Newsletter #139 - March 2013

Last month I shared with you my story of doing seated TCA with my 91-year-old mother. Thank you for writing to me about how you were moved by my story. Niccola Follett, Falls Coordinator from NSW Health dept, winner of the Innovative Excellence Award by the Tai Chi for Health Institute writes: "I wanted to say a big thank you for your very heartfelt story of your recent time with your mother. What a lovely connection that you described and a time that you will always treasure. I was very touched. We continue to hear amazing stories from our Tai Chi leaders here in Southern NSW Local Health District and the program remains strong…".  Thank you Niccola!

I have exciting February activities to share with you: an instructor training workshop and my birthdays in Sri Lanka; recognition of our program by CDC and my special 73 and 36 forms workshop in Zhuhai, China.

Five years ago, in order to improve the level of tai chi for the Tai Chi for Health leaders, I started a special workshop working personally with a small group of participants to explore the depth of the Sun style 73 forms and Chen style 36 forms. Having just completed the fifth workshop of this kind, I feel energized and fulfilled. We had an exceptional experience.

Last year I did the same workshop, in Zhuhai (near Hong Kong), China, and was pleasantly surprised by the positive energy of being in China that I repeated it at the same place this year. The Chinese food and culture subtly and powerfully uplifted the workshop. You can see photos and next month I will publish notes from the participants.  Thank you Monika for two perfectly co-ordinated workshops in Zhuhai!

On this note I would like to introduce Veronica Ashcroft, one of the newly trained Master Trainers from the UK. In this newsletter, Veronica talks about how she and her team share tai chi to help others in that spirit of giving. I will share with you more talks from the workshop next month.  I will post them online together with video clips when I return home from my overseas trip.

My parents left me in China when I was ten months’ old and my grandmother and aunt brought me up. My aunt was a most loving person and always made sure I had a special birthday. Growing up in a Chinese village we used the lunar calendar, which is quite different from the solar calendar used by the western world. In honour of her memory, I celebrate my birthday each year by the lunar calendar. My kids often complain that they can’t remember my birthday because it is different every year. The date does coincide with both calendars once every 64 years. On my 65th birthday this month, the two birthdates happened to be next to each other. Unintentionally, I was conducting a Tai Chi for Arthritis instructors’ training workshop in Sri Lanka. Let me tell you how it started.

During her visit, Bhante, who teaches meditation at the Kandy General Hospital (Sri Lanka’s second largest hospital) told the director of the hospital about Tai Chi for Health.  The director was open - minded. He was concerned that the physiotherapy (also known as physical therapy in USA) and occupational therapy department were often overstretched due to lack of therapists. He saw the opportunity that the therapists could treat many patients at the same time by using the Tai Chi for Health program as therapy and asked Rani to train the physiotherapists and occupational therapists. Being an occupational therapist herself, Rani took up the invitation eagerly. She not only donated her time, she also purchased half the teaching material and asked me to sponsor the other half.

I left Australia on Friday 1st February and arrived in Kandy 5 am the next day.  I checked in to the hotel, slept for two hours and then joined the workshop at 8.30 am.  That is when I realized it would be my two birthdays. I also found out that the day after the workshop on the 4th February the entire country celebrated their Independence Day. It was the year I was born that Sri Lanka became independent, so the day after I was born Sri Lanka became independent. No wonder I love being independent! And no wonder I felt so connected to the people in Sri Lanka!

After the meditation session, Bhante announced he was going to give a talk, all participants, the monks and nuns, crowded in a small room. A surprise birthday party for me followed a quick talk about the history of the centre! A simple cake and tea in plastic cups, a happy birthday song, and chants by the nuns, and a melodic and mesmerizing chant from Bhante – Rani told me it was a special Buddhist blessing. I saw the sincere smiles from so many people I had just met, felt the sincere good wishes and energy from them – it took me back to my childhood and I thought of my birthdays with my beloved aunt, I could not hold back my tears. A birthday I will never forget.

A Call to Arms, Take Up the Sword
Guy Prentice, Master Trainer, Rochester, NY, USA

I have seen a great deal of kung-fu and Japanese sword play, but when I saw the tai chi sword form at Dr Paul Lam’s very first USA annual workshop, I was amazed at the beauty, fluidity and power of the form. I was hooked!  But I was already in a class that year and enjoying it so I promised myself that I would take it someday.

I used the next two workshops to develop my abilities in the Sun 73. Then I started the sword workshops. First the tai chi 32 Sword Form and then the tai chi 42 Sword Form. The tai chi sword took all of the tai chi principles, wrapped them in a package and expressed them through a beautiful weapon. After all, the sword was the premiere weapon for 7,000 years. We do not use it today as a weapon. We use it to extend our chi energy through it and make it a living thing. Some swords are wooden, carefully made from a living tree. Our energy flows through the tree’s grain. Some swords are steel. Steel is taken from the mother earth. It is then masterfully forged and laboriously shaped into a beautiful and awesome implement of power.

