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arturo in Tai Chi

05-24-08

I’ve been practicing Tai Chi for over 5 years and it is definitely one of the best disciplines I’ve tried in my life. The society we are living in is great, there are so many options not only in work but in leisure, that we don’t take enough time to rest. In result, our biorhythm goes faster that it should. The consequence of this is of an alteration in our body that unbalances it, turning into illness, stress, anxiety, etc. 

There are many ways of getting “back to normal”, to many of us, just having a cool beer is the best way to calm down. And I agree, a nice cold beer in the park after a long day work is great. What happens when you don’t want to drink is that you don’t really know what to do, apart from going to the gym, meeting some friends or watching a movie. 

8 years ago I started practicing Kung Fu in Barcelona, with my teacher Waldir de Oliveira from Brazil. We trained the animal styles, the stances, and combat. Some time before, Waldir started getting into Tai Chi, and the whole group slowly switched into it until today, when very few of us carry on with Kung Fu. 

Many things could be said about Tai Chi, I’m not a master and the only thing that I’ve learnt in 5 years is that I’m not going to be a master, at least in the next 30 years. That makes you think. We are always in a hurry to get somewhere. When you are young to grow older, when you are older to be a bit older and have a car, a girlfriend and get into the disco. Then you want to be successful at work and climb high fast. Make lots of money, buy a bigger car and have children. Everything fast.

Taichi is not like that. It takes years to learn and the more you learn the less you know. Must be some relation with the taijitu… A part from that, something is for sure, your body balance improves not only in physical, but in a mental way as well. You start to need it as the air you breathe, the water you drink and the food you eat. It’s nutrition for your body. 

I’m an Art Director, I work in advertising, one of those most stressing disciplines in the market. And the worst thing about Advertising is that really it’s not that important to be so stressful. Everything was for yesterday, but it’s not that someone is going to die, like if you where a surgeon, it’s just some kind of invented pressure that probably makes people be more productive in the business. You work long days, long ours, sleep little, and the overall pressure really fucks up your brain. You can’t sleep, don’t rest well, like many of my friends in the business that have insomnia. This is when Tai Chi has to come in and slow you down. We practice some techniques before the lesson that teach your body how to rest, by acting directly on the nervous system. We lie on the floor with our legs up against a wall in an 90 degree angle, feet parallel to your hips and feet in a 90 degree angle in respect of your legs. With this technique we stretch all the nervous system and the column. It helps to rest and slow your body down before practicing Taichi or just before going to bed.  

There is much more to say about Tai Chi, but I bet I’m not the right person to talk about it. Tai Chi is an internal trip to yourself. It will help you balance your body and brain and it will make you see life from a different perspective. It is definitely a hard discipline if you want to really learn the basics. You will have to spend hours in a static position to understand what the movement is. Your legs will hurt, your brain will jump from one idea to the other in your head, and you will have to learn how to tell your brain to shut up. Pleasure takes some sacrifice before it. 

These are some of my experiences about Taichi, I will be writing some more in the future, like what styles I’ve practiced and which one I’m practicing now. I will also talk about the benefits of Tai Chi in your body and brain and also how it relaxes your muscles after surfing or any other demanding sport. 

• Tags: Tai Chi