Thoughts on Tai Chi
by an anonymous Federation Member
Tai Chi is truly a wonderful form of exercise that I love practicing. I am learning the Yang 24, which helps me with balance and some other health issues. I look forward to the day when Tai Chi practitioners will be a common sight in parks throughout the country -- a time when local groups practice a form daily, and newcomers are invited to come practice along and learn or improve their form. Since the 70's, I've lived in cities in other parts of the country where Tai Chi was practiced in parks and public spaces. I'd see such practices on my way to work and look forward to a day when I might be able to learn the art.
More and more research is appearing to show that Tai Chi lowers blood pressure, reduces stress, increases balance, flexibility, strength, and general health and fitness. It has been shown to help with a myriad of health conditions, including arthritis, asthma, multiple sclerosis, heart disease, balance and mobility problems among the elderly, and other chronic illnesses. Most recently, the Osher School at Harvard published research indicating that it improved T-cell counts, a fairly amazing finding.
Although awareness is growing, not enough people with health problems are aware of these benefits or able to find an accessible group with which to practice. The Tai Chi Federation of Kern County, along with other local and national groups, aims to address this need, and I'm pleased and encouraged to see the work they have done to promote Tai Chi.
I've written some letters to national TV shows that sometimes promote health causes (such as Oprah and Montel) to produce some shows on the health benefits and beauty of Tai Chi. The publicizing of Tai Chi that accompanies stories about the upcoming Olympics in Beijing sparks new interest and offers additional tie-in for stories promoting Tai Chi in the U.S.
It feels good to perform Tai Chi....
It works as a moving meditation,
almost as a secular form of prayer.
Something about the practice of
Tai Chi serves as a sharp physical
reminder that we are part of nature. |
It feels good to perform Tai Chi -- even for people for whom other forms of exercise tend to be painful or overly fatiguing. It works as a moving meditation, almost as a secular form of prayer. Something about the practice of Tai Chi serves as a sharp physical reminder that we are part of nature. Although I don't yet look good while performing the exercises, when I am doing the Yang 24 with others and achieving some fluidity with it, I feel the same sort of peace that overcomes me while watching a Great Blue Heron wading along a south Florida canal at dusk, seeing a couple of fawns playing in a clearing in northern Michigan, watching a meteor shower on a clear night, or experiencing any other simple wonder of nature that stops one's breath with its beauty and reminds one of all the good still evident in the world, and the god within all of it.
It isn't the sight of Tai Chi that inspires this reaction; it is the feel of it when I'm able to follow the form with some fluidity. It certainly owes something to biochemistry, the movement of energy, lymph flow, and other mysterious wonders of physiology and Chinese medicine. But mostly, as someone who has never been noted for my grace, it amuses me to be feeling such startling physiologic effects from a form of exercise that looked intimidating to me even in my youth.
I am relatively new to tai Chi and not an expert in its practice. What I and a lot of others would particularly like to see is Tai Chi being taught and practiced in local parks throughout the country by everyone from kids to the elderly -- whoever is interested in a relaxing, uplifting form of graceful group exercise. It would be great to have enough groups out there practicing so that isolated seniors, kids without a lot of adults in their lives, and all the busy people who need an easy, active stress reducer, could stop into a nearby park and locate a group with which to learn.
City Councils throughout the U.S. are looking for programs and educational resources to address urban violence, gangs, and familial abuse -- problems which are sapping our resources and injuring our collective hope. Everyone is looking for opportunities to help American culture truly become a kinder, gentler one in which to foster the growth and development of kids and keep people from falling through the cracks. Tai Chi is a sort of natural sedative for practitioners. It appeals to a lot of young people because it looks cool, but they will stick with it because it feels good and fosters camaraderie. It is noncompetitive, yet requires the same sort of discipline to learn and improve as competitive sports, with the upside of 'no losers'.
It really is a lovely practice.