Newsletter #120 - August 2011

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What is Tai Chi Really?  
Caroline Demoise, Master Trainer, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

 

For twenty-five years I have been wrestling with the question “What is Tai Chi?” beyond the obvious movements we see attributed to a particular style. Because tai chi is a multidimensional experience, our understanding changes as we grow with practice and experience deeper levels of this ancient Chinese art that is steeped in Taoist philosophy. To me tai chi is a meditation on breath, a meditation on alignment, a meditation on fluid movement and on being in the flow of life. It is allowing consciousness be in charge of your mind and influence your body. It is an opportunity to cultivate Tao in our everyday life and experience transformation.

 

Derek Lin, a Taoist master and author, describes the primary purpose of Tao cultivation as life transformation. When we devote ourselves to the art of tai chi, we are cultivating Tao and subtle but powerful transformations appear in our lives. They show up as incremental improvements in health, fitness, pain reduction, stress management and a deeper mind-body connection. These transformations unfold in the physical realm, the mental sphere and in our spiritual development.

 

When I took a class on mindfulness meditation last year, we began with alignment. The instructor used almost the same words you hear yourself saying as you instruct your class in the posture of tai chi. Lengthen the spine and reach toward the ceiling with your head. I was intrigued. Then he invited us to focus on breath and begin breathing abdominally.  We sat in stillness, mindfully aware.  I am fascinated when another mind-body practice shows me how similar their internal preparation is to learning tai chi. The underlying principles are similar, while the outward expressions are different.  As we move in tai chi, we are mindful of each segment of movement and of quieting our minds as we focus on breathing and alignment. Tai chi is a form of mindfulness meditation.

 

A mind body revolution has been brewing in the medical world since Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School popularized the technique of eliciting a relaxation response to counteract the harmful results of stress. Since the ‘70’s Dr. Benson’s research on the effects of eliciting the relaxation response in patients has built a solid case for the healing effects of relaxation techniques.  What has often been dismissed as merely a placebo effect is actually a powerful phenomenon. Activating a relaxation response is under our control.  We do it. Tai chi principles teach you how to activate this powerful healing medicine.

 

 In his new book, “Relaxation Revolution”, Benson describes research demonstrating that initiating relaxation in your body affects whether genes will express or remain turned off. What a profound effect this can have on every function in your body and on whether you remain healthy or become sick. Half of my father’s twelve siblings had dementia as did both of my parents.  My mind likes the thought that by regularly activating the relaxation response I can influence gene expression in my body. 

 

So, what is tai chi really, beyond being a martial art and an activity proven by research to improve health in the body? My definition of tai chi now includes the multidimensionality of its influence on our spirit, the ability to cultivate alignment with Tao in everyday life situations, an opportunity to create peace in our hearts and minds as we harmonize with others on the planet and a practice to powerfully affect the functional integrity and fitness of our physical body. Tai chi is powerful mind body medicine.

 

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Another Avenue to Connect With Tao
Caroline Demoise, Master Trainer, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

 

My experience with tai chi has led me to regard my daily practice as an opportunity to cultivate Tao in everyday life. Sun Lutang expressed the ultimate goal of tai chi as harmonizing with Tao.  Tai Chi is a meditation on breath, a meditation on alignment, a meditation on fluid movement and being in the flow of life. But tai chi is not the only way to experience the unity of life and our intrinsic interconnectedness. Dr. Pam Kircher discovered that spending time with people near the end of their lives listening to their experiences as they prepare for transition can bring an awareness of the spiritual aspect in life, clarity on important matters, and a sense of peace and calm. In addition to those with a terminal illness, having a near death experience at any age often opens a person to awareness of spirit and Tao.

 

Wisdom like this is acquired by examining our experiences and deeply contemplating the meaning of life. Everything in life is grist for the mill of reflection. Examining our motivations, actions and behaviour with compassion and insight brings us closer to understanding the truth of life on earth. Seeking to make sense of life is a common theme among people in every culture down through the ages. A variety of spiritual practices give people a framework to understand life’s inner dimension and a pathway to feel their energy body and connect deeply with spirit. 

