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YOUR MOMENT OF ZEN ... breathe ...
breathe
and release
anything
that
does not
serve you
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2 FEATURED WTCQD 2015 EVENT VIDEOS OF THE WEEK ...
AUSTIN, TEXAS AND WINDSOR ONTARIO CANADA
| Austin, Texas USA WTCQD 2015 Video | Windsor, Ontario, Canada WTCQD |
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Further down in this newsletter, find a Video Gallery
of other 2015 World Tai Chi & Qigong Day Event Videos ...
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TAI CHI & QIGONG LEARNING / TEACHING TIPS ... 1. "Should I push through the pain?"
2. How to avoid Tai Chi/QG ruts ...
3. "My feet are gripping the floor." |
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"SHOULD I PUSH THROUGH THE PAIN?"
Tai Chi is in evolution today, and the majority of people coming to it are now people who often are dealing with physical or emotional/mental stress issues. As Tai Chi research continues to come out proving that Tai Chi or Qigong help with this or that, and is then recommended more by doctors and health publications, this trend will not just continue but increase.
So as the world evolves around us, Tai Chi of course evolves, it is the nature of the Tao :-) Ever changing, nebulous.
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So as teachers, how do we adapt our teaching to the changing world. Today, it is not uncommon for a new student to say after class, "I noticed some discomfort ..." or "I noticed some pain when I did that movement or exercise."
My standard operating procedure in all new classes is to remind new students again and again as we breathe and relax through our Qigong or Tai Chi ... saying, "Tai Chi and Qigong should never hurt. If it does, make your stance less deep, or your rotations smaller, until you find where it feels good. Then over time as you breathe and relax into the movements, your range will expand." This is a good teacher safety tip. Reminding new students it should not hurt is a good way to help them touch into the powerful "biofeedback aspect" of Tai Chi.
Tai Chi and Qigong are so slow that it enables us to make them a mindfulness meditation on the sensations of the body in motion, and the body will then "talk to us" feeding us information. For example, today, I went on my back porch to do Moving Qigong. When I did my "filling and emptying" exercise, as a 40 year student, I practiced doing my "filling and emptying" from one leg to the other in a bit of a deeper stance than normal, just to play at expanding my range of comfort. At some point, my knee said, "I don't enjoy this anymore." So, I stopped doing the deep stance. Our knee whispers to us when we slow down and listen, letting go of our plans and designs and just breathing and free-falling into our internal sensations. Of course, if we do not listen to the whispers, eventually that knee will scream at the top of its lungs as we hobble in to see a physician.
So, by reminding your new students that Tai Chi and Qigong should never hurt, does 2 important things: 1) It helps them tune into their inner biofeedback which is at the core of the Internal Arts, and 2) It encourages them to come and talk to you, as a teacher, when something, some posture, or movement hurts. Then you can watch them do it, and see if there are tips you can give that will alleviate the pain, often just backing off a bit on the depth or the largeness of the movements, or maybe noticing their postural alignment is off and then help them see how the 3 Dan Tiens in alignment might take pressure off of the body.
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HOW TO AVOID TAI CHI/QG RUTS ...
When we begin practicing Internal Arts like Tai Chi or Qigong, most of our past life experience has been more surface and external then it will become.
As you go internal, becoming more aware of your breathing, and awareness of what full abdominal Tai Chi or QG breathing (click for video) feels like compared to the more common upper-chest shallow breathing, your awareness deepens. |
Today, as I flowed through the "filling and emptying" Qigong movement to prepare for my Tai Chi, I began by closing my eyes and exhaling to sink into the legs I was filling, to feel the sensations of my body and see how effortlessly I could do the movement.
Then after a short while, the movement seemed annoyingly repetitive, and my mind started rushing so I could move on and do new things.
What I realized just before I stopped doing the movement, is that "I was no longer feeling," I was "thinking." So, as I exhaled and allowed my shoulders and body to soong or sink into the filling legs, I noticed I could exhale and let a hip muscle under the other muscles "let go." That was FUN!
It felt good to let go, but also excited me because it reminded me that these Qigong or Tai Chi movements have no destination or point of completion ... for they are a "free-fall" into deeper and deeper self awareness, not self-consciousness like when you worry about who you are or how you look or whatever ... but real tangible self awareness.
