5 Tai Chi Exercises Against Stress to Do at Home

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5 Tai Chi Exercises Against Stress to Do at Home
By practicing tai chi, you relate to the Universe in a more conscious and full way. You get more physical well-being and greater calm. That’s why some very simple tai chi exercises are ideal to practice at home and combat stress.
5 Tai Chi Exercises Against Stress to Do at Home

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

It is a general remedy, because the practice of tai chi allows you to integrate all parts of your being. This is the objective of a technique that was born in China and that 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 that separates 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. Thanks to these qualities, the regular and periodic practice of tai chi generates all its benefits.

A PATH TO HEALING

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

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

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

1. BALANCE INSIDE AND OUT

This posture is also known as Jin Ji Du Li.

  • Standing, with his gaze fixed on a point far from eye level, he feels the contact of the soles of his feet with the ground. Lift your right foot and place it as in the photo.
  • Feel your left foot firmly rooted in the ground, activate the abdominal muscles by bringing it slightly inward towards the spine and, from the rooting, notice how you project towards the sky.
  • Extend your arms to balance. At first, you can place a finger touching a wall for stability. Start by holding the position for five seconds.
  • When you feel comfortable, try the exercise with your eyes closed.

2. CONNECT EARTH AND SKY

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

  • Feel your feet on the ground and gently raise your arms to the right side. Draw a circle with them in front of the body, which from the right side goes above the head, to the left and finally below. Try to relax the joints of the arms.
  • Make five circles in this direction, at 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. OPEN AND CLOSE THE DOOR

Just as night flows into day through the light of dawn, we also flow through life.

  • Place your body weight on your left foot and extend your leg and right foot as if to take a step forward. Keep your arms at your sides with your palms facing the floor.
  • As you gradually pass the weight to the right foot, go up your arms and hands drawing an arc in front of the body until you reach the position of the photo. Do it with full breathing.
  • Transfer the weight to your left leg while returning your arms to the starting position with another full breath.
  • Do it five times in this position and another five times with your legs changed.

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 the column projected towards the sky, you integrate the sky, the earth and the horizon into your being.

  • Bend your knees a little to root yourself, take a step to the left with your left foot and move your pelvis until you center your weight.
  • Raise your arms to your sides as you feel the shoulder blades descend and open until you have your arms crossed. All this during one breath.
  • Lower your arms by bending your elbows and wrists slightly towards your body with another full breath.
  • Repeat five times and listen to how the energy circulates through your being.

5. BREATHE FULLY

This exercise opens the lung meridian.

  • When inspiring, raise your arms and hands with your palms towards the ground in front of your body.
  • It begins to exhale when it reaches shoulder height and opens its arms in a cross.
  • Rotate your palms as you breathe in. Direct your arms towards the sky while bringing your torso and head, in an arc, to also look towards the sky. When exhaling it returns to the initial position.
  • Repeat these last two movements five times.

CALM ENERGY AGAINST STRESS

Chi is the energy that circulates through our body and the Universe. When it does so freely within us, body, mind and spirit are balanced, and they enter a peaceful state but full of energy. 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 unite us to the environment.

The main meridians through which it travels 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 through the fontanelle until it reaches the soft palate, where with the tongue we can join the two channels. By imagining a flow of light circulating through them we create energy, clarity and tranquility.

The five main points by which chi communicates with the Universe are in the soles of the feet, in the arch that forms the pad, called yonquan, “effervescent spring”, which communicates us with the earth; in the center of the palms of the hands, which communicate us with the environment; and in the highest part of the head, in the fontanelle, 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 quiet energy and the dimension of who you are: a being that relates not only to others, but to the earth and sky.

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