All Tai Chi is for Health if You Do it Right

I finished a 3 day tai chi for health workshop today. 10am to 4pm each day. The regular sifu was away so his son (also a sifu but we just call him Alan) ran the workshop.

Alan has been doing tai chi since he could walk so that's 40+ years so we were in good hands.

I actually had class with him the day before it began. He asked me what he was supposed to teach. I looked at him like ??? uhh I think there was a list of learning outcomes online? He told me to show him the website. I pulled it up, he glanced over it and went "I'll do that. Definitely do that. Skipping that one…" He's the boss so I just nodded along.

The thing with tai chi is it's all for health. If you do it correctly, your health benefits. So that's why he was so nonchalant about it. No matter what we did, we'd learn something and when we learn, we can teach others and when we teach others, we benefit their health too.

But there are layers of "correctness." I don't know how deep it goes but I know I'm only scratching the surface. You do one thing correctly then add another part and it becomes more correct. Everything is multidirectional. Everything spirals. Everything has more than one layer. It's a never ending tai chi onion.

We did a lot of posture testing. You get into position and someone pushes you from all directions. You're supposed to hold up against each push. How much force you can take depends on your structure, how powerful the push is, and how well you're aligned.

Then you transition to the next posture. That transition gets tested too. Usually that's the hardest part. You have to sink on their force. Sinking connects you with them. And if you're connected, you can move them with very little effort from your waist.

You open or close spiral, tuck the kua, raise the spirit, sink the energy, project your yi, cap their force. I'm sure I'm missing things. And you're supposed to do all this without thinking too much because too many thoughts clouds the mind on doing it.

"Tai chi is simple but not easy."

My old teacher used to say this all the time. The principles are easy to say. Doing them properly on anyone and everyone takes a lifetime. It might work on a layperson who doesn't know what's happening but try it on another experienced practitioner and it's like pushing against a rock.

And most importantly, you must relax. Always. Have you ever tried relaxing when a grumpy old Asian man yells "Relax! Relax!" at you while he shakes you vigorously? It's quite difficult. But he's right. Nothing works if you're tense. That's probably why it's so stress relieving. A tense body is a tense mind. Body and mind are connected.

You're encouraged to work with everyone because everyone pushes differently. When you partner up, you're meant to give feedback. I'm quite sensitive so I can give good feedback but sometimes I hold back since it can hurt the other person's ego. I tell them what they want to hear or else they will react negatively.

With people who are open to it, I give proper feedback. It's a shame I have to tiptoe with some but it's for the best. They'll learn in time. The ones who are receptive to feedback always learn the fastest.

I try to stay receptive too. But I've caught myself being arrogant thinking this person is doing it wrong, they can't teach me anything. And yet even in these moments, I've learned so much. I remind myself of humility every day.

Someone told me tai chi is like life. You meet all kinds of people through it. Some days everything clicks and you feel on top of the world. Other days nothing works and you feel useless. But you keep practising. Every day. And eventually while you're making shapes in the form, the form starts shaping you.

You begin noticing your body: the imbalances, the strong and weak parts, the old injuries. Then you start noticing other people's bodies too.

"The first ten years are the beginner years."

I'm coming up to 2.5 years now. I've got a while to go. I hope I keep it up. No I will keep it up. No matter what...

Written 18th May 2025