Yoga in Classrooms Help Kids Develop Better Skills
There’s a new trend in your kids’ classrooms nowadays. Instead of staring at the board in front, the kids are lying on the floor near their desks practicing yoga. According to fourth-grade teacher Elisabeth Beckwith, she wanted her students at Fernbank Elementary School in Decatur, Georgia, to pay attention to a lesson on Greek mythology. Linking the symbols of Greek gods to yoga poses, such as dog position and the stork pose, Beckwith has high hopes that the students will better retain the material and be re-energized in the middle of the day.
It’s a fun way for them to think about things,Beckwith said. You know, it’s healthy for them because they’re getting the breathing right and getting the stretching right.
It’s fun, said nine-year old Jack Besser. It gets out the cramps after you’ve been sitting for an hour.
Another pupil, Medha Prakash, said that the yoga drills help her to concentrate. It makes me feel calm, relaxed and it gets all the stress out of me.
Just like adults, even children can be under a lot of stress. The numerous school activities, peer-pressure, and homework can cause kids to feel some stress. Teaching Yoga to children can help them develop better body awareness, self-control, flexibility, and coordination. Such skills can even be carried beyond class and into their daily routines.
Two years ago, Beckwith started offering yoga in the classroom. with the help of other teachers at the suburban Atlanta public school. YogaKids International, an Indiana-based company, gives them instructions and distributes teaching materials to more than 50 schools around the country. These materials are large flash cards with kid-friendly poses that are easy for the students to imitate. Teachers hole them up to show the kids and read aloud the step-by-step instructions written on the back of the flashcards.
Aside from incorporating yoga into their lesson plans, physical education classes have incorporated the practice throughout the day to instill discipline. If you say you’re going to do yoga with the kids, they just immediately start focusing.said PE teacher Katie Bashor.
Deep breathing and basic yoga are taught to the students at their desks, from kindergarten through fifth grade, in order to cope with stress and anxiety that may occur before taking tests. School guidance counselor June Neal isn’t bothered about criticism that may be hurled at the school for taking away precious time from studying and learning to be spent on stretching and meditation. Neal believes that there’s more to elementary school that just reading, writing, and arithmetic. He has seen a measurable difference among the students, such as an improvement in test scores and test-taking skills due to a decrease in stress level after yoga routines. Neil added, You do need some down time… you do need some way to express yourself and to reduce anxiety that comes along with being in school.
According to Dr. Andrew Weil, anxiety and stress are some of the biggest reasons why young students get sick at the start of the fall semester. I think parents underestimate how stressful going back to school is, he said. I think it’s as stressful as a grown-up starting a new job.
Weil believes that stressed-out kids may complain of stomach pain or a headache instead of dealing with a stressful situation at school. He recommends training children to do simple deep-breathing techniques, just as adults do, to help with stress management.
Original article and pictures take www.coachyoga.org site
Yoga e Taichi per scoprire che non siamo le nostre emozioni.
Una ricerca di Kathryn Curtis pubblicata nel 2011 sul Journal of Pain Research si occupa di vagliare gli effetti dello yoga sui livelli di cortisolo in un campione di donne affette da fibromialgia. Che, tradotto, significa dolore cronico e affaticamento, indolenzimento, disturbi del sonno, problemi gastrointestinali, ansia, sintomi depressivi. Occorre specificare che il cortisolo è tristemente noto come “ormone dello stress”, ma nelle persone con fibromialgia si presenta a livelli ben inferiori alla media, il che contribuisce ad aumentare la sensibilità al dolore e alla fatica. Ebbene, due sessioni di yoga alla settima, per una durata di 75 minuti ciascuna, l’effetto di normalizzare il livello di cortisolo in questi soggetti, predisponendoli a una migliore tolleranza delle esperienze di dolore.
“Lo yoga – commenta Curtis – promuove la consapevolezza che noi non siamo i nostri corpi, le nostre esperienze, il nostro dolore. E questo è estremamente utile nella gestione delle sensazioni dolorose.”.
