We review the bases of this ancestral practice and propose a sequence of exercises with which to start the practice and learn to flow with these movements.
What is tai chi and what is it for? Tai chi is a relaxation technique from China that consists of performing delicate movements in unison that seem to caress the air, not only with your hands, but with your body. Bare feet – or shoes with flexible slippers – glide smoothly across the floor. Practicing tai chi is almost a ritual that is repeated every morning in many cities around the world, both Eastern and Western. The placidity that their movements give off fills us with tranquility.
Taichi means “what came first”, “the most essential”. Chuan means “fist” but also “concentration or gathering of energy”. Taichi chuan means “the gathering of the most essential energy”. To shorten and popularize it is called tai chi.
In this article we discover what tai chi is like for beginners and explain various exercises that allow you to apply the teachings of tai chi to the most common problems of everyday life: against anxiety and overstress, to appease back pain, to relax, clear the neck or even to combat insomnia.
KEYS TO TAI CHI FOR BEGINNERS
If we have always been curious to know how tai chi is practiced, here are some keys to understanding what people who practice tai chi are really doing. By observing them carefully, we will be able to understand it.
1. POSITION AND ARRANGEMENT
Every inhabitant of this planet, whether animate or inanimate, needs to take root in the earth and have a position commensurate with it. A building needs its foundations, a tree its roots and a table its support in the form of legs.
Humans depend on the position of the feet, hips and legs, which act as transmitters between feet and hips, to pick up and react to gravity.
If we observe the position of tai chi practitioners, we see that their feet delimit a grid, which receives the force of the earth, and through the legs, which are slightly bent, leads to the hip, which welcomes it in its circular bosom, and circularly directs it throughout the space.
It is a position common to all those activities that need gravity: when we run, walk or climb a ladder; when the tennis player waits for the ball, when skating, or when surfing.
In this position the center of gravity located in the pelvis is attentive without being tense and, by letting gravitational energy pass in any direction, it helps us to relate better to the earth and the environment.
We gain in balance, orientation and stability. With the addition that a good position of the body facilitates a good disposition in every way.
2. THE RHYTHM AND THE SPIRAL
What most characterizes those who practice tai chi is their rhythm: soft, light, chained movements that caress air in a fluid and calm sigh.
They paint the space with their body, without any syncopations. They flow like the ray of sun that filters through the trees, and that runs through the forest throughout the day. They are keeping pace with the earth.
Imitating the rhythm of the earth, they relate to it, its changes and transformations, and to the solar system to which our planet belongs. But also, with most of the internal organs of the body and with themselves. This way they balance internally and externally toning.
Another characteristic that surprises us is that its evolutions in space are based on curved shapes: spirals, circles and arcs.
They are the movements and structures that constitute the basis of any vital manifestation.
Celestial phenomena (storms, tornadoes, etc.); marine (waves, tides); those that are an intrinsic part of the nature of our cells (DNA); those that allow the growth of vegetables; those that serve for the transmission and reception of sound, and those that produce the heat and energy of magnetic fields.
When we practice tai chi, through spirals and circles we modify the force that comes from the earth. We are increasing our chi or vital energy.
3. CONCENTRATION FOR EXPRESSION
Finally, we must refine our perception to observe an invisible quality, but that accompanies all tai chi practitioners. Their gaze gives them away: they are there even though they seem not to be.
They have the eyelids of their eyes half-open and see everything that this opening let’s pass without paying attention to anything in particular. They look inward and see outward, feel and look at the same time.
They try to keep their attention on the line that delimits the inner world from the outer world. This makes it possible for them to accompany the weight of the foot, the movement of the hip and arms with thought, while seeing what is happening around them.
Thus, they establish a relationship between thought and weight, between mind and body. From this relationship that enriches both results a unity: the whole human being, including as part of that whole the integration of the human being on Earth.
Whoever practices tai chi is with his thought in the physical center (in the center of gravity, in the bowels) and follows his breath, concentrates, is here and now, in a word: meditates (which means to be in the middle, to be in and with the center). With the consequent reduction of stress, anxiety and increased concentration.
