MOVING MEDITATION
If you’re looking for a form of physical fitness that you can do at home and that’s easy on your body and benefits your mind, then t’ai chi might be right for you.
T’ai Chi is a system of movement, meditation, and self-defense from ancient Chinese culture. The T'ai Chi form consists of a sequence of postures, connected together in smooth, slow, continuous movement.
The most important principle in T’ai Chi is relaxation. In doing the T’ai Chi form, we become aware of where we are relaxed and where we hold tension. The postures and movements help the body to release tension in the muscles and encourage flexibility in the joints.
The slow shifting of weight from foot to foot strengthens the legs and helps the circulation of blood through the body: the legs are considered the 2nd pulmonary pump, and in helping to move the blood they reduce the workload of the heart. The feet are flat on the ground and the form is practiced low, with the knees relaxed, developing our stability and balance. The spine is straight, improving our posture.
Health Benefits
On a deeper level, the practice of T’ai Chi improves our health by encouraging the circulation of our internal energy (chi) through the body. The movement of chi nourishes the health of the internal organs. Regular practice of the form helps to send the chi through the body in the best order, in a balanced flow. So both for our ch’i (internally) and for our joints and musculature (externally) T’ai Chi is an essential practice for our health. Traditionally the T’ai Chi form is performed daily: as soon as we get up in the morning and just before going to bed at night.
Improves balance and stability
Reduces stress
Calms the emotions and stills the mind
Improves concentration
Improves body posture
Normalises blood pressure
Relaxes the body
Strengthens the bones
Improves joint flexibility
Mind-Body-Spirit
The T’ai Chi player comes to experience that there is an intimate mind-body-spirit connection. As we learn where we have physical tension and let it go, we also become aware of mental or emotional tensions that we accumulate: from our job, from family or relationships, from the stresses of day-to-day life.
In practising the form, we bring our awareness down to the balance-point of the body (Tan t’ien) and feel our body and our movements from this centre. In relaxing our mind and emotions to the tan t’ien, the internal chatter we always have can calm and subside.
The meditation of T’ai Chi is not one in which we shut out the outside world to go within. It is a balancing of internal and external awareness. It allows us to deal with the world from a more grounded, centred base. In this way, T’ai Chi meditation is a very practical tool, at work for us through our day.
Martial Art
The title T’ai Chi Chuan can be translated as “Supreme Ultimate Fist” but its effectiveness is best shown as a non-aggressive self-defense. Different from the hard arts where force is met with force, in T’ai Chi one yields before force, rotates out of its way, redirects it. The training of T’ai Chi teaches us to react with relaxation, timing, and balance. Where other martial arts decline as one ages, the practice of T’ai Chi improves through our whole life.
The training of T’ai Chi as a self-defense is principally through “Push Hands” (T’ui Shou) practice, though “Sensing Hands” might be a better translation. In this partner exercise, we use postures and movements from the form, and kinesthetically “listen” for our partner’s balance, timing, and tension. Through the Push Hands practice we learn to play with the energy of their movements, and develop relaxation and balance in our response to force coming toward us.
Through daily practice of this slow and conscious movement, we re-connect with our essential self, so our T’ai Chi is a path to deeper self-understanding and transcendent spirit. Although T’ai Chi Chuan is an embodiment of Confucian and Taoist philosophy, it speaks the universal language of harmony and unity. The T’ai Chi symbol is the familiar black and white circle, gracefully depicting the balance of opposites, with each half containing the seed of its opposite. Ultimately, we see how our individual sense of balance and harmony expands to our interaction with others and the world around us.
The School t’ai Chi, chaun, london
The London School of T’ai Chi Chuan has been offering classes and supporting the teaching and study of T’ai Chi Chuan in London since 1979. Their teaching body currently consists of 18 teachers teaching T’ai Chi in two central London locations, Soho and Victoria. Their mission of the school is to promote and spread the study and teaching of T’ai Chi Chuan in order to bring health and consciousness to humanity.
The team teaching provides their students with a setting where the emphasis is on the clarity of the work, and makes the classes easy to follow. With two or more teachers working together in a single class, students always have one teacher to follow the movements from, while another teacher verbally guides the class and follows up on specific needs of the group.
Virtual Classes
Due to the present pandemic, the school are running virtual classes so you learn from your own home.
Wednesdays on Zoom: Beginning Level (B1)
This class is open for both new and repeating students. They will teach the first part of the Yang family style of T’ai Chi Chuan as modified by the late Professor Cheng Man-Ch’ing from whom our School has a direct lineage.
Time: 6:30 – 7:30
Dates: 7th October – 9th December