Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, October 19, 2017,
LTCI is very pleased to share a link of one of our clients giving a TED Talk:
Tom Ilube is a really great person, having been named Black Man of the Year for his work in setting up a school in Ghana, to attract girls from all over Africa to study Physics, Maths and other subjects to A Level. This means that whatever their previous lack of opportunity, Tom is ensuring they now have the chance to excel in their studies, with a view to changing things for Africa as a whole in the future.
His talk...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Tuesday, August 29, 2017,
One of the great things about this job is the wide variety of clients and classes!
LTCI's clients have included:
Corporate events, Kew Friends Week, festivals and short courses, dementia groups, individual learners for private tuition, Muslim
women's groups and health club
classes among others. We do every size of group from individuals, to small groups, then up to 150 participants, depending on our clients' requirements. It's just great
getting to meet all sorts of people from all walks of...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, June 15, 2017,
UPDATE:
Online donations can be given at
dispossessedfund.org.uk
i went along this morning to drop off some cash and was able to do so at
the first Community Centre I came to, two minutes walk away from
Latimer Road station, turn right as you come out the station. You can't turn left, as the road is blocked with police tape. One of many community centres and local amenities and religious places of all faiths
that have opened their doors to help out in this disaster.
WHERE IS THE GOVERNME...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Monday, May 15, 2017,
For the first day of Friends Week, I woke up at 4am, like a kid waking early for Christmas! Only to discover it was pouring with rain, so I wondered how many people, if any, would turn up in such weather?
Well, I was pleasantly surprised to find that 21 brave souls turned up early morning on a Monday, on a rainy day, to try out tai chi at Kew Gardens.. Luckily the spot we'd chosen has a nice huge tree, like a giant umbrella, big enough for people to have room to move without bumping into each ...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Monday, April 24, 2017,
This is my favourite event of the year - Friends Week in the stunning setting of Kew Gardens has a range of exciting and fascinating activities exclusively for Friends of Kew, to celebrate their continuing support to the Gardens.
Last year, I had the great pleasure of running tai chi sessions, then wandering around the Gardens to try out these lovely, special things!
Details of all the activities on offer are at
http://www.kew.org/kew-gardens/whats-on/friends-weekTai chi sessions will be at 9:0...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Monday, December 19, 2016,
Christmas is almost upon us again - be excellent to each other! By all means enjoy family, feasting and fun, but also remember that Christmas is a time to think of being supportive to others and doing something good to help people. Particularly at this time of year, think about the homeless - The Big Issue is one of the charities that help, by giving "a hand up, not a hand out". If you look at one of my Kabuto Noodles videos, you will see a couple of Big Issue vendors who spontaneously enjoye...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Monday, August 8, 2016,
I have to thank a lot of people for bringing this book to fruition, but most especially the kids! My kids class showed me immediately what worked and what didn't, so this book is the result of continuous feedback from them.
I had a number of people helping me with it - who are all thanked in the book - but most importantly it was the parents who trialled it on their own kids, or the other instructors who tested it when giving their own lessons, that really helped make it a very practical book.... Continue reading ...
Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Tuesday, June 28, 2016,
This week's events have been traumatic, to say the
least. Every client I've seen has been in shock, as I am myself. So
how to deal with the feelings? The help and support of friends and
family is great, obviously, but we're all in pain together and
switching off to it is very hard.
One thing I found that helps both myself and my clients
is to do the tai chi form counting – these take so much
concentration, that after an hour of doing purely that, both they and
I had managed not to think ...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Friday, May 6, 2016,
So many people are stressed, that
they find it hard to relax into just being themselves. There's always
a deadline, or a difficult task, or demanding people; always
something that works against being relaxed.
When I first started tai chi, I
was extremely stressed and one of my friends asked how I could
possibly manage to go out to tai chi after work, but tai chi was the
only time I could just do things, just work at my own pace, just be
myself. Indeed, knowing I had tai chi in the eveni...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, May 5, 2016,
People keep asking me if they can
lose weight doing tai chi. There are two answers to this – both yes
and no apply:
I myself lost 20kg through doing
tai chi and changing my diet. However, my intention hadn't been to
lose weight – having tried a conventional diet and been driven mad
by counting the minutes until the next bite of food was allowed, I'd
given up on those. Also, at that time (ten years ago), I was living a
truly unhealthy lifestyle – I'd go home, have a ready meal and fl...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, April 27, 2016,
This is a recurring theme among
learners – they are so keen to get it right, that they worry about
getting it wrong. A better approach is to not just accept that you
are making mistakes, but to actually be happy that you are noticing
your mistakes, as this means that you are on the road to being able
to correct those mistakes and you are making good progress!
Whether you are in a class
learning the single forms, or in a class learning their way through
the form step by step, or in a cla...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Monday, February 15, 2016,
While the date of Chinese New Year was a little while ago, the celebrations were only just held yesterday in London's Chinatown and surrounding area. I was extremely pleased by the way they'd organised it to be so spread out, because I remember being crushed so far beyond sardines in previous years, when it was confined to just the actual Chinatown area, so this year was much better!
I've put a set of photos on LTCI's facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/LondonTaiChiInstructors/ with comm...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Saturday, December 19, 2015,
Many people translate "wu wei" as meaning things will just happen, but there's more to it than that:
For ages, I have been planning out my back garden... Since I'm not the world's keenest gardener, but still want a nice tranquil place to have green growing stuff, sit out in, as well as practice my tai chi, it's taken me a while to work out what would fit all those different requirements.
So, in preparation for next year, I have now created a middle paved space for room enough to twirl around in...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Tuesday, December 8, 2015,
People
these days are very goal-oriented, which can be a good thing in the
business world, where people have to work to deadlines, but which can
hold you back in your tai chi life.
