Tai chi: Equanimity, peace in your life

For businesspeople, these conditions create “challenges”, another over-used word in our vocabulary. For the ordinary man in the street (who is probably running a business in the informal sector) this familiar situation practically guarantees that he will be living with stress.
Remember when stress used to be a force that produced strain on a metal, or referred to the regular rhythmic beat in music or poetry? Nowadays when people talk about stress, it’s likely to be their mental, emotional or physical lack of well-being in question. Advertisements for stress busters abound, ranging from herbal cures, massages and expensive detoxifying weekends at upmarket resorts.
But the good news is that it needn’t cost you an arm and a leg to recover equanimity and peace in your life – simply enrol in a course of tai chi, the popular Chinese martial art practiced for its health benefits and success in dealing with tension and stress.
Described as a soft martial art, tai chi emphasises relaxation and meditation. Soft flowing movements are performed with precision, unlike the hard martial arts of kung fu and karate. If you are small in stature and want to exact revenge on a powerful adversary, training in kung fu would be useful. But if you simply need to improve your stamina, balance and strength, tai chi will strengthen and relax the body and help create the peaceful aura surrounding
the scores of elderly Chinese people seen on TV, exercising in public parks.
Last week, when a friend suggested I accompany him to a tai chi session, I immediately agreed, and met up with the group early the following morning. As the winter solstice approaches, mornings are chilly, and everyone was clad in tracksuits and polar fleeces. Our instructor, exuding peace and tranquillity, took us through a few preliminaries to loosen the ankle, knee and hip joints. After a series of gentle movements, the chi (life force) began to course through our bodies, and things warmed up considerably.
Encouraging us to live in the present moment and to put aside distressing thoughts, we were led through a rhythmic pattern of movements, co-ordinated with breathing.
Having always felt happiest with both feet on the ground, unlike friends and family who fly microlites, sail in dinghies and dhows, or ski effortlessly down snowy slopes, I felt at ease and enlivened as our instructor said we would feel energy coursing up into our bodies, as we sent imaginary roots down from our feet into the earth.
Links to the animal kingdom and the universe emerged as exercises included white crane spreads its wings, step back and repulse monkey, wave hands like clouds and golden cockerel stands on left leg.
I’m hoping that tai chi exercises, performed daily for 15 minutes, will help to modify my current rat race, while increasing the supply of life energy. A bit of self-defence thrown in (non-violent, of course) would not go amiss.
For information on tai chi chi kung, speak to John Hopkins, cell number: 0774?729?759.