Tai chi for health and happiness

With the pandemic, my tai chi teaching has moved online. Click here for live classes plus video courses you can take in your own time.

Tai chi is one of the most important parts of my life, and I’d like to explain why…

Let’s say someone tells you about a new thing.

They tell you, you just do it for a few minutes a day, and in return it helps improve your health, your blood pressure and circulation, your digestion, you heal faster, you move better and more freely, you feel calmer and more at peace with events, you notice the world around you more and enjoy it more… Would you be interested?

And if they also told you it’s wonderfully enjoyable to do, enhances your physical coordination, balance and grace?

And that it doesn’t require any special equipment, or a lot of space…

And that anyone can do it. And however fit or unfit you are, whatever your physical condition, you’ll benefit?

That’s tai chi.

Would you like to know more?

I love the Moving meditation that tai chi enables – for someone whose mind is always busy and wandering, the focus on the fluid movements and body positioning is an essential meditative tool. I am also inspired by the stories of health and fitness recovery and improvement people experience through practicing tai chi on a regular basis, and have experienced that for myself.

Anmarie

What is tai chi?

If you’ve visited China, you may have seen them – people, alone and in groups, practising slow, flowing movements, rather like a complicated dance. It’s traditional to do tai chi out of doors if possible, by water or near trees, but in built up areas you may see groups in the open space of a shopping mall or just on a wide pavement.

In the early mornings, outside old people’s homes there, you may see a group of older women, some in their eighties or more, doing sword tai chi. As they twist and lunge, their swords flash and ring, and their faces stay calm and serene, until the form is finished, when they break into comment and laughter.

All over the world, people do tai chi.

Martial artists are often tai chi players, practising this slow internal discipline along with their specialism. People are sometimes surprised by this, but to train fast, explosive movements, you need to train slow and subtle movements, and tai chi is often a part of martial art development. Indeed, it is a martial art in itself.

Fire fighters are learning tai chi, which helps them with the slowed, highly-aware movements needed to penetrate burning buildings as quickly and safely as possible, always ‘feeling’ for their footing, using their tai chi-enhanced sense of balance to manage the many kilos of equipment they must carry.

Athletes are learning tai chi to rehab injuries, to rebalance bodies overstrained by special training for high-level competition, and to help them deepen the calm inner focus needed to perform well whatever the circumstances.

And yet, most of the millions of tai chi players worldwide are simply doing it to develop and maintain their health, and because they love it.

 As an older woman with arthritis, I joined the Tai Chi class looking for something to improve my balance and to help me maintain my joint mobility. It has done this and more. I’m now much more comfortable in my body and have a lot less joint pain. My family have noticed that I now move with more confidence.

I recommend it to everyone.

Sue