Silence is a source of great strength.
-- Lao Tzu, Tao te Ching
Mastering others is strength.
Mastering yourself is true power.
-- Lao Tzu, Tao te Ching
Whether we've done Tai Chi or Qigong for 10 years or 100 years, each time we do it, we can sink deeper into our internal awareness ... and for everything that has let go, it can let go yet deeper ... or things around or underneath that can let go ... and on and on ... your self-awareness expanding as you let go of control and let that deeper internal awareness and wisdom contained within your 100 trillion cells and the energy that makes them. We don't "master ourselves" as Lao Tzu referred to by gripping and willing our body into compliance ... we do so by letting the mind exhale, let go, and freefall into the internal sensations that are whispering to us all the time when we do Tai Chi and Qigong, often simply whispering, "Oooohhh, that feels nice," but occasionally with an "Ouch! Something's off here."
As I sunk into this internal adventure, and let my mind exhale and let go of all the busy things I needed to hurry my Qigong so I could get to, the experience became extraordinary and fascinating. The sensations within were huge and vast when I sunk deeply into the center of them, sensations that had been pale, thin and almost not noticiable when my mind was spinning on to other things.
Nei Gong Energy Meditation can help Tai Chi players sink more into this internal mindfulness state when in Tai Chi or Qigong movements. Below is a free Sitting Qigong - Nei Gong experience. Enjoy! Feel free to share it.
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Nei Gong - Sitting Qigong Energy Work
Video courtesy of
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"MY FEET ARE GRIPPING THE FLOOR" ...
As teachers, after doing Tai Chi and Qigong for decades, our balance and dexterity have improved so much that it is easy to "lose touch" with what new students are going through.
I heard about a Tai Chi master from China who traveled to the west to give seminars. In China she was used to exhibiting movements, and then students following along, but now in America people at the presentations asked a lot of questions, which at first annoyed her. Then one day, she told her Tai Chi tour organizers, "I realized why they ask questions now."
The American events organizer replied, "What was it you realized?"
The master replied, "Because they want to know the answer." American students had perplexed her because they had no cultural references for much of what she was teaching them, unlike her Chinese students in China. It took time for her to realize how far their cultural reference was from what she was teaching, and once she did, then all the questions made sense ... they were not challenges ... they were genuine queries about concepts they "didn't get."
I had a similar teaching challenge when I first began teaching in hospital settings. Prior to that I'd taught mostly in Yoga Studios or in community classes where the students coming to the classes "had some interest in Tai Chi." When I began the hospital classes people who had never heard of Tai Chi came, because they'd read it would "lower their high blood pressure" or "relieve their back pain," etc.
I was talking to the class moving through their Moving Qigong with eyes closed, I was encouraging them all to "breathe deeply," and "allow the movements to move you as you relax out of the way, feeling the sensations of the 100 trillion cells of the body ... massaging one another," etc. The student asked, "You are encouraging me to relax and let go, and I notice I keep feeling my feet gripping the floor."
Then another new student next to her said, "Yeah, I was noticing that too, my feet feel like they are gripping the floor."
My instant thought was, Why are they gripping the floor? Relax.
But, I didn't say that. I let the question settle, and then remembered from long ago how when I began Tai Chi my balance was so much worse than it is today ... and my feet would "grip the floor" because I was afraid of losing my balance. I had completely forgotten about that, as it had been so many years ago when I'd felt that.
So then I replied to the student, saying, "Yes, that is not unusual. As you practice the movements, your balance will improve, and as it does your mind and body will develop an efficacy, knowing that when you relax and let go more you will be okay and not fall. This, in time, will allow your feet to let go more. It will take time. You will notice in time that you'll forget about your feet for longer periods, and they will only tighten occasionally when you slip out of your Vertical Axis or 3 Dan Tien Alignment.
I could hear the relief in their voices because I had identified with their journey, and gave them an outcome they would evolve into. It helped them let go more and flow with the journey.
I went on to tell them, that as this happens, and your feet loosen over time, your feet will get a deep acupressure point massage as you flow through your Moving Qigong and Tai Chi forms. There are acupuncture points on the bottoms of your feet that treat every organ and meridian system in the entire body. As Tai Chi and Qigong movements change your neurology and physical posture and references over time, your feet will give more and more, and become looser and more massagable as your balance improves, and this will provide a deep acupressure point massage of all the body's points and meridians as you flow through your movements.
