A TED video you may find of interest on how stress affects the body (click the link below to view in a new window).
- TED: How stress affects the body I’ve recently enjoyed a brief period of focused practice and contemplation during the last three months. I have found it helpful over the years to pull back and focus on specific areas of foundational practice or areas of postural sequences. I have found the more I delve into the fundamentals the more I gleam from them everyday something new shines through, it is truly a case of constantly polishing jade. The depth and subtlety of T'ai Chi Ch'uan never ceases to amaze, as practitioners I am sure you would agree?
The practice of T'ai Chi Ch'uan is, I feel, a much needed antidote to the stress and tension increaingly evident in today's world. It is very important throughout the form/fundamentals we keep our hip-joints relaxed but level at all times, Do not collapse your hip joints. Often when we are in transition we collapse into the Kwa we are going into rather than maintaining the integrity of level hips and turning cleanly into it.
The Central Axis-Line is situated and begins above the Ni-Wan at the crown of the head and extends downward through the centre of the body through the perineum extending further downward between the centre of the two feet and into the floor/ground. The development and refinement of the central axis-line produces both sound health and martial outcomes. For this article, I will refer to it as CAL. In Chinese it is termed Zhong Ding. I have also read articles were it likened the CAL to an “axle and a wheel”, the axle being the CAL and the wheel being the waist.
The following are personal observations and experiences in relation to learning Taichichuan framed within a traditionally based teaching methodology specifically.
I must say from the out- set I am “guilty” but remain guiltless of the very things I’m writing about, that is, wanting to learn too much too soon, I mean who doesn’t? Looking back it was probably due to thinking that Taichichuan is easy to learn, and thinking, I can pick this stuff up pretty quick, I mean it looks easy doesn’t it? I soon learnt nothing could have been further from the truth. |
AuthorJohn Hartley, Founder and Principal Instructor of Inner Health School of Taijiquan, Adelaide Categories
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March 2018
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