Calm the Mind, Relax the Body

                                                             adapted from the teachings of Master William Ting

        The first step in learning and practicing Tai Chi and Qigong requires the coordination of a calm mind and relaxed body. This is key to maintaining health through improved circulation and stress management. If you are thinking about daily activities, things you need to do or people you need to call, you often respond to these thoughts by becoming anxious, which creates tension. You can calm your mind and relax your body through awareness of your posture and your breathing.

        To correct your posture you must be aware of several principles. First, keep your head erect, as if a string were lifting you. At the same time, you relax the waist and hip area and tilt the pelvis slightly forward, knees slightly unlocked. You should feel as if you are sitting back onto a stool. Also, relax your chest inward and round out your back. Relax your shoulders and elbows downward as you lift your head. When you follow the above principles, your body will relax and your mind will calm down. When you calm your mind you can become more aware of your posture. If it's not correct you can then adjust it.

        When practicing Tai Chi, Qigong and Push Hands, use your mind to relax all of the joints and expand the muscles in your arms, legs, and torso. The most efficient way to relax your body is to release or let go of all tension. But don't go completely limp and fall into collapse. Expand while relaxing at the same time. For an example, stand erect, with your feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent. Extend your head upward and imagine as if it could reach up toward the ceiling. At the same time, relax and sink your lower body, as if your weight is going through your feet into the ground. Also, sit back and round out your back, feeling as if it can expand backwards to touch the wall behind you, while your arms and fingers gently extend forward, as if you can touch the wall in front of you. While expanding your arms forward, keep your shoulders and elbows relaxed downward.

        Expanding allows your bone and joint structure to be more aligned and your frame to be more solid, so you don't need to use your muscles as much to support your body. Expanding releases tension stored in the muscles, which relaxes them even further. The more relaxed you are, the more blood, qi energy and power can flow through your body. Tension constricts circulation. Rather than your qi being wasted by unnecessary tension, it is conserved. Furthermore, expanding promotes flexibility by relaxing the muscles and joints, opening more space between the joints, and thus allowing for more range of motion in the joints. The more you expand, the more flexible you become, which prevents and actually helps relieve aches and pains associated with aging and poor posture. Flexibility also improves posture and enables you to move smoothly and more gracefully.

        Relaxing without expanding causes your posture to collapse or shrink, reducing the smooth and continuous circulation of blood. Expanding without relaxing creates stiffness and tension thus reducing flexibility and inhibiting smooth, agile movement. Relaxing and expanding must be done simultaneously. Expanding enables you to relax even further, which allows you to expand even further. The feeling of relaxation within expansion, expansion within relaxation goes beyond what we refer to as stretching the muscles. Standard stretching exercises appear to denote stretching out from the body in one direction. In Tai Chi and Qigong, however, we seek the feeling of expanding out in opposite directions. Eventually we will feel expansion in all directions at the same time, like a ball filling with air.

       Regulating your breathing is the next step in calming your mind and relaxing your body. You should regulate your breathing, making it slow, even, soft, deep, and quiet. Breathe naturally, through the nose and down into your lower abdomen. As you inhale, expand your abdomen, and as you exhale your abdomen contracts. This is called normal abdominal breathing and it has a relaxing effect on the body. It is most effective in coordinating your mind and body.