Inner Peace Healing

T'ai Chi Ch'uan

T'ai Chi Ch'uan

Chang Man-ch'ing Yang style

Movements: with a relaxed body and a calm but concentrated mind. Moving backward, touch toe down first, moving forward, touch heel down first. The hands and help move is one with the body and did not independently. Almost all movements made our circular to reserve energy, negate tension, and enhance relaxation. From posture 3 to the conclusion the level of the body remains generally the same, that is, there is no rise and fall from shifts of body weight and there is a little squatting or bending at the waist. Slowness: movements must be done at the same slow pace throughout. There are no fast postures-all are done at the same speed. You may vary the speed of the entire around.

Slowness permits distinctness of movements and is it tuned to calmness of mind. Also, it enables the mind to function to its fullest in imagining an opponent and in recognizing and appreciating the role played by the components of the body as one moves through the exercise.

Swimming in air: if one pretends to swim while out of water, his movements automatically conform to the principles of tai chi. By this practice, the novice ultimately will feel the air to be heavy in the sense that he feels water to be heavy. Functionally, this slow movement against and imagined resistance will ultimately create great speed in responding to a fight situation.

Linkage: although the movements are done slowly, there is no interruption. The postures float evenly without pause from start to end. The Chi is blocked when the flow is impeded. Once one has paused, it takes several postures before one is again on the track. This waste postures since if they are not true they are useless. Do the exercise is the polling silk from a cocoon. And pulling soak one must pull slowly easily and above all steadily. If one pauses, the strand will break when the pulling it started again.

Tranquility: slowing down the natural process will not help if the mind is not calm. Excuse routine thoughts: initially concentrate on the postures. At first it will be difficult to block out extraneous thoughts and images, but disciplined practice will prevail in the end. As you proceed through the postures, you must think totally on them, in fact, that the mind literally embraces the postures and vice versa.

Breathing: correct breathing must be coordinated with your movements. In hill through your nose as you extend your arms outward or upward, and next hill through your nose as you contract your arms or bring them downward. Initially, it is best not to be too concerned about breathing: first learn the techniques of the postures and then incorporate the breathing. Ultimately, the breathing becomes such an intrinsic part of the exercise that you will not even have to think of it.

Body posture for T'ai Chi: Allow your chi to flow uninhibited in your body. Your feet should be no more than shoulder width or hip width apart, occasionally there will be a step beyond this. Knees face the same direction in which your toes point. Knees should never go past the plane of your toes. Keep a slight tuck to your pelvis to take pressure off of your back. Joints should never be locked, your body is soft yet strong, fluid into movable. All movements come from the legs. The arms move with the torso as one unit guided and pushed by the legs.

T'ai Chi Postures Posture
1: Preparation Posture
2: Beginning Posture
3: Grasp sparrows tail, ward off, left Posture
4: Grasp sparrows tail, ward off, right Posture
5: Grasp sparrows tail, rollback Posture
6: Grasp sparrows tail, press Posture
7: Grasp sparrows tail, push Posture
8: Single whip Posture
9: Lift hands Posture
10: Lean forward Posture
11: Stork spreads wings Posture
12: Brush knee and twist step Posture
13: Play the guitar Posture
14: Step forward, deflected downward, parry and punch Posture
15: Withdraw and push Posture
16: Cross hands
Conclusion