TAI CHI: EXERCISE FOR BEGINNERS AGAINST ANXIETY AND OVERSTRESS
- Stand upright, with your legs about hips apart. He stares one point ahead. Try to open the field of vision while still looking at the point.
- Feel your feet. Transfer your weight from one foot to another, appreciating all its parts. Root yourself, bending your knees (the knee should not exceed the big toe), feeling a path to the center of the earth and, at the same time, its opposite to the sky.
- Walk, from this position, listening to how the weight of your feet comes and goes. Make a fluid movement. Include your arms and perform the wild horse. Listen, look, smell, taste, live.
TAI CHI: EXERCISE FOR BEGINNERS TO APPEASE BACK PAIN.
- We start as in the previous case, but with the feet and back glued to the wall.
- From those two or three points of contact with the wall (the hip, shoulder blades and perhaps the head), when rooting, the hip curves slightly forward to bring the lumbar closer to the wall and open them. Make the overture.
TAI CHI: EXERCISE FOR BEGINNERS TO RELAX
- We lay on the floor on a mat, face up, with a pillow under our knees to arch our hips slightly. It should be a comfortable position. We listen to inspiration, expiration and pause. We try not to control the process.
- We concentrate on expiration. With her, we begin to feel the weight of the feet, we compare them. The more accurate we are, the better.
- Next, we feel the weight of the calves and knees, until reaching the thighs and the entire leg. Let’s compare them.
- We continue gradually releasing the weight of the body with expiration. Feel it pulsating with your breath, sheltered by the earth. Don’t worry if you fall asleep, five minutes of restful sleep can be worth more than an entire bad night’s sleep. Then get up, and make the figure Closing the door. Repeat it several times listening.
TAI CHI: EXERCISE FOR BEGINNERS TO CLEAR THE NECK
- We stand on the edge of a chair with our legs open, with a cushion or notebook on the floor, next to the legs of the chair. We drop from the head the entire spine to the ground by rolling it between the legs.
- In this position we take the tip of the cushion or notebook and place it in the space between the seat and the coccyx, and recover the vertical position, unrolling the trunk, sitting on the cushion and the seat of the chair. The whole spine lines up and rests.
- We surround one leg below the knees, on the tibia, with the fingers of the hand intertwined we throw the shoulder blades back and down and open them; We stretch our chest and belly and breathe. Breathing manifests itself in the pelvis. Then we make the figure Hands like clouds.
TAI CHI: EXERCISE FOR BEGINNERS AGAINST INSOMNIA
- When a problem does not allow us to sleep, you will notice that your breathing is not very deep and is also tiring and short and can even be sound. We can restore its qualities by pressing the heels of the feet against the ground.
- Then enjoy the full breathing, to feel alive: choose any movement from the sequence and perform it.
A SEQUENCE OF TAI CHI EXERCISES
It doesn’t matter that you don’t follow the sequence, you’ll already learn it. The most important thing is, first, slowness and fluidity, and these are achieved by visualizing the gradual change of weight on the feet.
Become aware of your surroundings. Throughout the day, look at the sky and the changes of light that are projected on the earth, they possess the secret of tai chi and the essence of life.
THE WILD HORSE SHAKES THE MANE
- Stand upright, with your weight on your right leg, your knee slightly bent, and your right toes resting on the floor. Place your arms in front of you as if holding a “ball of air”. Rotate the trunk on the left foot and leg about 45 degrees, until the trunk, head and gaze are placed in this direction.
- Take a step with your right foot in the same direction, starting with your heel. The width of the step will be that of your hip. Shift the weight to that leg and undo the “air ball”, opening your arms.
PUSH THE KNEE AWAY WITH ONE HAND AND PUSH
- Starting from the same initial position of the previous exercise, place the palm of your right arm in front of you, at the height of the ceiling, facing the floor. Flex your left elbow and place your palm facing right, at the height of your head.
