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T'ai Chi is a Daily Stress Floss

by Bill Douglas, Founder of World Tai Chi & Qigong Day

Copyright 2005

WORD COUNT: 899

As modern life is becoming increasingly intense, most of us think that we are the only one feeling it. But actually the entire planet is right there with you. Psychological research shows that change is stressful, even good change. Therefore, the fact that our generation is going through change at a rate never before experienced by humanity is creating an enormous feeling of pressure for all of us. We read magazines or newspaper articles about new technological breakthroughs, social upheaval, or breakthroughs in health science, and we think it is out there, and not really affecting us. However, everything we read, hear, or see is affecting us, and often by directly changing the way we live in our own minds and bodies.

We see our lives impacted by change as new technological breakthroughs seemingly keep us always running three steps behind the rest of the world. So, we are always having to figure out how to slide our credit card through the new gadget at the supermarket, or to read the prices of our purchases as they flash on the new customer-viewing screen. In our work we have to learn new computer upgrades, and stay up on the latest so that we can keep up with the world spinning 'round (as the Beatles once said). Our diets are all changing as health news via TV, print, and Internet is flashed before us with dire warnings and hopeful promises of expanded mortality and vibrance if we eat this or don't eat that. Also, our global human population's exceeding 6 billion people puts strains on the global environment that can affect how we eat, or how we set the thermostat in our house, or affect the type of car we purchase to conserve fuel, so that we don't add to the global problem, with our own behavior.

Just how fast is life changing? Bill Joy, Chief Scientist for Sun Microsystems, recently explained that with the advent of the information age the speed of change is not just doubling every eighteen months, but doubling exponentially every eighteen months. This is a bone jarring rate of change that is only getting faster, the information flooding our minds, airwaves and world, only makes it occur more and more rapidly. This affect of rapid change is perhaps best evidenced by the fact that, according the National Institute of Health, 70% of our illness is caused by stress – 70%! So, if change is stressful, and stress causes most illness, is there any hope for us in the future.

The answer is a resounding YES! Tai Chi & Qigong offer great promise for our future, as they enable us to cleanse the central nervous system of stress, by turning off the analytical mind for a few minutes. This process is not unlike what happens when you turn off your computer. Everyone who uses a PC has experienced how the system can get cludgy or buggy when too many functions are open and too many demands are being made on the computer's limited capacity. However, when you close all the programs and turn off the computer, you can hear all the tiny electrons crackling as the system shuts down. All the stimulation that jammed the circuitry is cleansed and released from the system, so that when you turn it back on a minute later, it functions in a much clearer and effective way. This is what Tai Chi & Qigong do for the central nervous system, which is at the root of all human function. If the central nervous system is cludgy from accumulated stress, nothing else works well, as our immune system, respiratory system, digestive system, and every other part of our physical function is diminished, just like all computer programs function poorly when the operating system at its core is cludgy with overstress.

What is exciting about this clarifying aspect of Tai Chi & Qigong is that as we all learn to clarify our thought processes through the use of these powerful ancient health tools, we may find simpler solutions to the growing complexity of modern life. Problems always seem huge and insurmountable when we are up against the wall with stress, but look less threatening and more manageable when we stop and breathe and relax. As millions worldwide practice Tai Chi & Qigong's breathing and relaxation techniques, we may discover simpler more compassionate answers to many personal and social problems facing our modern lives. The static in the circuitry of society may begin to clear, as each of us, "releases the rat race" from our own lives each day, by learning to breathe and relax in life. Tai Chi is a form of Qigong, and Qigong means breathing exercise. As the human body functions more clearly with relaxed breathing, so will our world clarify, as we each learn how to breathe even in the throes of modern change.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Bill Douglas is the Tai Chi Expert at DrWeil.com, Founder of World T'ai Chi & Qigong Day (held in 60 nations each year), and has authored and co-authored several books including a #1 best selling Tai Chi book The Complete Idiot's Guide to Tai Chi & Qigong. Bill's been a Tai Chi source for The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, etc. Bill is the author of the ebook, How to be a Successful Tai Chi Teacher (Namasta University Publishing). You can learn more about Tai Chi & Qigong, search a worldwide teachers directory, and also contact Bill Douglas at http://www.worldtaichiday.org