Tai
chi is all about working on yourself, to cultivate a progressive
change over a long time, so that you will be more relaxed and more
healthy and more mindful. The harder you work to achieve any of these
things in a particular time-frame, it will actually hold you back.
If
you think of plants growing, they don't ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Monday, November 30, 2015,
Well, very few people ask this question. It's just what they expect, that tai chi should be slow, but the why is important. Doing it slowly allows you to feel where the weight is with each movement, which helps with your balance. More than that, it also strengthens your legs over time, just as much as hard exercise, but in a low-impact way. Then again, over time you have the opportunity to develop mindfulness:
Think of riding a bike - when you first start, everything not only feels strange, bu...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, November 18, 2015,
Whenever I see tai chi on tv, it always seems to be old people in parks. Fair enough really, that's the idea I had of tai chi before I started doing it. So it was a bit of a surprise to turn up at an indoor tai chi lesson and find one person waving a sword around and another person twirling a spear, neither of whom were particularly aged...
The younger you start tai chi, the better, as with anything - children have their brains much more switched on to absorb things! However, I took up tai chi...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, November 18, 2015,
Many people who come to tai chi are very eager to achieve the smooth flowing movements - myself included when I started out.
However, it's best just to practise getting the weighting on the feet/legs right first, because if the arms are smoothly flowing and the feet/legs are all wrong, you're not actually achieving anything - the whole body needs to be moving as one unit.
So take your time to get the feet and legs feeling right with the proper weighting, before you get concerned about smoothly ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Tuesday, November 17, 2015,
This week, I read in the paper that having strong legs was a good indicator for staving off dementia an extra 5 years. One theory is that people who have strong legs are generally fitter, but another theory is that having strong legs ensures better blood circulation, so the brain gets more oxygen and nutrients.
Not being a medical specialist, I can't comment on either theory, but doing tai chi and/or chi kung (qigong) will help strengthen your legs, as both are done standing. Indeed one of th...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Monday, November 16, 2015,
It's so nice to be out in the parks in Autumn, with the leaves changing colour and falling! Today I went to Kensington Gardens (which has a lovely setting of fountains and trees) and practised in the peaceful setting - very satisfying.
There are many benefits to practising in parks, but today's unexpected one was that I was assailed by lots of ideas for blog topics, cascading into a list of 20+ items, so the next 20+ days will be one idea after another. I hope you find them enjoyable and useful!
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Sunday, November 15, 2015,
While we have a number of different types of clients (corporate / groups / individuals / etc), I always like doing community health events, because it's nice to give people the opportunity to engage with all sorts of services. The latest such event was a mixture of organisations: physical health, mental health, sports, healty eating, kids' activities and henna decorating.
I arrived early enough that I could talk to people from each of these organisations, including MIND (who had requested I do...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Saturday, November 14, 2015,
With Autumn here and Winter imminent, it's time to talk about avoiding falls. Last year, a lot of the groups seen had someone with a broken wrist or ankle, caused by slipping on leaves or (later) on snow. Ask your instructor to show you one an exercise we do that helps people avoid slipping and falling!
The main problem with falling is that people fall forward or backward and attempt to save themselves with putting out their hands, which is how they get broken wrists. The exercise your instruc...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, June 24, 2015,
It's hard to believe that the Spicy Lates festival is nearly over - it's gone so fast! It was wonderful to be invited back to Kew again, to do tai chi, as part of the whole range of activities on offer. Wonderful too, to reconnect with some of the people who tried out tai chi at last year's Kew Plantasia festival, as well as fantastic to introduce new people to trying out tai chi this year too.
I always like visiting Kew, with its beautiful plants, glasshouses, trees and so forth. With its won...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, April 22, 2015,
Sometimes I think how lucky I am - I get to do what I love and introduce other people to it too:
Today I had a nice lazy lie-in (after 30 years of getting up at 6 am, I really enjoy a later start!), followed by meandering my way to my first group of the day - a lunchtime session with people who like to do the single form exercises, over and over, one after another. This class helps people get a feel for each form and relax by just following and copying. Relaxation is the number one thing to ...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Tuesday, February 24, 2015,
One of my interests outside of tai chi is Tudor painting. I just love all the detail and all the bling, as well as the symbolism used. Today I visited the National Portrait Gallery, which has an excellent collection of Tudor portraits. It's really great to get so close to these paintings, which are hundreds of years old and to be able to see all the details, down to the actual brush strokes.
Tudor painting is like tai chi in that the stunning effects of realism and sparkling jewels are built u...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Sunday, February 1, 2015,
On Sundays, together with a second instructor, I do a family class for parents and/or children. So one instructor does the adults, while the other (me) does the kids....
One of the adults asked recently (seeing the kids with their various colour belts) if they did exactly the same gradings as the adults? Short answer is "no". A longer answer is needed to explain the difference:
The adults' programme is very set in stone, to gently lead people to develop their practise in certain directions, so...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, January 15, 2015,
Last night I was practising one side of a san shou on my own (for those who haven't tried san shou, it's a two person set), and was happily just thinking about where my feet were and what they were doing. This is the essence of mindfulness - feeling one part of your body, rather than being subject to the storm of thoughts.
My own teacher complimented me afterwards on how peacefully I'd been doing it and I realised that my form had improved generally through just one thing.
I've been having som...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Monday, January 5, 2015,
As the title says, Happy New Year to everyone!
After a holiday spent indulging in concentrated eating, drinking, fun and presents, time to get back into the normal routine, This is a great opportunity to take stock of things at home (recycling, cleaning, tossing out, starting new projects), but also to take stock of things in life too.
