About Tai Chi
Tai
Chi Chuan
T'ai Chi is normally associated with the slow, graceful movements
seen performed early in the morning in
parks. This is the T'ai Chi "form". A series of
carefully coordinated movements, slowly flowing
together as one continuous movement that work every part of the
body, energizing the performer. T'ai Chi
helps to develop harmony with the world on a physical, mental,
emotional and ultimately, spiritual level. These
movements are derived from the movements of animals and follow a
natural, relaxed pattern.
T'ai chi's impact on an individual can be immense, changing your
view of yourself and everything around you.
T'ai chi solo exercise or 'form' has many levels of expertise. For
those simply wishing to improve their health,
correct practice of the basic level form will yield pleasing
benefits. Increased vitality, improved general
well-being and a sense of calmness are common reports from
students. Greater benefits accrue as you
progress to the higher levels of expertise. Increased spiritual
awareness, flexibility and robust good health
are the rewards.
A change in the way you react to situations will take place also.
A calm enters your life and tense situations
become less. Such immense changes, however, do not come without
some effort, and consistent practice is
essential. Eventually, the ability to circulate chi (vital energy)
freely around your body can be achieved, with
accompanying improvements in health, both physical and mental.
T'ai chi is practiced by millions of people who consider it to be
an integral part of their everyday lives, giving
robust good health, a calm stress-free mind and a flexible body.
T'ai chi is not designed to promote muscle
size or enhance physical endurance. It is used to stimulate the
internal organs gently, exercise the body, calm
the nervous system and mobilize the joints. With consistent
correct practice, the tai chi form leaves you
warm, relaxed and gently stimulated. In time the mind has a
stillness and clarity rarely experienced with other
forms of exercise. Calmness eventually pervades the whole body,
leaving you less stressed and more
refreshed at the end of the day.
Apart from the slow t'ai chi form, at a more advanced stage the
students are introduced to the fast form.
Relaxation and gentleness are still used, but at a higher speed.
With this training the student acquires
stamina and nimbleness to add to the calmness.
The benefits of T'ai Chi are numerous: Arthritis & Rheumatism,
Back Problems, Balance Improvement, High
Blood Pressure, Post-Op Treatment, Stress Reduction, T'ai Chi for
Athletes, Weight Management and FUN!
The Benefits of Tai Chi
Some of the many benefits of Tai Chi include:
1.Mind and Body Meditation
2.Relaxation and reduction of stress
3.Internal organs are exercised, blood circulation is improved
4.Regular practice of Tai Chi helps to prevent illness and
improves health longevity
5.Relieves arthritis (in many people, arthritis pain disappeared
completely) and increases flexibility of the
joints
6.Prevents bone fatigue and improves balance and coordination
7.Improves mental and physical concentration and focus
8.Helps to prevent chronic diseases such as heart disease,
hypertension, and diabetes
9. Medical studies have shown that Tai chi practice helps to
prevent falls.
10.Strengthens and improves the body's immune system
Burn
Calories, Dump Stress, Boost Immune Function - Without
Sweating ?
by
Bill Douglas, Founder of World Tai Chi & Qigong Day
Copyright 2005
According
to a twenty-year study by Kaiser Permanente, between seventy and
eighty-five percent of illness is caused by stress, meaning that
in the U.S. alone stress is costing us about one-trillion
dollars per year in healthcare costs. Since most absenteeism is
due to stress, US business is losing upwards of $300 billion per
year.
On
a more personal level, it is disturbing to realize that aging is
accelerated by stress, and stress is a growing issue with all of
us. Studies show that change is stressful, even "good"
change. So as we computer jockeys settle into the saddle of a
new age of rapidly changing information, we need an edge that
can help us stay healthy, sane, “younger” and more vibrant,
even as we are often at the very center of the hurricane of
modern change, such as keeping up with new hardware and
software.
Ironically
an ancient mind/body tool provides the perfect balm for our
generation's modern problems -- it is called "Tai Chi"
(pronounced tie-chee). T'ai Chi is a gentle series of relaxing
motions that cleanse the body's tissue of accumulated stress
and, by doing so, boosts all aspects of our health systems.
According to emerging research boosting the immune system’s
strength dramatically, while reducing the incidence of
depression, anxiety, and even reducing chronic pain conditions,
are just a few of T’ai Chi’s myriad benefits.
What
makes ancient T’ai Chi the perfect modern balm is that it
doesn't require special facilities or clothing, and doesn't even
make you break a sweat, meaning you can do it in office attire
in an empty boardroom just by kicking off your heels. Yet, it
provides the same euphoria of a long run, the cardiovascular
benefit of moderate impact aerobics, and burns nearly as many
calories as downhill skiing.
Our
time is filled with paradox. A problem in this modern age stems
from the great promise of the information age -- a tidal wave of
data being created by and offered to our "left brain";
that part of our minds that is analytical, calculating, and
categorizing the world. Of course, this is a powerful and
important part of who we are. This is the part of the mind that
gets things done, pays the rent, builds the houses, and makes
the cars. Our "right brain," however, is getting left
behind in our rapidly changing techno-world, and this imbalance
of thought processes is at the heart of modern stress.
