A Decade of Grace Dawn Tai Chi

Happy ten year Tai Chi-versary to me and dozens of students, clients and supporters! Some days it seems like more than a decade. Some days it seems like only yesterday.

My first group sessions in 2014 at Anahata Healing Arts.

My 1st Tai Chi photo 2012, Tybee Island, GA

I have had the pleasure of teaching hundreds of people the glory that is Tai Chi. Everyone has experienced it differently. Everyone has had different motivations and needs from Tai Chi. To describe this mother of martial arts as versatile is still an understatement.

Tai Chi has ten essences that are used as a guidelines for physical stance, practice and philosophy. The ninth of the essences is to “unite the mind and the body”. Allow me to elaborate. This sums up the fact that through the versatility of Tai Chi whatever you want to get out of your practice, will be the result. Are you looking for relaxation? Increased mobility and balance? Complete rehabilitation of a joint or muscle group? What about decreased inflammation? Yep, that too.

I have used Tai Chi to treat an assortment of diseases. Arthritis, Mixed Connective Tissue Disease, PTSD, Personality Disorders, Chron’s and other gastrointestinal diseases have all been helped by a custom blend of moves. I have helped golfers open their hips, football players increase hand eye coordination, tennis players improve their swing, warehouse workers reduce back pain, hospitality workers save energy and helped the mature age gracefully.

I think the most surprising element to teaching Tai Chi as opposed to just practicing was how much more was really involved.

Each person I have taught has in return been a teacher for me. As long as I observe and listen with each student, Tai Chi has limitless possibilities as to how it can help so many people who all have different needs. I am so grateful for my years predating Tai Chi instruction. I taught ballet, gymnastics, jazz, tap, yoga and salsa dancing. I played tennis, softball, ran track, lifted weights. These activities gave me a secure knowledge of the body’s movements which allowed me greater understanding of how Tai Chi can be applied.

I began to analyze how our career choices can affect our bodies. From tense shoulders from typing all day to knee pain from standing on concrete floors; the environments that we work in and the movements we so frequently repeat during a workday really have an impact on our physical stance, function and comfort.

I am so excited to roll out many videos this year addressing very specific Tai Chi applications for your daily life. That is how I teach. I want you to take what you learn about the body’s alignment and apply it to how you move every single day. It happens without you even trying. But this can only be achieved if I pump out the videos. Therefore, the ball is in my proverbial court.