Finding the Right Mind-Body, Tai Chi, and Qi Gong Teacher, Part 2

This series is going to give you a basic idea of the qualifications you should look for in a great mind-body teacher to guide you through lifelong learning. Part 1 came out last week, and this week we are continuing the qualities to look for.

It is one thing to learn a movements, stretches, forms, and strengthening exercises, and another thing to practice them correctly as an integrated mind-body practice. This week we go over some of the ways that a great mind-body teacher will do that.

Every mind-body teacher will show you how to do deep breathing, and a great mind-body teacher will show you how to do many different kinds of deep breathing, and how to practice them during your mind-body prescriptions. How you should breathe while doing each stretch or tai chi form is of key importance to the practice of those techniques. Deep breathing correctly will allow you to relax your muscles more effectively, which will improve your progress on everything we discussed last week. Increasing oxygen intake is also one of the most powerful things you can do to improve your health.

Not only should your teacher show you how to breathe deeply while practicing, but also while doing your regular daily activities. In the car at a red light. At your desk when you finish a work project. In line at the grocery store. A great teacher will remind you to always look for moments to breathe deep and be mindful.

A great mind-body teacher will instruct you in sitting, standing, and moving meditations. There are teachers out there who know sitting meditations only, or moving meditations only, but a truly wise teacher will have lots of experience with all forms of meditation. With a great teacher, you will learn how to focus your mind and breathe in the way that best accommodates your current form of meditation. A great practitioner knows that each form of meditation is good for different goals, and will help you develop all of them so that you have a well-rounded mind-body experience.

Next week, we'll continue on with even more qualities to look for in a mind-body teacher!

Happy stretching, deep breathing, and empty your mind!

Finding the Right Mind-Body, Tai Chi, and Qi Gong Teacher, Part 1

It isn't easy to find a good tai chi teacher or qi gong expert. For one thing, there are a limited number of people who have knowledge of the entire art. It takes almost a whole lifetime to learn and master the mind-body principles. Second, because it takes so long to learn, there aren't that many people who seek to learn these ancient techniques. I would say that if you are lucky enough to find a mind-body teacher in the Western world, don't call it lucky, call it destiny.

But how would you know that you've found a good teacher? Well, in my experience, a truly great teacher will cover certain key skills and techniques in their teachings. This week I will go over the some of the important material, and over the next weeks we will cover the other qualifications that a great mind-body teacher should have.

A mind-body teacher will teach you to free your body from being a prisoner of the soft tissue, and at the same time, will help you build strength. This is the most basic form of balance that you will learn in your practice. The body should be both flexible and strong, so that you can effectively direct your strength and will, which makes you powerful. This is a fundamental part of your mind-body journey, both physically and mentally.

A great mind-body teacher will help you isolate your joints with gentle movement, and stimulate your energetic system. You can think of your joints like the doorways that energy must move through in your body. When these portals are stiff and closed up, your limbs and organs can suffer. Opening these joints allows blood, oxygen, and energy to flow to every part of your body. This is important for healing, performance, and overall health.

You need to learn correct alignment when standing, sitting, walking, and moving slowly. Alignment is crucial for avoiding injuries and maintaining health. The older you get, the more important this is. Balance is largely based on correct alignment, and preventing dangerous falls is all about having good balance. Alignment is also key to preventing injury during athletic performance.

That's all we'll cover this week! Next week, we'll go further into the skills that a truly great mind body teacher will cover with you.

Happy stretching, deep breathing, and empty your mind!

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P.S. If you haven't read it yet, please check out the special article spot that Cancer Wellness TV got on the NAMASTA website this week! NAMASTA is a highly respected association for mind-body professionals, and a great place to let people know about Cancer Wellness TV!

A Guide to "Embrace the Tree"

There are many external and internal skills that can be practiced through meditation which I have shared in the past and I will share even more in the future. Next week, we will begin discussing how to find a mind-body teacher who can provide you with the knowledge of all the skills that together create a complete mind-body practice. Today, let’s focus on one of these skills with a mixed standing/sitting meditation: embrace the tree.

Just like a couple weeks ago, this week's blog features some of the amazing arboretum photography shot by Axie Breen! Please visit Axie's website and support her if you can!