No other exercise or activity does this the way Tai Chi and Qigong, because these Internal Arts are done in a relaxed way ... whereas traditional Western exercise calls for "effort" "strain" and "pressure" so the body, and feet, do not "let go" on this deep level as they will in Tai Chi and Qigong over time.
This not only answered the students' concern about whether they were doing Qigong wrong because their "feet were gripping," and allied their concern, but it also gave them a vision of "where their Tai Chi and Qigong were heading," and added to their sense of efficacy because they now knew they were on the right road, and that road was leading somewhere.
As teachers, we never stop learning how to teach and our teaching gets better and better as students challenge us to address their concerns and limitations ... which can help us go back in time and remember our own similar challenges when starting Tai Chi ... and make our teaching more empathetic, more genuine, and more effective.
Comments on Bill's writing from Tai Chi teachers and those new to Tai Chi:
"This book is an amazing resource ... But that does not surprise me, considering
that Bill Douglas is the author. He has worked tirelessly (well, perhaps he does
get tired) to make T'ai Chi accessible and approachable. Sometimes, when we
get to be pretty good at whatever field we are in, we give in to the temptation to
make what we do seem arcane and difficult, hoping (in our hidden thoughts - hidden
perhaps even from ourselves) to thereby increase our status and authority.
Bill Douglas has not given in to this temptation, and he has done very
good work as a result."
-- Karen Broyles, Tai Chi Teacher
"I bought this book hoping that it would help me understand Tai Chi without
assuming that I was a Shaolin monk (and the requisite knowledge base of
years of study). It didn't disappoint. If you're looking for an easy to read,
beginner friendly introduction to the various aspects of this art,
I would highly recommend it. "
-- John H.
NOTE: "The Complete Idiot's Guide to T'ai Chi & Qigong's" Appendix A, refers readers to our worldwide TAI CHI & QIGONG TEACHER DIRECTORY at WorldTaiChiDay.org, so make sure your school and WTCQD Event are posted there, so people can find you.
Between this book's Appendix A and the global web links to WorldTaiChiDay.org from websites and news stories worldwide, WE HAVE CONNECTED OVER ONE-MILLION OF OUR WEB VIEWERS TO LOCAL TAI CHI & QIGONG TEACHER AND SCHOOL CONTACT INFO.
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#1 Most Important Tai Chi & QG Effect? You May be Surprised ... |
THE #1 MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF TAI CHI AND QIGONG ... a Sense of Community!
If this answer sounds anti-climactic ... go a little below the surface, and you'll agree that this aspect of Tai Chi and Qigong is perhaps THE MOST profound benefit to the world.
I was sitting in a Vietnamese restaurant on a hot Kansas City afternoon waiting for my wife to get some carry-out Pho (noodle soup), and a small restaurant staff was there, not too busy, in a lul between lunch and dinner busyness.
The room was gray, not very inspiring ... until a woman walked in that the staff people obviously knew and obviously had not seen for a while and were happy to see. I speak zero Vietnamese, but again all this was obvious.
I think sometimes "not knowing the words being spoken" allows your mind to see other dynamics more clearly ... like the fact that this single human being had totally lighted up the room, and that light shined in the wait staff's eyes. This gray drab world had been transformed by that ... human connection ... by that connection to other life beyond our skin.
If you do External Qigong in your classes, you probably have noticed how much better your arm or hand or shoulder or head feels after it has allowed another class mate's energy to flow into and through you. Well, its not really "their" energy, its the universal energy that your classmate can open to and allow to flow or vibrate or expand in and through you ... the energy is nebulous and finds its own course. We can only "open to it," or "squeeze and close off from it." Beyond that, we cannot control it, it has a higher consciousness to it, beyond what our linear mind can hold. If we completely understood it, analytically, it could not be as grand as it is, because it is beyond words, beyond comprehension ... it can only be experienced, not defined.
