People often ask me to explain what exactly is Tai Chi and how does it improve your health. As more people flock to the Boston Common or area parks to perform the slow beautiful movements of Tai Chi, the ancient martial arts form is creating a new interest in what many consider a moving meditation.
Tai Chi is a gentle total body “internal energy” workout that does indeed provide great health benefits to our body, mind, and spirit. An art form in and of itself, Tai Chi is often referred to as “dancing in the clouds.” Tai Chi allows you to express yourself through movement. As you begin to feel the flow of Tai Chi energy, you achieve a sense of well being and comfort.
Many also refer to Tai Chi as a meditation through movement that helps to calm brain activity and promote the chemical balance in the brain. Once you let go of all the “junk” in your mind and body you begin to feel positive and at peace. For this reason we call Tai Chi “energy cleansing.”
The original movements of Tai Chi were taken from the martial arts. Tai Chi is a martial art that can be used for self- defense. But it can also be practiced as a form that brings harmony to the mind, body, and spirit.
When combat applications of this art are taught as a part of the form, the movements are inevitably performed more correctly and with better energy, thus affording the practitioner all the health benefits offered by tai chi practice. Without knowledge of what the moves are supposed to do, the practitioner cannot reap all the benefits that lie richly within the cultivation of skill and energy in practice.
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