Follow Me Tai Chi: February 2012

Thursday, February 23, 2012

What? you're not falling down anymore?

Every so often, one of my students tells me, unsolicited, how Tai Chi and Qigong has helped them in their daily lives.
Today a student told me that she has always had 'bad' ankles, and has broken both on two occasions in the past few years.
She has been taking my Easy Tai Chi & Qigong classes once a week for about 9 months.
Lately she says she feels stronger and has better balance when walking, and can even go out for a long walk - something she hasn't been able to do since her last breaks.
At first she had to do most of the class sitting in a chair, and on most days now she can stand for at least 2/3 of the class if not more.
In the beginning she could not take her full weight on one foot leaving the other foot 'empty' as in 'Stork spreads his wings' but now she can take almost 80% of her weight on one foot.
Even though these moves are gentle and not stressful, they are indeed powerful as they correct problems in posture and alignment in a slow thorough way.
If for no other reason, helping us to regain or maintain our balance, we are doing ourselves a great favor by adding this kind of training to our repetoire as we age.