A few months ago we talked about the signs of progress in your qigong practice. For so many of us, the issue of “progress” is central to qigong or Tai Chi practice, since we are driven by the desire to get it right, to solve a problem like a health issue, or to reach an amorphous and elusive spiritual goal. But what if we completely abandoned the idea of outcomes and perfection in practice?

Anyone who has suffered back pain, especially lower back pain, understands from listening to doctors and therapists that much of their problems are the result of years of bad posture. The spine is meant to curve in a certain manner to allow the nervous and circulatory systems to function at their optimum. When we slouch, sag our shoulders, even stand too straight, such as maintaining a military like posture, we force the spine into unnatural positions.

One of the biggest benefits that you can get from studying Tai Chi is to improve your physical and mental health. What most people do not understand about Tai Chi, even some beginning students, is that the power to do this comes not from the muscles but from the Chi. It is much easier for non-spiritual people to visualize the body as a complete of electrical circuits and the Chi as the electrical potential that runs across those circuits.

In his new book, the Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi, Dr. Peter Wayne lays out the “8 Active Ingredients of Tai Chi” to help us understand the interface between traditional Tai Chi practice and the Western biomedical paradigm. As the Research Director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, jointly based at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and the founder of the Tree of Life Tai Chi Center, Peter blends more than three decades of teaching experience with ongoing inquiry into what makes Tai Chi an effective medical intervention.

Tai Chi has the potential to solve many common posture-related problems, but only if you follow the correct Tai Chi principles. Specifically, you want to pay attention to the body alignments that unify the arms, legs, and spine, creating effortless openness throughout the skeletal system. In Tai Chi, the way you hold your neck and head and release the pelvis into the legs are the exact opposite of what those of us who sit all day do.

Download Instructions: Each of the workouts listed below is approximately 20 minutes long. To download, right click and save each file to your device. If you have any problems with the downloads, contact me here.

Movements from the Wu Style Short Form Commencement Play the Lute Peng Lu and Ji An Single Whip Shoulder Stroke Shoulder Stroke Series White Crane Spreads Wings Transition to First Brush Knee Brush Knee Sequence

Here is my mid-week update from Tai Chi Immersion Week 2013 at Brookline Tai Chi. It’s pretty cool to see folks come from all over to train for a week, but you really have to have the right mind set to make the most of the format. See what I mean here: http://youtu.be/tBOBhSljYNo When you practice, be sure to include a clear: Warm-up: where you settle in and transition from the rest of your day.

The Western medical community has, for the last two decades, begun to integrate Eastern medical treatment paradigms with western routines and have been getting some amazing results. Not only are movement arts like Tai Chi and Qigong working to relieve stress and rehabilitate injuries, it is now being used to treat much deeper conditions like Parkinson´s Disease. There have been several studies that have indicated that the slow controlled movements of Tai Chi significantly improve balance and stability in Parkinson´s patients.