Keep the essentials in Tai Chi

Sometimes when I teach Tai Chi, the Chinese proverb “Qu Wu Cun Jing” comes to mind. In Chinese, Qu means get rid of; Wu means weeds; Cun means keep; and Jing means chives. Essentially, we should get rid of the weeds and keep the chives. Figuratively, the whole sentence means “Keep the essentials and get rid of the things which are not necessary.” 

Anytime we learn something new, we may unknowingly transfer bad habits from our daily postures, in other words, the weeds. However, many of us are not able to distinguish the weeds from the chives on our own because they look very similar. A good teacher can tell the difference and give you advice accordingly. For example, sometimes I tell my beginner students to relax their shoulders and keep their body vertical because new students are not aware that they have raised their shoulders and they are leaning forward or backward, causing bad form. In many cases, the job of the Tai Chi teacher is to help you discard such habits. The following is a list of these habits. Removing them from your form can help you develop better Tai Chi skills. 

• Raising your shoulders
• Raising your elbows
• Leaning your body backwards or forwards
• Allowing your stomach to protrude, thus not observing the proper position of the acupuncture points called dantian 
• Tilting your shoulders while moving
• Not transferring weight properly from one leg to the other 
• Not placing your foot lightly on ground
• Not turning your waist while moving
• Moving your body up and down too much
• Tilting your head
• Not leaving enough space between your arms and body
• Not coordinating the movement of your upper body and lower body 
• Stiffening your waist
• Using force

Find this article helpful? Please pass the link around and spread the word to more Tai Chi practitioners.

2016 Copyright by Huan's Tai Chi

TV Interview on Huan's Tai Chi on Channel 5 WCVB

Watch Joe's Tai Chi interview last Tuesday, September 13th on on WCVB Channel 5.  Enjoy!

Tai Chi Improves human body by applying The Law of Use and Disuse

The French scientist Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (1744-1829) is famous for one of his laws which summarizes his evolutionary thought. It’s called the The Law of Use and Disuse - The parts of an organism's body that are used become more developed; parts that are not used become smaller and may disappear. Charles Darwin (1809-1882) made extensive use of this special Lamarck's law.

I found many things I benefited from Tai Chi may not happen to any regular person. I used them often. I gain it to let it become part of my life. With people who never do it, they may lose the ability to do so. Here are some examples:

1. Walk backwards and sideways
Without learning the movements repulse monkey and waving hands like moving clouds, you will probably never walk backward and sideways as easily. You will also lose this ability as you grow older. When you need it in a sudden situation, you could easily fall.

2. Open and relax your shoulder
Regular exercise such as lifting weights won't train you to open shoulder joints such as “Jian Jin”( The well of shoulder) acupuncture point. With Jian Jin opened, you will have less shoulder pain and less tight shoulders as you get older.

3. Quiet down at the beginning
In modern lifestyle, people tend to catch one thing after another and have a “Go, go, go” lifestyle. Tai Chi teaches you to quiet down and relax at first before you take a task. This is one thing I benefit most from Tai Chi.

4. Elbow and Knee move together
With your elbow and knee moving together, your body parts are supporting each other. It makes you move with ease. Without doing Tai Chi, it's hard for you to understand how body parts coordinate with each other.

5. Take a deep breathe
Herbert Benson MD from Mass General Hospital mentioned that when you breathe deeply, the air coming in through your nose fully fills your lungs, and you will notice that your lower belly rises. The ability to breathe so deeply and powerfully is not limited to a select few. This skill is inborn but often lies dormant. Reawakening it allows you to tap one of your body’s strongest self-healing mechanisms.(Harvard Health Publications in consultation with Herbert Benson, M.D.)

If you are always in hurry, your breathe are not deep enough. While doing slow movements in Tai Chi , it will enhance your breathe to a better deep breathe. A deep  breathe involves relaxation, quietness, with slow and gentle approach, and continues with concentration and many other techniques while doing Tai Chi. 

Use or disuse? They are all in Tai Chi.


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If you like this article, you may also want to read Lao Tzu's Secret to Extend your Life
 
Copyright Huan's Tai Chi 2014

Lao Tzu’s Secret Passage of Relaxation

The softest substance of the world

Goes through the hardest.

That-which-is-without-form penetrates that-which-has-no-crevice;

Through this I know the benefit of taking no action.

The teaching without words

And the benefit of taking no action

Are without comparison in the universe.

