Tai Chi Chuan – the ancient path to stress free living
by: Matthew Rochford
When I began practising Tai Chi in 1991 the thing that struck me about
it was its power or at least the promise of its power. What I went on to
witness and discover was that there was nothing mystical or particularly
esoteric about the power of tai chi it was more just a case of doing it,
following tai chi’s unique set of principles and just witnessing what arose
within me. When I practice my form (sequence of movements) it is never
exactly the same but it is always beneficial.
Tai Chi means “the supreme ultimate” and Chuan means, “fist” so Tai
Chi Chuan is in fact a martial art despite it’s reputation for just being
a gentle meditative exercise. When practiced as a martial art Tai Chi is
both effective and powerful (but this takes a lot of practise to even glimpse
especially when you learn that in Tai Chi, the main focus is to use the
power of the mind in unison with the energy and power of the body to release
force in whatever direction you want).
The benefits of Tai Chi are immense and include improved co-ordination,
circulation, posture, balance and well-being. Because tai chi is practised
slowly and with a relaxed focus the nervous system becomes calmer and so
do you. This meditative effect gives you a clearer perspective mentally
and in today’s fast and hectic world this can only be a huge resource.
In fact the stress relieving attributes are one of the main reasons why
people start Tai Chi as it gives them a calm mind and real sense of physical
emotional and spiritual health
Tai Chi started a long time ago so it’s had time to develop and evolve
into what we see today. This slow process of change which has happened
to tai chi over the centuries is mirrored in the way tai chi is practised
i.e. at a meditative pace with no rush to complete it’s intricate and engrossing
movements. The softness and flow of tai chi make you relax (you just can’t
help it!) but it’s a rejuvenating kind of relaxation. At the end of a Tai
Chi class people are buzzing with Qi (life-force), as the practice encourages
your energy to flow and tension and blockages just seem to dissolve away.
It all sounds very blissful and beautiful, which it is but you do have
to put a little effort in to get the results. It’s hard to get your head
around that something so graceful and elegant can be used for self defence
too, but then again there is an old Chinese saying that ‘the best fighters
never fight’ i.e. if you have no enemies internally or externally then
there is no need for conflict. The philosophy behind Tai Chi (Taoism) is
really useful too and includes the theory that if you fight force with
force any conflict will get worse. It teaches yielding and flexibility
to overcome any situation. This can diffuse a situation leaving room for
negotiation and dialogue. When you take something like that into your daily
life then you have gained a distinct advantage. Yielding encourages listening
and when you listen you gain more information and it is easier to see where
someone is coming from. In the workplace such a strategy would create less
stress for everyone!
Part of the physiological aspect of tai chi includes the effect it has
on our brain, our lymphatic system and our joints. Recent neurological
research has found that tai chi practice encourages the brain to perform
more effectively. This is partly due to the brain receiving more oxygenated
blood (as the breathing technique in tai chi improves lung capacity and
elasticity) but also because the meditative, calming effect of tai chi
changes the brains frequency from beta (active normal waking waves) to
alpha (receptive between sleep and awake waves which are related to improved
ability to learn and remember). The lymphatic system is partly responsible
for detoxifying the blood and is stimulated by the gentle muscular work
in tai chi. The soft relaxed movements of Tai Chi massage the lymph nodes
improving their function and boosting the immune system. The joints of
the body are often where aches and pains first creep in so maintaining
healthy active joints is important at any age. Because the load bearing
joints of the body are kept in strong alignment throughout Tai Chi and
are never abused nor greatly impacted upon, their health and function is
protected whilst the circulation of blood in and around the joints is increased.
All in all Tai Chi offers us a unique way to combat stress and learn
new and valuable skills.
Matthew Rochford B.A.
Senior Instructor, The Devon School Of Tai Chi Chuan.
About The Author
Matthew Rochford has been studying Tai Chi and Chi Kung for over ten
years and runs The Devon School Of Tai Chi Chuan, which provides courses
to businesses, hospitals and health clubs throughout Devon and in Europe.
