Newsletter #110 - October 2010
-- From me to you, Dr Paul Lam
-- What is Qi? Dr Paul Lam
-- The Healing Power of Qi, Caroline Demoise
-- My Understanding of Qi, Christine Killeen
-- What is Qi? Jef Morris
-- Heartland Martial Hearts, Virginia Dowling
-- On Parkinson’s, Bob McDonald
-- Humour, Laughter and Radiant Health, Bob McBrien
-- What is Qi? Dr Paul Lam
-- The Healing Power of Qi, Caroline Demoise
-- My Understanding of Qi, Christine Killeen
-- What is Qi? Jef Morris
-- Heartland Martial Hearts, Virginia Dowling
-- On Parkinson’s, Bob McDonald
-- 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.
In order to focus on tai chi training, we have recently set up the Dr Paul Lam Tai Chi for Health Institute. Matters
relating to training, workshops, tai chi information, finding an instructor or class and information about the various Tai Chi for Health programs, can be found in our new site Tai Chi for Health Institute. Workshop calendar and the governing board are posted on this website. You can read about the Institute’s purpose, vision and operation. Please feel free to contact me or any of our board members to assist your tai chi training in any way. We also welcome your feedback.
relating to training, workshops, tai chi information, finding an instructor or class and information about the various Tai Chi for Health programs, can be found in our new site Tai Chi for Health Institute. Workshop calendar and the governing board are posted on this website. You can read about the Institute’s purpose, vision and operation. Please feel free to contact me or any of our board members to assist your tai chi training in any way. We also welcome your feedback.Our products (DVDs, CDs, books, T-shirts etc) can still be ordered online at Tai Chi Productions.
During my international tai chi workshop tour I often come across people who inspire me greatly, particularly those who have been touched by the power of qi in their tai chi journey. This month we will discuss “What is Qi?” I have taken an extract from my book “Tai Chi for Beginners and the 24 Forms” on qi and its relationship with tai chi. Our regular contributor Caroline Demoise, once again imparts her knowledge and experience on this subject together with articles from Master Trainer Jef Morris and Senior Trainer Christine Killeen.
Tai chi has been recognised widely to possess the healing power of qi. Two weeks ago one of my Master Trainers, Tony Garcia for the Tai Chi for Health program, was interviewed by the national Lifestyle Channel in USA. In this link , you can see how the Arthritis Foundation (USA) collaborates with us in bringing the Tai Chi for Health program to help people with arthritis to gain a better quality of life.
Tony Garcia for the Tai Chi for Health program, was interviewed by the national Lifestyle Channel in USA. In this link , you can see how the Arthritis Foundation (USA) collaborates with us in bringing the Tai Chi for Health program to help people with arthritis to gain a better quality of life. In every workshop, I invariably meet people whose lives have been transformed by tai chi. I will introduce some of them here, their determination to fight for better quality of life and dedication to share the program with others, like Virginia Dowling from Iowa, USA and Bob McDonald from Merimbula, NSW, Australia with Parkinson’s Disease.
Just a gentle reminder about the January 2011 one week workshop in Sydney, you can learn a new set of tai chi forms or explore the depth through any of the 12 classes. It is a wonderful time to share quality time with new and old tai chi friends, be stimulated and grow significantly in skill and spirit. Hear what past participants have to say. The workshop is now 50% full and each class has limited numbers, please book early to secure the class of your choice. Early bird discount for the All Inclusive Package ends October 1. We will extend this offer for our readers for one more week. Please write on the comments section of the registration form “Special newsletter offer” to qualify. Please click here to register or for more information regarding the workshop.
In this newsletter:
- Paul Lam writes in his book “Tai Chi for beginners and the 24 Forms” that all living being has qi. According to traditional Chinese medicine, stronger qi will give better health and tai chi practice will improve qi.
- Caroline shares an example of how a simple tai chi choreography embraced by a student, empowered to be proactive in managing her health challenges, demonstrates the healing power of qi, the life force energy within each of us.
