Newsletter #112 - December 2010

 

Better Health Tai Chi Chuan 25 Years On
Dr Paul Lam, Founder of the Tai Chi for Health Programs, Narwee, NSW, Australia

 

I started tai chi to manage my arthritis more than thirty years ago. Having enjoyed and benefited so much I started recommending tai chi to my patients. The conception of BHTCC was during a medical consultation in my room 25 years ago. My patient Scottie Porter came to see me as he was not happy with the way tai chi was taught in the several schools he tried. He suggested I should start a school and that he will assist me. That was how it all began.

 

There were eight students in the first class and one of them was Ian Etcell, who is an active and indispensable colleague in our school. The classes were held in a small community hall in Peakhurst.  Very soon we out grew that and relocated to the Narwee Primary School hall. When the school expanded yet again, we took over the Narwee High School hall as well. Now we have found a happy home at St George Girls High School in their brand new gym.

 

Twenty five years ago the school was simply called a tai chi school. In 1989, we came up with the name Better Health Tai Chi Chuan. From its inception, the focus of BHTCC was for health improvement. We have an academic approach aiming at gaining knowledge and skill. Initially the administrative structure was rather basic, Scottie was the first treasurer. In 1994, with Graeme Carter’s expertise, we were formally incorporated as a non profit organisation. All instructors taught on a honorary basis and all profit dedicated to running the school and pertaining our mission.

 

Significant events since incorporation:

 

Many years ago a student asked whether he could video me so as to assist his learning. Being a keen photographer, I knew videoing was not a simple point and shoot. Being less diplomatic then, I bluntly said “no” to him. I felt bad for awhile and that prompted me to consider producing an instructional video for my students. With the help of instructors from BHTCC, we produced the 24 Form video. That project set up the basic structure for producing our professional videos later on. Since the school was a non profit organisation, it was inappropriate to be involved in the financial aspect of video production.

 

Tai Chi Productions was thus established to take over production of all teaching materials. Throughout the years, instructors and students of BHTCC have greatly supported Tai Chi Productions, enabling me to produce many excellent quality instructional DVDs, books, CDs and charts for learning. These have been extremely useful, not only for our students but also users around the world. Over the years, Tai Chi Productions follows the principles of BHTCC, all profit goes towards producing more useful material for the benefit of tai chi.

 

2. First annual one week tai chi workshop in 1999.
For a long time I had this concept of gathering tai chi enthusiasts around the world to learn and enjoy tai chi in a friendly interactive environment. My instructor colleagues were initially doubtful but they gave me total support. Now with 20 annual workshops successfully behind us, we know Better Health Tai Chi Chuan has much knowledge to share. We have helped to improve the tai chi for thousands of tai chi practitioners and since most of them are teachers, they in turn have extended their impact on many more.

 

BHTCC has become one of the most respected tai chi schools in the world, not only for our depth of skill and knowledge in tai chi but also the way we apply tai chi principles to work together harmoniously within ourselves and with others. We are still considerably an academic school, with the same mission as when we started and that is to provide an enjoyable and supportive environment for all to learn and grow in tai chi. Over the last 25 years, we have refined our teaching methods and extended this mission to the tai chi world. 

 

BHTCC has had an impact directly and indirectly to thousands of peolpe we have trained. We estimate to have touched the lives of approximately two million people.  Everyone who has been a part of Better Health Tai Chi Chuan has contributed to make this possible. I would like to thank all past and present participants and instructors and to congratulate all of us for what we have achieved. There is nothing more fulfilling than being able to make a positive difference to the lives of others at the same time improving our own.

 

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Motivation – Little and Big Moments
Elva Arthy, Master Trainer, Cleveland, Queensland, Australia

 

Elva has been a professional teacher of movement for over forty years, a Master Trainer with Dr Lam’s Tai Chi for Health programs since 2002, and run her own training and consulting business geared towards the health and fitness industries as well as the community and corporate areas.

Motivation like inspiration sits anywhere on the continuum of the little and big moments in our teaching and learning lives - moments that drive us forward and keep us buoyant and uplifted. These are the rewards, the gifts of teaching and learning. To see the smile on a face which used to frown and the eyes light up with the joy and ease of movement, to see limbs soften, and joints opening up and stiffness and tension disappear as if by magic...is more than enough.

