Relaxing into elastic structures
Taiji in the helping professions
By Helmut Jäger, Norbert Heinrich, Christian Auerbach
People who work in healing or helping professions are exposed particularly often to demands that threaten their own health. Essential factors here include constant contact with those seeking help and the major responsibility they bear for the clients. Considering the way that Taijiquan enables a relaxed co-existence with a counterpart, working with and neutralising energies and being able to relax under pressure, Helmut Jäger, Norbert Heinrich and Christian Auerbach see major potential for developing a more energy-conserving approach to one’s own resources.
Teaching and learning together
Team teaching in Taijiquan and Qigong
By Dietlind Zimmermann
In our arts the teachers/trainers usually stand alone before a group. Dietlind Zimmermann draws on her own experience to describe how this can be done differently, in a way that benefits both the learners and the teachers. Those who teach jointly with colleagues experience many and varied possibilities for learning from each other and with each other, for reflecting on their own actions and for supporting and unburdening each other. The students gain broader access to the material, different perspectives and multiple go-to persons and »role models«.
With grace until the end
Qigong and dance with elderly Ladies
By Christel Sperlich
Since the elderly residents of the Cajewitz Foundation in Berlin began practicing Qigong, it seems as if they have found the guiding thread of their life again. Turning points, major changes and crossroads in life are revealed by Qigong and dance and are re-experienced in movement. Christel Sperlich, who has been working with these elderly ladies for more than twelve years, has interviewed ten of them and recorded their life stories. Here they describe how awareness and movement have brought to light events in their lives and how they experience the healing power of Qigong.
Wudang – The path itself is Dao
By Bing Luo Eichhorn
Wudangshan, a small mountain range in central China, is one of the iconic sites of the Chinese martial arts and is regarded as the mystical cradle of Taijiquan. Bing Luo Eichhorn describes this exceptional location for all those who have never visited it themselves, and also considers the various arts that are taught here. Taking Taiyiwuxingquan as an example, she shows how the treasures of the local Daoist tradition have been preserved into modern times.
Building inner strength through the fascia
By Frieder Anders
The fascia are particularly interesting for practitioners of Chinese movement arts because they bring together the physical body and the energy-based body. Frieder Anders explains the relationship between fascial tensile strain and the development of inner strength in the framework of the biotensegrity concept and gives tips on which aspects of Qigong and Taijiquan should be heeded in order to integrate this approach. In the next issue he presents a second part in which he relates this material to quotes from classical texts of Taijiquan.