 

Many people focus on the physical aspect of life for years until one day an experience shifts their attention to life under the surface of work, relationships or accomplishments and they begin to wonder about the meaning of their life. When the moment has come to look inward, to contemplate and to make peace with the experiences, apparent successes, challenges and presumed failures in human life, a door opens to experiencing the richness of life and a remembering of who we really are, a spiritual being having a human experience. 

 

In the same way that people come to tai chi and discover a deeper aspect than they ever imagined, approaching the end of life is a rich opportunity to grow into an awareness of life beyond the physical and to review one’s life from an expanded, meaningful perspective. Dr. Kircher’s audio book, “Love is the Link” chronicles her work as a hospice physician and introduces the listener to meaningful awareness’s from people who have had “near death experiences” and stories that the terminally ill shared with her.
 
I had read Dr. Kircher’s book years ago and found it fascinating.  But when I heard the same material read aloud in her voice, it was like having her in the room with me sharing an important spiritual conversation. Transforming this book into an audio experience presents the material in a powerful way. The concepts come across at a much deeper level and the information feels more intimate and personal. If you are interested in acquiring this wisdom and sharing it with others, visit her website www.pamkircher.com.

 

It is comforting to hear how people who have had a near death experience find their lives have changed. Listening to the stories of terminally ill people help us remember who we really are – an expression of spirit, that for a limited time inhabits a physical body for a human experience. The peace they encounter as they become aware of spirit remains with them and forever changes their lives. 

 

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Teaching Effectively - The Dark Side
Patricia Lawson, Master Trainer, Stuart, FL, USA

 

Yes, I went over to the Dark Side.  I re-entered my original field of education in my late middle ages as a MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER. I suspect I got the job because during my interview I answered my principal’s question about my long absence from public school teaching by saying that I had done other kinds of teaching and it all came down to “what do I want them to know, how do I break it into pieces, how will I check and re-teach if necessary.”  Sounds simple.

 

That first year I was no more than two weeks into the school year when I commented to a friend “It’s a good thing I do tai chi.” I knew tai chi was going to help me be a better teacher.  What I did not realize then was that getting back into the rudimentary fundamentals of teaching kids with undeveloped brains and raging hormones was also going to help me become a better tai chi teacher.

 

First thing that I began to realize, in the course of updating my formal background in teaching reading and language arts, was how much the vocabulary had grown and expanded.  We do not simply instruct, guide or reinforce. We scaffold, develop schema, and are armed with graphic organizers. To my chagrin, I had to first find out what all these terms meant. 60 credits later, I found out that these were just new terms applied to gradually building a strong base of knowledge, context and background, and charting. I don’t always agree, because I am old fashioned enough to believe that if I can get the kids to love reading the rest will follow. But here’s the most important new term I will throw out at you, and I’m sure you are reading it in the papers:  data driven instruction. We must teach according to what data has proven to be successful. In tai chi for health, we have sound medical studies that back the programs—don’t reinvent or alter them because you feel a little bored. The program works. 
I suddenly had an AHA! in tai chi class one day—I was talking about rooting and realized it must sound like a foreign concept to some of my students. But like my teenagers, they do not want to appear stupid in front of the class so they are not going to stop me and ask.  NOW scaffolding makes more sense.  I have to build up the knowledge piece by piece until the chunk is complete.  Put first things first.  STEPWISE PROGRESSIVE TEACHING METHOD. Teach in pieces and build.  And remember—Rome wasn’t built in a day. When you reach a high level of proficiency in something, it can be hard to remember what it is like for beginners. That is why we have an emphasis on DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION. I have mixed levels of experience and ability in my classes. It is challenging, but necessary, to try to group the students so that no one is bored AND no one is frustrated. Big words for what we see in our classes, which bring me to number two.

 

It is about the students, not the instructor. I realized that I had to go with the flow.  LISTEN TO THE INCOMING FORCE. If the lesson I planned was clearly not working, I had to be ready to change it up because the point was not ever the lesson—the point was the students developing a particular skill. Whatever that takes must be what is done.  And it can be fun; it’s a ride of discovery. It’s not about us, so just enjoy the ride.