It's easy to get into habits, without thinking, yet we all have only one life, so thinking about what makes our life a positive experience and what doesn't is es...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Saturday, November 15, 2014,
Thinking about diets, I remembered that I'd read an article by a doctor (can't recall his name though) who had been running a weight loss programme at his clinic, but then noticed that some of the participants had left when they *lost* weight. His follow-up interviews with some of them apparently led him to conclude that for these particular people their weight had been working for them, as camouflage to escape trauma or post-traumatic situations. I believe he went on to do a full study and ...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Friday, November 14, 2014,
When I first started tai chi, I had been a couch potato and had reached size 20 (85kg). With the regular practise of tai chi and a little practise at home every day, I also changed how I was eating. The combination of gentle exercise and change in food habits meant that I lost weight slowly, until I reached my present size 14 (65kg).
I'm not a doctor or a diet specialist, but since my diet worked for me, I thought I'd share it here:
The diet I made up for myself was based on what I had read we...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Friday, October 31, 2014,
By regular *slow* practise of tai chi and chi kung, your stamina will improve. This was demonstrated this week by students in two different classes that I teach: One was sweating after doing slow tai chi form, and the other was surprised how much work he was doing in the chi kung sequence, since it just seemed like a bunch of slow easy movements...
When you look at the stereotypical people doing tai chi or chi kung in the park, it looks like nothing, because it's all slow motion. But it's the ...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Friday, October 31, 2014,
Recently the Grandmaster came over to the UK as part of the celebrations for Wu's Tai Chi Chuan Academy's 25 year anniversary, and he has written an introduction to the anniversary book.
The book is a real treasure trove of tai chi history, with many photographs and articles, a really interesting read! Not only that, but there are some real thought-provoking nuggets in there, which certainly got me thinking about various issues, to help me improve myself...
The book is available through
http:/... Continue reading ...
Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Friday, October 31, 2014,
When you're a beginner, you don't see the full curriculum of tai chi stuff in action, so I was really pleased to get hold of the 25 year anniversary video from Wu's Tai Chi Chuan Academy shop
http://www.wustyle-europe.com/shop.html This gem includes footage of all sorts of tai chi activities, including my own favourites of
- Sifu getting people to jump from a height down onto his stomach, as he lay flat on the floor, then they bounce off and he gets up unhurt - simply amazing!
- pushing hands of v...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, October 30, 2014,
As regular readers know, I go to practise in the parks, because I like the trees and natural-ish surroundings... This blog takes extracts from an article that originally appeared in Slant Flying (the club magazine for Wu's Tai Chi Chuan Academy in Bethnal Green) about my park practising experiences abroad:Using the Bad Homburg tourist office, I booked into an incredibly cheap dive near the main park, so that I could get some tai chi practise in the morning, before doing touristy stuff. Then t...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, October 30, 2014,
I hear this a lot, as I do most of the Beginner gradings at the Academy, but really *no-one* ever feels they're ready to grade. However, I've graded so many people, that if I say you're ready, you really are!
One of my friends put it very well, saying that once people have taken the plunge and done their grading, then they grow into their belts. I think that's such a nice way to express it!
Gradings are on my mind just now, as a whole bunch of people are coming up to be graded soon, due to the...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, October 30, 2014,
I'm always pleased when people ask me questions. It shows they are thinking about what they are doing and it also means that other people who may be wondering the very same thing are helped too!
Recently I was asked "what speed should we do it at?"
This is a great question! When you're learning a sequence is the only time to do it at a fast speed. If you know the sequence then you should definitely do it slowly, so you can feel what you are doing. With Wu style in particular, the slower you do...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, October 30, 2014,
I am teaching my Chinese (and others - non-Chinese welcome too!)
class up to form 30, so now filming it is scheduled for this weekend, after which that film will go up on this website, in 4 versions:
Front view, back view, at normal speed
Front view, back view, with each movement broken down for the details.
My own teacher is in the process of doing the definitive version for the whole 108 form, which I will advertise as soon as it's available - that version is really something!...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, October 29, 2014,
This post is in response to a question from a student: "how can we train to be in a formation, when we can't see each other all the time?"
Well, the answer is you need to train on the very first warm-up exercise (swinging arms), that your instructor will show you. This exercise isn't just to loosen joints, but also trains your peripheral vision, which is essential to developing all round awareness.
There are other things that help with team formations:
- everyone chooses a spot in the formation a...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, October 29, 2014,
'Tis the season to be grading, tra la la! (g)
Doing gradings is one of the true pleasures of teaching tai chi! Gradings are as different from school exams as it is possible to be:
- When you have reached a certain standard in your learning, your instructor will tell you that you will be grading. It could take several months, it could take a lot longer, it doesn't matter how long it takes. The only thing that matters is that your instructor thinks you're ready.
- You will be told what is in the gradi...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, October 29, 2014,
Though most of the time I just do what I do, occasionally I have the opportunity to visit other tai chi groups, doing their practises. This is always a great experience, as I get to meet new people and learn new stuff.
One very memorable visit took place a while ago, when I visited with a group doing Lam style chi kung. It was very different from the chi kung I'm used to, but that was all part of the attraction - since tai chi and chi kung have been developing for hundreds of years, there's l...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, October 29, 2014,
I love it when the magazine (*) pops through my letterbox, as it's a really interesting read!
(*) Tai Chi Chuan magazine, which your instructor can easily get some recent issues for you, or which you can join the Tai Chi Union for Great Britain, to get your own copies as part of your membership.
This months issue no. 46 has an interview with Grandmaster Wu Kwong Yu, which is obviously of interest to all Wu style players. Also included are articles on meditation, qigong (chi kung), event reviews...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, October 29, 2014,
When I first started tai chi, I had great difficulty remembering anything at all, no matter how little or how simple. 8 years later, this has changed dramatically, so that I now remember all sorts of sequences (the chuan, 6 different partner forms, sabre forms, sword form, spear form, chi kung (qigong) sets...)
So how did I move from little or no memory to being able to remember so vastly much?
