According to the 2007 National Health Interview Survey, which included a comprehensive survey on the use of complementary health approaches by Americans, an estimated 2.3 million U.S. adults had used tai chi in the past 12 months.

Wikipedia's description of famed author, Malcolm Gladwell's work "The Tipping Point" on the dynamics of how "social epidemics" spread rapidly through society ... could well be describing exactly how our work together, thru World Tai Chi & Qigong Day, is about to be the source of one of the most beneficial unfolding social epidemics in human history.

"The Law of the Few", or, as Malcolm Gladwell states, "The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts".[3] According to Malcolm Gladwell, economists call this the "80/20 Principle, which is the idea that in any situation roughly 80 percent of the 'work' will be done by 20 percent of the participants" (see Pareto Principle).[4] These people are described in the following ways:

• Connectors are the people in a community who know large numbers of people and who are in the habit of making introductions.
  [WORLD TAI CHI & QIGONG DAY's hub of WorldTaiChiDay.org has worked for 16 years to connect the Tai Chi and Qigong community worldwide with major health institutions, government, and other institutions to expand awareness of Tai Chi and Qigong]
• A connector is essentially the social equivalent of a computer network hub. They usually know people across an array of social, cultural, professional, and economic circles, and make a habit of introducing people who work or live in different circles. They are people who "link us up with the world...people with a special gift for bringing the world together".[5] They are "a handful of people with a truly extraordinary knack [... for] making friends and acquaintances".[6] Malcolm Gladwell characterizes these individuals as having social networks of over one hundred people. To illustrate, he cites the following examples: the midnight ride of Paul Revere, Milgram's experiments in the small world problem, the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" trivia game, Dallas businessman Roger Horchow, and Chicagoan Lois Weisberg, a person who understands the concept of the weak tie. Gladwell attributes the social success of Connectors to the fact that "their ability to span many different worlds is a function of something intrinsic to their personality, some combination of curiosity, self-confidence, sociability, and energy".[7]

• Mavens are "information specialists", or "people we rely upon to connect us with new information".[4] They accumulate knowledge, especially about the marketplace, and know how to share it with others.[WORLD TAI CHI & QIGONG DAY's hub of WorldTaiChiDay.org has worked for 16 years to put works like "The Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi," Ken Cohens, "The Art & Science of Qigong" and all the breaking medical and social research on Tai Chi and Qigong into the hands of Tai Chi and Qigong enthusiasts and teachers worldwide.   We have also educated teachers worldwide on how to do Media Work, Social Networking with FB, Meetup.com, Twitter, etc. to expand their teaching and awareness of Tai Chi and Qigong.
Gladwell cites Mark Alpert as a prototypical Maven who is "almost pathologically helpful", further adding, "he can't help himself".[8] In this vein, Alpert himself concedes, "A Maven is someone who wants to solve other people's problems, generally by solving his own".[8] According to Gladwell, Mavens start "word-of-mouth epidemics" due to their knowledge, social skills, and ability to communicate.[9] As Malcolm Gladwell states, "Mavens are really information brokers, sharing and trading what they know".[10]

• Salesmen are "persuaders", charismatic people with powerful negotiation skills. They tend to have an indefinable trait that goes beyond what they say, which makes others want to agree with them.

Together, holding mass events and small events in cities and towns in all 50 US States, and worldwide for 16 years, we have nearly achieved a breakthrough that is possible. We likely have in 2015, at least 1% of the entire US population doing Tai Chi and Qigong. While this may not seem like a huge percentage ... there is a phenomenon called "critical mass" where a point is reached, and suddenly a flood of activity follows. We are near that in the U.S.

25 U.S. governors have officially extolled the benefits of Tai Chi and Qigong in official pronouncements for World Tai Chi & Qigong Day, and the Senates of many states, including New York, California, and Puerto Rico.

And together we have gained mass media attention in countries all around the world, Egypt, Israel, Brazil, U.S., Canada, England, Italy, Germany, South Africa, Hong Kong, etc. etc. ... and in the majority of US States, gaining attention for the myriad health benefits of Tai Chi and Qigong and mounting medical research.

I joined Tai Chi in 1999. The class was run by Sifu George Thomas, one of the pioneers of Tai Chi in India. I had read an article about him and I was fascinated by the benefits it promised: calmness, strength, flexibility and health.

 

It was difficult to learn; the free-flowing movements looked easy, but to actually do it took a lot of effort and practice. I didn't have the patience to complete the course and I was not feeling any of the promised benefits, so I left midway. The next couple of years were a blur, and I don't remember much of them, but 2001 is etched in my memory as the worst year of my life ... I was in a state of shock. The tears that ran freely the last six months just stopped coming. I had difficulty sleeping, and would often wake up in a sweat. Day time was no better, as the worries of running the factory in a time of recession were immense. Just getting enough work to meet expenses was difficult. Some months, we would break even and others, not. I knew I needed to de-stress and decided to give Tai Chi another try...

 

I learnt the rest of the forms and started practising them. Tai Chi movements are hard to learn, and it takes a while to notice the effect it is having on your body and mind, but the benefits are cumulative and immense. The results, for me, were very slow and subtle. It was something as simple as feeling fresher in the mornings before going to work. I gradually noticed that my shoulders were beginning to relax and a chronic lower back pain faded away.

 

Further into the practice, I noticed things that used to get me tense and angry were no longer having that effect on me. It was different from getting angry and suppressing it. Here, there was no anger at all. It helped me deal with equanimity in certain situations, with much better results. Tai Chi helped me tide over that bad phase which lasted a few years, not by making things better, but by changing how I responded to situations, some of which were beyond my control ...

 

Read entire article at Hindu Times ...

 

 

The Pope's Encyclical ... and how Tai Chi and Qigong
Could Play a Role in Expediting Its Hopeful Realization ...