Blog Posts

It delights me that the YMCA has added Tai Chi to its roster of classes. 
Tai Chi has given me a tried and true method of integrating mind - body - spirit.   As I am aging, I became acutely aware of my increased chances of falling, The Tai Chi practice is my antidote to this problem.  It keeps the mind juicy, the body responsive and the spirit young. 
It appears that we are doing very little, when in reality I am breaking a sweat in the first 15 minutes. 

The eight active ingredients of Tai Chi

Excerpted from an article by Peter M. Wayne, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Director of Research, Osher Center for Integrative Medicine

For the entire article, see: https://blog.content.health.harvard.edu/blog/special-reports/an-introduction-to-tai-chi/

Dive into Danger! Learning Tai Chi on Skis

By Pat Gorman. Reprinted from Tai Chi Press of 1995

Uncle Wayne Nichols, master of skiing and tai Chi of the mountainside, was 83 when I met him. My tai chi friends, Ty and Helene (he a luge Olympian, she an expert ice skater) said, “Go to Alta and study skiing with this man.”

Tai Chi Books and Videos

Looking for a different sort of gift for a friend or loved one or even for yourself? While no book can replace learning tai chi in person from a teacher, reading about tai chi can be inspiring, and pictures can help you practice. Books on philosophy can increase your self-awareness. We also include a few videos that facilitate learning tai chi.

TAI CHI IS SELF CARE

Even on the most glorious sunny day, most of us would agree that life isn't always easy. We think about how he did that, and she said this, and we feel pain, anger or resentment. In fact it is true that he did do that, and she did say this, and we don't let it go. We remind ourselves over and over of the hurts. We drive ourselves crazy, and we make ourselves sick.

Neuropsychology has well established that we react to stimuli before our conscious mind can catch up. This means that it is easy to step – whether that be a physical, emotional or mental step – into places that aren’t in our best interest. Becoming more conscious of our habits makes positive change possible so we can improve our life experience.

Recently some of the senior teachers of our school were asked why we teach. Below are some responses. In general, we teach for the love of tai chi. We teach in order to be of service to humanity. We teach to help people improve their health and wellbeing and because it improves our own health and wellbeing. And we teach because that is how we learn. To learn more, continue reading.

From Rhoda Jacobs

Increasing Bone Density with Tai Chi

By Pat Gorman and Margaret Olmsted

I went to a car show last spring and admired the beautiful old cars that had been lovingly cared for. It reminded me that for those of us who are aging, we are like older cars. If we want a car to last a long time, we need to put in good gas and fluids and lubricate the moving parts and keep it clean inside and out. We have to take it out for a drive. It can’t just sit in the garage. If we want to have a pristine old car, we need to put in a lot of attention and TLC over the course of many years.

Here is a list of principles from Yang Cheng Fu, interpreted by our senior student, Edna Brandt. Yang Cheng-Fu was a grandmaster of tai chi in China in the 1920s and 1930s.

READ MORE HERE