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For some people, the last six weeks of the year are filled with almost non-stop activity. They have many parties and functions to attend, whether they want to or not. The constant business often leads to unhealthy stress levels, weight gain, and other unwanted changes. All too often, the unhealthy habits that are formed during this time are not easy to change.

Other times, the winter holidays mean the exact opposite. For many people who do not have these social or familial connections, for one reason or another, the joyful holiday season is the most lonely and depressing time of the year. Something must fill the void, and it needs to be something positive as opposed to something negative.

Whatever feelings the next few months bring, Tai Chi is a great alternative. Just like something as simple as a seat cushion for a car can make a tremendous difference in the way you feel, a small change like an hour or two of Tai Chi a week can perhaps make 2017 one of the most memorable holiday seasons. Even better, the healthy habits that begin in December usually last throughout the New Year and beyond.

Reduced Stress

Tai Chi is often called meditation in motion, and for very good reason. Most classes begin with qigong, which is essentially deep breathing combined with slow movements. The diaphragm breathing reduces blood pressure and stress levels, while the slow movements help practitioners feel looser.

That same idea continues once the Tai Chi movements begin, as instead of rushing through strength training or other repetitions, participants move almost as if they are dancing in slow motion. This gentle movement, combined with continued deep breathing, is an ideal way to relieve stress.

Optional Social Connection

Any activity class is a great way to connect with like-minded people who live nearby. That’s especially true for Tai Chi, because everyone there believes that these routines help bring balance to their lives, and this element is often sorely absent late in the year.

One really nice thing about Tai Chi is that these connections are strictly optional. Because there is so much emphasis on relaxation and meditation, it is no problem to arrive a few minutes early, find a corner of the room, go through the exercises, and leave quietly.

More and Less Energy

Tai Chi helps participants set, or reset, their body clocks. Given the short days and long nights during this time of year, that’s a major advantage regardless of your activity level.

Despite the slow motion, Tai Chi is a physical workout, as any participant will affirm. As a bonus, rather than being so intense as to bring about physical exhaustion, the movement increases blood flow to the extremities, for a palpable energy surge that has a lasting effect.

Mostly due to the increased energy during the day, Tai Chi means that participants are more able to relax at night. The meditation element helps as well, because it is easier to unwind when one is not as wound up to begin with.

Sharper Mental Focus

Whether it’s due to a full calendar or an empty calendar, we tend to get very distracted during this time of year. Some dropoff is not a big deal, especially in the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. But six weeks of drop-off is something that none of us can afford.

The improved physical energy, quiet meditation, and increased blood flow all combine to improve mental sharpness. As a matter of fact, there is some evidence that Tai Chi actually expands the brain’s hippocampus, which is the section associated with learning and memory. These findings are truly extraordinary, as the brain usually shrinks with age. Many people see significant results after just eight weeks, so if you want to unwrap a better memory for Christmas, sign up now.

Better Physical Balance

Walking across a dark parking lot at night is not easy for anyone, but especially for older people who are afraid of falling.

Tai Chi’s gradual and controlled motions help practitioners gain a better awareness of their own bodies. Furthermore, the exercise strengthens leg muscles, so seniors, and all other people, have more confidence in these situations. The increased alertness helps as well, because we are more likely to fall when we are tired and not as focused.

Many of the gifts we give each other this holiday season either will not last are are not very meaningful. But Tai Chi offers lasting benefits from a relatively small change. These benefits improve your life, as well as the lives of people around you, whether that circle is large or small.

Every year more and more foreigners travel to China to learn and deepen their studies in the traditional art of Tai Chi Chuan. They travel from countries such as the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, Brazil, and India. More often than not, their destination is the Chen Village (Chenjiagou), which is the birthplace of Chen style Tai Chi Chuan.

In the Chen Village, there are several schools that are set up to teach foreign students, even providing dormitories. Chen Xiao Xing, Chen Zhao Sen, Chen Bing, and Wang Xi An all have schools that teach to foreign students.

The Chen Village has transformed from a dusty little town, to a destination city for both foreigners and native Chinese to go to study Tai Chi Chuan. A lot of money has been injected into the local economy, building new schools, erecting statues, and building large plazas with the Yin Yang design.

Tour companies and Tai Chi schools have organized tours for visiting the Chen Village, and many Tai Chi enthusiasts make their own pilgrimage to the birthplace of Chen Tai Chi.

Click on the image below to see more about this DVD which features a documentary on the Chen Village.

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Mixed Martial Arts legend Anderson (the Spider) Silva is on a tour in China to promote a fight between himself and Kelvin Gastelum being featured in a UFC event in Shanghai on November 23rd. Silva took time out after a press conference in Shanghai on September 25th for some lessons on Tai Chi. He met for some Tai Chi and Chinese tea with Chen Xianglin, who is an instructor of traditional Chen style Tai Chi Chuan in Shanghai.