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World Tai Chi & Qigong Day, Phoenix, Arizona (USA)
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External Qigong is a microcosmic experience of the world at large. It shows how we are nurtured by human contact, like a flower is nurtured by opening its petals to the sun. This connection with other humans and life is a profound nutrient to us, only behind food, water, and shelter.
If you've been to Hong Kong, Taiwan, or China, and observed local Tai Chi or Qigong groups, you generally always see them in groups. I didn't realize how significant this was until I was invited to a university to be part of a National Council on Aging and National YMCA Conference, made up of Tai Chi and Qigong experts from around North America.
In the first session the program director challenged us all to think about "What makes a good Tai Chi program? What are the key things a good program should contain?"
Most of us were Canadian or American, non-Chinese. We volunteered Tai Chi concepts like, "Abdominal Breathing," "Postural Alignment," "Relaxation," ... mechanical things about Tai Chi teaching. Then a Chinese Tai Chi teacher stopped the room discussion when he volunteered, "Community. The sense of community is a very important part of, and benefit of Tai Chi."
We western born teachers were taken aback by this for a moment, but then we began nodding our heads. This is a powerful benefit of Tai Chi, and my coming to terms with that has made me a far better teacher, and one who enjoys the community of my classes, not seeing them as work, but as a chance to hang out with some cool people. It lightens up the class, and some times we'll chat about how the "Kansas City Royals are kickin' butt" and how you can see Tai Chi concepts in high level sports performance, etc. It profoundly changes the dynamic, and makes the whole class less rigid and more flow-ey, like Tai Chi.
In this situation, I don't feel like as a teacher that I'm performing for them, rather, I'm part of the group ... albeit a part of the group who has done Tai Chi for nearly 40 years and has a bit of friendly advice on their forms from time to time. It takes me off of any fancy pedestal teachers can get stuck on, and as a teacher you don't want to be up there, because its a long fall when you fall, and you will. As teachers, we're just fellow Tai Chi students, learning all the time, and this takes pressure off so we can enjoy the human beings around us.
This is a very Yin approach to Tai Chi and Qigong, and these are Internal Arts, Yin Arts ... this sense of community. Teachers like Master Luk in Hong Kong, Olive Hui in Hong Kong, Elizabeth Keith in Phoenix, and Bev Abela in Australia, and my wife Angela Wong Douglas ... all were part of my education about how important this sense of community was.
When I was a young man, I wanted Tai Chi to give me something to enable me to "pull away from the world," something personal that required no partners, where I could withdraw to. And it did give me that, and perhaps I needed that at the time. But over decades of living, internal awareness with Tai Chi and Qigong, it became apparent that what that Chinese born Tai Chi teacher said about "the sense of community being very important" was true.
In my advanced class we have so many people of so many corners of life who've been in that class for many years, you may have a prim and proper Presbyterian housewife sitting next to a tattooed computer programmer or former punk rock drummer, all races, all religions, all levels of economic prosperity or poverty ... who all gather to warm their live's hands on the inviting flame and light of Tai Chi and Qigong. It feeds their need for community, and it expands our worlds, spending time with people we otherwise had nothing in common with ... but now we are exposed to their world.
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Tehran, Iran's World Tai Chi & Qigong Day
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Think about how World Tai Chi & Qigong Day formed. Now, I'm not saying that it wasn't partly because me and Angie worked our tails off for 17 years, and invested precious savings to connect Tai Chi and Qigong worldwide, and I'm not discounting the enormous efforts of organizers worldwide who make this happen year after year ... but the "spark" the "Raison d'etre" of World Tai Chi & Qigong Day in 100s of cities in over 80 nations ... was because it touched that human desire for connection, which is as real and as palpable as our cells need for the oxygen in our blood.
Think about this. Why were people in the Tai Chi and Qigong family yearning so deeply for a global connection? Yes, it does help schools and teachers gain more media attention by being part of a global event ... and that is good ... but anyone could taken this idea and made a separate organizational local event, or state event, or particular school, or individual Tai Chi or Qigong organization event, and publicized it.
But this idea of a global Tai Chi and Qigong family, reaching beyond individual styles, or schools, or nations ... to celebrate as a global TC & QG family each year ... sparked a global connection I've never seen in my lifetime happen in such a spontaneous and vast way ... so much so that it has caused government bodies and officials worldwide to add their official support ... or enabled millions worldwide to be exposed to Tai Chi and Qigong in regional, national, and the largest global media institutions in the world.
