I didn’t like tai chi…

You go hard in the gym, you party hard and spend more time than 9-5 at work, it is likely that your body is sending you signals pleading for stress management and me time on a regular basis.

You think stress management is a waste of time, boring or too spiritual?

You haven’t tried the Leeds Tai Chi Body Flow class yet. It works whether you believe in chi/ qi which is described as life energy or vital force or not.

All you need to do is join in and breathe you will increase your vitality or chi automatically.

Try tai chi…

With anything that may hold the key to improving your wellness my recommendation is to try it yourself and then decide if you think you could get into it. It’s amazing how many people rely on others opinions to make their decisions. I had one situation where I offered to opportunity to try my class and the person said – no thanks, my friend tried Tai Chi in the past and said it is rubbish.

I didn’t like tai chi…

Guess what, I have tried a variety of Tai Chi classes and did not like the approach of how the instructor taught the class. In one I was given a couple of movements to practice by myself and was left to it while the instructor worked with other participants in stick work, in the other class I was given 5 moves to practice by myself – as soon as the instructor walked off I had forgotten what the movements were.

I was disappointed because in my mind Tai Chi was about flowing movements and I expected to be part of a group practice, I wanted to relax. Instead the situation caused me stress, I was told I needed to do the movements right to progress to further moves.

The experience of being left to it in a class could have put me off for life but instead I decided to learn to teach a form of tai chi myself so that I could offer others a more inclusive, effective relaxation practice other than yoga.

I feel having to concentrate on which move is next is counter productive to being in the moment and experiencing the body and can cause people performance stress.

You can have a look at how easy the Body Flow Tai Chi is, nice simple relaxing movements that anyone can follow.

Sign up for the newsletter and download your free short intro video of the Shibashi sequence to get an idea of how nice Tai Chi can be.

Which form of stress is affecting you?

Did you know stress has many forms; the most commonly recognised are stress at work, time pressure, financial issues and relationship problems?

Other stressors you may not have considered so far are:

• Physical: pain, lack or excessive movement, poor posture, digestive issues
• Chemical:  medications, pesticides on food, personal care and cleaning products, air pollution
• Electromagnetic: over-exposure to sunlight, medical X-rays, ELF- pollution emitted from electric devices
• Mental: negative thought patterns, bullying, studying excessively, religious and spiritual beliefs, too much work or responsibility, emotional trauma, depression
• Thermal stress: being too hot or too cold most of the time
• Food: quality, meal composition and affect on hormones
• Sleep: lack of sleep is a very big stressor not to be underestimated

This list is by no means exhaustive but it gives you an idea that stress can come from many sources, not just from being strapped for time.

Do you want to increase your productivity?

Tai Chi is amazing at helping you manage all forms of stressors. The slow, flowing movement soothes the body and the mind, it reduces the stress hormone levels in the body which when elevated chronically lead to a suppressed immune system and the ability to heal, think straight or even lose weight. Not managing your stress over a period of time can lead to disease.

I have experienced myself if you do not take the time to look after yourself now, your body will force you to take time to heal and repair through illness or disease.

Yes it sounds harsh but it is true, most of us know someone that has a chronic illness. It is a way of the body saying, “hey listen you didn’t listen to my signals to take care of me, can we change something now?”.

People with chronic conditions often manage to get better when they start practicing meditation, Yoga or Tai Chi. There are plenty of studies that have explored mindfulness practice and the effect on the body and mind with a variety of conditions such as arthritic conditions, depression and cancer.

I say, why wait to get unwell to change your ways; prevention is much easier and enjoyable than taking time off life to recover from sickness.

Now my favourite selling point is that taking time out for mindfulness practice will substantially increases productivity which in turn will give you more time to spend with the people you care about.

If you would like to find out how my Body Flow class could help you feel more balanced, join us on Monday nights at the Heart Centre in Headingley, Leeds at 19:15.

I look forward to welcoming you there.