Wood and metal are two of the Chinese elements. They are antagonists. After all, doesn't the metal axe cut down the tree?  They become brother and sister by the power of the chi we channel through them. I encourage all tai chi players to take up the sword. Not for war but for inner peace.

An unexpected email from Stanley J. Michaels, Hawaii State Department of Health, an avid supporter of the Tai Chi for Health program broke the good news: “Aloha Dr. Paul, May I be the first to congratulate you on the magnificent inclusion of Tai Chi for Health in the newest release from CDC...The years of our work in presenting, speaking, calling and outlining the success of Tai Chi for Health to CDC, most specifically promoting the quality of your Tai Chi to the lead epidemiologist of the CDC Dr. Stevens, has finally succeeded…”

All my life I’ve been fascinated with learning. The promise of uncovering useful information keeps me alert to discover the truth in a world that often disguises and distorts the precious knowledge we seek. Perhaps this is why people are drawn to tai chi and the ancient wisdom revealed when you make the regular practice of tai chi an essential ingredient in your life. Tai chi will teach you things that are both precious and useful if you are open to the subtle, more internal avenues of learning.

I am delighted to be sharing with you the events and background to a couple of days in early September last year, in Dumfries, Scotland, where history was quietly being made:  the first ever National Health Service-funded Tai Chi for Health Workshop in the UK.

The seeds for this Tai Chi for Diabetes Instructor and Leader workshop in Dumfries were sewn several years earlier.  In 2009, under a programme called Building Healthy Communities, TCD sessions were included in a 2-year study which received funding from the Scottish Government to monitor and evaluate holistic self help strategies for people with long term conditions.

By the end of the 2-year funding period, there were 78 participants regularly attending three weekly Tai Chi for Health and Welbeing classes, with additional short courses, workshops and training days. 

The sessions not only developed participants’ tai chi skills, but enabled them to manage their health issues better, combat isolation and build confidence, and become valued members of their community.  With demand for tai chi in the area growing, the classes continued “as self-supporting” after the funding period ended, along with a second initiative, Volunteer Tai Chi training. 

A year after the study, the Scottish NHS, recognising the value of these two tai chi programmes, and the need for more qualified instructors and leaders, went on to fund Ellen and Nuala’s workshop.

Preparation for the workshop by the participants, two of whom were in wheel chairs, and some of whom had been practicing TCD for up to five years, was impressive.  They were keen to add the theory and effective teaching skills to their practice of the form, in particular discussing and exploring appropriate adaptations.

Participants eagerly shared their passion for tai chi and enthusiasm to share their tai chi with a wider community.  Their mutual bonding support was tangible, nurtured over the years by additional activities arranged by the instructors and assisted by the participants themselves, such as tai chi Away Days and outdoor Tai chi sessions.

One of the participants, who qualified earlier as a facilitator says of his journey:

“Prior to being diagnosed with a Long Term Condition, I was employed as a long-distance haulage driver and my work kept me very active.  Then I suffered a stroke.  … I had lost my self confidence and felt stressed … dealing with worries for the future.”

“I was introduced to Building Healthy Communities … and knew then that I had found something that was benefitting me and felt that I wanted to share my experiences with others suffering the same conditions.

“ I have since taken the opportunity to take up new skills … [and] completed 14 months training as a Tai Chi for Health facilitator.

“….. The self help management of the long term conditions programme has given me back a sense of self worth, provided me with skills which will contribute to a new career.”

Responsible for organising the workshop, were the equally passionate, but non-tai chi practicing administrators. They do the institutional negotiations, networking and fundraising, convincing the uninitiated and those ignorant of tai chi, that this is a worthwhile programme to pursue – and raising and delivering funding for it to happen. 

I felt I was witnessing something ground-breaking and full of hope for the future, providing a model to be followed by the rest of the nation.  A partnership including support and funding from national government, organised by local health professionals, for people with long term health conditions through the vehicle of a Tai Chi for Health programme. 

For all present, in different ways, it was a very special and challenging workshop with everyone so engaged, eager to learn and positive.

The rain is coming thats what they were sayingbut before I bloody knew it the trees began swaying

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

• Moses went up to mount cyanide to get the Ten Commandments.
• The first commandments was when Eve told Adam to eat
  the apple
• The seventh commandment is thou shalt not admit adultery
• Solomon, one of David's sons, had 300 wives and 700
  porcupines
• The greatest miracle in the bible is when Joshua told
  his son to stand still and he obeyed him.
• Joshua led the Hebrews in the battle of geritol
• Lots wife was a pillar of salt during the day, but a
  ball of fire during the night.
• The people who followed Jesus were called the 12
  decibels.
• Christians have only one spouse. This is called
  monotony.