- Christine Killeen believes qi is at the core of every tai chi form and qigong practice and it is present in everything around us.
- For Jef, qi is more ethereal. In his words “take a slow deep breath, and allow your whole being to be saturated with the subtle emptiness that fills your heart with joy. Look out the window; absorb the light that fills the room. Watch the trees dancing with the wind, bow with each blade of grass, humble with the magnitude of pure life”.
- The Heartland Tai Chi Class tells how they share the qi they have developed working together with others in the community by demonstrating each year at the Senior Variety Show.
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Bob McDonald on how tai chi movements help Parkinson’s.
This Month’s Special:
- Qigong for Health – Instructional DVD
-
Tai Chi for Beginners – Instructional DVD
Buy a "Qigong for Health” DVD and receive 50% off the “Tai Chi for Beginners” DVD, worth USD $12.50 or
AUD $15.00. Limit to one order per person.
Click here for more information or to place your order.
Upcoming workshops: by Dr Paul Lam
October 2 - October 3, 2010. Chicago, IL, United States
Exploring the Depth of Tai Chi for Arthritis
October 9 - October 10, 2010. Charlottesville, VA, United States
Exploring the Depth of Tai Chi for Arthritis
October 16 - October 17, 2010. Bern, Switzerland
Tai Chi for Osteoporosis Instructor Training
October 21 - October 22, 2010. Nottingham, United Kingdom
Tai Chi for Osteoporosis Instructor Training
October 23 - October 24, 2010. Nottingham, United Kingdom
Exploring the Depth of Tai Chi for Arthritis
January 10- January15, 2011 Sydney, NSW, Australia
One Week Tai Chi Workshop
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An extract from his book “Tai Chi for Beginners and the 24 Forms”.
Qigong (pronounced chee-gung), an integral part of tai chi, is an exercise that requires regular practice. One of the oldest exercises in Chinese history, qigong dates back more than 2,000 years.
oldest exercises in Chinese history, qigong dates back more than 2,000 years.Generally speaking, qigong encompasses a variety of breathing, gymnastic, and meditative exercises. In Chinese, the word “qi” means several things, the most common being “air.” In the field of Chinese medicine and tai chi, qi means the life energy inside a person. This life energy comes from the combination of three components: the air we breathe in through our lungs; essential qi from the kidneys that we have when we’re born; and the qi we absorb from food and water through the digestive system. Qigong is a method of cultivating qi. Qi circulates throughout the body, performing many functions that contribute to the maintenance of good health.
The word gong means a method of exercise that requires a great deal of time in which to become proficient.
At the core of tai chi is qigong, the aim of tai chi is to cultivate strong and healthy qi. According to traditional Chinese medicine, stronger qi ensures good health and vitality and weak or sluggish qi brings about illnesses. All forms of tai chi contain effective qigong.
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When I think of “qi” I visualize the flow of energy that sustains life. When the life force that is inherent in all things flows naturally through the body, health and vitality flourish. Movements like tai chi, which encourage the life force to flow, are important for health and rehabilitation. Donna’s story illustrates the healing power of qi.
flows naturally through the body, health and vitality flourish. Movements like tai chi, which encourage the life force to flow, are important for health and rehabilitation. Donna’s story illustrates the healing power of qi. Last year a woman arrived at one of my Tai Chi for Arthritis Instructor workshops in North Carolina walking very slowly and leaning very heavily on a cane. When people introduced themselves, she commented that her arthritis had flared up a couple of weeks earlier and she wasn’t sure if she could even learn movements from the DVD prior to class or would be able to successfully complete the training. She discovered that working with the movements for a short time each day actually helped her through the flare and since she was feeling better she was here to try the workshop.
During the training, she stayed within her comfort zone, sat down when she needed to and asked for adaptations for seated tai chi. She had an attitude of “if it is possible, I’m going for it”. She did well and by the next morning was feeling less pain and had more mobility. It was as though she and tai chi were made for each other. At the end of the training, she was thrilled to receive her instructor certificate and as people were leaving, she put her cane handle over her arm and walked victoriously out to her car unaided. I was impressed.
