John’s Tai-Blog @ Camp Tai ChiTai Chi and anything I can relate to Tai Chi … like life

Does Your Tai Chi Make You Feel Inferior?

I think this quote says it all.  Be the dog!

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.“  ~  Eleanor Roosevelt

Your thoughts?

John

P.S. I found this quote here:  http://www.taichi4all.com/quotes.php

and the pic here:  http://iheartsmartcookies.blogspot.com/2009/07/feeling-good.html

The Reason of Tai Chi

I often hear people say they need to start doing tai chi because they’re not feeling all that well; they’re getting older and don’t want to suffer the consequences.  While this may sound like a good reason for many, most of these folks don’t stick with it.  The ones who stick it out, enjoy it.

“Don’t do things not to die, do things to enjoy living.  The by-product may be not dying.”  ~  Bernie S. Siegel, M.D.

Your thoughts?

John

P.S.  I found this pic here:  http://www.iscute.com/iscute/view.php?g=245&c=Dying+snowman

Tai Chi Delivers World Peace or… Whirled Peas?

Tai chi, the great stress reliever, the pathway to inner peace, and the all-purpose problem solver.  Practice tai chi everyday and you’ll become enlightened by next week, the week after at the latest.

If you’ve just started practicing tai chi you’re beginning to understand how difficult it can be to make those really simple and graceful looking movements while calming your mind.  Believe it or not it does just that… all in good time grasshopper.  All you have to do is find the right focus point.  It’s easier than we all make it out to be.

At first we watch the teacher and mimic the forms.  In our minds we’re doing pretty well.  Then the teacher comes along and points out that our left arm is too high and it’s causing our shoulder to tense.  Tensing our shoulders breaks Yang Chengfu’s tai chi rule #5, so we must adjust.  Later the teacher, remember him, tells us to turn our waist but as we focus on our waist our left arms goes back up there again… and we thought we could multitask with the best of them.

We’re hearing more and more about how none of us are any good at multitasking.  Our minds can really only focus on one thing at a time.  Just like anything else, it’s all about practice.  As time passes our left arm will learn where it’s supposed to be and our mind can check in on it for a fraction of a second and tell us we’re doing well while it continues to take inventory around our body.  Once we reach this point tai chi is incredibly relaxing.

So then, does this mean that we have to wait until we start to get good at tai chi before it becomes an effective stress reliever?  No, not really.  We just need to refrain from beating ourselves up for not being all that good.  I’m not sure why so many students think they should be really good right from the beginning.  If these same students could just relax and allow themselves to enjoy the journey they’d start having fun with it right away… without all that pesky waiting for things to get better.

My teacher taught me to look at my own tai chi as a sculpture.  In the beginning we chip away at the block to reveal the rough form.  As we continue to work at it we take away the parts that don’t belong until all we’re left with is the art.  Everyone’s work of art looks a little different.  No two people look exactly the same, and neither does their tai chi.  My teacher and I both move much like our master yet, aside from the things I’m working to correct, there are still subtle differences.  I like to think of myself as an earlier version of him, although I still have a long way to go to reach masterdom.

So just relax, and stop stressing out because you’re not doing your stress relief exercise just so.  Focus on one thing at a time, enjoy the process, and tai chi will be the marvelous stress reliever you thought it would be.  Have fun with it and learn to laugh at yourself when you make mistakes.  Laughter is good medicine and I promise you’ll have plenty to laugh about. 

I’ll leave you with the latest quote from my favorite fauxlosopher, Bob Tzu.  Bob Tzu is the long-lost American cousin of the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu and he’s always good for an insightful laugh.

Be the peas you’re looking for:

“I had to stop seeking inner peace. It was stressing me out.”

and…

Your thoughts?

John

P.S.

Visit the Master of Duhism, Bob Tzu, here:  www.duhism.com

Buy the bumper sticker here:  http://www.zazzle.com/visualize_whirled_peas_bumper_sticker-128983801598467204

Can You Chew Gum and Do Tai Chi at The Same Time?

I was just looking around for a topic to write about today and came across one of those little known fact’s I like so much.  It has to do with gum, but more about that later.

In tai chi and chi kung we’re taught to keep the tips of our tongues on the ridge behind our upper teeth - against our gums if you will.  I’ve heard a number of reasons for this and suspect they’re probably all correct to some degree.  The first one I ever heard, years ago, was that holding your tongue in this spot completes an energy circuit in your body and helps promote the flow of chi.  Since then I’ve been taught other tidbits such as it keeps you from biting your tongue in a fight, it makes it easier to keep your jaw slightly open and loose, and it helps in the production of saliva.