In the picture below, Chen Xianglin shows Anderson Silva the correct way of “standing” in Tai Chi Chuan.

In the video below, Chen Xianglin demonstrates Chen style Tai Chi fajin to Anderson Silva. By the look on Silva’s face, he has not seen this type of power displayed before.

Let’s take a closer look at his reaction!

After the lesson on Tai Chi, Anderson Silva enjoyed learning the finer points about drinking Chinese Pu-Erh tea.

Work/life balance is one of the current buzzwords in the human resources world. The theory, which dates back to the 1880s, is that workers who live balanced lives are happier and more productive. One rather depressing way of looking at this issue is that workers have been seeking work/life balance for about a hundred and fifty years, but they still haven’t found what they’re looking for.

Fortunately, individual balance is not nearly as elusive, and many people have found that balance in tai chi. Furthermore, thanks to the efforts of people like 18th-century labor organizer Robert Owen and 20th-century industrialist Henry Ford, you have some free time this weekend to explore something new.

Physical Exercise

Before the tai chi wave washed ashore here in the United States, “physical exercise” was almost always synonymous with “physical exertion” and perhaps even “physical exhaustion.” After all, no pain no gain, right?

But rather than exercise through exertion, tai chi brings the same physical benefits through slow, controlled, and sustained movements that are targeted to strengthen and tone certain parts of the body. We know tai chi works in this way simply because it’s been around for so long. The discipline itself dates back to the Chinese Zhou Dynasty, which was about 3,000 years ago. Chen Wangting, whom many consider to be the founder of “modern” tai chi, developed many routines in the late 1670’s that are still used today.

In terms of muscular development, the tension from sustained movement has basically the same toning effect as the tension from weightlifting, ab crunches, or other forms of Western exercise. There is also considerable evidence that tai chi triggers improvements in respiration, heart rate, and other functions which many people believe that only high-exertion exercises, like jogging, can bring about.

Reduced Stress

In a nutshell, tai chi’s movement and meditation elements reduce stress.

Deep breathing is very calming, and slow movement usually reduces your heart rate. Moreover, the hand-eye movement has a calming effect on the brain. So, tai chi is exercise for your mind and spirit as well as your physical body. That’s a combination which is very difficult to find.

Furthermore, the meditation element is half of tai chi. It’s not a sideshow, like the mental element of running. This calmness helps unleash the parasympathetic “rest and digest” nervous system, and that helps people deal with both trauma-induced pain and chronic illnesses. If nothing else, tai chi meditation takes your mind off physical problems, at least for a little while, and that alone is often enough to bring some much-needed relief.

This is not to say that tai chi is a cure for any of these things, and there are plenty of tools available, like shoulder ice packs, that reduce pain as well. You can find more info here about such tools.

That being said, we all want better balance in our lives. Tai chi helps us understand that in order to have strong and durable bodies, we must also have strong and durable minds. And, just like physical exercise is the only way to strengthen the body, mental exercise is the only way to strengthen the mind.

Better Physical Balance

This is the big one for many people. For many seniors, a vigorous exertion-centered exercise routine is not really an option, because of physical limitations, mental roadblocks, or a little of both. Yet these individuals are among those who need physical exercise most.

Tai chi to the rescue, because almost everyone can stand and move. Even if these things are not possible, there are many aquatic tai chi classes available, as well as other options for those with mobility impairments.

Now for the balance part. Tai chi’s slow, controlled movements lead to better body control. In one study, tai chi reduced falls by a whopping 45 percent. Potential like that should be enough to get seniors into tai chi studios in groves, because a majority of folks over 65 will fall and a majority of these individuals can no longer live independently thereafter.

There are plenty of other tai chi benefits in addition to these three, but hopefully, these are sufficient to at least spark an interest in this discipline. Since tai chi is one of those rare things that really is addictive once it gets in your blood, that spark should be all it takes. So, say your thank-you’s to Messrs, Ford, and Owen then pencil in your weekend tai chi class.

What may be the largest Tai Chi event ever will be happening starting at the beginning of this September, and ending on the 17th of the month. The event, called the “World Hundreds Cities Tai Chi Event”, started out with several large demonstrations of Tai Chi with thousands of participants, in over 200 different arenas. It began in Chenjiago (Chen Village), and could involve up to 8 million people from more than 190 cities around the world.

In Chenjiagou,, which is the birthplace of the Chen Style Tai Chi Chuan, 1,000 people take part in Tai Chi demonstrations.

The video below was live streamed on the China Xinhua News Facebook Page. Reporters covered this part of the event, talking to some of the participants, including foreign students of Tai Chi Chuan.

