Tai Chi Tao Stress Relief
Anna York
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Life is Stressful for Parents & Kids
Photos by Steven Jones
Most parents have their own professional careers that make enormous demands on their time, energy and ability to guard personal priorities. As for kids, it’s hard enough just dealing with the angst of growing up, with all of its social, emotional and physiological pressures. When the academic pressures are added into the mix, there is an increased likelihood that “meltdowns” will occur, creating even more stress for families.
Students who are struggling academically and those who have learning disabilities may be more vulnerable to emotional stress than those with stronger academic skills, but meltdowns can happen to anyone. When they begin happening on a more frequent basis, it may be time to stop and consider how to address the stress and learn to control it. If there are actual “panic attacks” that begin to strike suddenly and without warning, the need for stress management is even more critical.
Sometimes boosting academic skills can bring down the stress level, but psychologists and doctors often recommend learning stress management skills, including diaphragmatic breathing, stress-relieving movement such as tai chi and yoga, and visualization therapy.
Tai Chi Tao Stress Relief Training builds an array of skills that empower kids and parents to achieve immediate relief and also work toward longer-term goals of building relaxation and balance into their daily lives.
What Is Tai Chi Tao Stress Relief Training?
Gentle, healing exercise and breathing. Tai Chi Tao Stress Relief Training includes gentle exercise that is healing and energizing for the whole person—body, mind, emotions and spirit. It consists of traditional Chinese Tai Chi and Chi Kung practices that have stood the test of time and that are being practiced by millions of people around the world today for their health benefits. Gentle movement is accompanied by diaphragmatic breathing, and relaxing, healing visualization.
Story form. Tai Chi and Chi Kung have nature imagery, such as wind, water, mountains, growing plants, sun, moon, stars, animals and birds, that add to the beauty and visualization of the movements. I teach the movements accompanied by a narrative that makes them easy to remember. The “Good Day” narrative associates a set of movements and breathing with challenges students face in the course of everyday life. These include:
•Good beginnings (positive attitude, greeting the day)
•Addressing problems (calming waves, moving mountains)
•Growing and changing (plants, blossoming flowers, trees)
•Reaching out for new possibilities (sun and moon movements)
•Becoming wise (birds and sea creatures, plus sensitivity training)
•Becoming strong and taking charge (assertive movements such as Lion and Bear)
•Rest and refreshment (includes self massage)
Another narrative, “New Creation Body Prayer,” is a faith-based approach that employs the nature imagery in the seven days of the Genesis 1 creation story. This story fits with the traditional nature imagery of Chi Kung and works well in a variety of Judeo-Christian settings. Participants may choose the narrative they prefer. (For more information on Body Prayer, see the Body Prayer tab at www.annayork.com.)
Emotional benefits: The movements, breathing and imagery in Tai Chi Tao Stress Relief offer a way for emotions to be gently acknowledged and released. For example, “Calm the Waves” invites participation in calming the inner emotional waves and the outer waves of troubling circumstances. “Move the Mountain” offers a feeling of empowerment in addressing overwhelming obstacles. Imitating a Lion or Bear builds up courage and assertiveness, while the repetition of circled arms in the “Good Day” posture supports facing the day with a positive attitude.
Breathing Exercise
Move the Mountain
Lifestyle application. Stress relief training includes application to real-life situations. A preliminary stress relief questionnaire and consultation helps identify various lifestyle factors related to stress. I work with parents and kids to enhance practices that create balance and harmony and to eliminate factors that increase stress. As the training proceeds, we identify strategies that help students become calm and exercise self control during specific times and situations that are stressful. A typical course of training would be as follows:
•Initial consultation: An hour-and-a-half consultation with parent(s) and student to identify issues of anxiety, when, and how they occur. Both parents and students fill out a questionnaire.
•Second consultation (one week later): An hour-and-a-half consultation to discuss the questionnaire and strategies for reducing stress in the student’s life. This session includes a description of ways Tai Chi Tao Stress Relief works.
•Ten Weekly Student Stress Relief Sessions: Hour-long sessions to learn movements, breathing and imagery and begin to apply them to practical situations. Parents are welcome to attend as many sessions as they like to help them learn to support their child in times of need.
