Tai Chi for health & wellbeing
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.
To understand and appreciate the philosophy of Yin Yang is a never ending journey and takes years of study and practice.
When I deliver a presentation with my colleague Sue James, and need to cover Yin Yang in a very short time I use the ‘Yin Yang arm exercise’.
The ‘Yin Yang arm exercise’ works for adults in our facilitation work – children in our Pozitive Kidz are happy kidz workshops – secondary students Year 7-12 students.
Here’s how the ‘Yin Yang arm exercise’ works.
By bending the elbow slightly you now have Yin in your outstretched arm. There are no longer extremes of Yin and Yang in your arm.
The idea of this exercise is how in Tai Chi you can maintain postures for long periods of time i.e. there must be Yin and Yang in all postures.
I’ve demonstrated this exercise for children as young as five years old to mature adults in their eighties.
To really understand Yin Yang you need to go beyond theory and practice and feel it in your Tai Chi form and Chi Kung exercises.
Footnote: Basic explanation: Yang – active energy. Yin – inactive energy
By Chris 8 Comments
I’ve just been experimenting with my Tai Chi form in the garden. A perfect day for it with the sun out, mild temperature.
Here’s what I did.
I focused my energy in the opposite direction as I moved throughout the form. And I felt a more powerful and connected feeling than usual when completing the form.
The technique involves imagining a gentle force pulling you in the opposite direction of where you are going. It’s similar to resistance exercises without using equipment.
For example when you move;
As you do the above don’t forget to think of the gentle resistance pulling you in the opposite direction. And make sure you relax, don’t tense as you feel the resistance.
It’s difficult to think of all these at once so try just one e.g. move right think left – move left think right – then try to use the other techniques combined. This technique is more for intermediate and advanced Tai Chi players. Beginners should only think of learning the form.
So reverse your thinking and you will invigorate your Tai Chi form.
It’s been a very busy Tai Chi week.
I ran seven workshops and one short introduction on Tai Chi at a primary school.
The workshops are based on my ‘Pozitive Kidz are happy kidz’ program which focuses on building self-esteem from a Tai Chi perspective.
It was fun watching the prep students crack up laughing with my ‘teethy’ prop and ‘monkey brain’ explanation regarding self talk.
I’ve run these workshops for several years and learned earlier that teaching children Tai Chi in a traditional way is almost impossible.
They get too impatient and bored.
So I bring in my props, play games and use humour to teach and emphasise simple techniques they can do easily and quickly if they feel either stressed or lethargic.
It’s not boring because I never know what mood a class is in or what level of energy they have until I am standing in front of them.
So I have to quickly assess what needs to be done to capture their attention and maintain their enthusiasm.
And the best way to do that is to have my own Yin Yang energies balanced so my Chi can flow smoothly.
How do I do that?
I focus on having fun!
It doesn’t take long to whip up instant mashed potatoes.
And it doesn’t take long to whip up some instant Tai Chi.
As mentioned in a previous post ‘every little bit helps’ – each weekday morning I go outside and walk down my driveway to pick up the newspaper. Before I get to the top of the driveway I make a detour to my garage and do about one minute of Tai Chi training on my punching bag.
I do about 20 light repititions of a defending and striking technique.
There’s no plan to my efforts as I do what I feel like working on. A welcome change from having a detailed schedule to follow.
So far so good.
I’ve been consistent and on the odd days where I haven’t time to do or complete my Tai Chi schedule I know that at least I have achieved some ‘instant Tai Chi’.
Which is better than nothing.