Tai Chi Tuesday: Wu Chi Position, or How to Increase Chi Flow

If you have been practicing Tai Chi Chuan for a couple of years abut you do not not feel chi flow through your entire body, check your body positioning.

Get into your best wu chi position. Have someone take a picture of your positioning.

Now, ask yourself the following questions about your position:

1. Back: slightly rounded?
2. Crown of your head: pointed upward. (chin slightly and gently tucked downward).
3. Hips: tucked underneath you?
4. Knees: bent enough? (For most people, it's about two inches.)
5. Chest: slightly rounded and hollow?
6. Feet: about shoulder width apart?
7. Sole of the foot: can you feel it? (Triangle made by the ball of the little toe, ball of the big toe and the heel).
8. Shoulders: down and relaxed?

Make adjustments as necessary.

When you are ready, form a small ball with your hands in front of your body. (Your arms should be down and relaxed, hands relaxed with fingers slightly opened).

Breathe into your dan tien. After a minute or two, you should feel your tai chi ball.

Remember, the feeling is not the same for everyone: you could be heat, vibration, tingling or magnetic with opposing polarities.

When you do get a sensation, hold it for a couple of minutes, and repeat to be sure what you felt was real (though, in most cases, there is little doubt).

Be sure to practice often — and find a class, and a teacher, in your area to help you. Feel free to e-mail me if you have questions or need help finding a class.

Tai Chi Tuesday: Chi Demonstration Revisited

I originally recorded a demonstration in which I  moved my brother Bob with my chi.

However, after I shared it, a number of viewers told me they thought it was rigged.

I re-did the demonstration with Matt, telling him as little as possible beforehand. This is what happened.

Tai Chi Tuesday: Breathing

Becoming more sensitive to Chi energy, by request.

Tai Chi Tuesday: Relaxation is the Key

Welcome back to Tai Chi Tuesday.

Here is a tip I have been sharing with my advanced students: it's the meditative relaxation of Tai Chi that makes it a formidable martial art.

Even if you have not reached  the stage of being able to produce Jin, you still gain more power by being relaxed than by being tense.

Also, with Chi, awareness comes the ability of feeling your opponent's intentions before they happen. This makes it much easier to guide an opponent off his /her center in order to counter-attack.

Tai Chi classics say, "Move a thousand pound with four ounces." If we tense our bodies, we already have exceeded the four ounces.

Tai Chi Sensation Link

Read this chart by Professor Yu Yong Nian, which shows possible sensations you may experience while practicing Zahn Zhuang.

Zahn Zhuang is a series of breathing exercises intended to teach how to cultivate Chi.

These exercise are widely used for Tai Chi and Ba Gua practice. it is also used for medicinal purposes.