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Tai chi

Have you ever felt like life is getting more stressful lately? Yes, it is and because of the rapidly escalating stress in today’s world, Tai Chi is gaining worldwide popularity. It was purposely designed to help people go through change with a little less damage by improving the way we handle stress. It is a fact, as studies show, that change has been the major cause of stress in our fast-paced life nowadays and Tai Chi is conveniently here to slow things down so we can maximize all our energies and let life spin within our hands while we are on the center controlling it.

Tai Chi Chuan, T'ai Chi Ch'üan or Taijiquan (which literally means "Supreme Ultimate Fist") commonly known in modern times as Tai Chi, is an internal Chinese martial art characterized by a series of slow, graceful movements organized into a set pattern. It is considered a soft style martial art whose aim is to harmonize the mind, body and spirit in order to promote both the mental and physical well-being through softness and relaxation.

There are actually three primary subjects involve in the study of Tai Chi namely:

• Health – someone who has an unhealthy or otherwise uncomfortable will have difficultly meditating to a state of calmness or using T'ai Chi as a martial art therefore T'ai Chi's health training concentrates on relieving the physical effects of stress on the body and mind.
• Meditation – it is necessary to be focused on meditation and subsequent calmness cultivated by the meditative aspect of T'ai Chi to maintain optimum health (in the context of homeostasis) and in order for it to be used as a soft style martial art.
• Martial Art – the proof that the health and meditation aspects are effectively working basing on the theory of T'ai Chi Ch'üan is the ability to competently use T'ai Chi as a martial art.

Five major modern styles evolved through the study above and they are: the Chen, Yang, Wu, Sun and Wu Hao. These modern disciplines sprang from the different families that revolutionized the Tai Chi exercise and even within a style; precise movements have changed from generation to generation. The different variations almost suited to specifically to a particular body type or even personality. However, all the    styles share fundamental movements that appear to be identifiable as similar like single whip, ward off, repulse monkey among others. If you cannot see the similarities after taking two styles it may be that at least one of them is not genuine Tai Chi.

Taoist Tai Chi can bring a wide range of health benefits to the muscular, skeletal and circulatory systems when practiced regularly since the flowing movements of Taoist Tai Chi serve as a graceful moving meditation that reduces stress and provides a way to promote body and mind.

It has been established that long-term T'ai Chi practice have favorable effects on the promotion of balance control, flexibility and cardiovascular fitness and reduced the risk of falls in elders. Researchers reported reduced pain, stress and anxiety in healthy subjects. It has also indicated improved cardiovascular and respiratory function in healthy subjects even to those who had undergone coronary artery bypass surgery. Patients who suffered from heart failure, high blood pressure, heart attacks, arthritis and multiple sclerosis also benefited from T'ai Chi. The reduction of the symptoms of young Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) sufferers has appeared to be greatly influence by the practice of T'ai Chi.

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