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The Physical Side of Embrace the Tree

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, and slightly bend the knees. Tuck the tailbone in and keep the head suspended. Relax your shoulders and, of course, your face. Hold the arms out like you are hugging a thick tree, fingers pointing toward each other and about 5 inches apart. Hold your arms so your thumbs line up with your shoulders.

Remember: if you cannot stand, you can practice Embrace then Tree while sitting.

Sit on the ground with your legs crossed, or normally on the edge of a chair. Hold the arms as you would while standing. Relax your shoulders and face, lengthen up through the spine, close your eyes and focus on the up and down forces. Down through the buttocks, legs, shoulders, and face, and up through the spine and the top of the head.

The Mental Side of Embrace the Tree

Send your mind down through the legs, about 5 to 8 inches into the earth. Create a heavy, downward sensation through the legs and a light, upward sensation through the spine and the top of the head. 

Close your eyes and stand for 3 minutes (for beginners) to 45 minutes (for advanced practitioners). I recommend practicing both sitting and standing, if you are able, until you can reach 45 minutes of each.

Other meditation options when standing in embrace the tree are:

Focus on the lower energy center
Focus on your roots
Focus on the energetic baton
Focus on 4 gates breathing
Focus on the bubble meditation
Use the sunrise to lead the energy through the third eye and into the lower energy center
Use the sunset to allow your impurities to leave the body

That's it! Happy stretching, deep breathing, and empty your mind!

A Guide to Sitting Meditations

This week's blog is the first to feature some of the amazing photography of Axie Breen! We did a photoshoot at the local arboretum last fall, and they came out great. Please visit Axie's website and support her if you can!

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The first thing you should do when looking to practice the sitting meditation is to find a spot that you feel comfortable sitting, either with support or without. Be sure that you can relax and that all you can hear is quite or nature sounds (if possible).

Cross your legs if you can, or if not, sit on a chair, rock, tree stump, or bench.

Close your eyes. Get your spine straight and keep your head suspended, like a string was pulling your head upward into the sky. Relax your your shoulders and then the face. Focus on the breath.

I suggest using a timer. Start with three minutes and work your way up. One day you'll be able to sit for 45 minutes. Even if you never get to that amount of time, anything over 20 minutes will benefit you tremendously. Do this sitting meditation every day for the best results and most improvement.

Focusing on the breath was the first meditation I learned, from my Zen teacher, Tzvi (Harold) Weisberg. We would sit for 45 minutes before most practices. Sometimes we would even sit for another 45 minutes after our kung fu and tai chi practice. But that is a lot of meditation for a normal person! You don't have to do that much.

So let's get started practicing! Choose any of the following meditations and begin with three minute sessions. Work your way to 45 minutes.

External Meditations (Easiest)

Sound-Guided Meditation
Candle (or object) Focused Meditation
Counting Meditation (begin with four seconds inhaling and 4 exhaling, working up to 10 seconds)

Internal Meditations

Fire Breath (Video Beneath the Candle Meditation Video)
Water Breath
Face Meditation
Lower Energy Center
Upper Energy Center
Cooling the Energetic Baton
The Energetic Bubble
Sunrise Meditation
Sunset Meditation

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That's it for now! More sitting meditations will be upcoming!

Happy stretching, deep breathing, and empty your mind! 

What Style of Tai Chi Do I Teach, and Where Does it Come From?

Welcome back mind-body students! 

Many people ask me what style of tai chi I use to produce the forms for my courses and books. It’s a great question.

The short answer is simple: most of the tai chi that I teach comes from the Yang style. There are exceptions even in my most popular books and courses, however. The move “Grind,” for example, comes from the Chen style of tai chi.

A unique innovation that I have made in my teachings is doing the forms twice each: once to one side, and then the other side immediately after. This isn’t common in the Yang style of tai chi, or at least in the 108 traditional tai chi forms I learned.

While doing the forms the traditional way is great, I always felt that doubling up on each form allowed you to accomplish some important things for modern tai chi practice. First, it reduced the number of forms you needed to memorize, but still gave you a full tai chi ‘exercise.’ Second, it emphasizes balance in the body, which I believe leads to both better health and higher performance in martial arts.

But many times the reason that students will ask me about the tai chi form I teach is because they are curious about how many forms there are, and where they came from. I don’t know all of the history, but I do know a little bit.

