TAI CHI
Breathing with Flowing Movement

Improve your health and unravel the stress and tension before it becomes pain.
Improve your balance, poise, coordination and mental focus.

Tai Chi is the practice of slow, whole body movements coordinated with
deep breathing to enhance physical and emotional well being.
Tai Chi offers a gentle exercise that relaxes the body and quiets the mind.

This form is the open, flowing Yang style - Han method.
Ron’s teaching style is comfortable, warm and friendly. 

 

Where:

         Pulaski Heights
United Methodis Church
         4823 Woodlawn
         501- 664-3600
 

 

When:

 Monday evenings 
4:45 - 6:00 p.m.

 

Cost: 

$8/ class 
$1 discount for PHUMC members
The first class is free.
Come check it out. 

 

What to Wear :
Come to class wearing ordinary flexible layered clothing you can move in and breathing is comfortable. 
Shoes are optional for the practice, or select flat shoes that help with balance.  The floors are cushioned!

What to expect: 
Anyone can begin to learn at any time.  No experience or talent is necessary.  Pretty much, if you can get to class under your own power, you can do Tai Chi.  As you practice and learn the form, self-adjustments are encouraged.  The hour is a slow and easy practice of set movements coordinated with the breath.   
The Form is done slowly, deliberately, and smoothly with intention, attention, and relaxation. 

 

Although Tai Chi is a martial art, I practice and teach the form for its health and well-being benefits.  Here below are links to just a few descriptions of the benefits of Tai Chi.  I encourage you to research Tai Chi on your own.  The more I learn about it, the more I imagine how many people could improve their well being and quality of life through occasional practice.
About Tai Chi  

US National Center on Complementary and Alternative Medicine- NCAM:
    http://nccam.nih.gov/health/taichi/
PREVENTION MAGAZINE:
   go to www.prevention.com  and search:  Tai Chi.   I saw 8 pages of results.

Stress and tensions build and accumulate slowly.  It gets us knotted up here and there and leads to dis-ease, pain, and many kinds of health problems.  We all know that doing some kind of regular breath-movement practice makes a person healthier.  Breathing and circulation are increased and stresses are released.  With Tai Chi, one combines the movements with breath and relaxed awareness.  It is a great way of building health, strength, focus, and balance.    

About me:
After a great deal of desk work and computer work, too many stresses,  not enough exercise,  and accumulating birthdays, I began to encounter some health and agility issues that hadn't been there before.   I tried several physical therapies and they helped, but I did not want to become dependent on them, always getting "fixed".  Yoga is generally a healthy movement  exercise, so I started once a week at first, then twice a week, and now I generally  practice as often as I can.  Although I've been blessed with some really good teachers, I could never get the hang of a way to do a yoga practice at home or on my own.  And, since I love being outdoors, I wanted a practice I could also do outside somehow. 

In 2005, while volunteer teaching at the Hays Center in North Little Rock, I met Master Jeremy Fox and soon began learning a variation of the Yang style of Tai Chi called the Han method.  I really enjoy the practice itself and always come away feeling healthier, more  balanced and grounded.  Practicing outside or in nature adds a new dimension.   Combining the form with breath awareness significantly improved the experience.  Practicing the form can sometimes be a moving meditation too, being in the flow of the form.  The payoff for me is the benefits to health and well-being.