At my hospital wellness centre we actually had a staff meeting to address the growing issue of aerobic instructors preening and admiring themselves in the mirror while they did class. Students were commenting on surveys that the instructors seemed distracted by their own “buffness.” I thought it was really funny until I realized we can also be guilty of this in tai chi. It takes the form of having everyone (regardless of level) just copy you while you do your favourite long competition form. Or the instructor who uses class time for a long demo that is impressive but is out of the students’ reach. Scaffold your instruction, build schema. Do what works—stick to the program. The health programs are data driven. If you focus on wanting your students to be successful then number three follows:

 

My principal loves to say this. Keep learning. Go to workshops.  Talk to the other teachers. Maybe there is a better way. “Mr So and So says this is how to do it”  “Mrs so and so always gives us candy.”  In my school the teachers were not talking much to each other. There was not a lot of sharing; we were defensive.  We’ve all been working on that though, and we are finding we all do much better when we share the good and the bad experiences.  What did not work is as important to know as what did work.  Add a little metacognition, which is thinking about how we think about the whole process, and we are on the right road. We need to share with other tai chi teachers too. Keep pursuit of your own tai chi goals. Make time for your own practice.

 

Summing up, my teaching in the public school system has helped me see the importance of sound educational methods in teaching tai chi also. Scaffolding, schema, metacognition—stepwise progressive teaching method.

It has really emphasized to me the importance of the teacher being focused on the student, and each student’s individual needs. And certainly every teacher in every field must be a lifelong learner.  Students will sense your own passion.

In closing though I must say that as much as my formal teaching in the school system has made me a better tai chi teacher, there are two tai chi principles that every day helps me be a better middle school teacher:

LISTEN TO THE INCOMING FORCE (then run if you have to)
And
BREATHE IN, BREATHE OUT. 

 

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Sharing an ACSM’s Health & Fitness Summit Experience
Corey Wong, TCH instructor, Honolulu, HI, USA

 

In April, I attended American College of Sports Medicine’s Health & Fitness Summit in Anaheim, California. It was full of information from a multitude of expert speakers. There were several tracks which also included mind/body and exercise for the older adult, which were my focus areas because of the relationship they have with tai chi.

 

The “Managing Osteoarthritis in the Active Patient” session was of interest because of the Tai Chi for Arthritis classes we give.  The speaker was a physician who gave many details of osteoarthritis. In the treatment and management of this disease, he gave many options including tai chi. They even used a picture of Dr. Paul Lam leading a class to show tai chi is a viable option. How I felt like jumping up and shouting, “I know him! He created the Tai Chi for Arthritis exercise!” But due to my shy Chinese ethnicity, I kept quiet, smiling to myself. It was nice to see another venue where medical specialists are suggesting tai chi as a treatment complementing traditional Western medical treatments.

 

Another session I attended was “Exercise for Fall Prevention – Assessment and Implementation”. Since Ileina Ferrier (Master Trainer), Stan Michaels (Hawaii Department of Health), and I participated in a study using Tai Chi for Arthritis for fall prevention for an elderly group in Hawaii which yielded positive results, I wanted to see another program and their assessments. This speaker also mentioned tai chi as one of the exercise to improve balance. Many times we hear our students say how much better their balance is, but it’s all subjective. If we did simple assessments, we could have objective evidence. If a portion of all the TCA instructors did some standardized assessment and it was collected, we could have a large amount of data. Great evidence to substantiate TCA effects for fall prevention.

 

I was disappointed in the mind/body track because there were no sessions on any exercises like tai chi or qigong. The mind/body sessions were all about research on the effects of exercise on brain. It was all interesting. The brain uses 20% of the body’s oxygen. I know when we practice tai chi, our breathing becomes slower and deeper and we get more oxygen into the bloodstream which becomes available for the brain to use. It was also interesting that the speaker likes to have all the limbs moving and crossing the midline.  (Think of “wave hands”.) Each movement is stimulating one part of the brain and doing all these movement simultaneously creates a symphony of brain cell activity.  Enough brain cell activity stimulates more cell growth and may decrease the amount of brain cells degenerating. Tai Chi for the Brain!

 

Overall the summit was good, but they could have included sessions on the benefits of tai chi in both the elderly and mind/body tracks. Much of the research given helps indirectly support the tai chi we do. We do the tai chi because of how it makes us feel. Eventually more research will confirm what we know and feel.