Well, the simple answer is little chunks at a time. Learning the tai chi form is best done in tiny ch...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, October 29, 2014,
This is a really important question!
All tai chi styles are excellent. The differences between the styles are all for good reasons - nothing is random in tai chi, as it has been developed over hundreds of years, by the masters of all the various styles.
In Wu style, everything you learn that seems basic stuff, is actually going to become vitally important as you go up through the levels. This is because tai chi is an internal martial art, not an external one. Thus anything you do that seems an ...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, October 29, 2014,
When I first started learning tai chi myself, I had no idea what to expect in a class... Nowadays I teach all over London, for various organisations or individuals, so my classes vary wildly, depending on what clients are looking for. Since tai chi is a huge subject, it is very adaptable to pick and choose what will appeal to clients with quite different requirements:
Some classes, people like to just follow and copy, so for them I do mainly warm ups, tai chi walking, single form exercises and...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, October 23, 2014,
The head is important in two ways - the physical and the mental:
Physically, I see an awful lot of people with their head too far forward, or looking downwards, or whatever else. If you are having difficulty balancing and you've checked out your posture and shifting your weight, then it may well be down to your head being too far forward or leaning sideways. If you really can't move to straighten your neck, then it's time to see a chiropracter - your neck is really that important, not just for...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, October 23, 2014,
Ok, you've been working on feet, then on posture, so the next thing is the hips. Most people are unaware of their hips, but tai chi requires you to move your hips to become effective.
The first thing is to practise the warm up exercises frequently. Tai chi warm ups are different from general sporting warm ups, in that they are designed to help you loosen up all your joints over time. After doing them for a couple of years, you will feel quite different in your body, because of this. Some exerc...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, October 23, 2014,
Well, after you've been practising getting your feet sorted out, then you can start on your posture. Many people when they first start tai chi suddenly become aware of what is wrong with their posture... From being unaware of the habits of years or decades, now they are confronted with the result of those habits.
Tai chi posture improvements involve feeling these:
- the top of the head pushing up, to stretch the neck,
- the chin tucked
- the tongue behind the top front teeth, on the roof of the mouth
- th...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, October 23, 2014,
One of the things I am constantly telling people, is not to worry about the hands, because the feet are much more important! People come along obsessing about how their hands look, or if their arms are in the right place and it's really irrelevant, until the feet are sorted out. The feet are like the cake, the hands are like the icing (g).
One thing we do is teach "tai chi walking", so people really get to know what their feet are doing, where they are pointing, where the weight is at any step...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Monday, October 20, 2014,
In the next couple of weeks, we will be adding new videos to this site:
Form 30 at normal speed - 2 videos to show view from front and rear
Form 30 showing the breakdowns of each form and naming each form - 2 videos to show view from front and rear.
the Kick Form at normal speed - 2 videos, front and rear
the Kick Form showing breakdowns and names - 2 videos front and rear.
As always, feedback and comments should be directed to our email address taichilondon@instruction,com
...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Monday, October 6, 2014,
One of the great things about tai chi, is that you meet people from so many different walks of life.
Karen's article below seems at first glance to be something quite out of the tai chi range, yet by the end she has shown how living a life with simplicity can lead to accomplishing the things that really matter... read and enjoy!
No big deal
It was an honour and a privilege to work for the sheikh, to assist in his
charity work and to shine a light and help alleviate suffering rather than
cursi...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, July 16, 2014,
Kew is a dream
come true!
To me, working at Kew is a dream come true! When I
first started to learn tai chi, I used to come to Kew to practise,
despite the fact that I live right across the other side of London.
Even when it was raining, I would still visit Kew, as one of my
favourite things was to sit in one of the follies, breathing in the
pure air, while watching the world getting a good soaking! And
there's plenty of huge trees to provide shelter, if I felt like doing
tai chi in the ...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, June 26, 2014,
A new blog from our regular guest blogger, Karen Dabrowski. I love the way she builds this article up to lead to the main idea - enjoy!
The extra inch
I was rushing to
work, in a hurry as usual. When I turned the corner into the street
where my office is, I almost banged into a lady in a wheelchair. It
was a manual wheel chair and she was pushing herself along slowly,
inch by inch, with a suitcase on wheels attached to the wheel chair.
Determined and
resolute she made her way up the...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, June 4, 2014,
This past weekend, the London Competition for Traditional Tai Chi Chuan took place at the Clissold Leisure Centre.
My kids class did really well - as usual for them, they won various medals for Pushing Hands. They love pushing hands and the competition has a nice friendly atmosphere, so all the kids play together, whatever clubs they come from. They have a great time and the parents get to see what they can do.
The medal I'm really proud of them for is they got gold for their group form. This ...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, June 4, 2014,
A new blog from our guest blogger Karen Dabrowska, about pausing.
Fiona: Karen's introduction is very interesting, since I take the opposite approach, trying to eliminate pauses, while still completing each movement, to aim at a smooth continuous form. Her approach has led to a most interesting train of thought, which I hope you will enjoy reading as much as I did, for its fascinating insights.
Let us pause
In the tai chi 108
form every movement starts with a pause. Each form must be gi...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Tuesday, April 29, 2014,
It's really nice having a roving reporter sending articles home! Often people come from other countries to our Academy in Bethnal Green, so it's nice having one of our own visit elsewhere and report back. This article is by Karen Dabrowski, who is rapidly becoming a regular contributor here. I hope you enjoy her article about her experiences as much as I did:
Tai
Chi in Vancouver: It’s better not to speak Mandarin!
