Newsletter #102 - February 2010
--The Inaugural Suzanne McLauchlan Memorial Scholarship
--How World Tai Chi & Qigong Day Was Born, Bill Douglas
--Bringing the World Within…, Robin Malby
--When the Student is Ready the Master Appears, Jim Starshak
--World Tai Chi and Qi Gong Day, Guy Prentice
--Humour, Laughter and Radiant Health, Bob McBrien
Click on the title above to read the articles, this link to read all previous newsletters and here to subscribe.
The January workshop was a resounding success. As in previous years, we will be sharing the topics from
workshop speakers in upcoming issues. Last month you would have read the tai chi journey of Ellen, Jennifer, Tony and Linda. Do follow up with more articles from this workshop in the coming months; I am sure you will enjoy reading them as much as we enjoyed being there.
After the one week workshop, we had a Tai Chi for Health master trainer’s workshop. I would like to welcome our 15 new master trainers. An account of this workshop can be found in Jim Starshak’s article in this newsletter.
The theme this month is Tai Chi Around the World, featuring World Tai Chi Day, which is on the last Saturday of April, 24 April, 2010. Our Tai Chi for Health family participates in the World Tai Chi Day in just about every country I have visited. While I will share with you next month how the seeds of Tai Chi for Health have sprouted all over the world, in particular some exotic countries. This month we will devote our topic to World Tai Chi Day.
Bill Douglas is the founder of World Tai Chi Day, and dedicates a great deal of his time in promoting this event. We are indebted to Bill for bringing more awareness of tai chi all over the world. Tai chi is fast becoming accepted as a health exercise, a way to restore nature and harmony. It can be a useful tool to help us meet the challenges in life. We need nature to save the earth’s ecology and harmony to add calmness to our lives.
Thank you Bill for your message about how you started the World Tai Chi Day and there will be other articles on
this remarkable day. You can view photos of our school’s participation in last year’s World Tai Chi Day. We would like to salute Bill for his infectious enthusiasm and to thank our tai chi friends around the world who have brought enjoyment and health improvement to millions.
In this newsletter:
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Jim Starshak, one of the 15 new Master Trainers in 2010 gives an account of the multi facet training each of them went through in the Master Trainers’ workshop in Sydney last month.
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Announcement of the Inaugural Suzanne McLauchlan Memorial Scholarship for the Exploring the Depth of Tai Chi for Arthritis course on 14 -15 August 2010 in Sydney.
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Bill Douglas’ message of how and why he started World Tai Chi Day. The awareness it has generated, directing tai chi enthusiasts everywhere to create a calmer and healthier world.
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Robin Malby realised the meaning of Bill Douglas’ opening statement, “One world, one breath” as she experienced World Tai Chi Day in April, 2009.
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Jim Starshak, although initially apprehensive, soon discovered it was Bill Douglas’ personal dedication and love of tai chi that turned World Tai Chi and Qigong Day in to a huge annual event that promotes the health benefits of tai chi to millions each year.
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Guy Prentice describes his experience of World Tai Chi and Qi Gong Day in Rochester, 2009.
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Tai Chi for Arthritis Instructor Training
June 5 - June 6, 2010. Tacoma, WA, United States
Seated Tai Chi for Arthritis and Tai Chi @ Work Instructors Training
June 7 - June 12, 2010. Tacoma, WA, United States
One Week Tai Chi Workshop
July 15 - July 16, 2010. Ponsonby, Auckland, New Zealand
Tai Chi 4 Kidz Instructor Training
July 17 - July 18, 2010. Ponsonby, Auckland, New Zealand
Exploring the Depth of Tai Chi for Arthritis
July 24 - July 25, 2010. Sydney, NSW, Australia
Tai Chi for Arthritis Instructor Training
July 24 - July 25, 2010. Sydney, NSW, Australia
Tai Chi for Diabetes Instructor Training
July 24 - July 25, 2010. Sydney, NSW, Australia
Tai Chi for Arthritis Part ll & Update
August 14 - August 15, 2010. Sydney, NSW, Australia
Exploring the Depth of Tai Chi for Arthritis
Yours in Tai Chi,
Jim Starshak, Master Trainer, Shawnee, KS, USA
Chi Workshop in Sydney ended with an inspiring Sun 73 Forms tai chi demonstration. Then came all the hugs to friends, numerous photos, and heart-felt well wishes. Gradually, everyone drifted away to finish packing and then head home—everyone except 6 Master Trainers (MTs) and 15 candidates!
