| | Many thanks to all those who attended the Christmas Party and brought some great food. Lovely to see you there and good to see you showing off some tai chi to friends and family… The photos turned out well and some great shots have been posted in the photo gallery. Please contact me if you would like me to forward any particular photos to you. (Use the slide numbers to identify the photos you wish…) |
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on Monday 16th December - 17:00 onwards  All present and past students are welcome at the 17:00 class. Friends and family are invited from 18:00 onwards (or at 17:00 if they want to join in). Please RSVP so we can organise sufficient festive drinks/edibles… Look forward to seeing you there!  Relaxation - our Western minds immediately conjure up an image of lying on the floor completely inert and heavy.
However, this is different from the Chinese word "sung" which has been translated rather simplistically as relaxation. So let's explore the concept of "sung" (pronunciation sooong)… Sung means to empty completely both mentally and physically - releasing any tension in the mind and body. It implies a state of calmness, emptiness and readiness. It also suggests a state of flowing without any hindrances. This concept is far reaching and gives us a goal to head towards
We begin the work of "sung" in class as we discover and discard our habitual responses to learning the forms and locate and release tensions in our body. As you get cluey doing this, you realise that these are linked - if you let go of stress, tension will immediately disappear from the body. As the tensions disappear, integration of mind-body-spirit occurs leading to unified movement, intention and inner strength - that is the true meaning of power. In the world of massage, therapists know that the "issues" are held in the tissues and can physically feel them in the body. Sung would then imply that we let go of every injury we have ever received, every experience that grated and caused us stress. Watch how a big cat moves to see sung in action!  We are all strapped for time! Then class looms again and we realise we have done little or no practice.
My students smile and humour me as I encourage them to bring their tai chi practise in their everyday lives - when they are standing in queues at the bank or the supermarket or when they are walking along. I reassure them that no-one will think they are too strange. So how can we build in time to practice during the week? Few of us have the discipline to set an hour aside for tai chi and if we did something would go stray - the weather, an unexpected phone call or friend coming round... Another way of approaching the is to set 5 minutes aside. We all have 5 minutes. Okay, 2 minutes? That is equivalent to a commercial tv ad break, waiting for the kettle to boil, waiting for someone…. My favourite is the tv ad break. I jump up, choose just one element of a movement, say the arms in Cloudy Hands, and go through it. In 10 minutes time, the next ad break is on and I'm continuing to windmill. I also find alternating doing and not doing is useful as I realise I am still processing that arm movement in my mind as I am watching tv (unless, of course, the show is gripping). Let me know if this helps...  There are so many things to think about when you start tai chi. Where are my feet? What are my hands doing? What movement comes next? It can seem overwhelming at times.
It's like trying to eat a big elephant - where do you start? In fact you may feel inclined not to start at all seeing the size of the task ahead. So you need to break it down into bite size chunks... One way is to choose just one movement and then focus initially on just one element at a time within that movement... Starting in the basic upright stance, try these suggestions and repeat before moving to the next one:
Once you can do all these individually and in a relaxed fashion, then you are ready to work down the list building on the movement as you go from the ground upwards. Remember it is the repetition that is important in feeding the awareness into the body. It takes about 7 repetitions for the neural pathways to start laying down the pathway. Try to "feel" and enjoy the movement. Let me know if this helps...  I highly recommend this book! (available in Sydney public libraries.) The discovery that our thoughts change the structure and function of our brains even into old age is the most important breakthrough in neuroscience for 400 years. In this revolutionary look at the brain, Norman Doidge introduces the brilliant scientists championing this new science of neuroplasticity, highlights principles we can all use (see below for the tai chi one!) as well as a collection of case histories - stroke patients cured, a woman with half a brain that rewired itself to work as a whole, learning and emotional disorders overcome, IQs raised and aging brains rejuvenated. Chapter Rejuvenation, pg 255: "Exercise stimulates your sensory and motor cortices and maintains your brain's balance system. These functions begin to deteriorate as we age, making us prone to falling and becoming housebound. Nothing speeds brain atrophy more than being immobilized in the same environment; the monotony undermines our dopamine and attention systems crucial to maintaining brain plasticity. A cognitive rich physical activity such as learning new dances will probably help ward off balance problems and have the added benefit of being social, which also preserves brain health. Tai Chi requires intense concentration on motor movements and stimulates the brain's balance system. It also has a meditative aspects, which has been proved very effective in lowering stress and so is likely to preserve memory and the hippocampal neurons." I know when I'm building new neuron pathways as my head feels ready to explode or just hurts and I want to shut down and fall asleep. Sleep allows the brain to develop which explains why children and adolescents need so much sleep as their brains mature. How do you react?  (Yes, you read that correctly and I did check the spelling.)
This is your joints' ability to tell you their position spatially in relation to you - just like giving you their GPS position. The information relayed enables us to perform and coordinate all types of movements, from walking, turning, climbing stairs, eating, playing a musical instrument and even standing, to delicate hand movements. Your brain receives this information from the receptors situated in the connective tissue around the joints. There is a direct correlation between the quantity and quality of the receptors and how much motion the joint experiences. So when you’re active and moving, you develop more receptors in the connective tissue, so your proprioception improves. It is truly a case of use it or lose it! Maintaining and improving this ability Often our reference points of where our joint positions are located can alter or the actual relaying or processing of this information can be slightly out of tune. Accumulated stress is one of the main culprits here. Examples of poor proprioception:
Tai chi fine tunes your proprioceptive ability! At the Christmas Party, lots of people asked Mandie to provide this recipe:
Crust 3 (C) Oreo Cookies crumbs 9 (T) butter, melted 1 (C) Sugar Filling 4 pack cream cheese (8oz packs) 1 ½ (C) sugar 6 large eggs 1 (t) vanilla extract (or essence) 1 ½ (C) broken Oreos 1) Combine crust ingredients and form in spring form pan and refrigerate 2) Beat cheese with sugar, add eggs one at a time, vanilla and then stir in cookies 3) Bake at 325ºF in greased spring form 1-1 ½ hr PS The spring form pan is essential . . . as is a tray underneath to catch the melting butter. There are stories of fires in ovens and cakes resembling cowpat as a result of this recipe sans the PS above!! The author accepts no responsibility, but appreciates any feedback ;0) Enjoy! Mandie xxx |
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