Live Long and Prosper
Sometimes I get the question, “does tai chi make you live longer?” I think the best response to this is , “I’m not sure, let’s try it and find out.” However, that response is usually met with a blank stare.
I used to wonder this myself. As I’ve studied tai chi I’ve noticed tai chi masters live about as long as the rest of us, with an interesting caveat. Aside from Yang Chengfu, who died fairly young supposedly because of living too much of the good life, the tai chi masters I’ve met are much like the rest of us. By this I mean their work is tai chi and they live the rest of their lives as the rest of us do. They smoke, they drink, they laugh, they play; all in all they seem to enjoy life.
Westerners mostly have the image that a tai chi master or teacher must be a very healthy person. When you think about it though, it doesn’t really add up. Tai chi is supposed to help your body clean itself and support healing. If your body can do that why sweat the other stuff? My Master doesn’t smoke and lives a fairly healthy life of moderation. My Teacher smokes and drinks a lot of Coke; she gets along just fine and moves like someone 30 years younger.
Tai chi may not help you live longer, but it will add to the quality of your life. A funny story about my Teacher happened at a tournament she was attending some years ago. Someone who had watched her perform, later saw her coming back in from outside with a pack of cigarettes. Very surprised, they said “You smoke and do tai chi?” She just looked at them at little perplexed and replied “Not and the same time!” I think that says it all.
Your thoughts?
John
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Jun 17, 2009 - 04:06:49John,
Great post, health is so subjective. Since visiting China, my eyes have been opened to their ideas of health and how much of their beliefs are tied into superstition.
Nearly everyone there smokes, and many believe that the smoke is killing demons in their lungs. The Flem that follows a few years of smoking butts is the dead demons escaping from their lungs.
I guess health means what health means to you, but I have undergone serious changes/ adjustments to my skeletal system since doing practical method Chen style Taiji.
All the best & happy training,
Jordan
Jordan_Keats’s last blog post..Jordan Keats updated his status : Is making the universe of Chen Style Practical Method Tai Chi more manageable.
Hi John,
Great post. I think this cuts right to the heart of the distinction between “the good life” as defined by health nuts, who often resemble the medieval religious attitude in their outlook; versus “the good life” as defined by the Greek ideal of eudaimonia. Unfortunately the health nuts have been setting the parameters of the debate for a long time. They want to dourly define the good life as a list of things you shouldn’t do, as opposed to the Greek ideal, which is a list of things you should embrace.
There’s nothing contradictory about doing taiji and smoking, if you genuinely get pleasure out of both and are fully aware of the risks. They can both be part of a fulfilled, positive, virtuous, life.
Let’s assume that you’re speaking about someone who practices seriously, on a regular basis. Perhaps he/she will not get more “lifetime” directly from tai chi. You know: per se. Many variables affect the number of years we live.
But perhaps they will get more “time” in their life? Most practitioners would agree that tai chi improves awareness; in some cases, dramatically. As attention and awareness grows, the sheer tonnage of impressions and sensations increase, are noticed, considered, pondered, registered, utilized … metabolized. This causes one’s “sense of time-passing” to alter. Nothing goes-by faster than unconscious time, because we’re not around to experience it.
Thanks Jordan. I think health is a bit like happiness: we define it for ourselves. I’ve also undergone some pretty significant muscular-skeletal changes since taking up tai chi. I seems I keep making those adjustments too, although the shifts are a bit more subtle now.
John
Kevin,
Being a reformed health-nut myself I have a pretty good feel from both sides of the fence. Now I prefer moderation all things. All things being defined as those things I like: cigars, beer, some health foods, pizza, steak, soy milk… you know a widely varying list from the “norm” to the “weird”.
I don’t know much about the Greek ideal, but I think I could learn to like the Greeks.
John
Walt,
I’ve never considered time and awareness in the way you described it here. Great insights. I’ll think I’ll even spend some time with those ideas myself.
Thanks,
John
Yay! I don’t have to give up coke!
This was an interesting post and interesting comments. We aren’t meant to live forever, and personally, I don’t want to. But living a life that is pain-free, or even pain-reduced, is my goal. Tai Chi has brought a balance to my life that I wouldn’t have imagined. You can have all the physical health in the world but if you’re mentally unhealthy, what does it matter?
Joy,
I couldn’t have said it better myself. Coke is good!
John
Tai chi people may not live any longer but we earn to live in each and every moment. The quality of life is better.
David,
I’m not exactly sure what you mean here, but I think I like it. Yes we do our best to live life to the fullest.
John