— The Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

Translated by Lin Yutang

It’s normal not to be relaxed
Relaxation is not a normal state. We are trained to use force to do everything in our daily lives. We use force every day, from pushing a door, lifting a chair, stepping up stairs, or grabbing a handrail while taking the train. These actions tighten our shoulders, knees, and our whole body. Because we are not used to being in a relaxed state, it is often hard for beginners to relax easily in a Tai Chi class.

Methods of relaxation
When talking about relaxation, your teacher might tell you to relax your shoulder, elbow, or even your mind. But how do we know when we are really relaxed? How do we measure that?
When you go shopping with your friends, you can often feel tension in your shoulders if you are carrying many shopping bags. But once you put these shopping bags down, you feel your shoulders relaxing. When your shoulders feel relaxed, they sink down. Here, sinking is a measure of relaxation.

When you are sitting in a tight seat in an airplane, you may bend your knees and feel tight. But after your neighbor gets up to use the lavatory and you extend your legs, you feel your knees relaxing. In this case, stretching and extension is a measure of relaxation.

When you are stressed with too many things on your to-do list and in on your mind, you may go to the park, and watch the swans swimming in the pond. In this moment, you feel relaxed. Your mind quiets down and for this moment, you can focus on the swans, and your mind lets go of the million other things you were worrying about. This ability to let go, even for a few moments, is a measure of relaxation.

Taking no action
Sinking, stretching, and quieting your mind are some methods to relax.  Despite their differences, they can all be described in one phrase, “taking no action.” When you’re not lifting shopping bags, you are relaxed. When you’re not trying to make space for others in a tight airplane, you are relaxed. When you’re not thinking about the million things you have to do, you are relaxed.

When you were a little baby, you didn’t have to lift bags, make space for others, or think about the million things you have to do. You were relaxed and soft. You learned to un-relax once you grew older. Society taught you how to do more, think more, and become more civilized. That’s why Daoists like to stay in the mountains far from civilization, so they don’t have to deal with tons of things. They can lead simple lives. Lao Tzu believed that taking no action is the key to relaxation.

Taking no action in Tai Chi

Use less effort
Sometimes I see a younger man doing Tai Chi who is more stiff than the oldest man in the class. Because this young man has a lot of energy, he really tries to forcefully lift his legs and move his arms. Meanwhile, the older man doesn’t have as much energy, so he uses the minimum effort to lift his legs and move his arms. He is more relaxed than the younger man. That’s the benefit of less effort which is close to the meaning of taking no action.

Keep the structure
When you’re practicing Tai Chi, keep in mind that when you relax one body part too much, it might create tightness in another body part. For example, when you drop down your head to relax it, your neck is bent and stiff. As my father, Master Zhang Lu Ping said, “be relaxed, but relaxed with structure.” Without a good structure, you can’t relax your whole body. For an example of a good structure of the body, check out my blog article, “13 Points To Relax Your Body.”

Connect the whole body
How should your body should feel when it’s totally relaxed? When you try to relax your shoulder, you should feel it sinking down to the ground. If that happens, it means your whole body is connected and relaxed. To minimize the effort, as Lao Tzu suggested, you need to connect your whole body. Once one part of body makes a move, other parts follow. By connecting the body and letting the parts work together, you won’t end up using only one muscle, which can create tension. For a more detailed explanation of how to relax with the whole body, including parts and joints, check out my blog article, “Understanding the  8 Sections and 9 Joints.”

You have spent so much time of your life learning to un-relax. Now it’s time to learn how to take no action. Imagine you could be that same baby you were in your childhood: soft, balanced, free from worry, relaxed, and young. That’s Lao Tzu’s way of relaxation. He called it “化繁为简, 返璞归真: transforming the complicated to simple is to regain one’s true self.”

Copyright Huan's Tai Chi 2012

7 Ways to Recover From Fatigue

My friends often wonder how I recover from fatigue so fast. Here I share some of my experiences with you to help you gain more energy quickly after exercise.


1. Food Recovery: Liquid


Two-thirds of the human body is water. People lose a lot of water and sodium after exercise or other activities in the summer. You will feel tired if you don’t have enough water in your body. Drinking enough (lightly salted) water will help recovery. You can also eat fruits and vegetables such as watermelon or oranges which contain a lot of liquid.


2. Food Recovery: Calories

People burn calories while hiking or doing other exercises. Protein and sugar are two major sources of calories for your body. That’s why egg drop soup, chicken soup or sweet hot chocolate will help you recover from fatigue.


