Stress: A Time for T'ai Chi

There are times when stress wants to rule our lives. We can allow that to happen or we can be in control. Those high stress times are times when I've found martial arts, T'ai Chi, Qi Gong and the disciplines they provide, the difference between a calm solution, where everyone comes out the winner, or chaos and bad feelings.

Breathing through the mouth, and breath holding, trigger flight or fight and all the body's hormonal responses. The more often we rely on that manner of dealing with stressful situations, the faster we age and the more likely we are to have high blood pressure, heart disease and strokes. The hormones that give us the surge during those times are also the ones called "the death hormones."

High demands for adrenaline exhaust the adrenal glands; small bean shaped glands located on top of the kidneys. There are people who rely primarily on those glands for their energies and also a theory that has proven out, at least in my mind, to be valid about how to identify one's dominant gland and methods for balancing our bodies and minds to take advantage of the other glands. When reaching that point of balance we're capable of using all our strengths, both mental and physical, without exhausting any one of them. We'll look at that information in another article.

By staying calm, breathing completely out and not holding the breath we can eliminate not only tension and the hormonal responses, we can calm the mind and see options that otherwise elude us.

Options are a prerequisite in a competitive martial arts situation but hard martial arts aren't necessary in order to gain that knowledge and experience. Qi Gong and T'ai Chi can also be an avenue to the same end. After being introduced to T'ai Chi, I realized that doing the moves in slow motion made me more proficient in hard martial arts. I incorporated it into the classes I was teaching and the few who had the foresight to realize the benefits were able to advance further and faster than those who thought fast moves, repetition and kick punch were the only answer.