Around half the
population of Vancouver is Chinese. They have a lot to do...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Tuesday, April 29, 2014,
I'm very happy to introduce a guest blog by Karen Dabrowski, who has very useful words of advice from her experience of pain. Becoming aware of the tai chi principles of posture and putting these into practise can make a huge difference, as she explains below:
Master
Pain: Lessons You Can’t Ignore
Perhaps more by good
luck than good management I was relatively pain free when I started
learning tai chi. There was a slight discomfort in my back but it was
soon cured by sliding my back down t...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, April 10, 2014,
Talking at the club tonight, my brother came up with a wonderful analogy, which I am shamelessly stealing: He said that your natural talent at whatever may not be obvious, but may become clear later "like you may not be the best at calligraphy, but later you could turn out to be a wonderful author".
This is a wonderful thought - instead of looking for instant natural talent at whatever, just keep doing stuff, so that eventually you will be in a position for your talent to manifest itself.
I k...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, April 10, 2014,
In one of my recent blogs, I said that differences weren't obvious to the untrained eye. Which implies that eyes can indeed be trained. When I first started tai chi, I was very unobservant, as most people are. Over time, with training from my tai chi teacher, I have become better at systematically looking at people and actually seeing specific things, which previously I would have been oblivious to.
This reminded me of one guy's book, where he wrote that he had been trained in mainland China, ...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, April 9, 2014,
One of my clients recently said to me "After 7 years you must be technically perfect". I was so taken aback by this, that I didn't know how to answer it at the time, but it's been on my mind ever since.
I think it's the difference between doing an internal art and doing external exercise. The Chinese divide martial arts into external and internal. External are things that involve strength and muscle and what you can see. Internal arts actually are internal. For a long time, I didn't understan...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, April 9, 2014,
I've been thinking about this since one guy asked me if what I did at MIND was the same as what I do at the Wu's Tai Chi Chuan Academy, in Bethnal Green...
Depending on where I am, or who I'm teaching, there are definite differences in my lesson structure.
Sometimes this is very obvious - for instance, one group I teach want to sit on chairs to do all their exercises. These are a more mature group, with some having various physical disabilities. For them, I do a variety of exercises and chi ku...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, April 9, 2014,
Many people discover things that need put right, when they start tai chi. This is due to us getting into habits over decades and not noticing, then as soon as you start on posture training, you start to notice what those habits may have led you into...
In my own case, I noticed that I was crunched up in the neck like a vulture and had odd grating moments in the neck. Tai chi is not a substitute for professional treatment, so I went to see a chiropracter - I chose my tai chi teacher's son, as I...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, April 9, 2014,
Everyday wear for me is logo tshirt and training trousers, so it's nice to dress up once in a while. Dressing up was certainly required last night, when I went to an art book launch in a swanky tower block in Canary Wharf.... on the 30th floor, with stunning viewsin every direction.
My tai chi teacher, Sifu Gary Wragg, was having his book launched - it's a retrospective on the past decades of his art, with fantastic pictures all through it.
There were large (and I mean wall-sized large) painti...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Tuesday, March 25, 2014,
Many people are surprised to learn there can be gradings and belts in tai chi. This is because many clubs don't do them, but instead focus on the health aspects of tai chi. Then again some clubs which do include the martial aspects, don't do gradings either, but have their own systems of encouraging progress.
Those clubs that do do gradings don't necessarily use the same colours for each stage, but instead can arbitrarily decide on whatever colours they like and whatever stages they like. T...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Tuesday, March 25, 2014,
Having a goal is entirely the wrong way to approach tai chi. Just coming along and doing the lesson, then working on whatever little section you're at, is a much better approach.
Having goals leads to frustration if you don't achieve them quickly. When you abandon goals and instead just work on having a process, you make much more solid progress. Approaching tai chi as a process, means you learn to work in the moment, doing what you're doing, and you learn to relax as part of that process.
The...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Tuesday, March 25, 2014,
Talking to one of my friends, it came up in the conversation that we'd both been to physios and been given loads of exercises. That might sound like a good thing, but it's actually unrealistic for most people: Most people are out of the habit of doing any exercise, let alone loads of them. My take on it, is to pick a couple off the list and work on those - otherwise having so many exercises is daunting and people will probably drop the lot.
With tai chi, it's a way into exercise for those of u...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Tuesday, March 25, 2014,
A friend of mine in hospital asked me if tai chi could be done without standing up. Although asked as a joke, this is actually what I do with some of my clients.... Certain clients have mobility issues and others feel like sitting down is where they're at.
For such clients, I've devised a routine that's a combination of tai chi breathing exercises (chi kung) and tai chi massage, which they feel happy to try out and persevere at. With one such group, I've been doing this for 3 months or so and...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Monday, March 24, 2014,
This article appeared in Anxious Times, the magazine of Anxiety UK. The link to their site is on our Links page.
Most
people have heard of tai chi's benefits for physical health, but what
you may not have heard is that it can also be beneficial for
improving mental health too.
I
used to suffer from such severe anxiety that when I first started tai
chi, it was six months before I could speak to the chief instructor.
At that time I used to find it hard to practise anything because I
was so stre...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Friday, March 14, 2014,
This is so common - people are worried about their hands and arms, when really these are just the icing on the cake. The cake is your feet and where your weight is. Once you really get in touch with feeling your weight and where that is in your feet, then the arms become much easier.
So by all means follow and copy the arm movements, but don't stress about them. If you concentrate your attention in your feet, that is 90% of the job done. The arms will come in time....
It's especially useful fo...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Sunday, March 2, 2014,
I've finally finished the draft text for my book on teaching children tai chi. Now to get others to read and comment on it, then to have more photos of kids taken, then finally to have my webmeister (see links page) turn it into the format needed for an ebook.
Having an extended support team has made the process all much easier - people to take photos, people to read through, people to webify it, etc etc. Indeed this whole website relies on their very practical support and encouragement - t...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Saturday, February 22, 2014,
It's a great pleasure to introduce the first of our guest bloggers, Karen Dabrowski. Karen is a
member of Wu’s Tai Chi Chuan Academy, is a freelance journalist
available for commissioned articles, editing, secretarial services,
proofreading and transcripts: karendabrowski606@yahoo.co.uk You can go to our links page to contact her...
