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In today’s modern world, we are constantly told to push ourselves harder, push ourselves to be faster and stronger, to accomplish more, to multi-task and do many things at once, to work hard and play hard.
In our exercise programs we are told to push ourselves to do more repetitions, lift more weight, run faster, sweat more, really work those muscles, and “Just Do It,” and “No Pain, No Gain.”
But we are human. We have limits. It’s not healthy to push ourselves that hard 24/7/365.
Tai Chi is … different. 😊
When we practice Tai Chi, the goal is to remain as relaxed as possible while performing the movements, to continually focus on our body and scan for signs of tenseness and then relax those areas, and to NOT use our muscles.
How can that be effective exercise you ask? I could get the same benefits from sitting on the couch!
And yet Time Magazine has said that Tai Chi can be as effective a workout as Cross Fit training.
One answer is that stress is a major problem today. It’s estimated that over 80% of hospital visits are due to conditions that have their roots in stress. High blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, depression, anxiety and gastrointestinal problems are common examples of stress related illnesses.
By learning to relax our bodies while at the same time performing an activity (in this case Tai Chi), we are ultimately learning to relax OURSELVES. And we can take this ability with us into other situations in our lives.
Pay attention next time you are pushing a shopping cart at the grocery store. You might find that the muscles in your arms are tensed as you push the cart along. But is this really necessary? The forward motion of our bodies is enough to push the cart forward, with our arms needing only to act as extensions to route that forward momentum to the cart. So, the arms can be almost relaxed, just channeling the energy already being put forth by our legs and body. And then it becomes apparent that we are often tense and straining in our daily activities when we don’t need to. We scrunch our facial muscles up tight when we are concentrating. We put forth 110% straining effort, when 10% effort will often accomplish the same goal. We are wearing ourselves out all day long!
With its slow, graceful and flowing movements, Tai Chi exercises our tendons, joints (and yes, even our muscles) without all that unnecessary straining. In fact, it’s often called “Meditation in Motion.”
Remember when you’ve seen demonstrations of, or perhaps even experienced hypnosis? The hypnotist will often tell the subject to relax, and imagine their hand is floating up in the air, without any effort on the subject’s part. This is very similar to the feeling we work with in Tai Chi.
You can try this for yourself right now. If you are right-handed, use your left arm for this exercise. If you are left-handed, use your right arm. Let your arm and hand hang down at your side, completely limp. Now, without using any muscles, imagine and feel your forearm and hand raising up to waist level, without any effort on your part. Do this exercise in slow motion. The slower the better. You can imagine a helium balloon under your palm, and the helium is ‘floating’ your forearm upwards. Your arm is completely limp, you are just allowing this to happen easily – almost on intention alone, and not relying on your muscles to lift the forearm. It may take a few tries, that’s okay. Just repeat a couple times until you feel it rising (as if by magic) without using your muscles. Relax into it and enjoy the sensation.
Isn’t this an amazing feeling? You have just experienced Sung (pronounced Soong), which is one of the deep internal principles of Tai Chi. Imagine performing an exercise routine that lets you feel like this. Imagine an exercise routine that can feel blissful and relaxing. Imagine an exercise routine free of stress, and full of tranquility and relaxation.
It seems too good to be true, doesn’t it? And yet hundreds of millions of people all over the world practice Tai Chi , know it to be true, and get to feel these blissful feelings regularly. It’s estimated that 250 million people worldwide practice Tai Chi. That makes it one of, if not the, most popular forms of exercise on the planet.
- Jim Hintzen, February 2020 - (www.ahintofzen.com)
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When studying Tai Chi, much emphasis is placed on learning the movements. And indeed, this is where all students must start. Learning and practicing the movements is essential.
But just learning, practicing and perfecting the movements is not your ultimate goal in Tai Chi.
After learning and becoming familiar with the movements, you can begin to do fascinating & rewarding work inside the movements, which are where the real benefits come from.
Tai Chi is an Inside Job.
As you master the movements, you can begin to practice Fang Song – the art of staying relaxed inside while practicing the movements. As you begin to practice this skill of staying relaxed, you will naturally find yourself taking this skill with you into the rest of your life. You will one day find yourself tense during a meeting at work, and you will practice the relaxation skills you’ve learned in Tai Chi to calm yourself and release the stress.
As you practice and learn how to focus and hold your concentration inside your body while performing the movements, you will master the skills of focus and concentration, and can use those skills to bring your attention back to where you want it to be in work or in everyday situations.
As you practice the movements day after day, patience and confidence will grow inside you and you will gain mastery over your self-sabotaging inner voice. At some point your inner voice will tell you, “This is too complicated, I can’t figure out how to do this form.” But you will master it, if you just continue practicing. (In fact, this is the fundamental key to success in Tai Chi – just continue to practice. Hundreds of millions of people all over the world practice regularly, and most are average everyday people, just like us.) When you practice regularly, one day you find yourself thinking, “I can’t master this,” but then another thought will follow it quickly, “Of course I can. I mastered that other movement and that seemed difficult to me as well at the time. This will also come as I continue to work on it.” And this will transfer to your life, and when things seem difficult, you will find yourself becoming calm, and thinking, “It’s okay, this seems hard now at the beginning, but with patience and perseverance, I will achieve success at this as well.” This will happen naturally with practice, and without even realizing it you will have gained patience and confidence, and mastery over these types self-sabotaging thoughts.
As you work on the “internal arts” you will practice & learn how to focus on the stillness and joy inside your deepest self, and to maintain mindfulness and happiness while performing the movements. Obviously, mindfulness and happiness are two qualities we all enjoy bringing to our everyday lives!
As you learn to gather Chi (life energy) and to circulate it inside your body while doing the movements, you can also then learn how to direct this energy to areas where you are hurt or experiencing illness or pains. This is one of the core foundations of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which is practiced by billions of people to this day. (To be clear, I am not saying we should forego Western Medicine. Seeing our doctor is often necessary and appropriate and I, for one, am not giving up my health insurance plan! But Tai Chi & Chi Gong (which is very similar, and from which Tai Chi originated) can greatly aid in maintaining and restoring your health and can solve some health issues that Western Medicine isn’t able to heal at this time.
If you practice Tai Chi movements with a sparring partner for the Martial Arts skills, you learn that resisting an opponent’s attack only strengthens it, and that accepting it & moving with it dissolves it. From this you learn that resisting or avoiding a personal issue only makes it more powerful, but if you face it (and perhaps redirect its energy into a desired benefit) it disappears.
Tai Chi is a very “deep” practice with many levels to explore and countless benefits to be gained. This has been an overview, and not by any means a comprehensive list of benefits. Tai Chi is like an onion - as you peel back one layer, there is another (usually fascinating) layer beneath that.
Tai Chi is an Inside Job, and it is by doing the deeper internal work inside the movements that we achieve truly wonderful (and often blissful) benefits.
- Jim Hintzen, February 2020 - (www.ahintofzen.com)