knees feel fine.
In the past I’ve tried to work through pain and practice lower stances which actually stressed my knees and caused pain. A silly attitude because it wasn’t in line with the Yin Yang philosophy of finding one’s balance. It took me a while to wake up to my self and focus on only doing exercises I could physically handle.
While practicing my Chair Chi exercises this morning I focused on the theme of grounding.
Grounding is the ability to stabilise yourself by allowing the Chi to flow through your legs and deeply into the ground. It’s similar to a tree stabilised by its deep and spreading roots.