Allo stesso modo Stephanie Reid-Arndt, del Department of Health Psychology della School of Health Professions ha pubblicato, sempre quest’anno, una ricerca che riguarda il Taichi (o Tai Chi, o Taiqi) e I malati di cancro. Questa arte marziale interna cinese prevde che chi la pratica effettui delle forme di movimento a bassa velocità e alta consapevolezza. Presenza, lucidità, rilassamento e lentezza convivono in modo ottimale in questa disciplina che ben si addice anche ha chi ha particolari limitazioni fisiche o è in trattamento chemioterapico. Le donne prese in esame, tutte malate di cancro, hanno seguito due sessioni di Taichi da un’ora due volte alla settimana per dieci settimane. I risultati evidenzioano un miglioramento delle condizioni psichiche generali e anche delle abilità cognitive. Stando ai risultati dello studio, in generale questa attività aumenta il livello di concentrazione individuale e risulta efficace e utile, a livello squisitamente pratico, per chiunque abbia una sensazione di confusione, vuoto, smarrimento, mancanza di motivazione, anche non in correlazione con uno stato di malattia conclamata.
Original article and pictures take perfortunavivereedifficile.blogspot.it site
Il Taijiquan, o Tai Chi, è un’antica e raffinata arte marziale che consiste in sequenze di movimenti, chiamati anche “forme”, fatte di torsioni, spostamenti e rilasci esplosivi di energia, che coinvolgono tutto il corpo e si sviluppano attraverso la caratteristica “forza a spirale” e l’esercizio del “bozzolo di seta”. I movimenti del Tai Chi alternano flessuosità e durezza, gesti veloci e lenti in modo naturale e bilanciato, in accordo con i principi filosofici Taoisti di yin e yang. Durante questa attività psicofisica, il corpo resta rilassato, generando uno stato quiete e di profonda connessione traconsapevolezza, respiro e movimento. Queste peculiarità inducono un lavoro introspettivo e promuovono salute, forma fisica , equilibrio e armonia. Per questi e per tanti altri motivi, oggi tante persone, di ogni età e forma fisica praticano il Taiji quan stile Chen in tutto il mondo.
I benefici del Tai Chi
La pratica del Taijiquan regola le funzioni dei sistemi dell’organismo migliorando digestione, respirazione e circolazione sanguigna. I movimenti lenti e armoniosi e il respiro calmo e profondo, contrastano in modo efficace gli effetti dello stress, a beneficio anche di memoria e consapevolezza. La fluida naturalezza e il controllo dei movimenti nelle sequenze, aumentano l’equilibrio, l’attenzione, l’elasticità e la coordinazione; la resistenza e la flessibilità delle ossa, delle articolazioni e di muscoli e tendini, accrescendo la vitalità, il benessere e la salute e promuovendo la crescita personale di ogni individuo.
La pratica attenta e costante di queste tecniche, grazie alla loro morbidezza, alla circolarità e alla lentezza con cui vengono eseguiti, restituiscono al praticante una numerosa serie di benefici:
Rende il corpo più agile e armonioso
Migliora la postura
Ha un effetto benefico sul sistema nervoso e sulla circolazione.
Stimolare il libero fluire dell’energia vitale ristabilendo equilibrio tra corpo, mente e spirito
Rilassa la mente e favorisce la concentrazione
Elimina lo stress
Migliora la mobilità articolare (i tendini si allungano e si distendono)
Aumento della profondità della respirazione con una conseguente ossigenazione del corpo
Previene molte malattie aumentando la resistenza e la forza del corpo
Previene l’osteoporosi,
Aiuta ad alleviare i dolori causati da problemi alla schiena e alle spalle
Rende più aperti verso il mondo circostante e gli altri.
Lo Stile Chen
Lo stile Chen di Taijiquan nasce nel villaggio di Chenjiagou, in Cina , tra il 1580 e il 1660, ad opera del Generale Chen Wangtin, membro della IX generazione della Famiglia Chen. È un’arte marziale “interna” fondata sui principi Taoisti di yin e yang, uniti a tecniche di respirazione e movimento di energia nei meridiani secondo la medicina tradizionale cinese. Questo stile di taijiquan, che è stato custodito segretamente in cina fino ai primi del 1900, sta diventando il più praticato al mondo.
