I thought I'd write a short piece to introduce the basics of Tai Chi to those of you who are new to all this.
Most of you have probably seen Tai Chi and maybe been struck by its flowing movements. It is often described as meditation within movement - or seen even as a form of relaxed choreography. The name "Tai Chi" is an ancient concept found in early Taoist (A Chinese Philosphy and Religion which seeks to find "the way" of harmony and non attachment) texts such as the I Ching (a book of wisdom probably written over 2 500 years ago). It refers to a supreme archetypal principle which governs everything: Yin and Yang.
Yin and Yang can be likend to soft and hard, full and empty, night and day and form the basis of an idea of a basic essential balance to everything, something that one can find and adhere to, bringing balance, order and happiness once it has been embodied by human beings.
In Tai Chi this idea of ever changing flux and change, which follows the principles of Yin and Yang, is used to enhance ones understanding of oneself, ones physical body, energy (Qi), environment and understanding of martial skill.
Many early Tai Chi masters refined such undertstanding and where able to defend themselves and maintain their health whilst improving their qualities such as courage, compassion and self mastery. This is something that still carries on today, with some Western practitioners now attaining similar levels of mastery.
From our perspective we often need to practice something that will occupy our attention whilst bringing noticable benefit to our mental and physical state, freeing us from stress and providing us with an activity that we can let go with. Tai Chi is such a thing and more.
To begin with, learning Tai Chi can take the form of learning set moves in sequence. Moves that help us improve posture for example or help us to enhance flexibility and relaxation. At first it may feel like we are in an alien environment, ie. in our bodies and not in our heads, learning to move in a more concious way. Learning Tai Chi is a skill and can be so rewarding because it helps us relax, in fact it makes it neccessary to relax, it almost forces us to relax - because as soon as we tighten up too much we lose the flow and the thread. Conversely if we let go too much and go all floppy, we forget about keeping aware and focussed so we don't quite get it that way either. Luckily though it isn't that hard, we just need the right kind of gentle effort to make it all work well, so we can really enjoy it and benefit.
To begin with you could try following me with this video of 24 short moves (you won't get it straight away, it will take a few attempts to get the gist of it, but keep trying). The best thing to do is try the first three of four moves, rewind the video, watch these moves again and try to follow again. Keep trying this until you can do the first eight moves. Don't put pressure on yourself, Tai Chi takes time. Take a couple of weeks to get the first 8 moves.