Enjoy her article!
Tai
Chi: the road to peace and happiness one form at a time
Tai chi is a
journey, a wonderful learning experience. I remember coming to ...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Sunday, February 16, 2014,
So many things happen in life that are annoying, but to live a stress-free life, you have to learn how to "leave it behind at the river".
The saying being from the story of the 2 monks crossing a river. One carried a lady from one side to the other. A way down the road, the other monk asked the first one why he did that, when they weren't even supposed to talk to ladies. The first monk said he'd left her behind at the river, where the second monk was still carrying her.
Anyway, today my knees...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, January 30, 2014,
My book on how to teach children tai chi is almost writing itself... I've done three quarters of it, just having to finish off some of the text.
Then the next stage is for two of my friends (with permission of the parents) to take photos of the kids class doing various tai chi things. 100s of photos, so we can whittle them down and use the nicest and most appropriate.
While I'm intending to publish it as an ebook, I'm also having a friend look into printing off a small number of actual books, ...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, January 30, 2014,
I haven't been posting here for a while, due to flu. Getting back to practise was a real relief, after so long just fevered-out, but I felt really weak for the first few days. Still, keeping at it has helped me get back to fighting fit and able to do stuff again. Going to a club to train is good, as I see my friends again and they encourage me to get more done, so all good.
Despite the rain and winter grey skies (blue would be nice some day!), it's always good to get out and doing - too long ...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Sunday, January 19, 2014,
In January, I was asked to do a series of short videos for an advert for Kabuto Noodles. Obviously I was up for this, as I love having a go at new things and this sounded fun! I was followed around London for a day with a camera production team and a photographer - it was an absolutely freezing day, but glorious good fun!
We started on a boat on the Thames, with bright blazing sun and bitterly biting wind.... Still, the first "guinea pig" was up for it, copying various tai chi movements, as I ...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Wednesday, January 8, 2014,
Happiness, or more accurately, unhappiness has really been a theme in this week's newspapers. Loads of articles about how people are unhappy / stressed out / whatever, followed by why having the long break means people come back immediately looking for a new job...
I've had lots of different jobs and it wasn't always the ones that paid best that made me happiest. One of the poorest paid ones was as a cook in a motorway restaurant - but I liked it because I had nice people to work with, as wel...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Sunday, December 29, 2013,
Lots of people decide to lose weight and get fit in New Year, to work off all that holiday indulgence. But then they don't keep it up and lose all the benefit of that initial enthusiasm. What you need is something that's manageable and sustainable, that it doesn't feel all too much, all too soon.
If I'd gone to a regular gym, I'm sure I wouldn't have stuck with it - I'm not the type to be able to just use an exercise machine, while watching mindless pap on tv, or listening to whatever music, ...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Tuesday, December 24, 2013,
Rarely do I give dietary advice... but today it seems appropriate:) I have every intention of stuffing myself to the gills with the lovingly cooked food prepared by my almost-in-laws tomorrow! IMO the best thing is to eat healthily most of the time, then enjoy those occasional lapses and festive feastings as they come round.... particularly if someone else is doing the cooking! :)
Normally, I prepare loads of fresh veggies with spices and freeze around 16-20 portions of mixed veg in ice cre...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Sunday, December 22, 2013,
Through tai chi practise, you learn not only how to become a calmer person yourself, but also how to avoid becoming involved in difficult situations. Since you are calm, without ego, without anything to prove, then walking away becomes not only easier, but the default option.
For instance, today I went down to the park to practise and there was a group of around 5 youths on bikes making strange remarks to passers-by. Now, I could have thought that it's my right to practise in the park, and jus...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Sunday, December 15, 2013,
How long should you practise? Well, there's several answers to this, to my mind:
Practising a little every day is essential - on your own, to struggle with the new stuff, is helpful for embedding it. Especially if you are getting it wrong on your own, since that means you are learning how to learn. Never worry about getting stuff wrong, it's the practise itself that's important - everything will come right in the end if you keep on trying.
Practising in a group is also essential, whether you d...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Friday, December 13, 2013,
Teaching kids is much more full on than teaching adults. It may look easy, but if you aren't prepared and in authority, it can all go horribly wrong fairly swiftly....
First thing is to establish that you are the instructor, not the friend. I remember going for interview as a teacher and being asked how I felt about children. As they told me afterwards, they were trying to weed out those people who thought children were sweet little angels! Luckily there are ways to establish yourself in this ...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Saturday, December 7, 2013,
Many people can be nervous about practising in the park on their own, due to self-consciousness. But, really, don't worry - especially in London people ignore you most of the time. This is great, as it means you have space to practise and can be out among the trees enjoying nature, which is the best way to do tai chi.
Normally I like to practise in Hyde Park, when I'm in Central London, but recently I've taken to practising in Green Park, as it's on the Jubilee Line back from one of my clien...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Friday, November 29, 2013,
Everywhere I've been this week, I've seen people with broken wrists from falls. Undoubtedly due to lots of wet leaves and such, but there are things you can do to help yourself - both prevention of falls and mitigation of the effects of falling:
First off, do plenty of tai chi walking - this will not only help you improve your awareness of where your weight is, but will also help you walk around with slightly bent knees as your default in everyday life. Straight locked knees are just asking fo...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Tuesday, November 19, 2013,
I have loved Chinese art, since I went to an exhibition in Glasgow many years ago. Today, with a friend I went to the latest exhbition at the V&A in London, which was titled Masterpieces of Chinese Painting 700-1900", which reminded me all over again how wonderful this art is. I will have to go back again, to see the "Digital Dragons", where you can apparently zoom and swoop through the landscape of the paintings....