He is one of the few Tai Chi Teachers who actually hold a professional
qualification. Matthew’s work has been featured on BBC radio, Carlton TV.
He has taught at The Mind Body Spirit Festival and The Gaia Visions Retreat
Centre on Zante. Matthew is also the managing director of Blue Water Music,
www.bluewatermusic.net. For further information about classes and courses
please contact Matthew on 01364 631 545 or visit www.devontaichi.co.uk
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"One World . . . One Breath" . . .
A Massive Global Public Health & Healing Event
by: Bill Douglas
Two of the world’s most widely read publications, Parade Magazine and USA
Weekend, began a string of media references in the last few months, to a truly
unusual coming event.
An unprecedented global health & healing event which is about to expand across
our planet, educating on natural health solutions, provides a vision of a global
coming together for personal and global healing, and an urge for people to open
hearts and minds to wisdom from all corners of humanity for the betterment of
all.
At 10 am, on the morning of Saturday, April 29th, 2006 (celebrated always on the
last Saturday of April each year), a mass of people who’ve experienced the
health & healing benefits of Tai Chi & Qigong (Chi Kung), will hold exhibitions
and teach-ins on these ancient health tools in the earliest time zones of New
Zealand. As the planet turns, tens of thousands across hundreds of events in
sixty nations will join in as 10 am rolls across the planet time zone by time
zone.
A Harvard, Yale, MIT study just revealed that “meditation increases brain size”
especially in creative centers of the mind. As the moving meditations of tai chi
& qigong expand throughout cities worldwide in public places, they expose tens
of thousands to the gentle flowing motions of moving meditation, and with the
help of global media, this moment of mind expansion is carried into millions of
homes. What effect does this blanketing of the world for one day in images of
unity, healing, and open heartedness, have on the planet, on humanity? Perhaps
it expands the global brain size!
And although research hasn’t emerged on this, yet, perhaps it enlarges the
planet’s heart size. World Tai Chi & Qigong Day has received moving testimonials
from such diverse senders as an American Vietnam War Veteran, to a young woman
recovering from burns caused by a bombing run in the latest war, to a housewife
in Belgium . . . all explaining what being able to participate each year in a
global wave of healing intent has meant to them.
"By doing extra T'ai Chi and Qigong forms and exercises during this year's World
Tai Chi & Qigong Day I was able to positively transform that melancholic anger
into a peaceful and positive mindset, enhanced by knowing that people world wide
were also in a peaceful connected state of mind." -- Paul Claroni, American
Vietnam Veteran
"Dear Mr Bill, thankyou for your interesting in me and for your help. I enjoy
that day with all the taichi people, my firiends and Elaine. I am feelng not
well for now but I will hopfully be better soon, I like Tai chi and find it very
nice to praktis my relaxation. Keep in touch with me and I will to. good job.
Best wishes." -- Hannan Shihab, Iraq
"I also send you a picture of me that has been taken on WTCQD 30-4-2005. It's a
picture of a happy woman who couldn't stand for more than ten minutes on two
feet eight years ago because her whole body was aching ! I work now as a
counsellor for the health of body and soul ! With all my love !" -- Hilda
Cardinaels, Belgium
The event is moving and emotional, yet also offers very practical possibilities
for global health & healing. For example, about seven years ago a local
television news station was interviewing a World Tai Chi & Qigong Day (WTCQD)
event organizer, the morning before the event. A woman was watching the
interview and learning about medical research on tai chi & qigong’s ability to
possibly help with chronic pain and limited mobility. The woman told her
daughter, who was recovering from being hit by a car and experiencing chronic
pain and limited mobility, that she should go to this “world tai chi day” event
and learn about tai chi.
