January 6, 2012

• Ageless health

  #Health is a concern for all of us. The #body is witness to our presence in this world. Some people jock and others go to the gym. However it is generally accepted that with a modern lifestyle, we need some type of exercise to keep our body functioning optimally. Some people neglect this fact but they also often pay the price while others put so much stress on the body that they also pay the price. The key is for every person to find that golden range where they exercise enough to stay healthy. In my own life I decided to incorporate both #Stav and #Tai-Chi as a means of staying healthy. I have been practicing stav for a few years but only recently adopted Tai Chi.  Stav, based on a nordic martial arts system, had the advantage of being easy to learn and easy to maintain with a busy life style. Tai Chi, an eastern martial arts system, is more complex and requires more attention to details. Stav has 16 basic postures and Tai Chi has a 24 simplied forms. I can teach a person in less than an hour how to perform all of the stav postures while it can take months to learn the Tai Chi forms. The 16 stav postures, performed left and right handed (32 postures) takes about 12 minutes to perform while the Tai Chi 24 forms in one cycle takes about six to nine minute to perform.

  

  Our classmaster recently explained the importance of being relaxed when doing Tai Chi. He said that we should arrive in a relax state when coming to the Tai Chi class. The energy, or chi as defined by Tai Chi,  can not flow properly when the practitioner is tensed. He explained the yin/yang princple of how hard and soft complement each other. Tai Chi although it incorporates both, is primarily a soft art. He elaborated that combining Tai Chi as the soft with Kung Fu as the hard, allows him to be more complete in his practice. I am far to old to go and do Kung Fu jumps and kicks. However I realised in that moment that I am on the correct path of combining Tai Chi and Stav. Staf is more a rigid or hard form and uses energy flow in a whole different manner. Again it showed that the universe will provied us with feedback on our intent and the path we take. For me it was a confirmation that Tai Chi the soft and Stav the hard are complementary to each other for a more complete system of maintaining the body.

  My practice in stav definitely helped me a lot in learning Tai Chi. Through stav I learned balance, breathing and concentration. My Tai Chi practice has already influenced my stav training in return. Tai Chi puts a much stronger focus on diaphragm breathing during movements. Since having that focus I felt not only better in doing Tai Chi but I also felt better doing Stav. As a matter of fact I felt a greater and more open connection with the rune realms I constructed as reference points in my mind.  Tai Chi allows energy to flow gently while Stav channel energy through the body. I might be the only person in the world combining Stav and Tai Chi but it seems to be a very effective system working for me. Combining the two will take some more reflection but I am on the right way of combining these two system as complementary yet different styles of maintaining health.

    

  In these two pictures the difference can be clearly seen between Tai Chi with its soft round movements and Staf with it rigid straight body stances.

  Combined these two arts gives me a very good system to maintain a healthy body irrespective of my age. I do not know if one can do Tai Chi sitting but Stav has postures fro people even if they no longer can stand but is constraint to a chair or bed.

  I wish all a healthy life style.

   

   

  • 7:59 am
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