5 tai chi exercises against stress to do at home

October 22, 2021 1:52 PM

There are days when we feel restless. Any news upsets us, we react stressed to our children and at work we do not perform what we should. We don’t know what to do, we feel sad, with a lot of emotions, about to capsize, and the body warns us by feeling uncomfortable. It is a good time to apply the fundamental principles of tai chi, which will help us to get rid of stress.

It is a general remedy, since the practice of tai chi allows you to integrate all the parts of your being. This is the objective of a technique that was born in China and that it gives us back the lost serenity to live fully. It belongs to the meditative arts and proposes different sequences of movements that keep you on the border between tension and relaxation.

Three essential characteristics of tai chi are that body and mind are conceived as a unit, that the movements are circular and spiral, and that they are executed slowly. G.Thanks to these qualities, the regular and periodic practice of Tai Chi generates all its benefits.

a way to heal

The unity of body and mind reduces stress, awakens attention without stress and increases defenses.

circular and spiral movements they follow the structures of the bones and muscles, which are toned, invigorated and consolidated. Placing the coccyx in a natural way allows the lumbar vertebrae to open up and protects the spine. Thus, common back pain is avoided and the position and alignment of the body is improved. Slow gestures allow you to follow the internal processes of the body, such as the moistening of the eye or the skin, the movements of the digestive system, the kidneys, the lymphatic system… By tuning the exterior with the interior, we develop and facilitate its functioning. And we emotionally enter into another more leisurely, calm and human rhythm. For all these reasons, it is ideal for before or after any continued physical effort.

Read Also: 8 exercises to practice conscious breathing

We propose you 5 very simple exercises that you can practice at home to combat stress.

fifteen

Photography: Gettyimages

1. Balance inside and out

This posture is also known as Jin Ji Du Li.

Standing, staring at a distant point at eye level, feel the contact of the soles of the feet with the ground. Raise your right foot and place it as in the photo. Feel your left foot firmly rooted in the ground, activates the abdominal muscles drawing it slightly inwards towards the spine and, from the rooting, notice how you project towards the sky.Extend your arms for balance. At first, you can place one finger touching a wall for stability. Start by holding the position for five seconds. When you feel comfortable, try to perform the exercise with your eyes closed.

2 / 5

Photography: Gettyimages

2. Connect earth and sky

We are made of the same stuff as the stars and planets. If we follow our movement with the thought we can connect with them.

Feel your feet on the ground and gently lift arms to the right side. Draw a circle with them in front of the body, going from the right side above the head, to the left and finally below. Try to relax the joints of the arms.Make five circles in this sense, to two breaths per circle, and repeat to the other side.draw another circle now also moving the head and torso in the direction of the hands.

3 / 5

Photography: Gettyimages

3. Open and close the door

As night flows into day through the light of dawn, we too flow through life.

Place your body weight on your left foot and extend your right leg and foot as if to step forward. Keep your arms at your sides with your palms facing the ground as you gradually shift your weight to your right foot. go up the arms and hands drawing an arc in front of the body until reaching the position of the photo. Do it with a full breath.shift weight to left leg while you return the arms to the starting position with another complete breath. Do it five times in this position and another five with the legs changed.

Four. Five

Photography: Gettyimages

4. Embrace the horizon with your arms

If when you open your arms you feel how they extend to the horizon, with your feet and legs rooted and your spine projected towards the sky, you integrate the sky, the earth and the horizon in your being.

Bend your knees a little to root yourself, take a step to the left with your left foot and shift your pelvis to center your weight. Raise your arms to your sides while feeling how the shoulder blades descend and they open up to carry the arms in a cross. All this during one breath. Lower the arms bending the elbows and wrists slightly towards the body with another full breath.repeat five times and listen to how the energy circulates through your being.

5 / 5

Photography: Gettyimages

5. Breathe fully

This exercise opens the lung meridian.

when inspiring raise your arms and hands with the palms facing the earth in front of the body. Begin to exhale to the reach shoulder height and open your arms in a cross. Turn the palms of your hands while you inhale. Stretch your arms up to the sky at the same time that you take the torso and the head, in an arc, to also look towards the sky. As you exhale, return to the starting position.repeat five times these last two movements.

Calm energy against stress

Chi is the energy that circulates through our body and the Universe. When he does it freely within us, body, mind and spirit are balanced, and they enter a peaceful but energetic state. Chi is activated through imagination. When we imagine that it circulates, it does.

Our attention moves the chi through the energy channels or main meridians and through the five points that connect us to the environment.

The main meridians through which it passes are two: one goes in front of the body, from the tip of the tongue to the perineum, and another goes up from the perineum through the spine, passing through the fontanelle until it reaches the soft palate, where with the language we can unite the two channels. By imagining a flow of light circulating through them we create energy, clarity and calm.

The five main points through which chi communicates with the Universe they are in the soles of the feet, in the arch formed by the pad, called yonquan, “effervescent spring”, which communicates us with the earth; in the center of the palms of the hands, which communicate with the environment; and in the highest part of the head, in the fontanel, which is open when we are born and closes in a spiral, which communicates us with the sky.

Imagine a sphere of light in each of these places and you will begin an energetic exchange with the world that will give you calm energy and the dimension of who you are: a being that relates not only to others, but also to the earth and the sky.