13/02/2020
Do you think Tai Chi (Taijiquan) is all about relaxation?
This, believe it or not, is a classical Taijiquan form called the Small San Sou or "Small Two Man Fighting Form".
Each of the martial applications in this martial form actually come from the 9 original classical postures of Tai Chi, but instead of being performed as a slow meditation they are instead being used as they were originally intended...to teach us about self-defence structure and movement.
Now, most people only know about Tai Chi as a slow meditation movement art. Little do they know that there are martial arts movements and principles are hidden within those slow movements and those movements are done slow for reasons that would take half a book to discuss. So, for the sake of this post understand that the slow forms are actually shadow boxing much like a western boxer might do in their boxing training, but Taijiquan slow form is actually more like "meditative qigong shadow boxing".
Now, whilst this post is talking a lot about Tai Chi as a fighting art, the slow form movements are still first and foremost a qigong meditation. Despite the martial information within them, they are still teaching us all about what you might already understand Tai Chi to be all about - such as relaxation, energy, flowing movements, mindfulness, connectedness, sensitivity, moving from the centre, strength in softness etc.
But what most don't understand or see is that these movements are designed to make us learn about how to move like an animal and return us into a neutral state of mental being ie: to switch off our overthinking, anxiety-ridden brains and become, at least for a little while, and exist in a natural state as animals do!!
Switching off our brains...now, wouldn't that be nice!!
However, in saying this and telling you that Tai Chi is all about fighting does not mean that you need to learn Tai Chi as a fighting martial art. Hell No!! Especially if you only want the mindfulness and relaxing benefits.
However, what it does mean is that you want to maximise what Qigong and Tai Chi are teaching us, you really do need to learn the movements correctly, as they should be done!!
Learning correct internal movement actually helps us learn to produce the same internal energy/power as one might need to practice a fighting form like this one...but instead using that power for fighting and self-defence and fast martial arts forms, it is used for self-healing or for healing others in energy work.
This is because qigong and Tai Chi and Qigong are designed to make the mind and body stronger - after all, warriors need a strong mind and body.
Therefore, Tai Chi is about improving our structure and movement and about teaching ourselves how to regulate our fight and flight response so that we might better and more appropriately manage our internal reactions when we become stressed or undergo traumatic experiences.
Tai Chi's ability to manage our fight and flight response and activate of a wide range of neurological responses to help regulate our biochemistry during stress and trauma come from the way we move with correct internal movement principles; the type of movement which permits explosive movements such as in this video! And the correct internal movement principles are driven by an area the Chinese call Dantian. Dantian is an energy reservoir in our abdomen and is significant because moving Dantian generates spinal whole-body movement.
So even if we are learning Tai Chi or Qigong movements for relaxation, stress management and healing, it is best if they are driven by Dantian. And sure, just performing any movement and being mindful of the movement will help us relax and come back into a more present and relaxed state.
However, by driving our movement from Dantian, we are also driving movement from our spine. This is important because our spine, which is part of the central nervous system attaches to the part of our brain called the brainstem. The brainstem is a section of the brain responsible for controlling our most primitive life-giving mechanisms and supportive stress responses. A few of the mechanisms controlled by our brainstem include our blood pressure, heart rate and rhythm, our breathing, body temperature, and as mentioned our fight and flight response. Once many of these basic life-giving mechanism become regulated, balanced and switch off, the stress response, which aggravates and drives much of the body's hormonal stress response also switches off.
Therefore, it is in this way that correct internal, dantian driving, spinally activated movement is actually like giving our brain a massage!!
Mmmmm...brain massage!!
So to tie this post up, this is why Tai Chi is so relaxing. Because you are regulating our entire primal functioning and regulatory system while meditating and allowing the overly cognitive human areas of the brain switch off, relaxing and softening your entire body and learning, in an authentic way to reprogram your inner animal.
Unfortunately, because Tai Chi and Qigong became watered down due to cultural upheaval in China around the turn of the 20th Century, much of the internal movement principles were lost to time. Those that did maintain this "way of internally moving" in Qigong and Taijiquan are far and in-between and now much of what we see of Qigong and Tai Chi are people only moving their limbs independently from their body in a quasi Yin Yoga fashion.
However, if you would like to learn Tai Chi and or Qigong as a correct internal movement art, then I am happy to help - because once you get this movement down, either slow or fast, it is truly transformational.
Thanks
Nicholas Blewett
Ps: Yes I once had more hair...this clip is about 10-15 years old, hence old phone camera haha.
