Tai Chi and Qigong Articles

Both T'ai Chi & Qigong are a combination of "bio-feedback", "visualization", and "classical conditioning" techniques that can not only provide powerful adjunct therapy for most maladies, but also can teach us tools that may head off physical illness long before it actually occurs. There is a newly emerging science of medicine known as psychoneuroimmunology, which is the study of the mind's influence over the body. This new science, although new in the West has actually been practiced and refined to an extremely high level in China in the form of T'ai Chi and Qigong.

Although, new to Westerners, T'ai Chi and Qigong are centuries or even millennia old, and in fact provide the backbone of healthcare in China today, even though China also employs all the wonders of Western medicine. T'ai Chi and Qigong is a form of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and therefore based on the same principles as acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine's (TCM) herbal medicine. The premise of all Traditional Chinese Medicine, whether it's acupuncture, herbal medicine, or T'ai Chi and Qigong is that there is a flow of subtle energy, or bio energy, flowing through the body, and when this flow gets blocked or obstructed our health systems are diminished as a result. There are 2 ways this energy gets blocked, one by an external accident, obviously if you break your leg it will affect the way the energy flows through it. However, the most common way that energy gets blocked is by internal unmanaged stress. We know this is the most common way, because most research indicates that about 70% of all illnesses sending us to the doctor are due to stress.

At World Tai Chi & Qigong Day's website you can find a free Sitting Qigong exercise in the Free Lessons menu that will enable you to begin to actually feel this experience of energy and energy blockages. If you book mark it and use it daily, you will likely find a significant shift in the quality of your life.

Tai Chi brings this qualitative shift to another level by physicalizing it throughout your entire body. Tai Chi's motions replicate most of the motions the body is capable of performing in the normal day's activities, and thereby it begins to trigger the relaxation responses of flowing life energy into the everyday tasks we perform.

Again, since 70% of illness is cause by stress, this incorporation of stress cleansing techniques into the fabric of our lives can be a powerful technology for everyone to learn. These were up until recently ancient secrets of China, but today are available to people worldwide who take the time to learn them.

T'ai Chi and Qigong do many things all at once. Which is why it takes a while to get the hang of it. However, you can get substantial benefits even the very first day you use it. The level at which you "feel" the benefits often is determined by how badly you "need" it. If you are very tight and stressed, you may not feel the benefits as much as someone who is in a "lighter" state. However, over time you will find the benefits will literally change your life if you stick with them.

WHAT DO T'AI CHI & QIGONG DO?
T'ai Chi and Qigong exercises are different from most Western exercises in that they are done in a state of "relaxation." Unlike most exercises we were taught as children, T'ai Chi and Qigong don't encourage you to "strain" and "force" and "burn." They encourage you to "breathe" and "let go" and "enjoy the effortlessness of motion." For many of us, we feel this is a "big waste of time" at first. Because of our conditioning we unconsciously believe "if it doesn't hurt, it must not work." Unfortunately this unconscious conditioning carries over into our daily lives, and we without realizing it can make our lives "strenuous" and "hard" because we've been taught that that "tribulation" equals value and meaning. George Castanza on Sienfeld, once discovered that if he looked on the verge of a nervous breakdown at work, everyone would consider him a very valuable part of the team, because he was a self-destructing workhorse. It was funny to see George do it, but not so funny when we see much of corporate America doing it unconsciously, which may explain why US business is losing $300 billion per year ($7,500 per employee per year) due to stress.

So, what benefit does "breathing" and "letting go" and "enjoying the effortlessness of motion" do for us you might ask, especially if you live in the endless bustle of New York City? It does many wonderful things, not the least of which is it gives the mind and body a daily vacation from the rat race. Bio-chemically the results are even more impressive. The slow abdominal breathing that T'ai Chi and Qigong promote more effectively oxygenates the body, while triggering a letting go of the mind, which fosters a release of troubling thoughts that store in the nervous system. By "letting go" of the regrets of the past and control issues about the future, we become centered, our awareness begins to gather "here and now." Physically, this results in a reduction in damaging stress responses, a release of muscle tension, a lowering of adrenalin levels, and mentally the brain waves alter away from the "busy beta brain waves" of our rush rush lives, and settle into the soothing saturation of "alpha" waves. Alpha wave saturation describes a deeply restful state, but also a highly creative state of mind as well. Great insights often come to us in the alpha state. Einstein, Nikolai Tesla, and Thomas Edison, the fathers of modern technology, all claimed their greatest insights came to them during periods of what Einstein referred to as "wakeful rest." He was describing the alpha state before brain waves were being measured in this way.

Now, besides the healthful stress reduction and brain wave benefits, T'ai Chi and Qigong's "effortless motion" also provides other powerful therapies. Because they are done in a state of relative relaxation the muscles are relaxed as the bones move beneath them. This promotes deep tissue cleansing as takes place during deep tissue massage. For example the lymph and glandular systems are gently massaged, stimulated, and cleansed. Also, because T'ai Chi and Qigong movements are performed in a slow relaxed state the pads of the feet are massaged by the ground in a way they don't experience when they are tight and straining during fast motion as in standard exercises. This stimulates the acupressure points on the bottoms of the feet. In Traditional Chinese Medicine's Acupuncture Maps we see that every organ and every part of the body can be treated by stimulating the acupuncture points on the bottoms of the feet. However, T'ai Chi & Qigong's relaxed motion also causes gentle friction between muscles, bones, organs and other tissue throughout the body. There are hundreds of acupuncture points throughout the body that are gently stimulated by this gentle friction each time the T'ai Chi or Qigong player enjoys the pleasure of deep full breaths, accompanied by sensations of deep "letting go" throughout the mind and body during practice sessions.

As mentioned before, Traditional Chinese Medicine realizes that "energy blocks" are at the heart of most physical problems. Therefore the energy disruptions that will eventually result in "an ulcer" or a "triple by-pass" can often be dealt with at a pre event level. In fact, if we can learn T'ai Chi and Qigong's gentle internal observation techniques, otherwise known as biofeedback techniques, we can become more and more astute at discovering feelings of "dis-ease" within ourselves. By becoming subtly aware of feelings of dis-ease, we can then use T'ai Chi and Qigong's gentle motion, deep breathing, visualization, and stress release mechanisms to "let go" or "process" that dis-ease before it becomes a full fledged physical disease.

However, the goal of T'ai Chi and Qigong is not to feel "illness" within. That ability to discover and release dis-ease at a pre event level is merely a bonus, or icing on the cake. But, the thing T'ai Chi and Qigong were created for was to slow us down enough to "smell the roses", "smell the coffee", or the tens of thousands of other exquisite and wonderful things we rush by to get to the next thing we are rushing past.

Bill Douglas is the Tai Chi Expert at DrWeil.com, Founder of World T'ai Chi & Qigong Day (held in 50 nations each year), and has authored and co-authored several books including a #1 best selling Tai Chi book "The Complete Idiot's Guide to T'ai Chi & Qigong." Bill's been a Tai Chi source for The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, etc. You can learn more about Tai Chi & Qigong, and also contact Bill Douglas at http://www.worldtaichiday.org

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