The Dragon's Head Blog
Health Benefits
Already eleven months and always present!
Confined but not suffocated or isolated! Our instructors have never stopped repeating to us, without ever getting tired: “Do some foundation movements, a little, every day…” At first, my practise was very limited, often in the early morning. I found it easy to start but harder to continue. There is always some distraction ready to […]
Changing habits
56 years ago my mother passed away. I was 10. Since then I have lived a pretty wreckless life. Smoking has been one of my coping mechanisms for the last 40 years until 6 years ago, when Taoist Tai Chi gave me the strength to stop. I ordered a plaque for my mother, for All […]
Pain is out!
During the latest lockdown, I hardly found time to practice. Indeed, I was having twice my normal amount of work, in addition to the daily household chores (including looking after 4 kids). My body paid for it: I felt more stressed and tensed and recently got a block in my upper back. I called the […]
The best out of the worst
During the first months of self-practice, I was practicing very high Don-Yus. This allowed me to relax a lot the cervical and lumbar area. By spending so many hours working in front of the computer, they were parts of the body very vulnerable to pain. I managed to incorporate the 50 Don-Yus into my daily […]
Costa Rica
I would like to share my experience in these times, and something that was said at some point in the meetings on Saturdays comes to my mind: “In difficult times opportunities arise …”. For me it has been a great opportunity to learn more about the Fung Loy Kok Institute of Taoism. The teachings […]
The right course
We’ve recently discussed one of the guidelines from Fung Loy Kok directors at our ZOOM meeting with Polish members. It was about having a notebook to make notes regarding our individual practice and the progress we make and changes we can observe while being on the Taoist Tai Chi® training path. Włodek, a member from […]
Take responsibility
Thanks to regular zoom meetings with the leaders of our organisation, I’ve come to realise several challenges in these difficult times when restrictions change our ordinary lives. One of the key messages for me is to take responsibility for yourself, for your training. It means trusting yourself, trusting instructions we have received and still receive […]
Opportunities through Adversity
The adversity of this time of pandemic has given me the opportunity to realize the importance of being conscious and consistent, both in the practice of tai chi, as in the zoom and chanting sessions. Sharing all this gives way to words and emotions, such as: consistency, patience, awareness, connection, attention, observation, letting go and […]
Finding A New Grace
Everyone probably has lockdown stories to tell: here is mine. Even after years of Tai Chi, I still sometimes wondered if I could get through a set without clues from my fellow practitioners, but was determined to try and do a set each day during lockdown. I had fallen in love with Tai Chi from […]
Making The Pain Go Away
“I just wanted to tell you about something that’s happened since Lockdown. I’ve been diagnosed with osteoarthritis in both hips, and was getting quite a bit of hip pain until I finally got a diagnosis. Then I remembered something that we had been told at CIT week in Orangeville, back in 2009, about how dan-yus […]
Personal Stories / USA
Since doing sets on my own for over eight months now, an interesting thing has happened. At first it seemed strange to practice alone, without a group. I felt oddly self-conscious, even though no one was watching. Over time, though, I stopped worrying about that and just started focusing on how my body felt while […]
Growing through the pandemic
My experience these past nine months has been of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual growth. On March 13th we were confined. I have a 12-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl with special needs, quite an experience. I would get up at 6 in the morning to practice Tai Chi. It was my moment of peace, […]
Managing stress and anxiety with daily practise
Before the pandemic, Taoist Tai Chi® arts was something I only practised when attending a weekly class on a Friday night. In between classes, I rarely gave it a thought. Having been suffering with anxiety and stress, I attended a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy course in February which gave me some tools to use. This became […]
I’m grateful to the Society
I am 75 years old. I have been doing tai chi for seven years, but a year ago I had to stop attending classes because I am taking care of my husband, with senile dementia. Thanks to the years that I have been doing tai chi, today I can say that I am doing quite […]
Self-Practice is Self-Care
Self-practice has been a struggle for me. My husband spent eight weeks in hospital after February 29th, and passed away in early May. During that time my focus was on him, not myself. I have found the chanting and Zoom meetings invaluable to my mental health. Not only are they very educational, they also make […]
Feeling the energy and the togetherness
On Saturday I logged on to ‘Chanting for the world’ for the first time. I didn’t chant but just soaked up the feeling and followed one of the chants that I had printed out. I found it very relaxing and enjoyed listening to the speakers. When the chanting was finished I realised that I […]
Devoting time to improve my health
I had been practicing more or less regularly, but I did it as a kind of homework: I practiced what I had seen at a class, at a workshop or a correction I had received. Lockdown began and with it my fear of getting infected, the uncertainty about the future and sadness about what was […]
The fog has lifted
Before the pandemic I did not practice every day and when I did, it was in most cases for physical reasons. When the confinement began I felt fear, anguish and anxiety, I do not know in what order. I felt as if I had a fist inside that imprisoned the viscera and did not leave […]
Surprising health benefits of Taoist Tai Chi
Thanks to the intense practice of Taoist Tai ChiTM arts such as we have been able to do since last May, after confinement, the significant visual disturbances from which I had been suffering for about a year and a half, disappeared. The ophthalmologist, who had planned an operation of cataracts this year put it off […]
THE POWER OF TAOIST TAI CHI
Life at the moment is full of emotion and grief and Taoist Tai ChiTM arts have been an absolute saviour. My first “light bulb” moment happened when I was doing A Danyu challenge. I did forty danyus and then the next ten slowly, really concentrating in pushing with the feet and allowing the […]
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