 

When practising tai chi we don’t always notice the little changes. When you practise, it just happens and it just somehow feels right. When you know that your tai chi is easier and softer, when you feel stronger and have better control, and when you have energy and even some left over, it is a great motivator to keep going, and to keep practising. How exciting it feels when suddenly everything falls into place!

 

When my participants improve and I can see that they have been practising, it is such a joyous feeling. I never know where the changes will be or how their bodies will adjust or even how long it will take. One of the things I really like about teaching is that everyone absorbs their learning in a unique way.  It always surprises and amazes me. Sometimes clear postures will emerge and gently, eventually the flow will be visible and beautiful to watch. We are all striving for better health, for peace of mind, for time out, for balance in a busy world, to be happy. When we feel that our efforts have resulted in a change in our tai chi, whether we have recognised it ourselves or whether our teacher has pointed it out – it is encouraging.

 

As a participant, I sometimes feel I should be able to take criticism and correction and just get on with it. It is demoralising when your best effort generates a negative response. I am not tough inside. In tai chi I am in my own place, working away where my brain takes me.  Encouragement offered, not with flattering words but with the insight of experience and helpfulness is all I need to inspire me to motivate me to keep going, discovering the complexities and simplicities of the art form. By remembering the brilliant performances of tai chi at Dr Lam’s workshops.. I am motivated. I reflect on the colours, the silk, the artistry, the power and I am taken to a place I have never been. Having seen that performance, I will never be the same again.  Motivation like inspiration is a series of big and little moments, never ending.

 

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Motivation is a Complex Dynamic
Chris Hattle, Master Trainer, Palmerston North, Manawa, New Zealand

 

Chris is a registered physiotherapist; her major work role is exercise maintenance and fall prevention. Her tai chi practice is based on Tai Chi for Health programmes.

 

Motivation is both internal and external: motivation has harmony and rhythm. Internal motivation and external motivation dance around each other and with each other in response to each person’s daily routines, goals and expectations.

 

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going” (author unknown)

 

Motivation can ebb and flow: some days motivation is the initiator, while other days motivation “plays hide and seek”, and so it becomes the procrastinator.

Habit can be, having set routines so we can place our planning skills in cruise mode. This frees up our thought processes for other aspects of life. Habit can also be the way we approach mundane tasks. Every morning I empty the dishwasher while I am still half asleep. If ever I need to unload the dishwasher when I am wide awake, this little task tends to take on a life of its own. It grows from a tiny task to a major chore!

 

“Motivation has a strong relationship with a journey itself, the whole process and each step of the way.”

 

Motivation is moulded and shaped by personalities and learning styles. In considering the diversity of learning styles, motivation is hugely variable. Some people thrive on being motivated by facts while others are “left cold” by facts. These people may well become motivated by relating tai chi moves to a creative story (this of course brings about the risk that the people who thrive on facts may be left a tad disgruntled). Balance of using teaching styles is an invaluable recipe.

 

Motivation deserves a register of intensity. It can be calm and steady with good longevity. It can be acute and intense, driving in outbursts then needing periods of rest. It can also be numbed into a semi-hibernating state of minimal drive … or these times can be turned into times of reflection; this reflection can result in preparing a purpose for the motivation dance to start again.

 

“Motivation has a strong relationship with purpose and goal.”

 

 “Motivation = fear of failure” (stated in exam season: Faith Hattle: veterinarian science student) Yes motivation can be the start-engine for energy and focus required for intense times. Motivation also is giving fuel to keep going through a time of intensity and endurance. Some tai chi participants carry this intense measure of motivation, driving themselves to a goal of achievement and learning the form shapes with exactness. Many others approach tai chi with lesser degree of intensity and a delightful curiosity about what tai chi may open up for them. Every participant needs to be able to actively use their unique blend of learning styles.

 

Healthy motivation results in healthy life-balance. So too motivation itself is affected by health, wellness and stress.

 

Motivation in class settings: As a tai chi instructor, an atmosphere in class of warmth, welcoming, acceptance, and safety is something to always work towards. Participants, in influencing the atmosphere, bring about subtle or occasionally not so subtle changes to the atmosphere. As an instructor I need to always be prepared to change a focus of my teaching in response to changes in the class atmosphere. Class atmosphere is like a litmus paper which instructs the experienced tai chi teacher that an adjustment is needed to be able to bring balance to nurturing the motivation of the participants.

 

My personal tai chi motivation is for wellness and freedom of movement. Changes sneak up on me if there has been a tai chi drought in my daily life.

