People have various reasons for practising some are listed below:
Increased self knowledge and awareness
Developing mind/body harmony
Improving health
Learning to become more balanced and centred. Assisting regeneration of the body and injuries. Increasing available Energy and movement of energy to stimulate and heal. Joining in a group practice. As a moving meditation
Increa
sing ability to communicating with others. Improved sports performance. Self defence Martial Arts Applications. And more....
In fact there are probably an infinite number of reasons why people practice Tai Chi. It is almost inherent in the philosophy that each individual find his own way. It is through the practices and the forms that we are enabled to find our own "Tao" (Way) - which cannot be spoken of and has no name. So in Tai Chi we do in order to experience. The Tai Chi Forms have come from the Martial Arts and have been refined for health purposes. When we look at different postures they have specific martial art applications. Eastern science locates the body's energy centre at the Tan Tien (cinnabar field) below the navel. In Taoism and Tai Chi Chuan there is the concept of sending Qi (vital energy) to the Tan Tien to create Jing (vital essence). This energy circles the body via the meridians. Movement in Tai Chi comes from the Tan Tien energy centre. In the Tai Chi form the movements assist this energy to travel around the body and at the same time the internal organs are stimulated and offer health benefits. Each individual move sends energy in a different way (health aspect for different parts of the body) and by the end of the form the energy has been completely circulated. There are many different styles of Tai Chi which emerged through different teachers. So the styles became named after the past masters such as Yang, Wu, Sun, Hao, Chen and so on. Classes: (Based on the Yang style long form)