- Then turn the trunk 45 degrees to the right, support the right heel and then the foot, shifting the weight of the body to the right leg. At the same time, the right arm and hand descend making a wide circle around the right knee, stopping next to the hip; while the left arm lowers, placing the hand to the right of the body at the height of the head, with the palm still facing the ground. Movement must flow.
- To do it on the other side, pass the weight back and turn the trunk 45 degrees returning to the initial position but reversing right and left.
CLOSING THE DOOR
- Open your legs to hip width. With the weight of the body resting on the left foot, lift the toes of the right foot, resting the heel on the floor. Place both palms on either side of your hips, facing down.
- Carry the weight forward and, simultaneously, push the air with your hands forward, up, at shoulder height.
- From there, shift the weight back, to the left foot, and at the same time change the direction of the hands, which will be with the palms facing the sky, and let them fall gently, along with the arms, at the height of the hips.
- Repeat the movement from the beginning. To change feet, when dropping your arms, pick up the back foot next to the previous one and when you push take a step forward.
HANDS LIKE CLOUDS
- Open your legs to hip width and slightly bend your knees. With your elbows flexed, place your hands in front of you, palms inward, right at navel height and left in front of your face.
- From that position shift the weight to the left with the left arm and hand moving to the left in an arc, as if you were pulled by a thread that goes from the ground by the left foot running through the body to the left hand.
- Go up your right hand, as if it appeared on the horizon, while you take a side step in that direction. Scroll looking at her.
- The arms rotate, like a mill, and go where the weight moves.
THE SIMPLE WHIP
- Standing, with your feet together and your right knee slightly bent, hold your left arm in front of you, at chest level with your palm facing the sky, and your right arm folded in front of your chest, palm facing down.
- Rotate your hips to the right and your wrists, so that your left palm faces down and your right faces you.
- Take a step at almost 90 degrees with your heel and, when shifting the weight, stretch your left arm if your hand stops looking down; The right opens out of the body, with a spiral movement, the palm still facing the body. Keep fluidity in mind when performing any movement.
- This movement can be linked to Hands as Clouds. At first it is not important that the movement is precise, but constant, smooth and calm.
THE FROG’S KICK
- With your feet together, bend your knees slightly and raise your right foot a couple of feet in the air. Cross your arms letting your wrists touch, at chest height. Feel your foot on the ground and do not shrug your toes, so as not to lose stability, and look forward.
- Extend your right leg in the air, without losing verticality. Move your arms in an arc upwards until they open, one on each side of the body. The body should be aligned with the left foot.
- To change legs, take a step starting with the heel of the right foot to the right and turning to the right while the arms meet in front of each other until you reach the starting position, but reversing left and right
THE NEEDLE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA
- With your feet together, bend your knees slightly and raise your right foot a couple of feet in the air. Stretch your left arm down, directly lifting your palm, and flex your right arm to raise your hand toward face height.
- From that position, without shifting the weight, drop your right hand with your palm facing left to hip height, while your right foot and leg descend to the ground.
- With the leg that is on the floor makes a small movement also downwards bending the knee.
- You can then change the movement by reversing left and right. Remember that to maintain balance in this movement you must have your gaze resting in front and the foot on which you lean relaxed on the ground. Balance is something that can be trained.
PLAYING THE HARP
- With your feet together and your knees slightly bent, bend your right knee to rest your right toes on the floor.
- With the weight of your body on your left foot, take half a step back with your right, while dropping your right arm below your hip.
- Then, and without passing the weight forward, the leg, foot, and left arm come forward. Place your left heel on the ground with your foot in front of you, making a 45º angle outwards.
- This movement can be linked and performed after moving the knee away with the hand. If at first you do not find the tempo do not obsess: the first thing is to understand the exercises and then perform them. When you have them internalized, they will come out easily.
BOOKS TO GET STARTED IN TAI CHI
- Tai Chi for the West; Gerard Arlandes. Ed. Rba-Integral
- Tai-chi step by step; LamKam Chuen. Ed. Rba-Integral