 

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Tai Chi can help Stress: There has to be another way!
Jef Morris, Master Trainer, Miami, FL, USA

 

 

This question and how to have the direct, full feeling awareness of the answer is my key to explore tai chi.  Everyday I am drawn to feel what it is like when I can truly quiet my mind. This experience sets the flow of my day, and it is recognizable by others. When asked if they would like to feel the same, you can see the levels of stress begin to melt, with just the mention of the possibility.

 

I remember years ago Paul Lam’s teaching “Keeping the end result in mind,” this is not as simple as it sounds. For most of us feel the stress of life, for some the stress of chronic illness, and facing death. The depth of Paul’s challenge to myself, is the same when I ask others, do you think it is possible you could breathe much slower and deeper?  Instead of reacting, in our endless thinking, which shortens our breathing, why not take this very moment, and take a full deep slow breath.

 

When we apply the essential principles of tai chi - jing - bringing our awareness to breathe deeply while moving, the sense of expansion, and the subtle feeling of absorption, allows all of our senses to become more equal. With practice this ability can be refined. We can truly see when someone is breathing fast, and not hesitate to suggest they need to take a moment. 

 

To invite someone to begin to practice tai chi, is to connect with what we all have in common, we think too much, and move too fast, and the end result over time produces its own results. To meet a tai chi practitioner who offers the possibility to be free of this old habit of feeling, for some would be too much. They may think they would disappear, or worse.  For others it comes as a welcome respite, and a worthy effort for a different quality of life.

 

I am often reminded of the man up to his nose in water trying not to sink further. When told all he has to is to stand up, it takes time for him to understand. When he does stand, and feels the earth with his feet, he realizes the water is only as high as his knees, and he begins to breathe in a different way.

 

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Tai Chi’s Inner Motivation
Caroline Demoise, Master Trainer, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

 

Tai chi has a secret weapon.  When you practice tai chi principles by moving slowly and focusing on the nuances of timing, posture and coordination of upper and lower body, you are activating the parasympathetic nervous system.  Your brain shifts into this relaxation response as a natural by product of tai chi movement. As the human species evolved, early detection of potential threats was valued by the selection process and our brains are skilled in activating adrenaline and other fight-or-flight hormones to defuse a dangerous situation.  Survival requires that your brain be super sensitive to negative experiences so your amygdala is always ready to sound the alarm and save your life.  The brain is a magnet for bad news.

 

Modern life is like a pot simmering on the stove.  Our 24/7 lifestyle builds the stress and reinforces the neurochemistry of the alarm bell circuitry to the point that people sometimes have to teach themselves how to relax.  As a result mindfulness practices, yoga and tai chi are becoming mainstream strategies providing an avenue to return to peace and calm in mind and body.  No one can live forever in an environment of stress and anxiety; maintaining good health is a question of balance.

 

In your brain, it is important that the energy flows between the yin and yang of nervous system functioning.  Calling for adrenaline is the yang aspect that is triggered by stress, anxiety or a real a threat.  The return to relaxation and the opportunity to rebalance the nervous system would be described as shifting to parasympathetic functioning.  This makes the regular practice of tai chi essential to your life.

 

Neuroscience indicates that as your mind influences your brain, your life changes.  In the process of learning tai chi, the attention you put on alignment, on arm and foot placement and movement sequence teaches you awareness and focus.  Through tai chi your mind reshapes your brain.  It reinforces the return to relaxation.  Repetition creates a peacefulness that pervades your mind when you are in the flow of tai chi movement.  Focusing on that flow harmonizes with nature.  When your mind finds peace, your body matches that vibration.  As your body becomes calmer, it reinforces the quietude in your mind.  These feelings neutralize stress.  The ability to achieve this contemplative state is tai chi’s inner motivation.

 

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By Andrea Langworthy

 

Whether demonstrating tai chi to his students at Normandale Community College, teaching health and wellness classes, or meditating with his spiritual community, Dr. Russell Smiley is all about balance.

 

Forced to choose a major at Long Beach State College in the 1960s, Smiley chose health education. He enjoyed the health classes he’d taken and that was the department in which he had the most credits. He took six years to get his bachelor’s degree but once he decided on his future it didn’t take long to finish and then earn a Ph.D., all while balancing school and National Guard duties.

