Dear World Tai Chi & Qigong Day Supporters,
This week's Medical Research Article is a very exciting one. You'll want to forward this email to all your contacts and loved ones. Finally, a cure for the common cold science has been seeking all our lives. What is it? Qigong and Meditation. See article.
World Tai Chi & Qigong Day, by educating millions worldwide about Tai Chi and Qigong's benefits, could save untold suffering and trillions of dollars in future health costs. We have our work cut out for us. See below:
In our WorldTaiChiDay.org Newsletters, we talk alot about numbers, percentages, and figures when talking about Tai Chi and Qigong's benefits to society. But, the heart is much more motivating than the mind is.
When I was in my mid-twenties I lost both of my parents to heart disease (stress disease). I had tried to teach them Tai Chi and Qigong, but it was too odd of a concept for them. Now, had their doctor told them about it, or if Reader's Digest had, they may have had a chance to live long enough to know my children, their grandchildren.
Through working with all of you to organize World Tai Chi & Qigong Day around the planet for the last 15 years, we have gotten information about these health arts into Reader's Digest, too late for my parents, but not for others. In the four editions of me and Angela's tai chi & qigong book, we have published an appendix A that enables readers of our book to find your local school or groups classes, so they can start their own tai chi and qigong life journey.
However, despite all our efforts, we were recently stunned to learn that according to a National Health Interview Survey, far less than 1% of US residents were practicing Tai Chi. Now, that survey was done in 2007, however it is still a national scandal. Here's why!
WorldTaiChiDay.org interviewed Dr. David Sobel of Kaiser Permenente, after Kaiser released a 20 year study on stress as a cause of illness. According to Dr. Sobel, the study's results showed that as high as 85% of all illness sending patients to their doctors was caused by stress, not aggravated by, but CAUSED by unmanaged stress.
Study after study shows that Tai Chi and Qigong profoundly lessen stress damage, and enable people to function more effectively with less stress damage. This has been shown in DNA research, in cellular research, and in psychological studies as well.
As teachers we all know this is the case. Just this week a woman in one of my classes for people with chronic health issues, stopped me after class, and with tears streaming from her eyes, confided to me that "I could not have gone through the stress of this last year and my battle with cancer, if not for these classes."
There are 300 million Americans, and 7 billion plus people on this planet, and only the tiniest fraction of them know about Tai Chi and Qigong. And it is a crying shame. The United States spends over 2 TRILLION DOLLARS per year on healthcare.
As Tai Chi and Qigong practitioners we have the ability to educate millions worldwide, and in fact, in past World Tai Chi & Qigong Day events, together, we have reached millions with information that could change their lives, by creating this global mass media event together that has become known as World Tai Chi & Qigong Day.
"Alone we can do so little ... together ... so much."
-- Helen Keller
At
www.WorldTaiChiDay.org we help coordinate this global event by providing a Events/Classes Directory, a free service used by teachers, groups and schools worldwide to help our visitors find local classes.
www.WorldTaiChiDay.org trains individuals, groups and schools worldwide how to partner with media, to expand their local communities knowledge of Tai Chi and Qigong.
www.WorldTaiChiDay.org has created a Tai Chi Medical Research link, where anyone can search 100 common health issues, to find Tai Chi or Qigong medical research showing how they can help that condition, so that when local groups gain media's ear, they can help the media do what its here to do, to educate the public about things that can help them.
Do you belong to a regional or national Tai Chi or Qigong organization? If so, let them know that organizations like the World Congress on Qigong have worked as part of the World Tai Chi & Qigong Day global educational sisterhood, and they are invited to as well. If you are a member of the Tai Chi Chih society, or the National Qigong Association, or the European or Canadian Tai Chi Federations, or any such organizations that have formed around the world, please invite and encourage your organization to be a part of organizing mass teach-ins and exhibitions in conjunction with the world family of Tai Chi and Qigong practitioners worldwide who come together on the last Saturday of April each year.
When I met the 5 grandmasters of the Chen, Wu, Yang, Wu Hao, Sun styles of Tai Chi, they all agreed that all styles offer similar benefits, and they did not contend against one another. We are all part of the global Tai Chi and Qigong family, and this annual event gives us an opportunity to come together as a family, to come together across style or school, or even national or international organizational divisions, across global, geopolitical, religious, and ethnic boundaries, to join together as "one world... one breath." It is so easy to divide ourselves, but the rewards of coming together are immense and powerful. We can be a healing force in this world.
In all 4 editions of our globally published Tai Chi and Qigong book, Angela and I have promoted every Tai Chi and Qigong school, group, publication, and institution we knew of. In our latest 4th edition of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to T'ai Chi & Qigong," we provide links to all the national and international organizations we are aware of. Our goal is to grow tai chi and qigong worldwide for the physical and financial health and wellness of humanity. Angela and I do not benefit financially from promoting all of these groups, schools, institutions, and publications in our book. We do it because its good for our nation and our world. We hope everyone will take it upon themselves to spread the word about World Tai Chi & Qigong Day 2013, the last Saturday of April, for the same reason ... because its good for your community, nation, and world to be part of a mass global health & healing educational event like this.
"Alone we can do so little ... together ... so much."
-- Helen Keller
NOTE: If you get our newsletters in text format, please go to
www.WorldTaiChiDay.org and re-enter your email address in Join Our Free Email Mailing List, and select "html" so you can enjoy the beautiful photos and videos of events worldwide we include in newsletters.
"The best of men are like water. Water is good; it benefits all things and does not compete with them."
-- Lao Tzu
Warmest regards,
Bill Douglas and Angela Wong-Douglas
Co-Founders of World Tai Chi & Qigong Day
OFFICIAL 2013 T-SHIRTS ARE
NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER
(w/ pre-order discount prices, see bottom of email).