invited to participate, each candidate was personally nominated by two existing Master Trainers, and then, each completed a comprehensive questionnaire. After scrutinizing and discussing each nominee’s past performance and future potential, Dr. Lam and his Master Trainers hand-picked these candidates for the final stages of his Tai Chi for Health Master Trainer’s training program. 
instructors and students from country areas to continue to broaden and nurture their own Tai Chi experiences. She facilitated the first ever Exploring the Depth Of Tai Chi for Arthritis workshop run by Dr Lam in Australia and she was enthusiastic about sharing the experience with others .
If you are contributing by cheque, please make the cheque payable to the Arthritis Foundation NSW and write for the "Suzanne Mclauchlan Memorial Scholarship Fund" on the back of the cheque.
Please include your name and address with your contribution so an offical receipt can be issued from Arthritis Foundation NSW
Contact details for Arthritis NSW
Therese Carew
Locked Bag 2216
North Ryde NSW 1670
(02) 9857 3300
Int: 61 + 2 9587 3300
Bill Douglas, Founder of World Tai Chi Day
Over a decade ago, my wife and I became frustrated because emerging medical research showing that Tai Chi
could improve the lives of millions was hardly being reported in mainstream health media. Like many Tai Chi teachers the early health research on lowering high blood pressure, improving balance, reducing anxiety and depression, etc. mirrored what we had been seeing in our classes, and in our students, for years.So, we decided to hold a mass media spectacle that would simply be too spectacular for the media to ignore, and then while we had them there, we’d inform their viewers and readers of the profound medical research on Tai Chi & Qigong that was only beginning to come out back then.
We contacted every Tai Chi enthusiast in the area, and encouraged them all to gather on the lawn of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art on Kansas City’s picturesque Plaza area. 200 people from different Tai Chi styles and schools showed up. It was billed as the largest gathering of Tai Chi practitioners outside of China by CNN.
Over a dozen newspaper and television reporters covered it, and CNN carried it internationally. We eventually began to get contacted by other Tai Chi enthusiasts from around America and the world, asking how they could get involved. So my wife, Angela, and I sat down and decided, why don’t we call this World Tai Chi Day, and invite the world to participate each year?
Later Roger Jahnke of the National Qigong Association said, why don’t you call it World Tai Chi & Qigong Day, and include Qigong enthusiasts, so we did. Then our local artist, Jenny Han, created the iconic symbol of WTCQD, the Da Vinci Vitruvian Man merged with the Yin Yang symbol, representing the global and Western embrace of Eastern wisdom, which World Tai Chi & Qigong Day both advocates and celebrates. Tai Chi & Qigong visionaries worldwide embraced this educational event, including Paul Lam and Qigong PBS documentarian Francesco Garripoli.
But beyond the educational aspect, the world was moved by this idea of the human family coming together across racial, ethnic, religious, and geopolitical borders for a day of global health & healing, and World Tai Chi & Qigong Day spread like a wildfire of healing energy. Today it is celebrated in hundreds of cities in over 65 nations spanning 6 continents, and has been officially proclaimed by over 23 US Governors and by Senates, Legislatures, and Health Ministers of several US states and other nations as well.
This event has been covered by major media worldwide, and www.WorldTaiChiDay.org has been a Tai Chi source for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, BBC World Radio, The South China Morning Post, Prevention Magazine, and media worldwide, educating tens of millions about Tai Chi & Qigong's benefits and potential, and also connecting nearly a million web visitors to local Tai Chi & Qigong teachers in their communities via our free Find Local Classes directory.
World Tai Chi & Qigong Day is a resource for the public, health care, Tai Chi & Qigong teachers, but also a community of people who want to see a calmer healthier world for us and our children. Our goal is to see Tai Chi & Qigong's powerful mind-body tools integrated into society at all levels to save our nation's trillions in future health costs, to foster calm and cooperation in humanity, and to help us relax open to ever greater visions of possibility for our future.