Il M° Claudio Gentili insegna Taiji quan (Tai Chi) e Qi Gong dal 2007. È operatore professionale Shiatsu, certificato APOS, e operatore specializzato in Energy taping, moxibustione e coppettazione.
Si è avvicinato alle arti marziali a 14 anni attraverso il judo. Nel 1995 comincia lo studio del Wushu, del Taiji quan, e del Qi Gong. Nel 2010 comincia a studiare Shiatsu e medicina tradizionale cinese . Dal 2010 è Istruttore Sportivo, riconosciuto dal C.O.N.I. , dal Ministero degli Interni e dal Registro Nazionale delle Associazioni di promozione sociale.
Negli anni ha seguito stage con diversi grandi maestri, come: M° To Yu, M° Lee Kam Wing, M° Patrik Lee, M° Wu Dong, M° Shi De Wei, M° Shi De Li, M° Yugi Yairo, M° Pietro Biasucci, M° Kochi Naoja, M° Daniele Zanni, GM° Chen Zhenglei, GM° Liming Yue.
Nel 2013, durante un viaggio di studio in Cina, frequenta il Tempio della Nuvola Bianca di Pechino, dove incontra i Monaci Taoisti M° Qiu e M° Tien; e la Scuola Taoista “Wudang Daoist Traditional Internal Kungfu Academy “ del M° Yuan Xiu Gang, ai piedi del Monte Wudang, dove studia il Qi gong dei 5 animali (Wu Qin Xi).
Nel 2017 incontra il GM° Chen Zhenglei (XIX generazione della famiglia Chen, uno dei quattro massimi esponenti dello stile Chen al mondo) e il suo allievo diretto GM Liming Yue.
Continua tuttora ad approfondire lo studio e la pratica dello Shiatsu e della Medicina Tradizionale Cinese col Dott. Enrico Fabbri e il M° Kochi Naoja , e del Taijiquan e del Qi Gong col GM° Liming Yue e il GM° Chen Zhenglei.
Original article and pictures take www.leviedeldharma.it site
Tai Chi is a kind of moving meditation with ancient roots in Chinese martial arts. Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming teaches you the traditional Yang-style form step-by-step, while explaining each movement.
Yang Tai Chi is the most popular style in the world, practiced by millions of people every day. By practicing Tai Chi, you relax the mind and body deeply, and your body's natural restorative abilities are most efficient. Regular practice can benefit your strength, flexibility, bone-density, and muscle mass. The low-impact exercise has been shown to improve symptoms of depression and insomnia, and promote the healing of chronic conditions.
Tai Chi is an excellent way to relieve stress, lower your blood pressure, and develop a positive attitude toward life. Tai Chi will increase your circulation of blood, nutrients, and energy throughout the body, resulting in improved vitality and longevity.
Master Yang instructs the complete Tai Chi form from the front, and shows each movement one-by-one from multiple angles. There is also a rear view of the form that you can simply follow-along with once you're familiar with the movements. Tai Chi will develop your mind's alertness, awareness, and concentration.
Dr. Yang's tai chi lineage is traced to the Yang family through Grandmaster Kao, Tao and his teacher Yue, Huanzhi, an indoor disciple of Yang, Chengfu. The Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi says: "regular practice leads to more vigor and flexibility, better balance and mobility, and a sense of well-being. Cutting-edge research from Harvard also supports the long-standing claims that Tai Chi also has a beneficial impact on the health of the heart, bones, nerves and muscles, immune system, and the mind."
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Original article and pictures take cdn.shopify.com site
Yang-style Tai Chi is the most popular form in the world, with millions of practitioners. Since the Yang family popularized Tai Chi during the 1800s, the form has been passed down from teacher to student in an oral tradition, resulting in a wide variety in the way the form is practiced. No matter which version of the form you practice, the essential principles and structure within the movements are basically the same. The form practiced by Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming and YMAA students can be traced back to the Yang family through Grandmaster Kao, Tao (高濤) and his teacher Yue, Huanzhi (樂奐之), an indoor disciple of Yang, Chengfu (楊澄甫).