3. Removing Lactic Acid: Take a shower
You are tired after exercise because your body accumulates lactic acid. Taking a shower will help you feel refreshed and remove lactic acid. Contrasting showers (alternating between hot and cold water) helps flush out lactic acid, helping you to become more energetic.


4. Removing Lactic Acid: Sleep

Sleep will help you through metabolic pathways, removing lactic acid and bringing back your energy.


5. Adjust Your Body: Massage
Fatigue also happens when you use certain body parts too much. For example, if you go kayaking, your shoulders or arms might get sore. Or, if you stare at the computer too much, your eyes might get tired. Get a massage to relax specific body parts, or even a whole body massage to relax them all.


6. Adjust Your Body: Acupuncture
Your blood circulation might not work well if your muscles are tight after a long exercise. Acupuncture can help you relax by touching these points and helping blood circulation.


7. Adjust Your Body: Tai Chi
Of course I must mention Tai Chi! Through Tai Chi exercise, you can slow down your breathing, quiet your mind, stretch and relax your body parts, massage your joints, improve your blood circulation and renew your body.

Copyright by Huan's Tai Chi 2011

7 Suggestions to Help Prevent Knee Pain in Tai Chi

Many beginners have knee issues when they first start Tai Chi. They may complain of knee pain or express concern that they are not positioning their knees correctly.


I have come up with a few suggestions to address knee issues when practicing Tai Chi:



1. Do Enough Warm-ups


Before practicing Tai Chi, do some warm-ups to relax your body and adjust and stretch your joints so your body and legs are not tight before you get started.


2. Bend Your Knee Slightly, Even When Standing Straight


Even when you have a stance requiring you to stand straight up, bend your knee a tiny bit. This will help loosen your knee joint as you bend your knee, squat down, and raise your knee.


3. Avoid Passing Your Knee Beyond Your Toe or Behind Your Heel


A lot of body weight will rest on your knee if your knee passes your toe while in a bow stance or horse stance. Your knee will also hurt if it is behind your heel while in a bow stance.


4. Avoid Sudden Moves


Do everything slowly as your teacher instructs. Don’t make sudden moves. Sudden stretching, pulling, or pushing can hurt your knee.

5. Keep Your Body Vertical in Every Form


Having a tilted body position can impact your knee. Have your teacher correct your posture while in all of the different stances: standing posture (Wu Chi stance); bow stance (Single Whip or Brush Knee); empty stance (White Crane Spread Its Wings); horse stance (Cloud Hands); and crouching stance (Snake Creeps Down). When you can hold your body vertical in every form, you will be less likely to experience knee pain.


6. Move Your Whole Body Together


When part of your body moves and part of your body does not, it can cause an unbalance that often results in knee pain. This pain is due to the fact that the knees have to maintain your weight to keep your body balanced. Coordinating you whole body and moving together will solve this problem.

7. Don’t Overwork Yourself


If you are older and your knees are not strong enough to go lower, stay higher. That will help you for now. Once your knees get stronger, then you can go little bit lower.

Copyrighted Huan's Tai Chi 2011

Secrets of Tai Chi Circles Revealed

Most Tai Chi forms are a combination of different circular movements. Improving your Tai Chi circles is the key to a successful Tai Chi form.

Without a basic understanding of circles and how they are used in Tai Chi forms, it’s not possible to do Tai Chi well. Here, I’ll explain both basic and expanded circle forms.

Basic Circle Forms:

Circle Forms: In Tai Chi, a circle can take the form of a full circle, a half circle, or a partial circle such as an arc or a bow.*
Circle Size: In Tai Chi we talk about circles expanding or shrinking; circles can be large, medium, and small.
Circle Orientation: Circles can be vertical, horizontal, and diagonal.
Circle Position: Circles can be inside or outside of a sphere.
Circle Direction: In Tai Chi, circular movements can rotate from top to bottom, from bottom to top, from left to right, or from right to left.
Direction of Motion: Motion can be clockwise or counter clockwise.

Expanded Circle Forms:

Circles with Multiple Motions: A common advanced form is a circle with five motions, starting with a circle with the body centered, then adding advance movements, and retreating steps (moving left or right).
Circles with Mixed Directions: Both hands can circle in the same or in different directions.
Linked Circles: The “S-line”** is an example of a linked circle. It is a link of two arcs, a medium arc followed by a small one.
Twisted Circles: “Silk reeling circles” are a great example of twisted circles.

