Parkinson’s and Tai Chi
What is Parkinson’s? The NHS sites the three prominent symptoms of Parkinson’s as being ‘an involuntary shaking of particular parts of the body (tremor), slow movement, as well as stiff and inflexible muscles’. From these main indicators spring a multitude of further complications – physical and psychological – which can …
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Tai Chi for Asthma
Of all the chronic conditions we face in the modern world, asthma seems to be one of the most prevalent. According to the Office for National Statistics, 1320 people died in England and Wales alone. In the UK, 5.4 million people are currently receiving treatment – this includes 1 in …
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Mindfulness of Breath – a meditation in four parts…
Following on from my blog post of yesterday, where I wrote about the importance of a good breathing practice – here is a very simple meditation that I learnt when I used to visit the Brighton Buddhist Centre on my lunch breaks. Working in technology and computing, these lunch breaks …
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Breathing for Life
Of all the things which sustain us, our breath is one of the most vital. We can go several days without food and water, yet the world record for absolute longest breath hold is 22 minutes. This is an almost unbelievable time (by a world champion free diver) – but …
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Tai Chi Cross Training
Whilst Tai Chi is a wonderful activity to integrate into your life, there are – apparently – other things that people enjoy doing – so I am told! 🙂 For many people, tai chi becomes their sole activity and for them this is enough to keep active, healthy, fit, …
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Balance and foot strength – the benefits for martial arts and everyday life.
When we think of strength in the West, we will often imagine broad shoulders, prominent chest muscles and thickly set arms. Undoubtedly, such physical attributes will often infer a degree of physical strength but looked at from an Eastern mindset, it will appear top heavy, disproportioned and unbalanced if such …
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The Best Medicine: East Meets West
Western medicine is amazing, one of the wonders of the modern world and how could I fault a medical system that keeps billions of people alive by curing illness, disease and improving quality of life for many who live with chronic conditions? Including members of my close family. There are …
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World Tai Chi Day 2018 – One World… One Breath
April 28 2018 is World Tai Chi Day, a day to celebrate the amazing art of tai chi around the world. The theme of this year’s event is One World… One Breath, so I thought it an ideal time to ponder the breathing in our tai chi practice and give a …
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Tai Chi for Everyone
If you do a Google images search for ‘tai chi’, chances are you’ll be browsing through a lot of pictures of retirement age groups practicing outside in a sunny park somewhere. I love the fact that tai chi provides mature students with an activity they can get better at as …
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