Anyway, I got into tai chi through failing to get onto any Chinese painti...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Friday, November 8, 2013,
When a group of us were doing a demo, some teens came up and asked "can you use your chi power?" The remake of the Karate Kid had just come out around that time and that obviously had sparked their question. It's understandable that what you see in films bears no relation to reality chi-wise, as the reality doesn't make exciting action to watch.
Also, there's a lot of stuff in books these days, some of which is accurate, but a lot of which is just written either out of sheer ignorance or just...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, October 31, 2013,
Recently I took on a new group of students, who told me about one of their previous tai chi instructors.... they had apparently been sitting down doing visualisations as the main part of the session. Visualisations in the sense of eyes closed while being verbally guided to take a mind walk through various scenery.
I was absolutely gobsmacked by this - I can't think of anything more opposite to tai chi. I was of course polite and kind about this, while just skimming over it quickly to go on wi...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Monday, October 28, 2013,
Tai chi is full of
wow! moments.... Yesterday was another new revelation, and this after 7 years training - tai chi continues to come up with new stuff. Keep on persisting with your training and these moments can be yours too.
My first
wow! moment was when I was told I was improving - having been a klutz and a sport-avoider, the concept of improving hadn't been in me at all. Then, after months of training, I was graded to my first belt. I'd always thought grading was something for other talen...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Saturday, October 26, 2013,
Why do warm ups?
Well, they get the body warm, it's true, but there's more to it than that...
Each tai chi warm up is designed to help loosen particular joints of the body, so that as the years progress, the body becomes much looser, the tendons softer, everything moves more easily. If you look at older people in the street, an overwhelming number are stiffened up, with people having difficulty moving and walking.
The importance of warm ups for health, then, is overwhelming... the longer you ca...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Tuesday, October 8, 2013,
People talk a lot about "living in the moment", but what does it mean, why would you want to and how do you do it?
Living in the moment means being aware of the things that are happening in that moment, in yourself, in your environment, while letting go of all other thoughts and cares. Most people have an internal voice, which the Chinese call the "monkey mind", due to all the thoughts chattering away all the time.
Practising living in the moment slows down the "monkey thoughts" and allows you ...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Monday, September 30, 2013,
It's easy enough to get into investigating and improving your posture while you're static, but moving around is when it becomes critical. To address this, your instructor will show you "tai chi walking". This looks totally strange, but it really sorts out your posture, your balance, your awareness of where your weight is, your awareness of how you move and how to improve how you move.
You absolutely need an instructor for this. Most people are very unaware of how they move and how they walk -...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Friday, September 27, 2013,
Following on from the previous blog, how do you improve your posture?
Well try bending your knees and "sitting" with your back against a wall - you will immediately feel how curved your spine is.
A certain amount of curvature is normal - the spine is designed to have an S shape - but if your spine is curved too much, then feel your lower vertebrae and mentally and physically feel them pushed more towards that wall.
You will also notice if your shoulders touch the wall or not - they should touc...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Friday, September 27, 2013,
With tai chi, you should start learning posture corrections from day one. Posture is so important, not just to look good, but because it affects all your internal organs and your spinal health.
I see so many people walking around with terrible posture -
shoulder slumped to one side, while the other is too high
top half of body bent forward
neck bent down, so the person is looking down
butt stuck out
high heels
All of these will cause problems sooner or l...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Saturday, September 21, 2013,
When you start doing tai chi, you should breathe naturally, unless you are told otherwise by your instructor.
In tai chi form learning, your breathing will eventually settle down, as you keep practising the form. While some schools teach specific breathing for each sequence, if you just keep doing tai chi, then your breathing will come right of itself. Relax and breathe normally and you will be fine.
Being told otherwise by your instructor will happen, if you are learning chi kung (qigong), as...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Tuesday, September 10, 2013,
I have noticed (both in my students and in myself), that when the feeling of being frustrated strikes, it is usually the prelude to some kind of breakthrough! Just when you think you're getting nowhere seems to be the signal that you're about to proceed to a new understanding, or to being able to do something that has been difficult which now becomes easier.
So don't give up to feeling frustrated, but instead regard it as signalling that you're about to advance a step further in your own progr...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Sunday, September 8, 2013,
Ok, so there I was doing this exercise, where the hands are moving in big circles in time with the hips.... Afterwards a friend told me I'd improve if I could do it feeling like my elbows are hanging down off my hands.
To say this sounded weird is an understatement. Anyway, I tried it, and could feel ... nothing different! But it preyed on my mind a couple of days (still no difference though) and my subconscious must have been working on it, because by the third day I just found myself feeling...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Tuesday, August 20, 2013,
I have been struck by the sheer number of people in motorised wheelchairs that I see every day... combined with tv adverts for circulation boosters and the like.
From my perspective as a former couch potato, I think plain truth is: use it or lose it!
One of the most basic exercises you can do in most tai chi styles, is standing in a horse stance (legs like you're riding a horse, knees slightly bent), with your arms in front of you (as if you're holding a giant dinosaur egg pointing away from ...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Friday, August 16, 2013,
Recently I was asked to write something encouraging for people with mental health issues, to show them there is hope!
This has now appeared as an article for the magazine Your Voice Extra (of the charity "Rethink Mental Illness") at:
http://yourvoiceextra.tumblr.com/
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Sunday, August 11, 2013,
Since I started tai chi, my stress levels have gone right down. I put this down to several factors: just putting my mind in the movements, took it away and out of negative thoughts; increasing the mind/body connection decreased the intellectualisation of every event; progressing through the form and then through the levels gave me a sense of achievement I wasn't getting elsewhere.
On top of these things, training with people from all different walks of life, meant that I couldn't talk shop w...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Saturday, August 10, 2013,
Our society is a very impatient one. People seem to want instant gratification, instant responses, instant results. I read somewhere that learning anything well takes 30,000 hours of practise.