To me it’s become on of the many, many little details that make up tai chi.  Now if I’m not doing it, it feels off and strangely enough, my tai chi suffers a little. Like so many things it helps me to stay loose and I feel it also helps me breathe better, more easily.

So what’s this little know fact I referred to at the beginning of this post?  It’s about chewing gum and oddly enough, while looking for the photo of this cute little girl, I also discovered chewing gum relieves stress.  Wow imagine that; just like tai chi.  So does that mean I can forget about all those hours of practice and staying loose with structure, and can just go out and buy a pack of gum?  OK so maybe I’m taking this too far, but you gotta admit that’s one hell of coincidence.  Well it is a little bit of coincidence. 

Here’s your chewing gum factoid:

“Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying!”

Now that’s one useful piece of info (assuming it’s true of course, and no I didn’t check it on Snopes.com).  Your thoughts?

John

P.S.  I got this photo and the stress relief tip here:  http://www.impactlab.com/2008/08/31/chewing-gum-reduces-stress/

I found this factoid here:  http://www.strangefacts.com/facts2.html

Chi, Can You Feel It Now?

Chi energy (qi) is talked about so often and in so many different ways, no wonder so many people find it confusing.  I think a good comparison to chi is love.  Love is something all emotionally functional people feel.  Sometimes it we feel it very strongly and sometimes it’s difficult to find.

Chi is a subtle energy, so much so that many people find they can’t feel it at all.  Once you’ve found it, and you’ve spent time just listening to it, you’ll find the sensation grows stronger.  The sensation grows from a barely discernible current, to a fragile flow, and finally to a ranging current.

If you’ve ever meditated on your own heartbeat, you’ll have an idea of what I mean.  At first all you hear are the sounds of your environment, then you notice the sound of your own breathing.  Once you’ve found the sound of your heartbeat, it grows stronger and stronger until the blood flowing through your veins sounds like a raging river flowing in pulses.

With Chi, once you feel it strongly you know the second your body goes out of alignment.  This alignment is what makes the chi flow more powerfully.  I’m still working at it, but my take is that once you feel it you can begin to control it, once you can control it it’s power grows.

For those who have never felt chi, or love for that matter, its meaning can be difficult to grasp.  You can’t make it happen, all you can do is look for it.  Once you’ve found it it’s a bit like waiting for a butterfly to land on your hand, if you try to force it, it won’t happen.  I leave you today with this apt quote about love.

“Love is just a word until someone comes along and gives it meaning.” ~ Anon

Your thoughts?

John

P.S.  I found this quote here:  http://thinkexist.com/quotation/love_is_just_a_word_until_someone_comes_along_and/252888.html

I found this pic here:  http://www.layoutjelly.com/graphics/1/comments/Butterfly/

Tai Chi For Stupid People

With all the programs around like tai chi for diabetes, tai chi for cancer, tai chi for high blood pressure, tai chi for seniors, tai chi for kids, etc., I thought to myself, what group is being left out here?  While comedians have had fun paraphrasing the character Cole Sear from the Sixth Sense: “I see stupid people.”  None of us are exempt from the occasional bout of stupidity.  It’s always nice if no one is there to witness it, because like the tree falling in the forest when no one is there, there’s no evidence it actually made a sound.

While I had some fun with the title of this post, it really is tongue in cheek.  We’re all familiar with the phrase “If you don’t use it, you loose it.”  The corollary to this is that if you use it, you make it better, stronger.  Tai chi is one of the all-time best body-mind exercises in existence, and science has shown us that as we learn new things, we rewire portions of our brains.

Tai chi is often accurately referred to as a moving meditation and according to an article in Harvard Magazine, “Tai chi is a very interesting form of training because it combines a low-intensity aerobic exercise with a complex, learned, motor sequence. Meditation, motor learning, and attentional focus have all been shown in numerous studies to be associated with training-related changes—including, in some cases, changes in actual brain structure—in specific cortical regions.”  The article this quote was taken from is titled Easing Ills through Tai Chi. (click on the title to go to the article)

What this says to me is that tai chi may actually help make us smarter, at least in some ways.  We all know high stress levels can lead to bad decisions, while being relaxed and in a good mood aids the decision making process.  Tai chi relieves stress levels, improves our moods, increases circulation, and together these things lead to better brain functioning, not to mention other benefits of body-mind exercise.

So if you’ve just done something you hope no one else noticed, I suggest breaking into to a “random act of tai chi”.  Better to be thought eccentric and smart than just plain stupid.  Don’t you agree?

I leave you with an apt teaching from pages of the Duhism e-Bible.

Yes, this will be on the test

“Duhism teaches: Do not be patronizing… which means talking down to people as if they’re dumb, duh.”

Your thoughts?

John