After you read about all the forms of circle, you can now apply them into your practice. There is always ying and yang (empty and solid) in your circle, which means peng (ward off) and lu (roll-in) are involved. One of my favorite Chinese Tai Chi poems does a great job of discussing the opening and closing of our circles and the changes of ying and yang. I’m translating the poem for you here:

Once opening and once closing,

Once stabilized and once changed,

Solid and Empty mix into position,

Suddenly present, then suddenly disappear.
In the first line, the poem discusses the circle expanding and shrinking.
The second line explains the regular form and changes of the circles.
The final two lines mention ying and yang and mixed directions.

When every step involves circular movement, your Tai Chi will become less stiff and more rounded. Once you are familiar with all the basic circle forms in your daily Tai Chi practice and can link them together in transitions, your form will be more smooth and relaxed. When your yi (concentration) can control all these circular movements, you will surely bring your Tai Chi to another level.


* "Zhang Lu Ping on Five Bows of Tai Chi" in Tai Chi Magazine, by Peter Capell, June, 1992.

** "How Lu Ping Zhang Uses The Powerful 'S Principle' (the Deadly Art of 'S')" by Peter Capell, Tai Chi Magazine, October, 1992.

Copyrights Huan's Tai Chi 2011

Are You Starting Your Tai Chi Correctly?

When I first started to learn Tai Chi, I was very curious about the names of each movement. As a teenager at that time, it motivated me to know that I was working toward mastering cool-sounding movements such as “Golden Roster Standing with One Leg” or “Bring the Tiger Back to the Mountain.” However, my teacher denied my requests. He told me I wouldn’t know the names of each movement until I became familiar with all the movements of the set.


His reason for holding back the names was that he wanted me to concentrate on the movements themselves instead of their names. He also wanted me to perform the movements naturally, instead of thinking about their names and imagining how they might look before performing them.


In my classes, before we start to do any Tai Chi movements, I encourage my students to just stand in the Wu Chi stance (preparing stance). Before we do anything else, here’s what I tell them:


Start naturally. Relax your shoulders and rest of your body. Remove all the thoughts in your mind. Only when you feel your body is centered and relaxed, your mind is quiet and emptied, your weight has sunk down, and your roots are connected to the earth, you are in the right position to start your Tai Chi.



Copyrighted Huan's Tai Chi 2011

Develop Your Central Equilibrium in Tai Chi

If you are well-versed in the language of martial arts, you may have heard the term “Zhong Ding.” You may have heard that developing Zhong Ding is crucial in order to correctly execute your Tai Chi forms. So what, precisely, is Zhong Ding? In Chinese, Zhong means center, in the middle or inside. Ding means stabilized, still, centralized and balanced. Together, Zhong Ding means central equilibrium. And it is the key to achieving balance in Tai Chi.

The basic idea behind developing Zhong Ding is that you must lift your Bai Hui point, the highest point on the crown of your head, towards the sky and keep your body centered and vertical, perpendicular to the ground. For beginners this is often very difficult to achieve. It’s easy to lose Zhong Ding while transitioning from one form to another.

In Tai Chi, we have Ding Shi (Still Stances) and transitions. Every form that Yang Style Tai Chi Founder Yang Chen Fu has in his book is a still stance. Any moves between two still stances are transitions. Think of each pair of still stances as dots. Our goal is to connect the dots using transitions. To achieve Zhong Ding we must first be able to hold the right two balanced still stances, and then connect them with transition moves.

In order to start with the right still stances, I suggest you learn Zhan Zhuang (“stand like a post,” 站桩). Zhan Zhuang is a method of training which uses static postures to develop efficiency of movement and perfection of structural alignment. In Tai Chi, we say: stay in the center to form a post; then root your foot. Here are some benefits of Zhan Zhuang:

• Although many Tai Chi practitioners don’t practice it, Zhan Zhuang can really help you relax your shoulders and the rest of your body.
  
• Zhan Zhuang can help you get rid of stiffness and help you develop softness.Your muscles will become soft and relaxed and will be more sensitive and better responsive for push hands.
  
• Zhan Zhuang will root your stance to the ground to make you more stable.
  
• Zhan Zhuang can help you memorize the movements since it’s easy to see and remember a still stance.
  
• Zhan Zhuang will help you circulate your blood and connect each part of your body.
  
