Inspiring Women Magazine May 2021

FEATURE
What is Tai Chi?
Roxey Lau, member of Munich
IWC, tells us about the practice
of tai chi and its role in her life.
Tai chi, besides being a Chinese martial art, is a
holistic healing art that embraces body, mind and
spirit. It involves a system of exercises or
movements that promote health, prevent
degenerative illnesses and promote longevity.
Often described as “meditation in motion,” it can
just as well be called “medication in motion,” due
to its wide array of health benefits. Tai chi
movements exercise the entire body, not just
individual muscles or muscle groups. It stimulates
circulation and vital organs, aligns bones,
mobilizes joints, enhances breathing, and
improves balance, posture and coordination.
The importance of good posture
Most children enjoy natural and unrestricted
movements. But as they grow up, many start to
lose this quality of movement. Incorrect alignment
of the frame – the bones, joints and muscles – can
lead to structural problems, such as slipped discs,
back pain and joint malfunction. Tai chi teaches
body awareness, so that good posture, when
lying, sitting, standing and moving, becomes
natural. One of the main aims of tai chi is to
restore to the adult body the flexibility it enjoyed
in early childhood.
Tai chi origins
According to Chinese legends, about a thousand
years ago, during the Song Dynasty, a man named
Zhang San Feng one day came upon a fight
between a magpie and a snake. Zhang was awestruck
at the constant repositioning of the two
creatives who shifted effortlessly from attack to
defense and back again, finally breaking off, as if
by mutual agreement, and going their separate
ways. Zhang marveled at the fluidity of those
movements and the wonderful appropriateness
of their ever-changing stances. Suddenly
enlightened, he saw a previously unidentified
source of strength within the human body.
Zhang recognized that the quality present in the
martial dance of the snake and the magpie was
nothing more than softness, a mysterious and
powerful element that could be developed in
human beings. He decided to find out how. To
prove that softness overcomes hardness in the
fighting arts, Zhang withdrew from the world for
several years to test his hypothesis.
Eventually, he succeeded in creating a wondrous
style that differed from all the other systems of
martial arts in his time. Today Zhang’s principles
and method of training have come to be known as
tai chi.
The philosophy of Taoism
Roxey with some of the children she has taught
Tai chi stems from the philosophy of Taoism, an
ancient Chinese system of thought that attempts
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