

So what is really going on? Why do trees lose their leaves in autumn? Let’s find out.ĭifferent natural chemicals within trees produce different colours of leaves. Then, the leaves fall leaving bare trunks and skeletal branches. So give it a try sometime, it’s not as easy as it looks and the benefits are tremendous.The changing of seasons from summer to autumn brings about a startling change in many trees with vivid greens giving way to bright yellows, oranges and reds. Tai Chi is not mindless repetitive exercises, it takes brain power (Yi) and body power (Chi) and that’s what makes it so effective.

Scientific studies have shown how frequent practice of Tai Chi actually increases your brain size, improves your memory and combats Alzheimer’s. You want to quiet the thoughts and cares of the day so you can concentrate and make room for guided purposeful thoughts. When we start Tai Chi, we work to quiet the mind, that’s not emptying your mind, because Tai Chi takes work. You think about how you are tapping into your vast energy stores and directing them to where you need them. This is where you are meditating in Tai Chi you are visualizing each movement you do them. Just doing the movements are only a portion of Tai Chi, you have to actually use your brain to think through each movement as you do them. The interior benefits are well documented in "The Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi" and countless other scientific studies. The slow, continuous, circular, smooth, flowing movements of Tai Chi are conducive to working your internal system, provide healing where it is needed, unblocking blockages and transferring energy from one part of your body to another.

Tai Chi is designed to work the pumps, electrical system and open up the rivers in a very efficient way. Think of your body as containing a great river with many tributaries and controlling it all are a vast array of pumps and an extensive electrical grid. Your body is an electro-chemical machine that streams both fluids and electrical current throughout your body so you can live. In Tai Chi, the subtle rotations of the joints, together with the spiraling movements (twisting movements of the torso), produces tremendous internal energy which emanates from your core or what we call your Dan Tien. Tai Chi opens up the channels of the body and allows things to flow. Tai Chi movements use the circular nature of the body, both internal and external to cultivate energy and move it around internally. You may have heard the phrase that God does not draw in straight lines, well that’s how he designed your body, its curvy and circular. Tai Chi is designed to work around the structure of the body. See? Sounds like I am saying "I am a leaf on the wind." If, however, I told you to use your core to direct your movements, you might understand. In Tai Chi we try to cultivate our Chi and use the Chi to direct our movements and we learn to transfer the energy from our Dan Tien to other parts of our body. The terms are probably what throw people off, take Chi for instance. The Chinese have been at it for centuries, this is not some fad they just made up to sell DVDs. Often we take them to be some Taoist philosophy in practice and never stop to consider the true meaning of what is behind the terms. The Chinese have a lot of terms referring to Tai Chi that frankly, we here in the west just don’t get. Don’t get me wrong you can still achieve many of the same goals from practicing Tai Chi as you can from running, biking, hiking, swimming or even weight lifting but the approaches are vastly different. There is a big difference in the benefits achieved from proper practice of Tai Chi and traditional western exercise. We live in an area where if your exercise does not equate to one hour of heart pounding, strenuous, gut wrenching physical exertion then it’s not exercise. Sometimes when we try to explain Tai Chi to someone that has no previous knowledge of the practice, will get that Mel look that says “What does that even mean?” It’s the internal aspects of Tai Chi they don’t get. When he says it again, Capt Malcom Reynold “Mel” says “What does that even mean?” That’s the part that reminds me of Tai Chi. If you ever have watched Serenity? There is a scene where Wash has to navigate Serenity through an impossible number of ships and debris in space, so he steps into his zone and says to himself “I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar!" His focus and concentration were all on the present moment, every thought was tied to every movement his Yi was tied to his Chi. Sometimes I feel like Wash when it comes to Tai Chi.
