Tai Chi for Beginners - Weds 11 April - Inspire Dance Studio

Pretty much everyone who's come along to my Chi Kung Plus classes has been more interested in learning Tai Chi, so that's how I'm going to focus them now.
NEXT CLASS: Wednesday 11 April at Inspire Dance Studio, 7pm to 8pm.
I was looking for good images to use for posters and flyers, and some brilliant cat photos came up on Facebook. It's interesting that a lot of Tai Chi and other martial art movements come from the observation of animals: the snake fighting the crane, the "animal frolics", and so on.

Cat doing Tai Chi? Brilliant photos of cats playing by Hisakata Hiroyuki.

These classes are for complete beginners, and all ages and fitness levels. I've split the form I learned up into easy-to-learn chunks so that you will have something to practise straightaway. Though this makes it as simple as possible, and it's intended to be fun, there are many immediate benefits from learning Tai Chi: improved balance, suppleness, relaxation, better energy and much more. It might have its roots many hundreds of years ago in the mountains of China but Tai Chi is as relevant, or maybe even more so, than ever in a crazy, stressful world.

First Perth Chi Kung Plus Class

Thanks for your company everyone who came to the first class here in Perth last night, what a great bunch you are! Next class is in two weeks time, the 21st March, see you then. Inspire is a very friendly place and brilliant for teaching with its mirror wall, which makes it possible to demonstrate a move and watch people at the same time.
As well stretching and the personal and interpersonal energy work I had planned, I slipped in the Short Short Tai Chi form which I developed while I was helping Steve Jones to run and teach his Sector39 Permaculture courses back down in Shropshire.

Birth of the Short Short Form in Treflach Farmyard

Steve is really an afternoon-evening person whereas I'm more of a morning one, so it worked out well to fit in some Tai Chi before classes started, and the students found it really helpful. The courses were just two weeks long so there wasn't time to teach a full form - I learned the Cheng Man Ching Sort Form, which even though "short" still takes weeks and weeks to learn. My Short Short Form is a condensed version of it which you can pick up quite quickly but still has a lot of the basic elements and movements. You would find it a good start if you ever went on to learn a full form but will still give lots of benefits just on its own.

Movement in Stillness

One of the first things we learn in CranioSacral Therapy is Stillpoint Induction, bringing about a temporary pause in the craniosacral rhythm through light touch and focused intention.

Into the stillness,"Three Worlds", by Escher

It's a therapeutic moment for the release of restriction and readjustment, and patients find it very relaxing.