The Yang Tai Chi form can be easy to memorize, but it can always be refined and practiced with a deeper feeling. It is comprised of 37-postures, or movement patterns, which are repeated to the left or right to create the 108-movement sequence. It is recommended that a student focus on learning just a few movements at a time until they are very natural and comfortable. The form is typically taught in three sections. The next step is to learn and practice only the first part of the sequence until the student can perform it smoothly with correct posture and relaxed muscles. The more relaxed your body and mind are, the more abundantly your energy can circulate. This is the first stage, known as Regulating the Body. Eventually, if a student is interested in following the traditional path, he/she will progress through the stages of Regulating the Breath, the Mind, the Qi, and the Spirit.
Dr. Yang says, "The taijiquan solo sequence is constructed with about thirty-seven apparent techniques and more than two hundred hidden techniques. It is practiced to enhance qi (energy) circulation and improve health, and it is the foundation of all taijiquan martial techniques. It usually takes from six months to three years to learn this sequence, depending on the instructor, the length of the sequence, the student's talent, and most importantly, his or her commitment to practice. After a student has learned this sequence, it will usually take another three years to attain a degree of calmness and relaxation and to internalize the proper coordination of the breathing. When practicing, not only the whole of your attention, but also your feelings, emotions, and mood should be on the sequence. It is just like when musicians or dancers perform their art; their emotions and total-being must be melded into the art. If they hold anything back, then even if their skill is very great, their art will be dead."
Sense of Enemy
Dr. Yang demonstrating Tai Chi
Tai Chi Chuan, which is sometimes transliterated from Chinese as "Taijiquan", means "Grand Ultimate Fist". It was originally developed as an internal martial art, which emphasizes softness and roundness over using brute force. Whether you just want to learn Tai Chi for your health, or you intend to follow the traditional progression of the learning the sequence, pushing hands, sparring, and eventually weapons, it is important that you develop a sense of enemy in your practice. Watch a Tai Chi master perform a sequence, and you may see that it looks like he/she is having a slow motion battle against invisible opponents. By learning the originally-intended purpose of a Tai Chi movement, which is known as its martial application, you will learn the finer points of exactly where your hands and feet should be. You develop a sense of enemy by visualizing that your Tai Chi movement is being used against an opponent.
Dr Yang, "Even when you can do the form very well, it may still be dead. To make it come alive you must develop a sense of enemy. When practicing the solo sequence, you must imagine there is an enemy in front of you, and you must clearly feel his movements and his interaction with you. Your ability to visualize realistically will be greatly aided if you practice the techniques with a partner. There are times when you will not use visualizations, but every time you do the sequence your movement must be flavored with this knowledge of how you interact with an opponent. The more you practice with this imaginary enemy before you, the more realistic and useful your practice will be. If you practice with a very vivid sense of enemy, you will learn to apply your qi and jin (power) naturally, and your whole spirit will melt into the sequence. This is not unlike performing music. If one musician just plays the music and the other plays it with his whole heart and mind, the two performances are as different as night and day. In one case the music is dead, while in the other it is alive and touches us."
Not only does a sense of enemy develop correct posture and give life to your performance, but it is also important for your health.
Energy
When practiced slowly, Tai Chi is a form of Qigong (energy work). The Chinese word for energy is "Qi". Its important to realize that when we discuss Qi within the body, we are not referring to some mystical jedi force, or to a metaphor of some kind. Qi is real. Without going into technical Western medical terminology, you must realize that life energy circulates throughout the 100 trillion cells that your body is comprised of. This energy in our bodies is derived from the food we eat and the fat we burn, combined with the air we breathe through the metabolic process. In addition, with every breath you are inhaling air, which is a gas, which is made of molecules, which are made of atoms, which are made of energy. You inhale positive or negative ions all day long. We also receive some percentage of our body's energy from the sun and moon, and our body's energy is influenced by the radiation of our surroundings, both natural and manmade. In fact, the human body is a living bioelectromagnetic field.