• Zhan Zhuang can bring more Qi (energy) circling around your body.
  
• Zhang Zhuang can balance your Ying and Yang.
  

To practice Zhang Zhuang correctly, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• You must empty your mind. You shouldn’t be thinking of anything but resting your mind.
  
• Don’t change your stance too quickly; you must stay in one position and feel a little soreness in your arm, shoulder or legs to know that you have been standing long enough.
  
• Keep your eyes looking forward, your head supporting the sky and your body vertical.
  
• Keep your shoulders relaxed and let your elbow drop down.
  

To start practicing Zhang Zhuang and learn some basic post stances, check out my article called "Cardinal body parts to relax for Tai Chi and your life".

Enjoy and have a lot of Qi!

Copyrighted by Huan's Tai Chi

How to Breathe in Tai Chi

There is no question that breathing is a central element of Tai Chi. Yet, the best breathing techniques remain open to debate. Different people use different breathing techniques.


Some teachers think that our Dan Tian/Red Field (acupuncture point just below the navel) should be the focal point of our breathing techniques because our Dan Tian is the place we store our energy. It is also our physical center of balance and gravity. However, other teachers think that we need to practice abdominal breathing, which uses our powerful stomach muscles to control our breathing for maximum effect.


After many years of study, I can draw two conclusions regarding the mixed views on breathing techniques. If you have read my book, Seeing beyond the Tai Chi Footprint, you may already be familiar with them.


My first conclusion is: Breathe naturally! Don’t pay attention to your breathing at all. Concentrate on your form and the coordination of your movements. All your breathing will occur naturally.


My second conclusion is: Use movements to adjust your breathing. These adjustments must be made very accurately. Any movements going out such as "Peng" will correspond with a breath out. Any movements coming in such as "Lu" will correspond with a breath in. For any open movements, such as "White Crane Spread its Wings", breathe out; for any closed movements, such as "Playing Pipa", breathe in. For any up movements, such as "Golden Roster Stand with one Leg", breathe in; for any down movements, such as "Snake Creeps Down", breathe out.


The length of all the breaths are related to the movements in these cases. Longer movements will need longer breaths. Try to even out your movements as much as possible, so your breaths will be even, deep, long and slow.



Copyright by Huan's Tai Chi 2011

Give yourself a Massage! Use Tai Chi to Stimulate 300 Acupuncture Points!

We all know any form of physical activity can help improve blood circulation, but Tai Chi's unique characteristics make it one of the leading exercises recommended to treat circulatory problems.

One of the reasons why Tai Chi is such a good exercise for stimulating circulation is that it is a whole body exercise. While other forms of exercise focus on different parts of your body, Tai Chi moves your whole body as a together. For example, weightlifting exercises your arms only when you specifically target the arms in a set of arm lifts. In Tai Chi, when you move an arm, your whole body has to move together to balance this arm movement.

Furthermore, Tai Chi is an exercise for both internal and external parts of your body. When we move with Tai Chi, we are not just moving arms or legs. We are moving our internal organs along with these external moves. The long, slow breaths also coordinate with body movements to massage the internal organs. In Tai Chi, we say, "Use the Mind/Concentration to lead the Qi/Energy; Use the Qi/Energy to circulate through the whole body."

According to China's Family Medicine Magazine, the waist rotation, bending, stretching and turning found in the whole Tai Chi form can activate more than 300 of the body’s acupuncture points. The movements in Tai Chi stretch, twist and squeeze all these pressure points and, in effect, give your body a full-body massage. Learn Tai Chi and start to enjoy the benefits that it can offer to you!

Copyright Huan's Tai Chi 2010

8 Benefits of Practicing Tai Chi in Slow Speed

Photo by Peter Batty

I often heard my uncle say, "When sickness comes, it's like a mountain falling down, fast and strong. When its time for the sickness to go, it's like pulling silk from a silkworm's cocoon; it takes time."

When we look at all the Tai Chi sets, we see that Grandmaster Ma Yue Liang has contributed a fast Wu Style form; however most Tai Chi sets still must be done slowly.

Let’s look at the benefits of performing a slow Tai Chi set rather than moving quickly through the movements.

1. You can exercise the energy as if you were pulling silk; you can really sense and feel the
energy moving around.
2. You can pay attention to every small detail.
3. It’s easier to form roundness and arcs with your body.
4. You can easily quiet your mind.
5. It’s easier to relax your body.
6. It’s easier to breathe slower and hold each breath longer, an exercise which brings more oxygen into your lungs.
7. It’s easier to coordinate your upper and lower body and balance your body.
8. It’s easier to “find the feeling” of each movement, to really internalize how each movement feels when you do it correctly.