Master Instructor Norm Gill, who discovered tai chi for himself in 1995, began a class for wounded soldiers at Fort Bragg in 2012. Five years later, the class is still going strong.

Instructor Norm Gill (in red hat) leads students through Tai Chi movements.

Although most of the students are injured soldiers, the eclectic group also includes foreign liaison officers and those individuals who are interested in the ancient Chinese art form. What makes tai chi special, according to Gill, is that it brings body and mind together and stresses the health of both, which is especially useful for wounded warriors struggling with issues like brain injuries. “They usually are dizzy and have balance issues, and so to work with the breathing and the calming effect it has, it really helps them with their balance,” explained physical therapy assistant Wendi Sheets. The exercises are also ideal for other types of injuries, such as torn rotator cuffs and broken bones, as many practitioners find relief in tai chi when traditional medicine has fallen short. Captain Lloyd Blackburn, who suffers from a variety of injuries, said tai chi helps him find “inner peace” and it is also “a good workout.”

Gill, who is an injured veteran himself, summed up tai chi by saying “It teaches you to know yourself.”

Traditional Recovery vs Tai Chi Recovery

Most people, including both doctors and patients, assume that physical injuries are just physical problems that also have physical corrections, such as a support brace and perhaps some physical therapy. In many cases, that’s a perfectly accurate assessment, because many people quickly respond to these kinds of treatment regimens, especially considering the wide array of choices available. For example, you can read more about the different kinds of advanced hinged knee braces that are suitable for ACL tears and other such wounds.

But a strictly physical response is not always the best approach, because injuries heal much faster when the parasympathetic “rest and digest” nervous system is fully engaged. Such engagement dramatically decreases cortisol levels, and this stress hormone often retards injury recovery.

Of course, tai chi has a physical component as well, and gradual yet somewhat rigorous exercise is one of the best ways to rehabilitate an injured body part.

Tai Chi Benefits

As several of the wounded warriors noted, tai chi’s gentle and gradual movements are suitable for everyone, almost regardless of age, weight, and general health. This dynamic is important for injury recovery, because when the body’s resources are geared towards healing an injury, strenuous physical exercise is much more difficult. ower movements are especially ideal for joint injuries and other wounds that usually only get better through movement, but even a little too much movement can be devastating.

In summary, for many people, tai chi is the happy medium between aggressive physical therapy and a sedentary lifestyle.

Along this same line, tai chi is far away from the “give 110 percent” mentality that’s so pervasive in the West. Because most practitioners perform their exercises at about 70 or 80 percent, the soft tissues are more relaxed, so there is almost no chance of injury aggravation. That effort level also helps the injured area heal gently and naturally while keeping the rest of the body stronger.

Blood flow is one of the most important elements in the injury recovery realm, and tai chi gets the blood flowing perhaps better than any other kind of exercise, even yoga. Especially in the immediate aftermath of a serious injury, almost any movement is very painful, and that immobility is one of the biggest obstacles to speedy recovery.

Tai chi’s gradual movements slightly elevate the heart rate and move body parts to also move blood. Yet the effect is so subtle that there is no shock to the system.

Even more importantly, tai chi is relaxing, so it unleashes the parasympathetic nervous system, as mentioned above. Muscle tension saps our energy and triggers stress, pulling us into a downward spiral just as we need positive energy to help us heal. Tai chi reverses this process, by stressing slow, easy movements, correct breathing, upright posture, and mental placidity.

The relaxation also strengthens uninjured areas of the body, and sometimes, the best path to recovery is to make our strong areas even stronger.

Many doctors and therapists note that a large number of patients assume almost no role in their injury recoveries, instead relying on devices and pills to do all the work. From this perspective, tai chi is also very empowering for injured patients, and that may be the most effective injury recovery method of them all.

For those of you who don’t know, Stephen Curry is a star basketball player tor the NBA team Golden State Warriors. While in China taking part in Under Armour’s SC30 Asia Tour, Curry, along with members of his family, tried his hand learning Tai Chi in the city of Guangzhou.

The Tai Chi session had such a positive effect of Stephen Curry, that he now wants to include the use of tai chi as part of his pre-game routine.

“It works on my balance, my focus. Jody makes it look so easy, but it’s pretty hard, even though we’re moving pretty slow.”

 

“Definitely, I have to bring that back to the pre-game routine next year. So I got some more ammo to work with.”

Hundreds of Tai Ch enthusiasts gathered at New York’s Corona Park! The Confucius Institute at Pace University hosted the 2017 Tai Chi & Health Qigong Festival on June 3rd. Groups such as the American Tai Chi & Health Qigong Center, Tai Chi Institute USA, and others participated in the annual event.

The video of the event was taken by the China Xinhua News Agency. Please forgive the sound, as it seems it was windy out when the recording was done.