Last weekend she returned to learn the movements of Tai Chi for Arthritis, Part II. She looked younger and her cheeks glowed with health. As the group introduced themselves, she reported that since she has been taking tai chi she had been able, with her doctor’s approval, to stop taking 3 of her medications and was doing well. She has several forms of arthritis and diabetes and with her regular practice of tai chi, continues to improve her mobility and overall health. She is teaching tai chi along with other self help classes in the water for people with arthritis. She is loving tai chi and will be 70 soon. I would have to say that this program was designed for someone like her.
So what made tai chi accessible to this woman? Three features of the program stand out in my mind. Certainly the care and thought put into the creation of this simplified form of Sun style by a team of medical and tai chi experts made tai chi accessible to her. A choreography that is gentle on joints and filled with healing qigong was designed for someone with health challenges like she had. The second feature of the program that made it accessible was the “Stepwise Progressive Teaching Method”. When you break a movement down into small segments and use repetition until it becomes familiar, you can teach movements to older people and people with chronic conditions. Dr. Lam’s “tai chi for health programs” is based on the philosophy of “staying within your comfort zone” and this is important when you are dealing with joint pain and inflammation. Learning and practicing in your comfort zone is the third key feature that makes tai chi inclusive.
There was a fourth critical component in this success story and that was her intention to heal and her perseverance with the program. That attitude made tai chi accessible and available to her. She wanted to become healthier and brought her willingness to learn to a program designed to help her. Following the program and practicing regularly have expanded her life.
If we ever want a poster child for tai chi for arthritis, I know Donna would make an ideal candidate.
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My Understanding of Qi
Christine Killeen, Senior Trainer, Longboat Key, FL, USA
“Something mysteriously formed, born before heaven and earth…….ever present and in motion…” from the Tao de Ching, #25
Christine Killeen, Senior Trainer, Longboat Key, FL, USA
“Something mysteriously formed, born before heaven and earth…….ever present and in motion…”
from the Tao de Ching, #25It is at the core of every tai chi form and qigong practice we are taught and is present in everything around us. Yet what is this elusive and mysterious thing called qi?
Although the word “qi” can mean several things in Chinese, it is commonly used to describe the energy within all living things. In addition, it can be used to describe the manifestations of this energy, such as heaven qi, earth qi,
and human qi. But where does this qi energy come from?
It is believed that human qi is the result of the blending of pre-birth and post birth qi. Pre-birth or water qi, is the energy we are born with and which resides in the lower dan tian. Post birth or fire qi, is derived from the air, food and water that we take into our bodies. This energy is collected in the mid dan tian. When these energies are in balance, we feel healthy. When these energies are not balanced because of any kind of stress, we may express this disharmony through our physical, mental or emotional “bodies” as illness.
Through our tai chi and qigong forms we are given the opportunity to replenish our stores of qi by drawing in this energy from the natural world. Thus as we practice something as simple as “Open & Close”, we can begin to experience the feeling of this invisible force as it grows between the lao gong points in the middle of the palms as well as our fingertips. When we add in the abdominal breathing, touching the tip of our tongue onto the roof of the mouth behind the front teeth, allowing lungs to fill, and breath to move into the lower abdomen, we are also completing the connection of the microcosmic orbit. The microcosmic orbit circulates the post birth qi of the lower dan tian through the governing meridian along the spine, mixing with the qi of heaven as it passes through the bai hui point on the crown of the head before travelling down the conception meridian on the front of the body to the dan tian. As we sink and root, pressing into the bubbling wells (kidney 1 point) on the bottom of our feet, we draw up the spiral energy of the earth qi that “moves in curves” as Dr. Lam so often reminds us. This energy collects in and moves the dan tian, then expresses itself in movement throughout the body.
