Relaxation Breath Balance and Awareness

Relaxation

One of  the top lessons to learn is how to relax. Relaxation is vital to the practice of Tai Ji Quan (also known asTai Chi, Tai Chi Ch’uan).It lets the qi flow. Relaxation in Tai Ji Quan supports strong qi flow which promotes the health benefits. It is one of the more difficult lessons of Tai Ji Quan. It is surprisingly difficult to relax; people are used to stress. It promotes grounding, a mental practice that connects us to the earth for greater balance physically, mentally and emotionally. Therefore, practicing grounding in stance work such as the horse stance is one of the fundamental practices. Stance work teaches you to relax even though you instinctively want to tighten up. This is done in all Martial Arts.

Balance

Balance is the most popular and most well known benefit of Tai Chi.  One of the legends of Tai Ji Quan is of a Daoist priest named Zhang San Feng watched a crane fight a snake.  He saw the benefits of each one and started to practice.  Historically this is hard to verify but it gives us good concepts to think about.  A snake is relaxed and moves in circles, a crane has great balance; it can stand on one foot for hours!

Breath

Breath is a core part of the training.  One cannot relax without breathing and one cannot balance well if one is stressed.  Breathing is the constant connection to life, and Tai Ji Quan is all about life. Here is the link to the Breathing page.

Awareness

Another health benefit of practicing Tai Ji Quan is learning to be aware of your surroundings. This means that you learn to be mindful of what you do, say, and think. This is the meditative part of the practice. You become conscious of each move and its application, each balance, and each qi flow at every moment during your practice.
Since Tai Ji Quan is mostly practiced with slow movements, it is easy for people of all ages to learn.  The practice teaches us be healthy physically and mentally. Along with all the health benefits there is a side benefit of self-defense. Although the moves were designed for that purpose, the moves are designed to move with qi for maximum power. This is how people who seem weak can be extraordinarily strong.