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Brazil's National Congress recognizes World Tai Chi & Qigong Day in Brazil
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Other events have since sprung from our global Tai Chi and Qigong example, recently you saw the nation of India officially register a World Yoga Day event worldwide, on the same model we have pioneered for 17 years, and that is only one, there are many of social global events now using this model.
Why was Tai Chi and Qigong so ahead of the curve? Because "community is such a foundational part of the Tai Chi and Qigong experience. Not just because we do it in groups, but because when we surrender into our forms and open to the flow of Qi, we lose our sense of self and free-fall into "the field." We become part of "the flow" of all life when we surrender by "soong" or "sinking" into our postures, and that sense of the Tao, the energetic web beneath all existence and life, teaches us on a molecular level that we are "all connected, all part of the same field. [Note: if this feels like a stretch of logic, refer back to our last newsletter on "Tai Chi, Qigong, and Taoist philosophy.]
So, Tai Chi and Qigong enthusiasts and teachers are like gardeners of humanity in our small quiet way, forming energy connections within the fabric of local and global society ... and fostering through our practice, and by our global media annual event a vision of this limitless unimpeded global connection of Tai Chi and Qigong participants coming together to expand personal and global health and healing through a lovely fabric of cross-cultural, inter-racial, multilingual, multinational mosaic each year we call World Tai Chi & Qigong Day.
What a legacy for Tai Chi and Qigong to imprint upon our world ... we are part of the evolution of Tai Chi and Qigong to its highest purpose ... a living, breathing part of the evolution of humanity ... as our modern world increasingly must learn how to "turn towards one another" rather than "turning on one another."
"You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you're not.
See, in all our searching, the only thing we've found
that makes the emptiness bearable, is each other."
-- Contact (film quote)
One World ... One Breath.
by Bill Douglas, Founder of World Tai Chi & Qigong Day
AUTHOR BIO: Bill has been a globally recognized expert on Tai Chi and Qigong.
He and was the 2009 Inductee to the Internal Arts Hall of Fame in New York; and is the author of the best-selling Tai Chi book, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to T'ai Chi & Qigong," (published worldwide in several languages). He's writtten Tai Chi related articles or been commissioned as a source for magazines and for media worldwide, including Prevention Magazine; WebMD; Kung Fu Magazine, etc.
His work has been reported in American Airlines American Way Inflight Magazine; Reader's Digest; etc. He has been the Tai Chi Expert for famed naturopathic best-selling author, Dr. Andrew Weil's websites for nearly a decade.
Bill was the Recipient of:
Extraordinary Service in the Field of Qigong Award, National Qigong Association;
Leadership Award, National Tai Chi Chuan Federation;
Media Excellence in the Advancement of Qigong Award, World Congress on Qigong;
He is author of the best-selling TC book, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to T'ai Chi & Qigong"
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Bill has presented Tai Chi Meditation Programs for industry, penal and drug
rehabilitation, and for social health institutions, including for:
National Parkinson's Foundation
American Heart Association
ALS Association
Hallmark Inc.
Sprint
Associated Wholesale Grocers
Catholic Hospice Professionals
National Catholic Youth Conference
Folsom Prison
Kansas City Drug Rehab. Program
and for major hospitals and health networks nationwide.
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He has been a Tai Chi source for:
Wall Street Journal
Nursing News
and media worldwide.
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and for KU Medical Center, working closely with
Cardiac Rehabilitation; Chronic Pain: Dementia:
Center on Aging; Neurology; and other departments
expanding the use and availability of TC and QG
throughout modern healthcare.
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ENJOY OUR PAST WORLD TAI CHI & QIGONG DAY NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE OF OUR "ALL THINGS TAI CHI & QIGONG" EZINES ...
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Unique and insightful articles on Tai Chi and Qigong, breaking TC / QG Medical Research, and TC / QG News from all over our beautiful planet ... One World ... One Breath ... reporting on and celebrating the work of Tai Chi and Qigong professionals worldwide ...
Also, see gorgeous videos and photo montages of WTCQD events held worldwide.
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Tai Chi & Qigong, the Ultimate Mindfulness Meditation
Breaking Research: Tai Chi Slows Aging!