So, while “qi” may seem invisible and mysterious, through our tai chi and qigong practices we can begin to experience, cultivate, circulate and replenish this energy. In this way, we may also create the inner peace, harmony and balance which are so conducive to good health, our most precious gift.
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This is a great question to explore from the vastness of the universe, to the particle physics of the cells that form the body you are wearing. In each culture of the world there are different, and sometimes the same stories told in different ways, to answer the question what is Qi.
the body you are wearing. In each culture of the world there are different, and sometimes the same stories told in different ways, to answer the question what is Qi.For some the universe we exist in is pure energy, within each of us, and across time and space. This energy is the basis of the creation of life, and as much as we can create our own energy, there is energy that has been spent, and we feel the effects.
Where does this spent Qi go?
Is it we are leaking our Qi like water from a sponge?
Or, do we slow burn our energy with excessive thinking and no time for anything?
Is it we are leaking our Qi like water from a sponge?
Or, do we slow burn our energy with excessive thinking and no time for anything?
It is when we practice tai chi this subtle awareness of listening to the incoming force can be experienced directly. Aware of the yang outward expansion, and allowing the inward yin to be absorbed, breathing deeply while moving, saturating each cell of the body you are wearing. For me it has become clear the more I move my bones my organs function, and I can feel my heart beating, a soft drumming deep inside. With practice I feel the rhythm of my whole body breathing, a practice from observing my cat napping.
Scientific research has moved beyond the science we used to understand on how the universe works. What we now know about quantum physics and energy continues to reaffirm prescriptions written on 1,000 year old paper by our Ancestors that still provide medicine today. When we practice tai chi we come to recognize not only how this new science helps us to understand how the universe works, but we can apply this new understanding to how the lines and angles of each movement creates a cause and an effect that is restorative. A very different awareness than when have spent our Qi.
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In Ames, Iowa we have tried to make tai chi more visible by participating in the Senior Variety Show which is the yearly fundraiser for Heartland Senior Services where our tai chi class is held. To participate in the show, you have to be over 60 and every year we have a different theme. When the spotlight was on the movies, we did our routine to the music from “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”. For the theme of holiday’s though the year, we highlighted World Tai Chi and Qi Gong Day. When we were on a cruise ship, we were an exercise class on the ship. Since we only have 3 min for our segment, we have to adapt the forms, but we have used the Tai Chi for Arthritis Form, Yang and fan. This year the theme was “Senior High School Musical” and we did “Physical Education for Seniors” by limping on stage and jauntily walking out after doing the TCA form.
yearly fundraiser for Heartland Senior Services where our tai chi class is held. To participate in the show, you have to be over 60 and every year we have a different theme. When the spotlight was on the movies, we did our routine to the music from “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”. For the theme of holiday’s though the year, we highlighted World Tai Chi and Qi Gong Day. When we were on a cruise ship, we were an exercise class on the ship. Since we only have 3 min for our segment, we have to adapt the forms, but we have used the Tai Chi for Arthritis Form, Yang and fan. This year the theme was “Senior High School Musical” and we did “Physical Education for Seniors” by limping on stage and jauntily walking out after doing the TCA form.Those who participate are representative of the Heartland Tai Chi Group. Sharon F (72) joined the class after seeing the show and thinking that tai chi might help her chronic arthritis. At first she often had to sit or use a chair for support, but now she walks without a limp and is usually the first to volunteer for the show. Ginny A (74) joined the tai chi class to help her balance and last year she impressed everyone at her 54th high school reunion with her ability to kick. Nancy B (90) joined the class at age 85 because she always wanted to do tai chi. She is willing to try anything including fan and a cane workshop with Dan Jones. She is an inspiration to us all!!
We do have fun and every year we do inspire some new people to come, join us and try tai chi!
We do have fun and every year we do inspire some new people to come, join us and try tai chi!
With consistency, and even slower, gentle articulation of each joint while breathing, feeling the expansion, and allowing you to absorb the incoming yin force, the flow of life is as it is. While it may not be possible to say what Qi is, one can say that this I feel, and have come to know, maybe simply more self evident than we are ready to admit.
