Tai Chi as Mind Body Being in Transition

Tai Chi is nature’s perfect blend of mind and body. The movements offer a balanced drill for the body’s muscles, tendons and joints, and serve to increase the well-being of all the organs of the body as their efficient functioning depends very largely on a sound central nervous system. Practitioners are encouraged  to focus on the slow, soft, self-conscious feeling of movement, movement that is essentially martial in intent yet directed by a knowing mind, attentive to the sensation of movement, in this moment, in this breath, ‘feeling’ one’s way through the movements of the hand form.

The Tai Chi hand form is generally appreciated for its soft, gentle, flowing movements; however, it can also be fast, direct and hard. It all depends on the intention of practice, martial, dance, relaxation, and meditation. At Foundation Tai Chi (through the auspices of GBCT) practise is generally about raising awareness of body consciousness through movement. That is, using the mind to be conscious of body sensation. One cannot successfully address a body's condition and its transformation without becoming conscious of the role that the mind has in every bodily activity.

The Tai Chi classes at Govanhill Baths Community Trust focus on illuminating the awareness of ‘being’ in ones’ body, being in the movement of one’s body, paying attention to the sensation of movement. This is achieved by guiding participants to ‘pay attention’ to the sensation of movement whether in warm up activities, Qigong, hand form or pushing hands.  Participants are pointed to following the momentum of the movement (from feet to knee, hip, waist, and giving expression in the hands) being conscious of the sensation of movement in the transition from one posture to the next, illustrating how intention and power are given expression.

The beginner at each session is led through the first two or three styles making up the Tai Chi hand form (34 styles in the shorthand form).  To be precise, this is the ‘Square’ Form rather than the ‘Round’ Form. That is, each style is broken down into a count of 1, 2, 3, so that ‘Beginning style’ would be a count of 9, next, ‘Seven Star Style’ would be 3, and so on. This is a learning tool developed in the 1920/30s to manage large numbers in a class; students would hold a position while the teacher went round and made corrections. It’s still a very useful learning tool, one might compare it to drawing or painting by numbers, or similar to how you learned your alphabet, repeatedly scribing each individual letter before learning to join them up. There is also a tradition in internal martial arts of holding a posture/stance for a period of time, known as Zhan Zhaung (check out the free course on YouTube, ‘Stand Still Be Fit’).

There are other benefits from first learning the Square form.  For one, it allows the learner to explore correct posture and distribution of body weight; for most of the hand form the weight is mostly on one leg so one has to distinguish ideas such as, ‘full’ and ‘empty’, or substantial and insubstantial, ‘Yin’ and ‘Yang’. Then there is body alignment and sense of balance, how one shifts from one posture to the next posture, and the pace of movement. As stated above, holding the individual postures helps develops an appreciation of the need for a balanced/aligned and relaxed body that is rooted, i.e. allowing the weight to settle in the legs. This of course teaches endurance and develops strength, and is not without pain.

Once the learner is familiar with the square form they are introduced to the round form, often before they have finished the square form. Whereas in the square form the learner is concentrating on ‘doing’ the physical movements, in the round form one is required to ‘feel’ ones' way through the sequence of movements. Indeed some writers have likened each movement to a pearl strung to the next movement on the Tai Chi garland. And the Tai Chi Classics refer to the spine as hanging like a string of pearls with the head suspended from above. The key is for the joints and spine to be loose with relaxed extension. This is facilitated by relaxing the ‘nine joints’ – foot, ankle, knee, hip, waist, shoulder, elbow, wrist, hand.

The learned martial artist, Bruce Frantzis (Energy Arts), says of Tai chi:

“Tai Chi is one of the most sophisticated methods of integrated whole-body movement that humans have created. All parts of your body are supposed to move together at the same relative speed. In all movements, no matter how tiny, ideally each individual joint is directly and simultaneously linked to and moves in coordination with every other joint in the body.”

I like to end the session with some movements from Tai Chi Qigong (Shibashi). ‘Qi’ in Qigong refers to an internal energy system (the basis of Chinese medicine) which travels through a network of meridians or pathways feeding the internal organs. Qigong movements are directed at optimizing this system; just as we clear waterways and rivers of blockages and encourage a clear flow, so with the meridian system. The practice of Qigong works to regulate the flow of energy through the meridians by sinking the weight and aligning the body, attending to the breath, and soft rhythmic self conscious movement synchronized with the breath, expanding and contracting, up and down, opening and closing, with focus and intent.  The practice of Qigong works to regulate the flow of energy through the meridians, ensuring you feel fresh, healthy and energized.

New Beginners class started Thursday, 28th April
Further information from hayden@govanhillbaths.com or
https://www.govanhillbaths.com/projects/whats_on/tai-chi/

Improvers class started Wednesday, 27th April, for those with previous experience.
Further information from danjohnnail@yahoo.co.uk

World Tai Chi Day, Saturday, 30th April, 2022, from 10AM in your local park.

Further information on Tai Chi Classes in Glasgow can be found at –
https://www.foundationtaichiglasgow.com/style-of-tai-chi.html