She and her daughter did end up attending, and from there, not only learned tai
chi & qigong by joining local classes, but the daughter, Linda Bowers, became a
tai chi teacher. Linda now teaches tai chi at various locations including one
for the Kansas State women’s prison, where she has taught fifty women the tai
chi long form, and five of these women have received teaching certificates that
Linda presented to the Governor of Kansas last year. These women’s lives are
changed for the better forever. I remember when I taught tai chi & qigong for
the court drug rehabilitation program in Kansas City, and addicts in the program
would thank me after classes for giving them a chance to feel well-being rather
than gnawing need. Their lives were changed forever, because now they had life
tools that no one had ever told them existed.
Multiply Linda’s story by the tens of thousands participating worldwide in sixty
nations on the last Saturday of April each year, and you have a world-changing
event in every sense of the word.
Who can participate in World Tai Chi & Qigong Day? Everyone in the world. By
visiting worldtaichiday.org, and clicking on “Everyone’s Resources” you’ll see a
“World TC & QG Day Events Locater,” that will guide you to your country and
state where you can find WTCQD events in your area. For those groups already
doing tai chi or qigong, you’ll find a “Schools Resources” menu at
worldtaichiday.org with many Event Organizing resources to use to create a
successful event, and a free listing for your classes / event.
Where are events held? Generally in public places, and in hundreds of cities in
sixty nations on six continents. There is likely an event near where you live.
Just go to worldtaichiday.org to find one near you.
Free teach-ins are part of most events, so you will be able to learn a little
tai chi or qigong, and follow along a little bit with the mass exhibition that
will be held to join in with the hundreds of other events rolling across the
planet toward and after yours.
World Tai Chi & Qigong Day is a unique blend of fun, serious health education,
and life altering movement for a global audience hungry for simple natural
solutions to the growing complex problems of our world. Emerging medical
research indicates that tai chi & qigong may profoundly improve the lives of
millions suffering from common chronic health challenges, if they only knew
about tai chi & qigong. Given some of the staggering findings, such as tai chi’s
ability to boost immune system function (UCLA), or dramatically reduce Attention
Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder symptoms in high school students (University
of Miami School of Medicine), lower high blood pressure, heal heart disease
(BBC), build bone mass, improve breathing, etc. etc. one would think that there
would be billions of dollars poured into developing and spreading these tools
farther and faster to the millions who’d benefit from them.
However, that is not happening. Our health establishment and media seem
incapable of exploring and promoting non-surgery, non-drug, solutions to our
global health challenges, in a way that would be appropriate for such highly
effective therapy according to preliminary tai chi & qigong research. Therefore,
World Tai Chi & Qigong Day is also designed to provide popular culture media
with an “opportunity” to do a great service to the millions worldwide who remain
ignorant of natural health therapies that could do their lives much good. World
Tai Chi & Qigong Day hopes to work in partnership with media, government,
business, etc. worldwide to improve personal and global health through
information.
Governors of over sixteen US states, senates and mayors of many countries have
officially proclaimed World Tai Chi & Qigong Day for their states, cities, or
country. The United Nations World Health Organization has recognized the work of
World Tai Chi & Qigong Day. However there is much more to do. Until everyone is
aware of the benefits to their lives tai chi & qigong may offer, and simple
natural solutions are given the attention they deserve in our media . . . the
work of World Tai Chi & Qigong Day will go on.
Actually, even if all that happens, it’ll still go on, because its just “FUN” to
play tai chi & qigong with the world each year, and it just “FEELS GOOD.” Join
us for World Tai Chi & Qigong Day 2006, Saturday April 29th, 10 am local time,
worldwide. Change the world, and have some fun !
Copyright 2006 Bill Douglas
About The Author
Bill Douglas is the Tai Chi Expert at DrWeil.com, Founder of World T'ai Chi &
Qigong Day (held in 50 nations each year), and has authored and co-authored
several books including a #1 best selling Tai Chi book “The Complete Idiot’s
Guide to T’ai Chi & Qigong.” Bill’s been a Tai Chi source for The Wall Street
Journal, New York Times, etc. You can learn more about Tai Chi & Qigong, and
also contact Bill Douglas at http://www.worldtaichiday.org
Courtesy of http://www.ArticleCity.com/
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