THE BENEFITS OF TAI CHI
Tai Chi offers many potential benefits for both the body and mind, including improved balance, posture, flexibility, leg strength, relaxation, body awareness, and mindfulness. It can also be a wonderful form of moving meditation and a gentle way to incorporate more physical activity into your daily life.
But after practicing Tai Chi daily for more than 32 years, I have found that many of its benefits go much deeper than simply learning and repeating a sequence of movements.
Tai Chi is a lifelong journey. The more you practice, the more the benefits of the art begin to reveal themselves.
What Are the Benefits of Practicing Tai Chi?
One of the things I appreciate most about Tai Chi is that a single practice can work on many different aspects of our physical and mental well-being at the same time.
Some of the benefits people may experience through regular Tai Chi practice include:
- Better balance and stability
- Improved posture and body awareness
- Increased leg strength
- Greater flexibility and mobility
- Relaxation and reduced tension
- Stress relief
- Mindfulness and mental focus
- Improved coordination
- A stronger mind-body connection
- A gentle form of regular exercise
- Moving meditation and greater awareness of breathing
The benefits you experience can depend on many things, including your age, physical condition, how often you practice, the quality of your instruction, and how you approach your practice.
For me, one of the most important factors has always been consistency. Even a few minutes of focused practice can be worthwhile when that's all the time you have.
Learn more about how often and the best time to practice Tai Chi.
Tai Chi Is More Than Going Through the Movements
It is possible to learn the choreography of a Tai Chi form and simply go through the motions. The arms and legs move, and the sequence may look correct from the outside, but there is much more happening within a well-practiced Tai Chi form.
This is one of the reasons I believe good instruction is so important.
Tai Chi practice involves learning to become aware of your posture, alignment, balance, weight shifting, relaxation, breathing, and how the different parts of your body work together.
Instead of allowing the arms and legs to move independently, we gradually learn to move the body in sequence as a connected whole.
That's where Tai Chi begins to become much more than a choreographed set of movements.
line
The Benefits of Tai Chi Reveal Themselves Over Time
I like to compare discovering the benefits of Tai Chi to peeling an onion.
You begin with the outer layer.
Perhaps you first notice that your legs are getting stronger or your balance is improving. As you continue practicing, you may become more aware of your posture. Then you begin noticing unnecessary tension. You learn to relax without collapsing your structure. Your movements become more connected. Your breathing and movement begin working together.
Peel away another layer, and there is something else to discover.
I've practiced Tai Chi for more than three decades, and I discover something new every time I practice.
That is one of the things that makes Tai Chi such a fascinating lifelong practice.
Balance, Posture and Body Awareness
Balance is one of the most recognizable benefits of Tai Chi, but balance involves more than simply being able to stand on one leg.
During a Tai Chi form, we continually shift our weight while maintaining awareness of our center, posture, and alignment. With practice, we become increasingly aware of where our weight is distributed and how our body is positioned.
That awareness doesn't have to end when the form ends.
You can become more aware of your posture while sitting at a desk, how you stand, how you walk, and how you move throughout your everyday life.
This is one of the ways the principles we practice during Tai Chi can gradually become part of the way we live.
Relaxation Doesn't Mean Collapsing
I have spent many years practicing the Yang-style short form while paying close attention to movement, posture, alignment, breathing, and body mechanics.
One of the lessons that continues to reveal itself is relaxation.
In Tai Chi, relaxing doesn't mean becoming limp or allowing our posture to collapse. We want to release unnecessary muscular tension while maintaining proper structure and alignment.
This is another reason I recommend learning Tai Chi from a qualified teacher who can help you understand what is happening within the movements rather than simply showing you a sequence to follow.
The Glass of Water
I like this analogy when thinking about relaxation and connection.
Imagine filling a glass cup with water and placing that cup into a lake. The water inside the glass is surrounded by the lake, but it remains separated from it by the glass.
For the water inside the glass to become completely part of the lake, the barrier would have to disappear.
I think about Tai Chi relaxation in a similar way.
When we carry unnecessary tension, we create barriers within ourselves. During meditative Tai Chi practice, we work toward releasing that tension while maintaining our alignment and structure.
The goal isn't to force relaxation. It is to gradually let go of what isn't needed.
Tai Chi as Moving Meditation
Tai Chi is often described as meditation in motion, and this has been one of its most important benefits in my own practice.
When you concentrate on your posture, balance, breathing, weight shifting, and movement, your attention is brought into what you are doing at that moment.
Instead of thinking about everything that happened yesterday or everything you need to accomplish tomorrow, you are practicing being present.
That mindfulness can eventually extend beyond your formal Tai Chi practice.
You may begin noticing when your shoulders are tense during the day. You might become more aware of your posture, your breathing, your reactions, or the way you're carrying unnecessary tension.
To me, that is when Tai Chi begins to become more than a practice—it becomes a way of life.
Give Yourself Up Completely
One passage from the T'ai Chi Classics beautifully expresses the deeper idea of relaxation in Tai Chi:
In T'ai Chi meditative movement practice, relaxation means to give yourself up completely, both mentally and physically. It means to yield: yield totally to the entire universe, yield to the infinite. When you are able to yield yourself totally to the infinite, you will be able to relax and merge into the unity which the Taoist philosophy describes as the "integration of sky and human."
— T'ai Chi Classics
The longer I practice Tai Chi, the more I appreciate that relaxation, balance, awareness, and connection are not simply techniques we use while performing a form.
They are principles we can continue working on throughout our lives.
The Lifelong Benefits of Tai Chi
People often begin Tai Chi because they're looking for one particular benefit. They may want better balance, less stress, gentle exercise, greater flexibility, or simply something healthy to add to their lives.
And those are all wonderful reasons to begin.
But you may discover something else along the way.
The benefit that first brings you to Tai Chi may not be the benefit that ultimately keeps you practicing.
Tai Chi has continued revealing new lessons to me throughout more than 32 years of daily practice. That's why I don't view Tai Chi as something you finish learning. It is something you continue exploring.
Practice consistently. Pay attention to what your body and mind are teaching you. Keep peeling away the layers.
There is always another one waiting to be revealed.
Tai Chi Is a Way of Life
I believe Tai Chi is much more than the time we spend practicing our form. Tai Chi is a way of life, and that way of life is about creating greater balance in everything we do.
That means taking care of the whole person—mind, body, and spirit.
Good nutrition, regular exercise, and strength training help us care for the body. Continuing to learn and challenge ourselves helps keep the mind active. Positive thinking, adequate rest, and becoming more aware of how we respond to the stresses of everyday life can help us create greater balance within ourselves.
We shouldn't expect our Tai Chi practice to make up for consistently unhealthy choices in other areas of our lives. The principles we learn through Tai Chi should encourage us to take better care of ourselves both during our practice and in the way we live each day.
Tai Chi is about balance. Practice it in your form, but also look for ways to create greater balance in your life.
Your journey, our shared path.™