I don't agree with the
notion that "my teacher taught me this, so it must be right and it must be
safe since it has been done for generations."
(Dr
Paul Lam)
Invest in your body
Your health should be prized above all else.
Property, acquisitions, prestige... these things mean nothing.
If you have poor health, your quality of life will be poor.
Looking after your body takes
time,
patience and
commitment.
Many people simply cannot be bothered exercising and
eating well, yet they moan when their health deteriorates.
A healthy diet and constructive exercise should be regarded as an investment
not a chore.
Injuries
It is common for people to injure themselves.
If an injury heals
improperly, pain can be experienced periodically for the
rest of your life.
Careless exercise or neglect can both
result in further damage.
Poor awareness
Many people continue to work damaged
joints, ignoring the
ongoing pain.
If your body hurts, you should not ignore it.
Dynamic Balancing Tai Chi is a sensible way to gently improve
your health without making things worse.
Our classes focus upon
balance,
awareness and
core stability.
We advocate careful exercise and constructive rest.
Liz Koch, author of
The Psoas Book wrote:
Whether you suffer from a sore back or anxiety, from knee strain or exhaustion, there's a good chance that a constricted psoas muscle might be contributing to your woes. Getting in touch with this deeply buried muscle can be humbling at first. You may discover that you've been doing many poses by contracting your core, instead of relying on your skeleton for support and allowing your more peripheral muscles to organize around a toned but flowing and spacious centre.
But if you persevere, psoas work
can add new insight, openness, and stability to your practice.
Though your psoas may not be as easy to sense as your biceps or hamstrings,
improving your awareness of this crucial muscle can greatly enhance your
physical and emotional health.
Along with improving your structural stability, developing awareness of your
psoas can bring to light fears long locked in the body as unconscious
physical tension.
Intimately involved in the fight or flight response, the psoas can curl you
into a protective foetal ball or flex you to prepare the powerful back and
leg muscles to spring into action.
Because the
psoas is so intimately involved in such basic physical and emotional reactions,
a chronically tightened psoas continually signals your body that you're in
danger, eventually exhausting the adrenal glands and depleting the immune
system.
As you learn to approach the world without this chronic tension, psoas awareness
can open the door to a more sensitive attunement to your body's inner signals
about safety and danger, and to a greater sense of inner peace.
Page created 21 February 2001