When you want to move your body, your mind generates an electrical impulse through the spine to the muscles, and suddenly you are Grasping the Sparrow's Tail. Your intention to move first creates a brainwave - this is an electrical frequency usually between 1 - 20Hz. The impulse then transmits instantaneously throughout the body in a complex process that utilizes your body's energy to facilitate movement. A typical modern way of measuring your energy is with an EEG (Electroencephalogram), which distinguishes brainwaves by measuring the speed with which neurons (nerve cells) fire in cycles per second. Alpha brain waves range between 7 – 12 Hz, which relates to deep relaxation. The Alpha range is also the base frequency of the Schumann Resonance, which is the vibrational frequency of the earth's electromagnetic field. When you are deeply relaxed, your Alpha brainwaves resonate in sympathy with the earth's EMF, producing "constructive interference" which amplifies the vibration.
You are not a human body experiencing a spirit. You are a spirit experiencing a human body.
Whether you view the body's energetic activity from a chemical, spiritual, or purely mechanical viewpoint, understand that this energy within the body is the Qi we are referring to; Qi is not some special "other" kind of energy. This subject has been widely misunderstood, sometimes because of the limited understanding by students of these concepts since Tai Chi came to the West, and largely due to cultural and language barriers.
Don't keep searching for your energy when you practice. Realize that you are energy.
Thus, when you understand a Tai Chi posture clearly, your will mind generate the correct intention, and you will energize your body all the way to the fingers and toes more efficiently. This will gradually improve your circulation to the extremities, and help to permeate your body with healthy circulation of blood, energy, and nutrients.
Begin Tai Chi
Beginning to learn Tai Chi can be daunting, as you realize the traditional form can seem very long, and there are many details to be aware of. But like any classical art, such as violin or oil painting, you simply start at the start and allow yourself to learn at your own pace. Once you've learned the movements and can maintain a sense of enemy, you can enjoy Tai Chi as a kind of moving meditation which will lead you deeper into investigating the energetic aspect of being - which actually is a mystical experience if you really think about it.
Tai Chi Tips
Practice out in nature and get some fresh air, preferably near mountains, forests, or water for an increase of negative ions.
Close your mouth loosely, and touch the tongue to the roof of the mouth gently.
Breathe naturally. Don't worry about your breathing until later in your practice.
Tai Chi is whole body exercise. Movement is initiated in the legs, directed by the waist, and manifested in the hands.
Upper body is light, the middle body is flexible, and the lower body is solid and heavy.
Energy follows consciousness, or as its put in qigong study, "The Yi Leads the Qi."
Stay relaxed and don't frown from concentrating too hard. Tai Chi is fun!
David Silver has had a lifelong interest in meditation, and began training Gojū Ryu Karate at age 11. He studied Taijiquan, Qigong, and Yoga in his 20's, and became certified to teach Qigong by Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming in 2006. David works as a writer, producer, and director of instructional martial arts and health books and DVDs. He is the co-writer of the books and DVDs Sunrise Tai Chi, Tai Chi Energy Patterns, and Sunset Tai Chi. David lives on Cape Cod, MA.
Every taijiquan master has his own sequence of training, emphasizing his methods and content. The following lists general training procedures according to my learning experience with three taijiquan masters and my teaching experience of more than forty years. This is a guide only to the bare-hand training procedures of taijiquan.
In order to analyze the traditional Yang Style Taijiquan sequence, it is necessary to understand how martial sequences are created and the purpose they serve. Taijiquan is not a dance or abstract movement. A proper understanding of the root of the art will help you practice more effectively.
Once you have learned a basic Taiji form, whether you study Yang, Chen, or another style, there is still a great deal that traditional Taijiquan training can offer.
Original article and pictures take legacy.ymaa.com site
Learn Tai Chi, part 1. You will learn Yang Tai Chi Section One in this video! Tai Ji Quan is known as Meditation in Motion. Learn the sequence, breath deep, live healthy, and lets apply all that to our Golf Game!
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Yang Tai Chi for Beginners 11-minute Clip (YMAA ) Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming
DVD available: http://ymaa.com/publishing/internal/t... This is a 11-minute clip from the DVD "Yang Tai Chi ro Beginners". It includes a section of the introduction, and a brief instructional segment.
In this five-hour DVD, Dr. Yang gives step-by-step instruction of the 108-movement Yang tai chi form, and explains the purpose of each movement. English subtitles.
