08/31/2021
What is (and isn't) Tai Chi?
Recently I had a talk with a retired yoga instructor. She had told me that she found the Tai Chi that she had done before to be somewhat boring and too slow. When speaking of her yoga, she stated that she dislikes a lot of yoga for the same reason, and that her way of doing and teaching yoga places an emphasis on the mind state, while moving through the postures. I told her that the same is true with me and the way many (if not most) Tai Chi teachers run their classes- because Tai Chi is about mental activity and its connection with the body.
Unfortunately, much of the modern Tai Chi classes out there are all run the same way, and that gives the public a specific paradigm of what they think Tai Chi is. Slow movements, belly breathing, calm the mind into a blank state. To me, those classes are not Tai Chi classes, and certainly not what I teach. Sure, we have postures and moves that we go through, but they are meant to be done with a certain substance, and mental activity to match. This is where training the body and mind together can be developed, and where many of the known benefits of Tai Chi come from.
Tai Chi (Tai Ji) means Supreme Unity. This comes from a state of internal balance, a unity of body and mind. I have seen many Tai Chi schools speaking of (and falsely teaching their students) that specific movements will have specific effects on the body, and try to make it seem like a certain movement or form is so special and to be treasured. That is not correct. If you do it correctly, any movement can have a special effect, and the specific move or form itself does not matter. Doing it like this leads to what I call “empty training”. It holds no substance, and little if any benefits. How is some form supposed to help with increasing bone density or any of the other benefits associated with Tai Chi? It isn’t the form, it is the WAY that you do it. The form isn’t magic, neither are the moves. The way you do it makes all the difference.
If you want to learn methods of how to practice Tai Chi (or any physical art), give us a call to schedule a consultation so you can learn how we do Tai Chi.
