I was introduced to the martial art of tai chi chuan first of all, by meeting a Yang Style master by the name of Wu Hongliang. At the time, I attended regular hatha yoga classes, but had just found a Chinese girlfriend who is now my wife. Master Wu agreed to take me on as his only British tai chi chuan student and he insisted I began regular training on a daily basis and continue to do the tai chi chuan exercises he taught me each day, in order to benefit mentally, physically and emotionally.

The benefits of tai chi he told that he had gained in his lifetime of practice, were that of having a clear mind and being able to relax consistently but have a lot of chi energy to keep him fresh and agile mentally for his studies and physically strong and energetic for his port and well being. He started with some fundamentals of tai chi chuan. Firstly, he said the most important thing in tai chi chuan is to relax. See my website for tai chi chuan.

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Relax your body, relax your shoulders and joints, relax your mind, so your mind is clean or clear for the practice. Particularly, in fact relax your waist. Waist in the Chinese tai chi chuan aspect does not mean the part of your body around which you place a belt exactly. Rather, waist in tai chi chuan refers to all the muscles, ligaments and internal organ aspects around the waist area. This is because in true tai chi chuan, the movements are all being performed from and controlled by the center of the waist also known as the Tan Tien, Dan T'ien or body's center of gravity "hara center" in yoga. So, it's very important to relax the waist whilst doing the exercises. After practice and learning, there becomes very little actual movement. All movement is controlled from the waist creating the illusion aspect of Tai chi chuan.

Master Wu gave me some simple exercises to do to clear the mind and relax the body before tai chi form practice and also to give strength and supplety to the muscles. He said that after a while my legs would become very strong like his and the tai chi chuan would heal my body and any mental conditions while giving me increased spiritual awareness ad a positive shift towards spirituality over bad habits, from poor eating and sleeping to moral choices and behavior.

He said that the first exercise - what I had known to be called "the horse stance" - was one all students had to do every morning for half an hour at the tai chi training he had attended. If students pulled out of the stance or were not low enough, they would be whacked with a stick much like in the training for zen meditation. Secondarily, he asked me to stand in the "bow stance" or "dragon" and gently and slowly twist my whole body from side to side, from the waist, with my arms outstretched, wrists, elbows and fingers relaxed, to get a feeling of the natural surroundings and develop awareness of the chi energy in my body and in the universe, just by feeling. I would also do a squat exercise and "Roll back and press" part of the posture "grasp the sparrow's tail" Master Wu asked me to practice these exercises 9 times because 9 is a "lucky" number in Chinese culture - considered the biggest number or longest number and therefore relating to longevity, long lasting health and long marriage - which is why my wife chose to marry me on the 9th of the month.

After these 9 sets of four exercises, he started to teach me the beginning postures in the tai chi chuan form. I began by learning the postures or movements of the 24 form, starting only by learning the first movement and practicing for a few weeks. Tai chi takes patience, and really, you can think you know it, before you realize you know nothing about it!

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Sam Beatson http://www.tai-chi-kung-fu.com http://www.magneticprofits.com http://www.lifestyle-guides.com