Sifu Zou Yunjian demonstrates the Simplified 24 Tai Chi routine to its official melody.
Join our Group Tai Chi Demonstration on Sunday June 2nd at Kung Fu Tai Chi Day, in downtown San Jose, California.
Participants of all skill levels are welcome.
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Hi folks,
I am happy to release The Insider’s Guide to Tai Chi. It contains 100-pages of information about tai chi and you can download it here. We are going to be releasing the Tai Chi Mastery Program in a few days so stay tuned.
When it comes to exercise and fitness, you have countless choices: weight lifting, running, yoga, Pilates, biking, tennis, golf, cross-fit and other “fad” programs that come and go. With so many choices, it can be difficult to determine what is right for you.
So why learn tai chi and why take the time to really learn it right?
I believe tai chi is the future of fitness and exercise. Tai Chi Chuan translated into the English language literally means “the supreme ultimate.” Tai chi is what I call an Uber-exercise because you can do it for health, healing, martial arts and meditation.
Tai chi can totally transform your life so you feel better and more connected to your body, mind and spirit. Tai chi is one of the best practices for long-term health and longevity. Tai chi is known for helping to heal and even reverse various injuries with virtually no downsides. Tai chi releases chronic stress and builds your qi or energy.
Practicing tai chi literally rewires your body’s nervous system. Many find that once they learn tai chi they don’t have to force themselves to do exercise every day. Instead, they want to do tai chi every day because it makes them feel relaxed, integrated and whole. Many join tai chi practice groups and form lasting friends and community.
Another piece of good news is more research studies are being published that confirm what Eastern practitioners have known for thousands of years – you can prevent illness and also contribute to your own healing through applied practice of tai chi. This ongoing tai chi research offers scientific proof of its benefits and will help fuel its popularity.
Although tai chi is finally gaining mass popularity, in the West many of Tai Chi’s original teachings are unfortunately becoming more diluted and watered down. Even when I learned tai chi in Beijing, China, almost 30 years ago, it was becoming apparent that the overall skill level of tai chi practitioners was declining because few did it solely as their primary profession.
If you are considering learning tai chi or if you already practice tai chi, one important thing to learn and know about tai chi is what really gives it the power. This is the internal energetics or neigong that you put inside your tai chi form. This has been my focus where I teach these neigong both in qigong sets and within tai chi.
If you want your tai chi to really do what it can do, you have to go beyond just learning the physical movements. Learning how to use the mind to affect what is happening in the body is a key. Few in the West know how to teach these original energetic components. Fewer know the correct linking procedure so that the possibilities of tai chi can become a reality in your body.
In China it is widely accepted that you need about ten years to become a competent tai chi instructor. Those with previous experience in other internal arts might be able to do it in five years, but that is the exception. Part of the reason this is so is because a person has to fully embody the energetic components in his or her body. Just as an oak tree cannot grow in a day, tai chi teachers take time to mature and develop. They must rebuild and upgrade their energetic system.
As there are different forms being created and more teachers appearing on the scene, I encourage you to learn an authentic form and to study with the best qualified teacher you can find. This means a teacher that been properly trained and can fully embody the principles of tai chi.
I have created The Insider’s Guide to Tai Chi to provide you with foundational information to help you understand and evaluate the expanding body of material available about tai chi in the West. I’ll also go deeper to explain neigong, which is the secret that powers tai chi. Neigong translated means ‘internal energy work’ and it explains how qi flows in the body. It is what makes tai chi effective as a martial art, as a health exercise and even for meditation.
When I started learning tai chi many years ago, I found and worked with some of the best masters in China within the Chen, Yang and Wu tai chi lineages. I believe that it is my responsibility to share what they taught me with as many people as possible. This tai chi report, my blog at www.taichimaster.com, the Tai Chi Mastery Program and my live events are ways I can share what I learned with you.
I have been practicing and teaching tai chi now for more than 45 years and counting. I first wanted to learn tai chi for my martial arts and had little interest in its health benefits. At the time I was a young man that loved both doing and teaching martial arts. What I found in the internal marital art of tai chi was a system for being strong into old age without the joint and body damage associated with external martial arts.
Later, as time went on, I used tai chi to heal my own body from other illnesses. Once, in India, I contracted a deadly case of hepatitis. Tai chi literally saved my life when I used it to open up the blocked energy channels in my body. The two other people on either side of me in the hospital that had the same thing died. I have had the unfortunate luck to be in eight major car accidents – one in 1982 that broke multiple vertebrae in my back, which doctors said would likely leave me paralyzed. I initially used the Yang Style to heal my upper back and then used the Wu Style of tai chi to heal my lower back. Without tai chi I don’t think I would be walking today.
I’m now over 60 years of age and I continue to use my tai chi practice to further heal my body. Not everyone will find the results I have, solely because very few people will dedicate themselves so completely to tai chi. But you’ll find you get out of it what you put in, and everyone, regardless of age or physical fitness, can achieve life-changing benefits through dedicated, applied practice.
In The Insider’s Guide to Tai Chi I hope to provide you a practical understanding of what tai chi is, what makes it work so well, and how to choose a style, teacher and practice regimen. I created this report and have given it away because I believe that it contains essential information that will be useful on your tai chi journey, whether you end up studying with me or another teacher.
I hope you learn, practice and eventually teach this amazing art that can continually transform your life!
Good practicing,
Bruce
Founder, Energy Arts
To signup learn about the Tai Chi Mastery Program signup and click here
To download The Insider’s Guide to Tai Chi click here
