December 28, 2020
Learning is a big part of healing, especially in the healing of emotions. We know our emotions influence our physical body. The brain's emotional center needs to be refreshed, nourished, stimulated, and balanced. When you start to learn things you are not familiar with, you start to shift your focus onto new knowledge, new approaches, and a new life. This sort of internal transformation can improve your situation in life. It is as if you are shifting negative energy to positive energy. The more positive energy you have, the better the chance you can be healed.
March 2, 2020
Taiji movements are not like any other exercise. The special choreographed movements are circular and in constant motion. Many gestures cross the body from left to right, from upward to downward, and from right diagonal to left diagonal. It is multidimensional. The footwork is slow, on the diagonal, well controlled, and involves multiple changing stances.
January 6, 2020
I was surprised to see so many people suffering from depression during my time of taking care of patients from 1997 to 2013. Many of their problems were not genetic, which can often be the underlying cause of depression.
August 13, 2018
During college my greatest teachers were not professors, and the greatest lessons were not revealed in the classroom. The University of California at Berkeley, which I attended, was home to more than 20 Nobel Prize winning teachers, had an unprecedented research reputation, and was the number one public university in the country. Still, the wisdom I discovered came from teachers without doctorates who taught in a small building across town that I would never have known existed if I had not been lead there.
November 21, 2017
Let this be known: I cannot stand running. I ran a lot when I was younger, mainly because somebody was always trying to beat me. Why? Acerbic wit was my weapon of choice.
I was ten years old, lying in my bed. My dad was standing in the door way speaking in a low deep voice, "10 feel your body relaxing, 9, going deeper now, 8 very relaxed, 7, your body is so relaxed that it feels like your floating on a cloud…" He was guiding me through a visualization. Every night before bed, either my mom or dad would guide us kids through a deep relaxation technique.
Qi means life force energy. The ancient pictogram of Qi represented mist coming off water or steam coming off rice. The mist and steam signified that Qi was invisible. The rice meant that Qi nourished the body.
For the next month, I would go to Master Chia's house and work out every day. We would train for about an hour and a half, practicing tai chi, qi gong, breathing exercises, and meditation techniques. What I kept realizing again and again was that this practice was not new age fluff, but a body-mind-spirit science. Master Chia was showing me formulas that had been tested for the last 4,000 years. He explained that these exercise and meditation routines were like a well-trodden path to the top of the inner mountain. If you practice them, you will reach the peak and enjoy the expanding vista of a clear mind and radiant health.
I was ten years old, lying in my bed. My dad was standing in the doorway speaking in a low deep voice, "10, feel your body relaxing, 9, going deeper now, 8, very relaxed, 7, your body is so relaxed that it feels like your floating on a cloud…" He was guiding me through a visualization. Every night before bed, either my mom or dad would guide us kids through a deep relaxation technique. By the time I was 15, I was proficient in self-relaxation and visualization techniques. I would use the technique to help with school, sports and martial arts classes (Karate, Kung Fu, and even Capoeira).
After a profound year of meditation, qigong, and internal martial arts, Helen's hair had grown back. Still frail, the experience only seemed to make her beauty all the more ethereal. It was then 1997, and promoter Jeff Bolt was having a groundbreaking event in Orlando, a pay-per-view sanshou fight coupled with a live demonstration performance featuring the top martial arts talent of North America.
Miracles are in short supply these days, though we seek them daily. Sometimes we find them, or possibly they find us. Helen Liang, a beautiful young girl, lay dying in a Vancouver, Canada hospital bed, the victim of a rare and aggressive form of lymphoma (cancer). After a devastating course of chemotherapy failed to eradicate the disease, doctors told her that she had only two weeks to live.
Although you can practice any way you want, the best way to practice taiji or qigong is in a group. It does not matter how big the group is; what does matter is if the group energy is together or in sync when everyone goes the same speed and same direction. In old Chinese tradition, the group energy is very often emphasized.
The World Tai Chi Qigong Day will be held on April 29, 2017. The whole world celebrates this day by participating in tai chi and qigong practice in a natural setting at 10 a.m. in all different cities, from time zone to time zone. I will be <a href="http://www.taichihealing.org/">celebrating</a> at Bay Front Park, Sarasota, Florida (near Marina Jack.) This is a free event that I highly recommend to people of all ages and all different physical abilities. Come to try and to experience the World Qi Wave; to feel it, embrace it, and to use it to benefit our body, mind, and our spirit.
Taiji is an ancient Chinese exercise for health improvement, spiritual growth, disease prevention, healing assistance, and self-defense. It involves slow, circular movements; mental concentration; breath control; relaxation; and meditation.
Tai chi originated in China as a martial art, and has been known for centuries as a mind-body practice that brings practitioners fitness, health, and wellness.
The Tai Chi 48-form is traditionally taught divided into six sections, so you may focus on adding a small number of movements to your overall form gradually. The first section stresses basic hand and foot movements and the essential Peng, Lu, Ji, An (Ward Off, Rollback, Press, and Push).
These are the movements of the official Tai Chi 24-form, which is often referred to as the "Simplified" form. This list and the video included show this traditional form as it was originally intended to be performed correctly.
The Tai Chi 48-movement form is ideal for those interested experiencing in the true essence of tai chi chuan, because it combines powerful techniques from all styles into a sequence embodying the spirit of relaxation and softness with circular, continuous movements. There are over 250 million people worldwide that practice tai chi daily for health benefits.
The Simplified Tai Chi 24 form is the most popular tai chi form in the world. With only 24 movements, it is the perfect way to experience the amazing health benefits of a shortened tai chi form, no matter your current fitness level. The ancient art of tai chi is often described as "moving meditation" because it stimulates your mind, body, and spirit.
What is Tai Chi? How does Tai Chi improve health? People ask me these questions all the time. Some ask because they see so many people doing these exercises in the park. Others ask because they can hardly believe there can be any benefits from such slow body movements.