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This letter about Bob Mc Donald’s Parkinson’s was submitted by Shirley, a TCA instructor in Mitchies Jetty in Merimbula, NSW. Since Bob has joined her classes he stopped shaking when doing the exercises. She also has several people with Parkinson’s at the nursing home and at the retirement village. Shirley has 4 assistants and able
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Merimbula, NSW. Since Bob has joined her classes he stopped shaking when doing the exercises. She also has several people with Parkinson’s at the nursing home and at the retirement village. Shirley has 4 assistants and able to give individual lessons to the few who are too embarrassed to be with the group.
Bob is a very good golfer (playing off 11), he shakes his way to face the ball and then whoosh, a great shot.
I have Parkinson’s disease. It is not contagious. The cause is not known, but some of the dopamine cells in the brain, which control movement, begin to die at an accelerated rate. Everyone slowly loses some dopamine cells as they grow older. If the cells die at a faster rate, Parkinson’s disease develops. It is a slow progressive, neurodegenerative disease that affects my movement and coordination. Medication can help. I will take newer, stronger drugs over the years. Some will make me sick and takes lot of adjustment. Stick with me. I have my good times and my bad times.
EMOTIONS Sometimes I cry and appear to be upset and you think you have done something to hurt my feelings. Probably not. Its the Parkinson's. Keep talking to me. Ignore the tears; I will be alright in a few minutes
TREMORS You are expecting me to shake. Maybe I do, maybe I don't. Medicine today takes care of some of the tremors. If my limbs are shaky I ignore it. Treat me as you always have.
MY FACE You may think you don't entertain me any more because I am not smiling or laughing, if I appear to stare at you or have a wooden expression, that's the Parkinson's, I hear you. I have the same intelligence. It just isn't as easy to show facial expressions. Sometimes swallowing might be a problem and I may drool.
STIFFNESS We are ready to go somewhere and as I get up, I can hardly move. Maybe medicine is wearing off. This stiffness or rigidity is part of the Parkinson's. Let me take my time. Keep talking. I'll get there eventually. Trying to make me hurry up won't help. I can't hurry, I must take my time. If I seem jerky when I start out, that is normal. It will lessen as I get moving.
EXERCISE I need to walk every day. Walk with me. Company makes walking fun. It may be a slow walk but I'll get there. Remind me if I take short steps and if I stoop. I don't always know I am doing this. My stretching, bending and pushing exercises must be done every day. Help me with them if you can.
MY VOICE As my deeper tones disappear, you will notice my voice is getting higher and wispy. That's the Parkinson's. Listen to me. I Know you can talk louder and faster and finish my sentences for me. But I don't like that. Let me get my thoughts together and speak for myself. Since I am slower in movement my thoughts are slower too. I want to be part of the conversation ....Let me speak
SLEEPLESSNESS I may complain that I can't sleep. If I wander around in the middle of the night, that’s the Parkinson's. It has nothing to do with what I ate or how early I went to bed. I may nap during the day. Let me sleep when I can. I can't always control when I'm feeling tired or feel like sleeping.
Please be patient friend. I need you. I am the same person, I've just slowed down.
It's not easy to talk about Parkinson's but I will try if you want. I need my family and friends. I want to be a part of your life and enjoy my life.
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Along with our ability to find a bit of humour in each day, the willingness to share healthy humour with others is another sign of radiant health. When Master Trainer Ralph Dehner emailed me a link to a video of Darth Vader demonstrating the 42 Sword forms, he was sending positive energy and fun to me and countless others. Another email brought me some laughter, a friend shared what was titled "Zen teachings" and I have listed a few words of wisdom for readers to enjoy. Share the teachings you enjoyed with your community of family and friends. Remember, Victor Borge is quoted as stating that laughter is the shortest distance between two people.
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END OF NEWSLETTER
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.
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.
Ask Dr Lam- you can ask me anything about tai chi here.