Traditional Chinese Medicine News!
Eating with Qi ... Food as Medicine
Photo/Video Gallery of WTCQD 2015 Events in: Puerto Rico; Mexico; and New Zealand
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Left Brain / Right Brain and Tai Chi QG!
Qigong Breathing Tutorial Video
Yin Yang Tutorial and Learning / Teaching Tips
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| Tai Chi, QG, and Chaos Theory of Mathematics
A World of Self-Replicating Fractal Patterns
Tai Chi and Chaos Mathematics "Strange Attractor" concept
Click to read newsletter ... |
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#2 MOST IMPORTANT TAI CHI & QG BENEFIT? SAVING TONS OF MONEY IN OUR SOCIETIES WORLDWIDE ...
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Okay, there may be other things more important than saving money ... like losing chronic pain conditions, losing the need for expensive drugs with side effects warnings that could curl your toe nails, and avoiding painful surgeries ... you know, living life in a way we can love living it ...
But in a crowded world with straining resources, saving tons of money is a HUGE DEAL.
Here's an excerpt from a BRILLIANT article and amazing human story on this, from Tai Chi Examiner writer, Violet Li, whose articles are a major force in the global Tai Chi and Qigong family and expansion of the arts.
Shawn and Heather are saving big money through Ta Chi and Qigong
Heather Tisdel is a St. Louis mother of two kids aged 8 and 12. She has a cheerful personality and talks with wisdom, enthusiasm, and energy. I [Shawn Tucker, PT] first met her at this year's World Tai Chi & Qigong Day celebration in St. Louis on Saturday April 25. She was using a cane and was driven there by a friend. On June 19, I met her again in her therapist's office and she was excited to announce that she received permission to drive. She loved her newfound freedom and driving felt like flying. Her eyes sparkled as she spoke ...
Heather is not able to work. Medicaid pays for all her treatments and prescriptions. Now she only takes two or three oral medicines. The dosage and frequency have also been reduced. Sometimes when she gets a pain attack, she uses the tools she learned from Shawn without resorting to pills. Her IVIg treatments have been decreased to once every seven weeks and her body is more capable of handling the side effects. It costs approximately $30,000 for each IVIG treatment. Medicaid is now saving $165,000 each year on Heather's IVIg treatments alone, a huge saving on taxpayer money. Heather has dreams of returning to work this fall and being independent of IVIg. Nevertheless, her biggest dream is that more people can discover the incredible healing power of Tai Chi and Qigong.
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OFFICIAL T-SHIRT PHOTO CONTEST STILL OPEN ...
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Did you take a single person photo of someone wearing an Official WTCQD T-Shirt?
And a large group photo of people doing Tai Chi or Qigong at your WTCQD event?
If so, you can send in the "best 2 photos" (one each of the above) by replying to this newsletter, and putting "WTCQD OFFICIAL T-SHIRT PHOTO CONTEST" in the subject line, with photos attached as jpeg files.
We are looking for one intimate close up of a person doing Tai Chi or Qigong in an Official WTCQD T-Shirt at your WTCQD event, and then a wider vision mass group photo of your larger WTCQD event as they do TC or QG with the world. Reply to this email w/ 2 photos.
SPECIAL THANKS TO DR. KEITH JEFFERY, creator of Easy-Tai Chi systems, for his generous donation to the several hundred dollar Prize Packages of DVDs, Books, from some of the top Tai Chi and Qigong teachers worldwide.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR:
Dr. Keith Jeffery will presenting a weekend Mindful Meditation retreat, Sept. 19 and 20.
And his annual Easy Tai Chi Symposium and Teacher Certification is Nov. 8-10.
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| | KCPT Television: How T'ai Chi can help with chronic health issues |
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VIDEO GALLERY OF WORLD TAI CHI & QG DAY 2015 EVENTS!
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See below video gallery of 2015 World Tai Chi & Qigong Day Event Celebrations worldwide ...
In 100s of cities in over 80 nations mass Tai Chi and Qigong Day exhibitions and teach ins are held to educate the world about mind-body internal arts benefits, and to provide a beautiful example of the world coming together across all boudaries to celebrate personal and global health and healing.
