Why Tai Chi Works So Well
This peaceful martial art combines mindfulness, balance, strength, and concentration.
Would you like to calm your mind, improve your balance, flexibility, and strength? Then, consider the ancient practice of Tai Chi and its benefits to mind and body.
Tai Chi was originally a martial art but is now practiced as a graceful, controlled meditation in motion. To me, it is like a dance and I love its effect on my mind and body.
It’s Monday morning, and I join the twelve students gathered at the local YMCA.
My teacher calmly reminds our novice class that we are thinking of nothing else when we struggle to remember the form. Our mind is not considering the grocery list, wondering if we turned off the coffee pot or making a mental note to schedule an oil change on the car.
Instead, we focus on the golden thread lifting our heads, moving hands and feet while keeping our weight centered in the Bubbling Well or Tan t’ien.
Tai Chi calms the Monkey Mind, a state hard to avoid in our busy world.
Monkey mind or mind monkey, from Chinese xinyuan and Sino-Japanese shin’en 心猿 [lit. “heart-/mind-monkey”], is a Buddhist term meaning “unsettled; restless; capricious; whimsical; fanciful; inconstant; confused; indecisive; uncontrollable”.—Wikipedia
I love the symbolic images of Tai Chi, even as the moves are translated into English.
For example, white crane spreads wings, hand brushes silk, carry tiger to the mountain, fair lady’s hands, and ward off monkey.
As I practice, I imagine myself on a misty hilltop, cherry blossom petals floating down around me, the soothing sound of a traditional erhu playing in the background. Then, finally, I am taken away from the kitchen where I really am, the work waiting for me in the other room, and the ‘to-do’ list in my mind.
My Monkey Mind or ‘squirrel! squirrel! thinking’ is silenced for now.
After a car accident a few years ago, I needed to strengthen my mended leg and improve my balance.
Somehow my proprioception had been affected by the accident as I’d never bumped into the corners of walls, had trouble recalling how to jump, and standing on one leg before. In fact, I’d never heard the word proprioception before I started researching my problem.
It’s defined as:
Awareness of the position in space, and of the relation to the rest of the body, of any body part. Proprioceptive information is essential to the normal functioning of the body’s mechanical control system and is normally acquired unconsciously from sense receptors in the muscles, joints, tendons, and the balance organ of the inner ear.
Collins Dictionary of Medicine. (2004, 2005).
As I looked for exercises to improve balance and coordination, Tai Chi was suggested.
This (Tai Chi) activity involves a series of slow, smooth, and graceful movements, with an emphasis on smooth coordination of the eyes, head, body, and upper and lower extremities.—Research article
You may have heard the question, “What’s the best exercise?” The answer: the one you’ll do. Importantly, more people enjoy tai chi compared to physical therapy, myself included.
And I could get started even though I wasn’t in great shape.
The many benefits of Tai Chi, even for beginners.
When learned correctly and performed regularly, Tai Chi can be a positive part of an overall approach to improving your health. The benefits include:
Decreased stress, anxiety, and depression
Improved mood
Improved aerobic capacity
Increased energy and stamina
Improved flexibility, balance, and agility
Improved muscle strength and definition
More research is needed to document even greater health benefits. However, some evidence indicates that Tai Chi may also help:
Enhance the quality of sleep
Enhance the immune system
Help lower blood pressure
Improve joint pain
Improve symptoms of congestive heart failure
Improve overall well-being
Reduce the risk of falls in older adults
Where can you study Tai Chi?
Fortunately, my town has a YMCA and offers an affordable class there. Our teacher is teaching us at a beginning level, but he also offers more advanced training. I’m taking a class that teaches the first third of the simplified thirty-seven postures of Cheng Man-ch’ing’s short form (C.M.C. form), a Yang style of Tai Chi.
This is the third time I’m taking the same class. Yet, my teacher, Kent, reassures me that he repeated it nine times before becoming fluid. He learned from Sifu Kris Brinker of Peaceable Dragon. You can watch Kris demonstrate the first third in the video below.
You can contact my kind and proficient teacher, Kent Sands, to inquire about his Zoom classes if you don’t live near Austin, Texas. His practice is Peaceful Scorpion Tai Chi & Qigong.
I plan to practice Tai Chi for the rest of my life.
It will take this long to truly understand the essential principles:
- mind integrated with the body;
- control of movements and breathing;
- generating internal energy,
- mindfulness,
- and serenity.
The ultimate purpose of tai chi is to allow the qi or life energy within us to flow smoothly and powerfully throughout the body. Total harmony of the inner and outer self comes from the integration of mind and body, and this is the journey of a lifetime.
While there are videos online to become familiar with the art, I urge you to find a teacher virtually or, even better, face to face. You can begin learning at any age and in any physical condition.
I enjoy many types of exercise, but I find the practice of Tai Chi to be very calming and beneficial as my strength and balance are improving.
Do you practice Tai Chi? Do you have any resources to recommend? Let us know in the comments. Thank you.
Resources:
Effects of Tai Chi versus Proprioception Exercise Program on Neuromuscular Function of the Ankle in Elderly People: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
Health benefits of tai chi: What is the evidence?
Master Cheng’s New Method of Taichi Ch’uan Self-Cultivation by Cheng Man-ch’ing