The first style of tai chi was created by Chen, Bu of the Chen family. The Chen family kept its tai chi chuan (martial arts form of tai chi) a family secret for 14 generations. Then, in the early 18th century, Yang Lu Chan, who had stomach problems that he believed could be treated with tai chi chuan teachings, began acting as the Chen family servant.

One night, Yang Lu Chan was discovered practicing in secret by Master Chen. Chen when so impressed by Yang’s level of skill and motivation that he decided to break the four hundred year tradition and accept a non-Chen family member as a student.

Yang learned and practiced with Chen for 18 years, and then returned to his hometown to teach his own form of tai chi: Yang style. Then his oldest son, Yang Pan Hou (1837-1892), taught Wu, Quan You, who would go on to found Wu style tai chi.

Today, there are five major styles of tai chi, each named after the family that founded them and preserved them. Chen style, Yang style, Wu (or Wu/Hao) style, Yu style, and Sun style. Yang is the most popular around the world.

Although the physical movements differ between each style of tai chi, there are deep similarities with regard to the meditative, internal skills that are emphasized. Unfortunately, much of what connects these practices, namely the energetic theory and martial arts applications, have not been passed down to many students in this last century.

I often say about tai chi, “It may take you 10 to 15 years to become a master, but it could take you 30 years to fine one.” That’s the reason I traveled from Israel to Boston in 1983 to study with Dr. Yang Jwing Ming. And after 25 years of studying and practicing with him (and a few other great teachers in areas such as yoga) I feel that I have the experience required to teach. If you are looking for a teacher outside my area, try very hard to find one with as much experience under true masters as I have (or even more!).

I won’t lie, it is very hard to find. The next best thing is probably to study the work of someone with that level of experience, and learn to mimic them, while also diving into the meditation practices and energetic theory. That is why I wrote my books Sunrise Tai Chi and Sunset Tai Chi. They are also available in DVD form so you can follow along on your TV.

And of course, there are always my blog videos! Here are a few for you to try today. Don't forget to share the blog with your friends and family!

Happy Stretching!

Want to Get More Work Done? Take a Break.

Welcome back mind-body students! I hope you enjoyed the Greatest Hits Workout last week. This week, we have more of a mind lesson.

If you are like me, you like to get things done. You are very industrious. More likely than not you are zipping around every day with all kinds of plans on your to-do list. Many times, you catch yourself thinking about how you could be doing more stuff in the same amount of time.

People like this are often very successful, but they live in danger of burning out.

"Burnout" is when your mind is still trying to accomplish the tasks at hand, but your body is not rested enough to do so. From a medical standpoint, pushing yourself to the point of burnout can be dangerous. It might include high levels of stress hormones than increase your risk of heart attack, or very low blood sugar that could send your body into shock.

Working yourself to that extent may sound crazy, but people have done it.

Most people will just find that they feel "off their game" or really tired for several days, even a month or two. This isn't medically dangerous unless you begin abusing stimulants like caffeine to make up for the low energy. The worst result will probably be that your quality of work declines, perhaps for a significant amount of time.

So how do people who have busy schedules and high-stress careers avoid burnout, and even accomplish more than before?

Take regular breaks.

In Judaism, we have the ancient idea of the "shabbat" which is a practice of rest one day a week. One day each week may not be enough for a high-profile worker, however. Some people work up more stress than a single day can get rid of, so they need less frequent, but longer breaks. Maybe a 4-day weekend every month (assuming you work most weekends).

This resting phase allows your body and mind to heal and incorporate everything you have learned and exercised since your last break. By relaxing down to a healthy baseline regularly, your metabolic systems can reset and prepare for more work later.

And that's how you can do more work by working slight fewer days each month. Instead of working at 70% productivity every day for a month, you come back to work at 100% productivity (after your mini vacation) and that productivity slowly decreases until you take your next break. Each day that you are working at more than 70% productivity makes up for (and eventually more than compensates for) the few days you took off.

I know, for high-functioning professionals, taking four days off seems like a crazy move. But if you can get more work done, and have a nice vacation each month, and enjoy your life more, and spend more time with your family, the only crazy choice here would be not to try.

Happy Stretching!