What is Chi Kung, Tai Chi and Meditation?

How do they help with Cancer and chronic conditions?

How can Chi Kung, Tai Chi and Meditation help you achieve better health and help you deal with the different physical and mental side effects of Cancer and its treatment?

Chi kung and Tai Chi are ancient Chinese philosophies that date back at least 5000 years. Necessity is the mother of invention. Due to a lack of science, medicine and doctors, Chi Kung was created to improve one’s health and prevent sickness. Tai Chi was created for both health and Martial Arts.

You may find that Chi Kung and Tai Chi are similar to Yoga. This is true in many ways but also different in many others: it is the same lady with a different dress.

Chi Kung, Tai Chi and Meditation are powerful mind body philosophies that empower individuals to take an active role in their journey toward better health and also to invest in prevention. Both Chi Kung and Tai Chi are helpful mind body tools, especially if you are suffering from chronic conditions or going through Cancer, its treatments, and their negative side effects.

When practicing Chi Kung and Tai Chi the main idea is to improve or fine tune The Five Building Blocks of our Being: Body, Breath, Mind, Energy and Spirit.

THE BODY

When we talk about The Body first you want to free the skeleton from being a prisoner of the soft tissues. Soft tissues are muscles, tendons, fascia, and skin. We achieve this freedom through gentle stretching using both various static postures as well as dynamic movements with the principle of 80 percent effort or as I say, in my class, less is more.

Gentle stretching may help when dealing with aches and pains as well as chronic conditions like lower back, neck and shoulder problems and will give you a better day-to-day quality of life.

Second, you want to balance flexibility with strength by using your own body weight or using the Tai Chi Ball or various weapons.

Increasing muscle mass and improving flexibility are important for many reasons. For example, to prevent falls or to prevent muscle from turning into fat, which is Sarcopenia. Less fat benefits your immune system, contributes to more calories burned, improves your energy levels, and reduces stress.

Building muscle mass also improves bone density which is important when dealing with Osteoporosis or to help slow it down or in some cases even prevent it.

Another strong emphasis in the body is learning correct alignment while sitting, standing, or walking. Correct alignment helps to reduce stress off of the spine, the joints, and the internal organs, especially the lungs.

 One more important principle when we are talking about the body is to strengthen the core, massage the internal organs and the joints. We do that through deep breathing, movement of the abdominal and back muscles and the gentle and graceful movements that in many cases imitate the movements of different animals like a Crane flying, a Bear swimming, or a Spider climbing the wall.

THE BREATH

The second building block that we want to improve and develop is the Breath: oxygen is an essential part of better health and preventing sickness.

But most people are shallow breathers. We are shallow breathers partly because of modernization: cars, elevators, and escalator and partly for not doing cardio either because of age, injuries, or sickness or in some cases a lack of motivation.

So how do you improve your lung capacity if you are sick or injured? First, what you need to do is make a conscious decision to take deep breaths throughout the day. Second you want to breath deep while practicing the static postures and the dynamic movements.

In Chi Kung and Tai Chi, not only do we want to increase lung capacity, we also want to stimulate different parts of the lungs. We do that by holding different static stretches for two minutes or longer to open up different parts of the lungs which allows the air to stimulate those specific areas and also by practicing dynamic movements that create different shapes with the lungs.

Increasing oxygen or deep breathing has many health benefits: you may experience higher energy levels, lower blood pressure and less stress, anxiety, and depression.

Increasing your oxygen intake also helps calm the mind and allows you to achieve deep levels of relaxation, which may help you fall asleep and stay asleep.

THE MIND

The third building block is the Mind

In Chi Kung and Tai Chi, it is thought that we have two minds: The Monkey Mind and The Horse mind. The Monkey Mind is the emotions. The Horse Mind is the wisdom. We want to learn to quiet the Monkey Mind and train and strengthen the Horse Mind. To quiet the Monkey Mind, we need to offer the Monkey a “Banana” which many times in both Chi Kung and Tai Chi is the Deep Breathing or Energetic Visualizations.

When practicing Chi Kung or Tai Chi we are trying to bring the mind to the brain waves between awake and asleep, the theta brain waves, or what people refer to as meditation. Meditation has been scientifically shown to have many health benefits, just google it and see for yourself.

But when we practice Chi Kung and Tai Chi we do not just practice sitting meditation. We learn and practice sitting still meditation, sitting while moving meditation, standing still meditation, standing while moving meditation and also moving through space meditation which includes various walking meditations as well as the Tai Chi form. We also practice Sunrise and Sunset meditation to harmonize with nature and nourish and cleanse both our physical and energetic bodies.

THE ENERGETIC SYSTEM

The next building block that we need to practice is the energetic system. It is the same energetic system that acupuncture and shiatzu massage work with: twelve meridians and eight extra vessels or energy centers.

Tensing and relaxing the muscles when practicing both Chi Kung and Tai Chi is like acupuncture in motion. The energetic system is getting stimulated, activated, and up graded which allows it to cleanse and then nourish our entire physical and energetic bodies.

THE SPIRIT

The fifth and last building block is the spirit. In Chi Kung and Tai Chi evoking the Spirit in every posture and in every movement is an essential principle. Practicing movements that imitate different animals, pretending to be the trees, mountains, or the ocean, using the setting and rising sun to cleanse and nourish our physical and energetic bodies is a big part of both Chi Kung and Tai Chi.

As my mother told me, sometimes you do not need to wait for science to tell you that evoking the spirit is an important, positive, and a powerful element of achieving better health and preventing sickness. 

Remember that Tai Chi is also a martial art and many of the movements are for both health and martial arts.

Practicing Martial arts movements helps you feel like a fighter which can be used to help awaken the warrior from within which is a nice metaphor and a great motivator for some. Taking the spirit of the warrior may help with some of our day-to-day life issues and can be especially helpful when combating or fighting negative health conditions.

Practicing all five building blocks at the same time is what Chi Kung and Tai Chi are.

When performing the different static and dynamic movements sitting standing or moving through space, together with the deep breathing and a meditative mind, working with the energetic system, while evoking the spirit the chances for healing or prevention of sickness are stronger.

You can see the Research with Tufts and MGH for Chronic pain, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Osteoarthritis of the knee and irritable bowel syndrome which I designed and implemented the Tai Chi and Chi Kung intervention for on my About page under Research.

However, in both Chi Kung and Tai Chi, as with most skills you need to find a good teacher. There is a Chinese saying, “It may take you 20 years to study and master Chi Kung and Tai Chi, but it could take you 40 years to find a good teacher” so don’t give up looking.

As I say at the end of my classes

Happy stretching, deep breathing, empty your mind, upgrade your energetic system and evoke the spirit

I hope to see you in both my online and in person classes!