Two opposite approaches, and two opposite types of outcome. With being prepared to put in the time, you are demonstrating not only patience and persistence, but also that you are aiming for a meaningful life as a result. (*)
Anyway, patience with yourself is key to learning stuff. Not just don't worry ...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Friday, August 9, 2013,
To be good at tai chi, you need to learn to be kind to yourself. Many people understand about being kind to others being a good thing, but then neglect themselves.... Think about back at school - did you learn best from the teachers who humiliated you or those who were kind to you? Well, it's the same with tai chi, if you have kind teachers and learn to be kind to yourself, your tai chi will improve.
Start by making opportunities to say something kind to someone else every day, then up this...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Friday, July 26, 2013,
I get a number of one off event bookings, including 2 different ones recently.
The first was for the London College of Communication, who were having a wellness day, with tai chi as part of that. We all went to a park near to the college, where there were lovely trees and flowers to practise among; a beautiful setting.
With everyone being a beginner, I concentrated on things that everyone could follow and feel good - a mixture of warm ups, tai chi walking, single forms, with a bit of chi kung ...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Friday, July 26, 2013,
At a recent event, I was asked if tai chi is suitable for the elderly. While I was reassuring the asker that people at the club I go to include those in their seventies and eighties, it suddenly struck me that I don't think of these friends as "elderly". This is because they do the same training as everyone else and show none of the infirmities of age.
Indeed doing chi kung with one of those guys leading can be very challenging for the younger ones, as he goes on forever, like a chi kung mach...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Friday, July 26, 2013,
Chi Kung (qigong) means "breath work". I like to start my mornings with a bit of chi kung in the garden, then picking the blackberries straight off the bramble to savour, mmm :)
Since Chi Kung means working with the breathing, the first thing you learn is how to breath deeply. In modern life, most people are shallow breathers, only breathing in and out from the top of the lungs. This means that the air at the bottom of the lungs doesn't get changed often and can be very stale. It's better to...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Friday, July 26, 2013,
On Wednesdays I do a drop in session at MIND in Tower Hamlets. This is a free class, and open to anyone to drop into.
As well as the known health benefits of tai chi, it's also very good for helping relieve mental issues.
In the short term, this is because the need to concentrate on the precise movements will take your mind out of your negative thought spiral. It's also helpful doing something that you're all helping each other improve, which gives you back some control in at least one area of...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Friday, May 24, 2013,
If you haven't done exercise for some time, maybe even years, you should start very gently with exercises designed to gradually increase your stamina. Going all out is counter-productive, placing too much stress on your unprepared body systems.
Gentle exercises that involve a mix of standing and sitting postures will help ease you towards greater body strength, without being too much. As you progress with these, then you can gradually change to doing a greater variety of standing exercises, d...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, May 16, 2013,
Through daily practise of tai chi and chi kung, as well as taking vitamin D and calcium supplements (if your diet is low in these), you can lessen your loss in bone density. The Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi quotes research in this, with facts and figures...
A good basic exercise is to stand with your feet apart, knees bent, and arms as if holding a giant dinosaur egg. Do this every day, starting with as little time as you like - gradually increasing the time, as your legs and arms b...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Thursday, May 16, 2013,
If you start with chi kung (qigong), then memory isn't an issue, as you will be copying your instructor doing the breathing exercises.
While much of tai chi training is also copying your instructor, part of the lesson will be learning the beautiful sequence called The Form, (or The Chuan), which takes a while to learn. The best way is to approach it one small chunk at a time - your instructor will demonstrate, you will follow several times, then practise for a while, then your instructor will ...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Tuesday, May 14, 2013,
Tai chi is the middle way - you should never push yourself to extremes. If it hurts, stop doing it. Tai chi shouldn't hurt, if you're doing it correctly. If you feel tired, have a rest. It's ok to have time out - you can always start again, when you feel up to it.
When I started tai chi, I had been a couch potato for many years and was extremely unfit. Everything was an effort, especially as I had put on weight through inactivity and unhealthy eating. So I had less muscles to move around more ...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Monday, May 13, 2013,
In learning chi kung, you will experience much deeper breathing than normal. Most people are shallow breathers, only breathing in/out from the top of their lungs. This leaves the air at the bottom of their lungs to become stale. By breathing longer and deeper, the air all through your lungs right down to the bottom gets changed, so that the stale air is exchanged for fresh air and you get healthier more oxygenated air into your bloodstream.
This has effects not only on your physical health, b...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Sunday, May 12, 2013,
First off, if you have comments on any of my posts, feel free to email me (address on the contact page), stating clearly if you want to be quoted publicly or not. If I do quote you later, your post may well be edited down. All mistakes and opinions here are my own, obviously...
Breathing - clients often ask about this.
In chi kung (qigong) lessons, it's all part of what is taught by our instructors - you will learn when to breathe in and out with specific movements. Chi Kung means "breath work...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Saturday, May 11, 2013,
Just got my mitts on a lovely new tai chi book - "The Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi". While it is a scientific study of tai chi's health benefits, it's written in a style which presupposes a science background, along with a tai chi background. So I'm thinking I may take use some of the ideas to spark of my own ideas and maybe go off at tangents, to explain what I think in more readable terms.
My very first thought is that people need to relax, due to modern lifestyles causing stress ...
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Posted by Fiona Anderson. on Sunday, May 5, 2013,
Welcome to our new blog page.
This past month has been an exciting one, with 2 major events : one for Teaching Leaders and one for Energise You. More details will appear on our Events page, when the photos for each arrive...
Next month promises to be even more exciting with the London Competition for Traditional Tai Chi Chuan taking place on June 2nd in the Queensbridge Sports Centre, Hackney, with competitors from Europe and the UK. Details of how to join can be found by going to our Links p...
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