WTCQD Nigeria, Africa |
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WTCQD Philippines, Manila |
WTCQD Colchester, Connecticut USA |
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WTCQD Perlis, Malaysia |
WTCQD Vilnius, Lithuania |
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See another Boston event video, click here.
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WTCQD Boston, Massachusetts USA |
WTCQD Austin, Texas USA |
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WTCQD Riga, Latvia |
WTCQD Macao & Hong Kong, China |
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SHATTERING THE MYTHS! Misconceptions About Eastern Thought
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When we come across misconceptions about Eastern mind-body arts and sciences or culture, we like to bust the myths, so society can more fully enjoy the benefits that reality and truth can bloom forth when opened from the shell of misconception ...
THIS WEEK'S MYTH:
Buddhism is a religion
Comment by acclaimed author and Buddhist Monk, Thich Nhat Hanh
"There is a misconception that Buddhism is a religion, and that you worship Buddha. Buddhism is a practice, like yoga. You can be a Christian and practice Buddhism. I met a Catholic priest who lives in a Buddhist monastery in France. He told me that Buddhism makes him a better Christian. I love that." --Thich Nhat Hanh Books by Thich Nhat Hanh:
"The Heart of Buddha's Teaching" "Peace is Every Step" "The Miracle of Mindfulness"
"You are Here" "No Mud, No Lotus" The Art of Communicating" ...
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TAI CHI & QIGONG MEDICAL RESEARCH OF THE WEEK!
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TAI CHI & QIGONG POWERFULLY EXPAND YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM'S FUNCTION ...
Practicing Tai Chi boosts immunity to shingles virus
Researchers found that prior to the vaccine only the Tai Chi group showed an increased shingles immunity. After the vaccine, both groups showed a boost in immunity levels but the Tai Chi group's increase was almost double that of the control group -- in fact, the Tai Chi group's shingles immunity was as good as those of adults 30 years younger.
-- Boston Globe, Boston.com, April 2007
A 2012 University of Wisconsin, Madison, study found thatmindful meditation can cut your chances of catching a cold by 40 to 50%.
A University of Virginia study found that their varsity swim team swimmers got 70% fewer respiratory infections when practicing Qigong at least once a week, compared to swimmers who used it less.
-- Prevention Magazine's Winter/2012 Issue.
The ancient martial art of tai chi could substantially boost the body's immune system. Medisch Dossier (volume 6, number 7), a Dutch medical newsletter, reports on a study where a group of older men and women (average age of 70) practiced tai chi three days a week for 45 minutes. After fifteen weeks they not only felt healthier, but had twice the number of immune cells or so-called T-cells "with memories", which are specially equipped to knock out the virus that causes shingles-an affliction in many older people.- Ode Magazine
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A Tai Chi & Qigong Standard Used by Students AND TEACHERS of all Styles of TC & QG
From the Founders of World Tai Chi & Qigong Day, a TC & QG standard that promotes all teachers of all styles in its FREE Appendix A Schools Directory, and is highly useful to all styles ...
This book is an amazing resource, and the price makes it very accessible. But that does not surprise me, considering that Bill Douglas is the author. He has worked tirelessly (well, perhaps he does get tired) to make T'ai Chi accessible and approachable. Sometimes, when we get to be pretty good at whatever field we are in, we give in to the temptation to make what we do seem arcane and difficult, hoping (in our hidden thoughts - hidden perhaps even from ourselves) to thereby increase our status and authority. Bill Douglas has not given in to this temptation, and he has done very good work as a result."
"Douglas has achieved for QiGong what Apple did for the computer. He's brought it to the people ... great place to start for beginners. ... Teachers may also find this an excellent manual 'on how to explain these concepts to the general public..."
-- R. Poccia, Qigong Instructor, Beyond Anonymous, San Francisco
"Visionary! If you only buy one book on T'ai Chi, then this is the book. This book is all you ever needed to know to change your life. I have taught T'ai Chi for several decades myself, yet I have now read Bill's book from cover to cover seven times, and still get something new from it each time."
-- Dr. Michael Steward Sr., D.MA, Ph.D., MA, Senior Coach for Team USA, Inductee of the World Sports Medicine and World Martial Arts Hall of Fame
.. Link to Additional Resource and Reviews of this Book
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