When it comes to push hands or real fighting, Tai Chi moves do need to be very fast. So we can say practice your Tai Chi as if you were pulling silk; then apply your Tai Chi like lightning!

Copyrighted by Huan's Tai Chi 2010

4 Methods and 4 Skills of Tai Chi

Photo: Just Grumpy

Today I’m going to teach you the 4 methods and 4 skills of Tai Chi. You may have already be familiar with them, in which case this will be a good reminder of how to incorporate them into your own Tai Chi.

The 4 Methods are Hand, Eye, Body, and Step.

As you practice each Tai Chi movement, you must practice not only the hand form, but also make sure that your eyesight is focused and your eyes follow the movements, that your whole body is involved, and that you have both correct and stable steps. You need to put the 4 Methods into practice as you first start each movement, and then as you go through each movement, and finally as you end each movement.

The 4 Skills are Mind, Energy, Concentration and Thinking.

The 4 Skills are a bit more complicated to understand because you can’t really see them. In Chinese, we say “Originate from the mind, reach to your energy, move with concentration and remember with thinking.” “Originate from your mind” means every move starts in your mind. That’s why we need to quiet our minds when we practice Tai Chi. When we don’t have a quiet mind then we can’t concentrate well. “Reach to your energy” means you need to move your energy around. When you bring up enough energy, then your Tai Chi looks peaceful, settled but also lively. “Move with concentration” means use concentration but don’t use force. When you use concentration to lead your structure, then you can use your structure to lead energy and bring energy to the whole body. “Remember with thinking” means you need to remember every move you are doing and remind yourself of the correct technique throughout the movement. As you do your movements, think about them and pay extra attention to them. Carefully finish each movement with a mental reminder to yourself of the correct form.

In short, the 4 Methods strengthen the outer part of your Tai Chi and the 4 Skills strengthen the inner part of your Tai Chi. With the right understanding and the correct application into your Tai Chi, the 4 Methods and 4 Skills allow you to train both your outer body and inner mind.

2010 Copyright by Huan's Tai Chi

Cardinal body part to relax for Tai Chi and your life

I have mentioned the 17 body parts we need to relax in my article “Relax your body, Understand 8 Sections and 9 Joints”. Now I would like to talk about which body part is the most important part that needs to relax. It is not your shoulders or elbows, it is the waist.

In Chinese martial arts, we say,
“Energy comes from your feet, it is controlled by the waist, and moves out to the limbs”,
“The Qi is your wheel; and the waist is your axle.”
“If there is sickness (imperfection in Tai Chi), it can be found on your waist and legs”.

Relaxing your waist is the key to improving your Tai Chi. Relaxing the waist can help you sink your Qi to Dan Tian (Red Field acupuncture point). Relaxing your waist makes your movements fluid and steady. By relaxing the waist you can more easily define solid and empty, the Ying and Yang. A relaxed waist truly connects your upper and lower body.

Since relaxing the waist is so important, how do we do it? There are many different ways to relax your waist. One of the most common ways is to stand like a post (Zhan Zhuang, 站桩). It will not only help you relax your waist, but it will also strengthen your legs as well as your internal energy.

I have taught many post stances in my class. The easiest one to do is the Preparing Stance. In Tai Chi, we call it Wu Chi post. It takes 30 minutes for the blood to circulate through the body, and that is why you can stand in this posture for 30 minutes every day or until your legs feel warm. You will feel some difference after 100 days if you have the right stance. That’s why we say in Chinese “100 days to build your foundation”.

Copyright by Huan's Tai Chi

New Level on Relaxation and a Healthier Life

Lao Tzu became older and once asked all his students come to see him. He opened his mouth and asked them.

“What you see from my mouth?”

No one knows what to answer.
Lao Tzu then said, “You can see I have no teeth left since I am older, but my tongue still remains. Why? Because my tongue is soft but teeth are hard.”

What Lao Tzu told us is that soft substance remains longer than hard ones. In order to remain a healthy and longer life, we need to soften our body.

In Tai Chi, we say. “Through relaxation, then you can archive softness. Use softness to form hardness. Softness and hardness then combines.”

