- Tai chi trains the major ligaments that serve as the springs of the body. Anatomically, the human body is kept upright by ligaments, not bones, as is commonly believed. Ligaments are also critical in keeping your internal organs from impinging on each other and thereby downgrading their functions.
- Tai chi tones the muscles.
- Tai chi trains biomechanical alignments which enable the bones and internal organs to withstand the forces of gravity that pull on all the other parts of the body attached to them.
In tai chi, stretching occurs by gently letting go of the tension in your muscles, rather than by pushing or forcing muscle fibers to stretch. Relaxing the muscles in combination with slow-motion movement gradually stretches them. What is unique about tai chi movements is that they stretch not just the large muscles, but also hundreds of smaller muscles. Although Western exercise programs are beginning to include stretches of these smaller muscles, most don’t and even when they do, they often don’t do it as effectively.
Tai chi does a wonderful job of relieving back, neck and shoulder pain by loosening up all
Tai chi make a real difference to how people recover from car accidents, other forms of serious physical trauma or surgery in significantly less time than normally projected as being possible.
Tai chi can also help increase the healing rate for damaged organs. One of the major effects of tai chi is to improve and regulate the movement of all the body’s fluids—blood, lymph, synovial fluid (between your joints), cerebrospinal fluid (within the spinal column) and interstitial fluid (between your cells). Physically, tai chi moves the different body fluids by creating a series of “pumps” within its specific movements. The pumps vary from large ones like the entire spine, belly, leg or arm, to tiny pumps within specific internal organs, joints and between the vertebrae.
Tai chi can also help increase the healing rate for damaged organs. One of the major effects of tai chi is to improve and regulate the movement of all the body’s fluids—blood, lymph, synovial fluid (between your joints), cerebrospinal fluid (within the spinal column) and interstitial fluid (between your cells). Physically, tai chi moves the different body fluids by creating a series of “pumps” within its specific movements. The pumps vary from large ones like the entire spine, belly, leg or arm, to tiny pumps within specific internal organs, joints and between the vertebrae.
Energetically, the stronger the flow of chi, the smoother and more powerfully your bodily fluids move. Chi is the energetic activator that tells all your bodily fluids when to move and how. As the fluids move more, the strength of your chi increases and vice versa.
Practicing to increase your breathing capacity helps your normal breath to become significantly deeper and last longer, putting a lot more oxygen into your system. Tai chi increases your breathing capacity, regardless of whether or not you deliberately practice its specific breathing techniques.
Tai chi trains you to feel progressively more deeply inside your body. With tai chi practice, you develop an awareness of where your body holds tension within itself, which gradually becomes integrated into your daily life. You begin to notice how your neck and shoulders tense when working long hours at your desk or computer, what happens inside your body when you are angry or sad, or how mental exertion under pressure causes your body to fatigue.
From the perspective of stress, the techniques of tai chi are more about training your central nervous system than your muscles. It is jangled nerves that lie at the root of anxiety, particularly in our technological age with so much intellectual activity. This anxiety affects almost every population group—from babies to the elderly.
From the perspective of stress, the techniques of tai chi are more about training your central nervous system than your muscles. It is jangled nerves that lie at the root of anxiety, particularly in our technological age with so much intellectual activity. This anxiety affects almost every population group—from babies to the elderly.
Overloading the brain directly affects your nervous system, resulting in a fight-or-flight response that induces tension and causes the nerves to overload. Over time, this can produce a condition in the brain and nerves, where almost any thought or decision, no matter how small, causes anxiety. The regular practice of tai chi teaches you to consciously relax your mind and body before it starts to tense, and prevents the condition from being painful or chronic. Because chi moves through the central nervous system, the process of relaxation begins by smoothing out the functioning of the nerves. Relaxing the muscles is only part of this process.
As your nervous system opens up and loses its resistance to change, tai chi helps you gain access to and let go of the nastier emotions that tear up your insides: hatred, jealousy, self-pity, greed, inappropriate anger and more. Maintaining emotional negativity requires tension that can destroy much of life’s joy.
A relaxed muscular and nervous system provides the required support base in which your new, more open and free emotions can live and thrive. Releasing the physical tensions in muscles, organs, tissues and your nervous system provides the support to relax emotionally and maintain a sense of tranquility from deep within.
Mental relaxation will help you:
- Settle down and become calm, allowing you to focus on the task at hand.
- Multi-task without mental tension and distraction.
- Connect your brain to your body without strain.
- Become awareness of single or multiple thoughts without becoming tense and feeling yourself pulled in different directions.
- Gain deeper insight and allow ideas to emerge naturally.
Relaxation causes chi to flow smoothly and fully. Tension causes chi to flow erratically, in a jerky, spasmodic manner and with significantly less power. When chi moves smoothly, it has a natural balancing quality that helps the body to regenerate. The smoother the chi flow, the stronger and healthier the body becomes. That is why people can be simultaneously relaxed and strong. Gradually, it becomes obvious that when your chi flows smoothly, relaxation follows it like a shadow, and vice versa.
Besides being a great whole-body workout, tai chi helps you to reduce and manage pain of all kinds, and to recover more rapidly from trauma. Tai chi can also serve as a form of moving meditation, helping you release energetic blockages, negative emotions, churning thoughts and embark on a profound and spiritual path.