Our
right brain is the feeling, smelling, sensing . . . enjoying
part of the mind. This is the part of the mind that smells the
flowers, not to analyze the smell, but to be filled with its
beauty -- and this is the part that has been left behind in the
digital world. When we go to the cyber mall, for example, our
right brain doesn't get to play. The cyber mall is a wonderful
thing that saves us time, money, and gas for our cars (and
thereby saves the environment), but there are no Auntie Anne's
Pretzels to smell in cyberspace, or warm sunlight streaming in
through the big skylights.
So
what do we do? We get the best of both worlds. T'ai Chi is a
series of exercises to balance the mind. T'ai Chi teaches us to
experience life for sheer pleasure, thereby creating balance in
our busy "get things done yesterday" world. If you
learn T'ai Chi and practice in the morning before you sit down
at your computer, your right brain (the sensing and enjoying
brain) will be turned on more. You will feel the texture of your
computer keys. You will remember to take the time to get a nice
cup of green tea or herbal cinnamon spice tea, and you'll
interrupt your staccato keyboard occasionally to smell the tea's
rich aroma, feel the warmth in your hands, and breathe the
breath of life deeply into your lungs.
Although
you are at the cutting edge of the information age revolution,
you are also in the garden of life. This will give you an edge
in the long run. Why? Because chronic stress diminishes our
cognitive skills and therefore, our creativity.
Einstein
said, "Creativity is more important than knowledge."
Even if we have the world's knowledge at our fingertips, if we
are too stressed out to use the knowledge "creatively,”
we are much less effective. Plus, we're not as much fun!
The
bottom line is T'ai Chi is a set of exercises to practice
enjoying life. It's not enough just to say, "I'm going to
enjoy life more." We actually have to practice mind/body
tools that can positively affect our brain wave activity, in an
integrative way, as T'ai Chi is proven to do.
T'ai
Chi is an extremely sophisticated mind/body science that evolved
over millennia, and is now being made available to all of us
after centuries of being closely guarded secrets in China. Even
though the practices are ancient, they are in many ways just as
cutting edge as the multi-gigabyte computer.
Don't
just be "cutting edge" with your left-brain. Go all
the way and stretch the envelope with your right brain, too, by
weaving T'ai Chi into your life. You will be forever glad you
did, as you discover balance and calm in the eye of the modern
world’s ever accelerating storm of changes rushing at us.
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, search a worldwide
teachers directory, and also contact Bill Douglas at http://www.worldtaichiday.org
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These
articles on generic Tai Chi & Qigong health &
social benefits common to all styles, are by World Tai Chi &
Qigong Day Founder, Bill Douglas, and are provided as a public
service as free Tai Chi & Qigong quality content
for you to publish on your site.
The
only requirement is that the author's biography be included
with all reprints or publication, and on website publication the
link to http://www.worldtaichiday.org
must be a live link. You'll find that WTCQD Tai Chi articles
are unique, yet generic, articles about Tai Chi's health
potential and social implications, that can be applied to any
style of Tai Chi.
These
articles are informative invitations to the mass culture to see
more clearly the profound possibilities Tai Chi practice offers
their everyday lives. Do you or your teacher have Tai Chi articles
you'd like to submit to our Library?
What
top authorities and health professionals are saying about Bill's
writing style, and how it invites an ever larger segment of the
population to come to Tai Chi, Qigong, and your website and
classes for many different health & social reasons:
".
. . In a user-friendly and meaningful style, Bill Douglas offers
a compelling and easy to understand description of ancient Asian
energy exercises that effectively reduce stress and improve
health."
-- Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D., Cellular Biologist &
bestselling author of The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the
Power of Consciousness,
Matter & Miracles
"
. . . Bill Douglas, explains the complexities of T’ai Chi and
QiGong in the form of an invitation, easing his students
[readers] into a greater understanding of the usefulness and
purpose of this ancient form of meditative movement."
-- Kristy Straits-Troster, Ph.D.,
Clinical Psychologist, Primary Care Medicine
Experts
in the Dr. Weil Tradition
Bill
Douglas' work as Founder of the international health education
event World T'ai Chi & Qigong Day (www.worldtaichiday.org)
was recognized by the U.N. World Health Organization and
governors of many states. Bill is the presenter/author of the
internationally best selling T'ai Chi DVD "Anthology of
T'ai Chi & Qigong: The Prescription for the Future,"
and book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to T'ai Chi & Qigong
(Alpha - Penguin Putnam 2nd edition, 2002), and a contributing
writer in Chi Kung: Energy for Life (Harper Collins, 2002). He's
been a T'ai Chi/Qigong source for The Wall Street Journal,
Reader's Digest, The South China Morning Post, The New York
Times, Russia's Omsk Daily News, and The San Francisco
Chronicle. As director of SMARTaichi.com, a stress management
consulting firm, Bill has been commissioned by many of the
world's top corporations including Hallmark Cards Inc. and
Sprint Corporation. Bill is a strong supporter of Dr. Weil's
work and recommends Dr. Weil's book "Spontaneous
Healing" in his best selling T'ai Chi book. Click
here to read an interview Bill Douglas.
-- www.DrWeil.com
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