 

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A Letter from Alaska to the 73 Sun Depth Class at the One Week Workshop in June 2011, Terre Haute, Indiana
Glen Ray, TCH instructor, Juneau, Alaska, USA

 

Thank you all - Caroline for your nurturing instruction and pointing to what is possible both within ourselves and without, Ileina for your smooth executions of the 73 Sun forms and your all embracing smile, Janet for your depth of calm and modelling of spirit and too, to all who were part of the learning experience, for bringing yourselves fully and generously into the beauty of our practice space.

 

I am grateful also to the many people who took time to answer my questions and demonstrate the specificity of movements in how to transition from form to form, to those with whom I shared a moment of smile and eye contact, to those who danced along in close and silent proximity to where I too danced, to the thick air of yin energy that I experienced in the physical surround of trees and ponds as well as the history of the spiritual community that created and continues to maintain that physical space, to the yang energy of the steely willed nuns who persevered in the face of many challenges to establish a safe place for girls and women to flourish and develop and too, to the two turtles I saw by the pond in front of Le Fer who were digging holes in the lawn in which to deposit clutches of eggs, as well as the soft fluttering movement of leaves outside our practice space both of which I drew upon to create imagery that helped me experience song. Gratitude, where is the end of it, how wide, how long? 

 

This morning I went to Eagle Beach 26 miles north of Juneau, to conjure spirits of a week ago, in a dance of the 73 Sun.  At the confluence of the Herbert and Eagle rivers there is a great expanse of mud flats (glacier silt, actually). To the west, across the flats, are sandy and gravely rises brought about in the last four or five years by forces of tides and wave action. Leaving my car, climbing down to the beach through boulders and negotiating the sprawling boughs of a small spruce, marmots whistled warnings to the right of me, but the warnings were of me, not for me. Then, standing at the sandy high tide line, breathing in that moment all the way down and into my dantien, feeling the coolness of the air, sensing too the odours of wet beach, the bright dispersed sunlight - magic is real I thought but it is just so ordinary that people don't believe it.  

 

As I stood on a gravely mound under the familiar leaden skies looking west at a portion of the mostly mild inland sea (100 miles further west beyond a patchwork of island barriers, the hearty rise and fall of big water, the Pacific Ocean) sounds and sights initially drew my attention - calls from members of a crow community whose rookery is in the spruce trees across the rivers' confluence and who are now dispersed and foraging for bivalves along the shore line, an accumulation of gulls calling to each other high and heading north, whales exhaling a long way off at the north end of Long Island near the opening of Lynn Canal whose backs and water spouts I can somewhat see several seconds before the sound of their breathing reaches me, a stealthy blue heron fishing at the edge of the slowly rising tide made no sound, and a seal entering the river water issued sounds that made me think it was grumbling about something in the fullness of that moment.  

 

Putting the steep ascent of the spruce and hemlock textured mountains to my back, I faced the water, searched for sensation at the underside of my feet pressing into the hard gravel and through the thick soles of my Xtratuf rubber boots, I settled into my tai chi stool and then I danced the 73 Sun. On the Friday of the week-long tai chi workshop the full 73 sank into my body and all my nervous mental activity dissolved like early morning mist exposed to the rising heat of the day. Now, nine days later, body memory continues to be greater than worry and so I could and did conjure distant spirits of Terre Haute.

 

May we all be well, deeply content and manifest ourselves in ways that all beings might benefit. 

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Feature Profile – Susan Scheuer, Master Trainer, Sarasota, FL, USA
Christine Killeen, Senior Trainer, Longboat Key, FL, USA

 

Susan Scheuer has spent a lifetime teaching, as an elementary school teacher in England for 23 years, and as a music teacher.  Later as a Master Reiki she taught and practiced Reiki, a Japanese technique for stress reduction, and relaxation that helps to promote healing. This interest in healing would eventually propel her towards tai chi.

Her personal healing journey began in England when she sought ways to reduce chronic pain and stiffness in her body through osteopathic treatments. While these treatments seemed helpful, she realized that there was a correlation between her stress levels and pain.  This growing awareness of the body/mind connection pushed her to look at alternative therapies. One of the alternative therapies she tried was the Alexander Technique which helps a person discover a new balance in the body by releasing unnecessary tension.

