Tai Chi

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The goal of t’ai chi at Outside-In is to provide you with a healthful and calming environment where continuous learning is encouraged, and where information on t’ai chi and chi gong is freely disseminated, so that you too can gain knowledge and enjoy the benfits of this ancient “healing” art.

T’ai chi ch’aun, or the “Fist” of t’ai chi, is a “method” that has been developed down through the centuries, which helps us as human beings to stay in sync with that ever-changing balance by giving us the ability to regulate:
  • Our physical body
  • Our breath
  • Our mind
  • Our chi, or “life force” which flows within us and animates us as the persons that we are in our daily lives;
  • Our “Spirit”, which is reflected in how we face each day.
These are called the “FIVE REGULATINGS”, and they form the “basis” of the teaching of t’ai chi at Outside-In. To aid us in “regulating” our minds, breath, chi and physical beings, we begin the practice of t’ai chi with a series of “chi gongs”, which are exercises based on “mind-directed energy” which we use to have our outer bodies flow through the various forms or postures that comprise a “t’ai chi set”.

These chi gongs consist of WUJI chi gong, also know as “Greet The Day” chi gong, or “Great Flexibility” chi gong for the mental and physical flexibility that it gives us in the practice of it, and YIN/YANG INTERCHANGE chi gong, where we gently go through a series of physical exercises that shape our bodies in varying ways that are directed by our minds through mental imagery from the names of the forms.

And this in its turn takes us directly into the chuan of t’ai chi, where we will be working initially with the standardized Yang family 24-form t’ai chi set that is practiced all over the world today, thanks to the modern information age that we are presently living in.

Simply stated, t’ai chi is the balance between heaven and earth, which, as the changing seasons constantly remind us, is a dynamic, ever-changing balance.

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