Take Advantage Of Proper Tai Chi Movements
Proper Tai Chi movements can only be learned from a Tai Chi instructor, someone who has reached a high level of mastery in this martial art. Mainly practiced for defense, Tai Chi surprises people who are exposed to it for the first time, by the slow flow of the exercises. The blocks and strikes of a good Tai Chi practitioner are very strong, what differs from other martial arts is the emphasis on meditation, on the body-mind harmony and the capacity to let the opponent’s energy get exhausted in the movement before it can be blocked effectively.
If you start practicing Tai Chi, you will see that the proper Tai Chi movements are not only about good body postures and a proper state of mind. Body, mind and spirit are brought together in this effort for self-improvement. If you are studying Tai Chi from a book, you’re doing yourself a major disservice. Training is about more than just some video guidelines. You cannot develop proper Tai Chi movement unless you achieve coordination and you go through several training stages.
Meditation is actually the essence of proper Tai Chi movements. You will first learn the yin meditation that will clear your mind of thoughts and worries. Such is one of the great merits of this martial art, that it enables you to achieve better self-awareness and no longer be affected by the turmoils of daily existence, at least for as long as you practice. Then, you will learn how to achieve the yang meditation which involves focusing on a certain idea, concept, object or image. Proper Tai Chi movements derive from both yang and yin meditation and their efficiency depends on that.
Finally, the correct practice of Tai Chi depends on breathing a lot. {You will learn how to master abdominal breathing, and how to channel the chi along the spine through the energetic meridians}. The flow of energy you can sense in proper Tai Chi movements is external, but there is also an internal form of exercising that goes in parallel. You will not be able to apply both breathing and meditation techniques in parallel if you have not learned the correct body postures. Mastery of the internal and external will come in time, and only if you care to take your practice to superior levels.