 

Through simple movement and awareness exercises that promote better alignment she found that she was able to reduce pain. As a result, she expanded her interest in other modalities which helped reduce pain while empowering the individual to take charge of the process. Through a class in a Yang style short form taught by a friend in England, she began to explore the world of tai chi. Although some of the movements of the form seemed complicated, and trying to remember the sequence was challenging at first, she persevered. Her interested deepened as she learned about Five Element Theory and Traditional Chinese Medicine from her class instructor, and she was intrigued to learn more.

 

Around this time, Susan decided to make a move to the United States. Although she had promised herself that she would continue her studies in tai chi once she relocated to the U.S., she was not drawn to any of the instructors in the Sarasota/Bradenton area of Florida. It was only through a chance conversation that she first heard about Caroline Demoise and her tai chi classes. Susan recalls being impressed with Caroline’s exceptional way of encouraging students without putting them under pressure. Attending as many of Caroline’s classes as possible, Susan began to learn Sun Style Tai Chi, falling in love with the rich qi energy of the form, and seeing the role that tai chi could play in personal healing. With great focus and diligent practice her form improved and her skill deepened. At Caroline’s gentle urging, she decided to re-enter teaching by becoming a Certified Tai Chi for Arthritis Instructor.  She found that teaching students who wanted to learn while helping to empower them to help themselves made for a rich and enjoyable experience.

 

 In 2004, through a workshop organized by Caroline, Susan finally had the opportunity to meet and study with Dr. Lam. As is often the case, meeting Dr. Lam and beginning to understand the intelligence behind the Tai Chi for Health Programs became another pivotal moment for her. When the yearly Tai Chi Conference was held in 2005 in Sarasota, Florida, she took the opportunity to broaden her field of knowledge and experience working with other Master Trainers. Shortly after the Conference she was named as a Senior Trainer and assisted Caroline in classes, helped organize workshops and ran refresher classes for local instructors.

 

A few years later she was nominated by Caroline to become a Master Trainer, taking on the responsibility for the West Coast of Florida as Caroline moved to North Carolina. As a Master Trainer she has a well deserved reputation for creating a safe learning environment in which participants feel respected and encouraged to contribute their ideas and share what they know. Her calm and relaxed style puts people at ease and allows her to really listen to what participants want and need so that she can help them to achieve their goals. 

 

In addition to her duties as a Master Trainer in Florida, Susan has served as Secretary to the Board of the Tai Chi for Health Community and continues to teach the Combined 42 Forms at the yearly Tai Chi Conference.

 

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Humour, Laughter and Radiant Health
Dr Bob McBrien, Master Trainer, Salisbury, MD, USA

 

In a recent morning news show in Australia the host, interviewing the Dalai Lama, decided to tell his holiness a Dalai Lama joke.  Imagine the challenge the translator had translating, “the Dalai Lama goes into a pizza shop and asks the pizza maker.’ Can you make me one with everything?'" Of course the Dalai Lama missed the punch line but had a delightful laugh watching the host struggling with the embarrassment of having his attempt at humour fail. You can watch the interview segment by clicking this link.

 

Joke telling requires practice and should always be in good taste.
Here are a few one-liners that, with a bit of practice before sharing with an audience, will produce a positive outcome.

 

- Borrow money from a pessimist - they don't expect it back

- Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at math.

- When I told the doctor about my loss of memory, he made me pay in advance.

- I haven't lost my short-term memory; it's backed up on disk somewhere.

- I used to have a handle on life, but it broke

- Help wanted - fortune teller: you know where to apply

 

And this "doctor joke" may prove to amuse your friends when you have the chance to share it with them.

- A physician told this story about her four-year-old daughter. Driving her to preschool, the doctor had left her stethoscope on the car seat, and her little girl picked it up and began playing with it.  "Be still, my heart", thought the doctor, "my daughter wants to follow in my footsteps!"
Then the child spoke into the instrument: "Welcome to McDonald's. May I take your order?"

 

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END OF NEWSLETTER

Waing: Dr. Lam does not necessarily endorse the opinion of other authors. Before practicing any program featured in this newsletter, please check with your physician or therapist. The authors and anyone involved in the production of this newsletter will not be held responsible in any way whatsoever for any injury which may arise as a result of following the instructions given in this newsletter.