Tai Chi Circling Hands is a very effective method of working with, refining and combining various strands of neigong (components of internal power) into one coherent whole. Tai Chi Circling Hands offers most of the health and power-generating benefits available in tai chi without the complex choreography. It is quick and easy to learn and forms the foundation of all bagua and tai chi practice, serving as a stepping stone to learning these more complex arts.
However, for those who do not already practise bagua or tai chi, it’s not necessary to learn them because Tai Chi Circling Hands, with its gentle, repetitive motion, gives most of the healtah and stress-relief benefits offered by the internal energy arts. Through regular practice of Tai Chi Circling Hands, some of these benefits include:
- Opening up the vascular system and increasing blood flow, relieving heart tension and balancing blood pressure
- Improving balance and flexibility, alleviating arthritis, carpal tunnel or repetitive strain injury
- Improving digestion
- Releasing shoulder neck and back pain
- Energising and revitalising the internal organ base
- Boosting the sex drive and performance.
For anyone already practising bagua or tai chi, you can upgrade your form by using Tai Chi Circling Hands to deepen the neigong already present and integrate absent strands. These 16 components that generate the internal power in bagua and tai chi can then be transferred into your form. You don’t have to learn a new form or style, just practise a few simple yet effective exercises to increase the internal content of your current form dramatically.
Tai Chi Circling Hands uses turning, twisting and the weight shifting found in bagua and tai chi. Creating circles in both directions on three planes (horizontal, vertical and sagittal) fuse circularity—the foundational principle of all internal energy arts—with deep internal content through 12 simple exercises. The turning, twisting and weight shifting brings the legs alive, produces power and unifies the body while embedding core principles. These include: nothing moves before the spine; root the lower body to carry the upper body; and, from posture to posture internal power is unbroken. The circling action of the hands creates continuous motion and thereby the possibility of generating an incredible amount of chi! The practitioner seeks to remove all stops, smoothing out the glitches in their body and tuning into the flow—this allows the chi to flow unimpeded.
Regular and repetitive practise of Tai Chi Circling Hands embodies the foundational motions for all bagua and tai chi leg, body and hand motions. So it makes the learning and refining of forms a much easier and obtainable process.
You can make your body soft, relaxed and strong while keeping the mind smooth and calm. These are the ingredients for creating excellent health and vitality.
2010 Courses with an Emphasis on Tai Chi Circling Hands
Circles, Spheres & Spirals: Creating Central Equilibrium in Qigong, Bagua & Tai Chi
Crete, Greece, 24-30 April
Circles, Spheres & Spirals in Qigong: Deepening Your Internals by Unifying Kwa & Yao
Dordogne, France, 22-27 August