HowToons: Do Tai Chi

Here in America - and likely the rest of the world - we're so obsessed with constantly moving, constantly keeping ourselves busy, constantly trying to be better than the next guy, righter than the next, smarter than the next, that we lose who we are spiritually.

There are a number of ways to reconnect with one's self. Church. Creative endeavors. Just "shutting it down" for a weekend. But there's nothing that stokes the imagination quite like Tai Chi (or "t'ai chi ch'uan").

American Yin-Yang

There is something romantic about aspects of the various oriental cultures. We, as members of highly developed societies (said with all intended sarcasm), rarely take the time to do anything that will not benefit us in the short-term. We - including myself - are vaguely familiar with the art of Tai Chi solely from the movies we've seen.

Even that limited Hollywood (or Hong Kong -based) movie knowledge is rooted in romanticism, though. Tai Chi and the various katas always end up used in an end of story fight scene.

Actual Yin-Yang

According to the new Encyclopedia Britannica, also know as Wikipedia, the translation for t'ai chi ch'uan can be "supreme ultimate fist", "boundless fist", "supreme ultimate boxing" or "great extremes boxing," terms denoting the technique's defense usage. For 99.9999999825% of people though, Tai Chi is only used for its Health and Meditation benefits, never the Martial Arts applications.

There is much to be said for finding your center, your spiritual and physical balance, in this busy world and to try to cover the various aspects of Tai Chi in a blog post would be silly.

But if you're looking to learn the art, you don't visit a site like this that says it can teach you. And it'd be even crazier for a person to suggest that this is a viable venue to teach another person. A blog is not what you need. Especially a blog run by somebody who is incapable of instructing in this subject.

Instead, you can either search for a run-down apartment complex that has an old Chinese/Japanese Mr. Fix-It and hope he decided to teach you OR here's a link that can help you find an instructor in your area (if you're in the USA): LINK TO THE AMERICAN TAI CHI AND QIGONG ASSOCIATION.

In the meantime, here are some videos of Tai Chi integrated into the various things we do every single day.

Hockey Tai Chi

A Top 10 List of Tai Chi Moves (in a Fight) from Master Wong

Tai Chi Deep Breathing Technique for Health

Tai Chi for Stress Relief (From the Mayo Clinic)