Tai chi and qi gong are exercises that are integral part of traditional Chinese medicine. It is helpful in treating stress problems, depression, anxiety, illnesses and injuries. Many people use it as tonic to extend their peak performance. If you want to find a calm center in the middle of life's storm of change, while also toning your muscles and healing your mind and body, tai chi and qi gong are just the right choice. It simultaneously heals physical, mental, emotional & spiritual aspects of human life. You can boost your energy levels, dramatically improve your health, slow your aging process and become more creative. And this is only scratching surface of tai chi's benefits. Tai chi is practiced by 20% of the world's population and is fast becoming the most popular exercise in the world today. The Chinese call life energy Qi (pronounced chee). The character for Qi is also character for breath. Qi Gong (pronounced chee Kung and often spelt chi- gong) means breath work or energy exercise. Tai chi is moving form of QiGong. There are sitting and lying forms of QiGong, but tai chi is done standing & moving. Tai chi is simple, yet sophisticated relaxation exercises that encourage the muscles to let go of tension, the mind to let go of worry and the heart to let go of angst. Tension, worry and angst all block our Qi flow. The goal of tai chi is to move through a series of choreographed movements like slow martial arts routine, but very slowly and in state of complete relaxation. In order to do this, we have to let go of our mental and physical tensions, grudges, prejudices and anything that keeps us tied to the past. This enables us to flow easily into the future by clearing our mind and body of old stress so that we constantly get a fresh perspective on life. It is designed to uncover and release every single place we hold tension or blocked energy. When our mind or heart holds onto issues (fears, obsessions, angers and so on) our body literally squeezes itself with tension. Going slowly through the movements is like doing an internal scan of the entire body to clear and release any place the body is gripping onto tension. Tai chi is popular because it does not leave you drained but energized. Its effortless nature is a big stretch for most of us. But somehow we associate exercise with force, pain, tension. In fact some exercises contribute to stress. When I played junior high school soccer, many years ago, the coaches determined that we were through with running when one of us started throwing up. That's right upchucking. It was the only time in my life I ever hoped to see someone throw up. Tai chi is helping world to get a healthy, enjoyable view of exercise. The mantra - 'no pain, no gain' does not hold true. in tai chi. It has a new mantra -'if your exercise causes pain, you'll get so sick of the thought of it that you will never want to do it again.' Tai chi isn't as neatly poetic as 'no pain, no gain', but it does make infinitely more sense. Tai chi should always mean feel good. And, since it does feel good, you will look forward to it. Each morning you will find yourself grateful that you are alive and able to practice this cool exercise called tai chi.
(The author is a certified personal fitness trainer)
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