In order to turn soften your body, you need to learn how to relax.
Start with

- Mind Relaxation
Empty your mind

- Basic Body Relaxation
Open your joints and acupuncture points

- Flexible Relaxation
Such as, you use stretch exercise to flex your joints. Doing warm up exercise to stretch all parts of your body before you doing Tai Chi. ( I will put couple post on this in the future)

- Relaxation with Movements
Still remain relaxed while moving or in contact with others.

Once you can move with relaxation, then you can gradually archive softness. Once you can reach the top level of softness, then you can form hardness.

This hardness doesn’t mean your movements are hard. It means when you apply as a martial arts move on people, such as hit some one with your soft movement. They could feel very hard on them. ( For Example: a strong wave hits on your face while you are surfing, it has soft move but it feels hard on you). Once your softness and hardness, Ying and Yang combined together, then you reached the next level of Tai Chi or the next stage of relaxation.

Copyright by Huan's Tai Chi 2010

12 methods to slow down your Tai Chi and life and totally relax you

If you are doing your Tai Chi right, you should feel Qi/ Energy flowing around your body during or after practice. Some people never feel the Qi. The reason cause this is either they don’t have the correct movements or they didn’t slow down their movements. Same methods can apply to your common life.

Here are 6 methods to help you slow down your Tai Chi movement
1. Don’t hurry on transition movements.
You need to have even speed; You should pay as much attention to transitions as the single form.

2. Do it slowly when landing or lifting foot, and leg.
Step like a Cat. Any noise made while stepping means you are moving too fast

3. Complete one move before going to the next one.
If you didn’t complete a move, then you are wasting time doing your Tai Chi. Only completed each movement, then you did the whole Tai Chi. Take your time and complete the moves.

4. Upper and lower body coordination
Lower body move faster than upper body is a common mistake of beginners. Slow down your lower body and make sure it moves together with upper body as one piece.

5. Shoulder relax and Elbow drop down
Keep your shoulder relaxed and elbow drop down will help you slow down your movements.

6. Don’t double weight.
Double weight is like multitasking, it’s defiantly a cause of fast movements.

Now, here are 6 methods to help you slow down your life and help you relaxed, each one is kind of related to the 6 methods I mentioned above.

1. Leave some time in between your appointments
It will give you time to prepare the next meeting or adjust from last one. You will be less stressed when you are prepared.

2. Walk and talk slow to show your confidence
3 minutes late for an appointment will not cause you losing a job or kill you. Fast steps only show people you are such stressed person.

3. Get your projects done well rather than roughly finished
Rather than hurry and finish both projects, take your time and finish the cardinal project well and ask your boss for extension for the second one because you need it done well. You could finish both projects quickly but with bad quality, you will please no one.

4. Coordination between your plan and actual meeting
Always make sure how much time needed for the meeting, and the topics need to be discussed and prepare. Make sure don’t go out of the topic and if it went over time, politely tell others you have next meeting to go, exit and pick up/schedule another meeting.

5. Straight your back and lose your shoulder
Right body structure is important to help you relax. Whether you are sitting in front of a computer or walking, straight your back will release pressure to your neck, and lose your shoulder will also help your total body relaxation.

6. Don’t multitask
Just like what we mentioned in Tai Chi method 6, multitask will bring stress.

Enjoy some relaxed time!


Copyright by Huan's Tai Chi 2009

How to boil the water for your tea in the right way

I drink tea every day and I make my tea in the right way. It’s essential to know how to cook water for your tea. Not enough time to cook or overcook the water will affect the taste of the tea. An experienced tea drinker needs to know how to boil his/her water to preparing the tea in the right way.

Lu Yu’s ( Tang Dynasty) once wrote in his book “The Tea Bible”. “Once the water boils, the bubble will shape like a fish eye with a little sound, we called this the first boil; If the water shapes like linked pearls, we called this the second boil. When the water starts to wave, we call this the final boil.” Any time after those three, we consider overcooked water and you can’t make tea with this water any more.

Zhang Yuan ( Ming Dynasty) wrote in his book “The Record of Tea”, “There are three major ways and fifteen minor ways to tell about the water for your tea. Shape, sound, and steam are considered to be the 3 major ones. Shape is from inside of the water. You can hear the sound without near the water. Steam can be checked quickly by vision. Water bubble shapes like shrimp eye, crab eye, fish eye or linked pearl means the water is still not ready. Once the water start to have wave, then it’s ready. When you first hear the boiling sound, or higher pitch and even vibrating sound, the water is still not ready. When these sound has been gone, then it’s ready. When the steam first appear, or appears more, floating above the pot, it’s not ready. When the steam goes straight all the way up, then it’s ready.

