Seniors - Age-wise: Moving Meditation

Or I should say, in moving meditation.

T’ai Chi (pronounced TIE-chee) is a low impact yet serious physical workout integrating the mind, body and spirit through slow, deliberate physical movements. You may have seen the massive group practicing T’ai Chi at the recent opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing.

Observing a T’ai Chi class at the Senior Center is like watching dance without music. The students move in a continuous flow without pausing as instructor Gina Grillo softly calls out the name of the next movement. Comfortably dressed, wearing low heeled shoes or socks or Chinese slippers, the men and women move silently and gracefully through the postures, all in a harmony that seems to shut out the cares of the world outside the windows.

The Yang Style Short Form T’ai Chi which Gina teaches is a sequence of thirty-seven postures flowing together to create the T’ai Chi Form. The first five minutes of class are spent on warm-up exercises, then the class learns new postures and reviews previously learned postures. It take about 10 months to conquer all the forms, about one a week.

Although originally developed in China as a martial art, the Yang Style Short Form practiced at the center is a workout consisting of soft, fluid postures that stress “mindful movement.”

Practiced regularly, T’ai Chi is reported to help reduce stress and offers health benefits such as increased flexibility, improved balance and muscle strength

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, an arm of the National Institutes of Health reports, “Among the best-documented health effects of T’ai chi is its ability to improve balance.” And an Australian study reported in 2007 that, “…healthy older adults who participated in a once-a-week class for sixteen weeks were less likely to fall…the practice can safely improve muscle strength in the knees and ankles, improve flexibility, and enhance mobility in older adults.” According to the Mayo Clinic Tools for Healthier Lives, “Anyone regardless of age or physical ability can practice T’ai Chi. It doesn’t take physical l prowess. Rather, T’ai Chi emphasizes technique over strength.”

Teacher Gina Grillo has been practicing T’ai Chi for fifteen years and teaching for ten years after apprenticing for three. This beautiful, calm woman leads the group with patience and humor, stepping around the room when necessary to move a hand or arm slightly, to press down an uplifted shoulder, to turn a foot out into a proper position. She told us that her students report the benefits of improved balance, reflexes, leg muscle strength, confidence, and posture that practicing the mindful focus of T’ai Chi can offer. She stresses the importance in older people of a lower center of gravity, good posture and a head “suspended from heaven.” She follows the five basic T’ai Chi principles of relaxation, upright body posture, separation of weight, the waist as the commander and the beautiful lady’s hand – all of which will be explained to you if you decide to follow this healthful exercise form of T’ai Chi, translated as “Supreme Ultimate.”