Sidebar: If you would like to use a free Tai Chi Medical Research Library of nearly 100 common health issues and research on how Tai Chi may help, or list your local classes, or link to a host of free Tai Chi & Qigong educational articles, or video information on how Tai Chi heals, and how it can change our world, that are useful to all styles of Tai Chi, visit www.worldtaichiday.org.
Robin Malby, Master Trainer, Concord, CA, USA
prevent me from getting truly involved. At long last my calendar was finally open for the event last April, 2009 and it didn’t take long to get many of my TCA and TCD students motivated. We ordered World Qi Gong and Tai Chi Day T shirts and agreed to gather in a local park at 9:45 am. We wanted to be fully assembled when it came time to connect with this worldwide wave of healing chi at 10:00 am. As I stood on the thick grass the morning of the big day, my students gathered across from me all wearing their specially ordered T shirts, blending into a silent sea of black and white as I read Bill Douglas’s opening statement. One World…One Breath…
One World…One Breath…
One World…One Breath
Thank you Tai Chi
Jim Starshak, Master Trainer, Shawnee, KS, USA
This Buddhist Proverb rang true in my life about 9 years ago. While taking a break from fishing, I mentioned to
long-time friend that he looked much more relaxed than I remembered. He looked me in the eye and calmly spoke four words, “Jim, it’s Tai Chi!”
Even though I did not realize it, I had begun my tai chi journey. However, finding my first tai chi instructor was another journey. One instructor was so obsessed in his lineage that he never had time to listen. The next would not let me see his class until I signed up and paid for three months. Another would only teach me tai chi if I had “special” tai chi shoes (Feiyue), which I had to buy from her.
Then the Program Director at my Parks Department asked if I had tried Bill’s class. He told me Bill Douglas wrote a tai chi book and founded World Tai Chi and Qigong Day, plus he taught tai chi there every Saturday.
After my encounters with the other tai chi instructors, I was a bit apprehensive. Nevertheless, on Saturday I went to class and in walked this relaxed person talking and laughing with everyone. Figuring this was just a popular student; I kept my eyes open for the instructor. However, as class began I realized this jovial “student” was Bill Douglas.
Bill loves to personally teach his new students in each session. For me, this helped impart his love of tai chi. When teaching, Bill would show and explain each tai chi movement. He broke the moves into small pieces and had us follow along as he taught each new part. Finally, he would ask us to try it without him to see how it felt. Bill exuded intense enthusiasm and love of tai chi in everything he said and did. I was hooked!
Through his personal dedication and love of tai chi, Bill has turned World Tai Chi and Qigong Day (WTCQD) in to a huge annual event that promotes the health benefits of tai chi to millions each year. He has helped bring tai chi into the international spotlight as an easy, affordable, and fun way to reduce health care costs through a sustainable, preventative activity
Bill does not promote WTCQD for his personal gain. His goal is to use WTCQD as a springboard to promote the overall health benefits associated with practicing tai chi. By doing so, he introduces people to various tai chi styles, helps them find instructors (like us), and increases the visibility of tai chi’s health benefits.
I will never know exactly how many people Bill has inspired, but I do know one thing for sure. This “jovial student” has proven the immense influence that a single person with a passion can yield!
World Tai Chi and Qi Gong Day in Rochester
Guy Prentice, Master Trainer, Webster, NY, USA
At that time the local tai chi schools would not associate with each other. Dr Bob McBrien, Salisbury, MD, USA
you stop laughing.* The senior choir invites any member of the congregation who enjoys sinning to join the choir.
*The Rev. Adams spoke briefly, much to the delight of his audience.
*On Friday at 7 p.m. the eighth graders will present Shakespeare's Hamlet in the church basement. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.
*Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.
*At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What is Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.
*The pastor will preach his farewell message, after which the choir will sing, "Break Forth into Joy."
* Weight Watchers will meet at 7 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church.
Please use large double door at the side entrance.
* Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.
* Miss Charlene Mason sang "I will not pass this way again" giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.
* Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Don't forget your husbands.
Warning: 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.