How have I cook my water? To cook the water, you need to put the stove on high heat. Pour water into the pot with cover on. Once you hear the little boiling sound, it’s time to take the cover off and check the water on shape, sound and steam.

Warm your tea cup once with small amount of boiling water, remove the small amount of the water. Put dried tea leaves in, pour the rest of the hot water in, put the cover on. Wait till the tea leave expand and sink to the bottom of the cup.

Now you can RELAX! Open the tea cup cover. Have a small sip. Enjoy your tea and rest of the Year!


Copyright by Huan's Tai Chi 2009

13 points to relax your body

How do you relax when you are stressed? How do you get rid of the stiffness from your body? You can always try the Preparing Stance form from Yang Style Tai Chi. You can stand this form for 5 minutes, it will help you relax your body. To help with your preparing form totally relaxed, I've enclosed my Yang Style Tai Chi Class notes 1 (which I prepared for my beginner Tai Chi class), you can check from top to bottom of your body. Basically you need to stand up, two arms hanging beside your body; eyes looking forward, feet parallel.

Preparing Stance

Points to remember:

1. Imagine there is a string hanging on top of you head
2. Eyes looking straight forward, don’t look up or down.
3. Mouth lightly open.
4. Tongue supports the roof of your mouth.
5. Chin tucked in.
6. Neck relaxed
7. Don’t raise shoulders
8. Arms naturally hanging beside your body
9. Leaving space between arm pits.
10. Palms relaxed, Space between fingers
11. Dan Tian ( Red Field, about three finger widths below and two finger widths behind the navel) shirks in.
12. Waist relaxed
13. Butt tucked in
14. Two feet parallel, as wide as your shoulders, don’t pivot them or in or out.
15. Make sure you feel your whole body relaxed
16. Check this list one more time to make sure you have everything right to the point.

After you make sure you have all your points checked twice. Try to empty your mind. Let your body stay in this form for at least 5 minutes.

Copyright Huan's Tai Chi 09

Low or High stance for your Tai Chi?

When I was in Amherst last weekend, a student asked me which form would be the right one to perform, the high stance, or low stance form.

Actually, we have mainly three different stances for Yang Style Tai Chi, the high stance, medium stance and low stance. Usually we recommend that beginners concentrate on the medium stance. The higher stance will help you with relaxation. Your legs are like the root of a tree. The lower stance will help you gain energy and strength and strengthen your root. For people who don’t have a lot of flexibility and need to relax more, I recommend that he/she do the high stance form once and then do the medium high stance form next. Once you’ve become more relaxed, you can try to go on to the medium stance. Once you also feel relaxed with medium stance form, you can try to start doing the lower stance form.

It’s a mistake to go from the lower stance to the higher stance in the same form. For example: when beginners do “Repulse the Monkey”, they tend to go up and down. Staying at the same height in the same form is required. When a student had his butt come out while trying to do the lower form, I recommended that he stay in the high form to tuck the butt in and keep the body vertical to the ground. When the butt is out it’s hard to gather Qi/energy to your Dan Tian (Red Field acupuncture point).

Copyright by Huan's Tai Chi '09

Gaining Real Calmness for Tai Chi

During our last class, there was a dancing class in another room while we were having our Tai Chi Class. It was quiet noisy. A few students couldn’t concentrate very well. I told my students, “We often say in Chinese, ‘If you are calm in a quiet environment, it’s not the real calm. If you are calm in a noisy environment, that’s the real calm.’ Today is a challenge for you.”

Tai Mountain is the biggest mountain in China. Another saying of real calmness is
“Show no anxiety while Tai mountain explodes in front of you.” If you can concentrate just on Tai Chi and forgot about the environment and even yourself, then you’ve achieved a new level of calmness.

For beginners, while performing in front of people, it’s better to just imagine yourself perform the whole set alone. Your form will come out more naturally. On the other hand, it’s also helpful to imagine an opponent while doing your moves, so you can sense the resistance while doing your moves. You can also imagine applying application/usages on this invisible opponent. That will help you increase your energy level and understanding of details of the movements.

Whether or not there are people around, using the above methods will help you improve your Tai Chi performance.

Copyright Huan's Tai Chi '09