 

Smiley was introduced to tai chi at the University of Wisconsin–Superior, his first teaching assignment. He saw a person performing the fluid, gentle moves on the school lawn. The man offered a demonstration, concentrating on one move, the opening posture; the exercise lasted two hours. “I thought I had all the answers with my new Ph.D., but could barely get out of bed the next morning,” says Smiley who was a runner and involved in various other sports. “Repeating the movement over and over, you train your body to move in a different way,” Smiley says. He didn’t understand how it worked, but was hooked on the practice.

 

Nearly 20 years later, after teaching the art in Normandale’s continuing education department, Smiley added tai chi to the curriculum of his health and wellness course. Students wanted more and persuaded him to teach a summer class. Now tai chi is offered each semester. Its appeal could be that practitioners don’t compete but rather build at their own level.

 

In 2000, Smiley met Dr. Paul Lam, a family physician from Sydney, Australia, at a St. Paul workshop on using tai chi to treat arthritis. Lam learned he had arthritis early in his career and developed the program for people with inflammatory joint disease. Smiley, interested in using the course at Normandale, underwent master training with Lam in Australia.

 

Now a national master trainer for Lam, Smiley says one of the worst things a person with arthritis can do is stop moving. It can be challenging but, he says, if you don’t use muscles they atrophy, leaving you immobile. “We use smaller steps and because it’s done slowly, there’s a relaxation component which accomplishes two things: How to relax and how to start moving again.” He adds that it also helps with pain management.

 

So does stress management, a course Smiley also teaches. He cautions we move too fast without realizing it and don’t use our parasympathetic reaction, the body’s system that helps us relax.

“Society encourages people to be nose to the grindstone,” says Smiley. “If you live your life in an exhausted state, running… on adrenaline, you don’t give your body a chance to wind down.”

 

Healthy eating adds to balance also because, as he says, “What you eat supports your body and your system.” Concerned that people won’t give up their favourite food because they are addicted, he says a benefit of tai chi was that when he started practicing, his diet changed without his even thinking about it. He says, “Diet is especially important if you’re stressed because you tend to eat foods that aren’t in your best interest.”

 

Smiley met his wife, Carole, at a health workshop in California, her home state. She has her own business, doing healing energy work and in 2010 she’ll teach classes on meditation at the college where her husband has been a member of the faculty for 21 years.

 

“It’s a great teaching environment,” says Smiley of Normandale. “Very supportive — both colleagues and administration.” Of his career, he says he especially likes the interaction with students, helping them find ways to help themselves. “I try to have humour in my classes, to make students laugh,” he says, adding his objective is to show, “There are easy ways to do things; to have some fun so it isn’t such a struggle.”

 

Of the difference between teaching college-aged students and seniors who take the arthritis class, Smiley says there’s a learning curve difference. “Some of the younger people are closer to their bodies and learn it a bit quicker. Older people, some with chronic conditions, have to adapt for what they are able to do.” Smiley feels its important seniors find a class they can feel a part of, where they can adapt to their ability. He calls the social aspect, meeting people “a bonus.”

 

Smiley uses critical thinking and group work in his classes, allowing students to reach their own conclusions and answers rather than being told what to think. “I’m more of a facilitator,” he says, adding that he wants students to have something they can take with them to use later in life.

 

Hopefully, Smiley’s students, whatever their age, have concluded they should follow the example of their passionate and dedicated teacher. Leading a life of balance — making healthy choices — wherever their journey takes them.

 

 

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

With so much toxic humour on the web and television, I have to search to find examples of healthy humour. Health humour brightens my day. When you look for healthy humour to brighten your day we use the acronym HUMOR as a guideline.

 

Humor is healthy when it:

 

• Helps reduce stress or tension;
• Unblocks narrow thinking stress creates and frees your thinking for solving problems;
• Moves people closer together through play, sharing, laughter and having fun;
• Opens the neural pathways to creative thinking and optimism; and
• Reminds you of other experiences with laughter and fun.

 

The following story can help you power up your H*U*M*O*R energy:

 

Pubs in our area close at 2 a.m. and the local police wait nearby to stop any car that is driving too slow or too fast. The police bring in a lot of revenue writing tickets.

 

Yesterday a slow moving car was stopped and the driver, an elderly man was asked where he was going at 2 a.m.

The man replied with a serious voice, “I am going to a two hour lecture about alcohol abuse and the unhealthy effects it has on the human body”. The officer laughed then asked, “Really? Who's giving a two hour lecture at this time of night?” The man replied, “My wife.” The officer sent him on his way without a ticket.

 

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