•Follow-up session: Consultation with student and parent for evaluation and recommendations.
A training brochure with pictures accompanies the training.
Individual and group sessions. Training is done in individual or group sessions, depending on the needs of the family and schedules of other participants. I periodically teach group sessions in 8-10 week series in the community.
Overall health benefits. There is a large body of research that has been done in China on the health effects of the Tai Chi and Chi Kung (qigong) practices that constitute Tai Chi Tao Stress Relief. Western scientific research is also proliferating that reveals a great variety of beneficial physiological, social and psychological benefits. Some of these are summarized below:
•Stress relief
•Induces relaxation response
•Lowers stress hormones
•Oxygenates the body
•Improves posture
•Improves respiration and circulation
•Enhances micro-circulation
•Increases balance and coordination
•Improves flow of energy through straight spine
•Lowers blood pressure
•Enhances immune system function
•Balances brain hemisphere dominance with the practical effect of increasing balance of activity on each side of body.
•Raises awareness of the body and the way it functions
•Improves awareness of body position (proprioreception) Tai Chi Tao
Tai Chi Tao Stress Relief is a powerful mode of health maintenance and well-being for everyone, including adults, teens and children. Imagery of animals and birds makes it wonderful for children. Learning the strategies early can assist them through challenging times as they move into high school.
“I think that . . . it can really help you with anxiety and when you’re just not feeling well. When I first tried it, I had a great experience because my whole body actually felt relaxed (for once). It just made me really happy because my body was up for a new day!” Sam, age 11
Growing & Changing: The Sprouting Seed
Growing & Changing: The Sprouting Seed
Exercises can be done anywhere. Tai Chi Tao exercises are simple, require no equipment, can be done seated or standing, and require a minimal amount of space. Of course intentional breathing can be done discreetly at all times. These qualities make it ideal for creating quick, energizing moments in a busy day. Students can do movements and breathing at a desk, during study hall, on lunch breaks, during tests, in hallways and restrooms or in their own room or living room at home.
Authorized teacher. Sifu Bruce Moran, a Tai Chi Master for over 25 years, has authorized me to teach Chi Kung, which I have practiced personally since 1996 and have taught in a variety of settings in the Chicago area. I have done stress-relief workshops for nurses and staff at Jackson Park Hospital and have done extended series for the Hyde Park community at Hyde Park Union Church (see the Speaking and Workshops tab at www.annayork.com). In August of 2007, I led a session of New Creation Body Prayer at the Matters of the Heart Seminar for disabled women at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (pictures are in the Body Prayer tab at www.annayork.com). I also do Tai Chi Tao Stress Relief as part of my educational consulting and tutoring practice for students at the University of Chicago Laboratory School.
Nine years working with U of C Laboratory School students. I have been working with students and families at UCLS for nine years, doing tutoring and educational consulting. UCLS hires me as an independent tutoring contractor for some students, while others come to me from referrals by teachers, counselors and former clients. In addition, I have five years of experience working with families as an Associate Pastor of a church in Hyde Park. For more information and references see my Tutoring page.
Anna’s Personal Experience Of Recovery
When I was nineteen years old, I had my first attack of multiple sclerosis while on a college drama tour. I recovered, but as I finished college and got married, there were more signs of an unstable nervous system. At age thirty- seven I was largely paralyzed from the neck down and spent several weeks in a hospital and nursing home. Over the next fourteen years I experienced repeated attacks, sometimes as many as six a year, resulting in increasing disability and paralysis. I used a wheelchair and then an electric scooter, and we eventually purchased a van with a wheelchair lift. At one point I was in such serious condition that my pastor came to help prepare me to die. Needless to say, these experiences caused enormous stress in my own life.
My oldest son Sean took me to the Tai Chi Tao class at the University of Chicago and introduced me to Sifu Bruce Moran at a time when things seemed hopeless. Sifu Moran specializes in Asian bodywork, injury recovery and rehabilitation, and is knowledgeable about therapeutic nutrition and Traditional Chinese Medicine. I later discovered that he puts these together with Western therapies to create a powerful, natural integration of Eastern and Western healing modalities. With his help, I embarked on a program of healing that has reversed my symptoms, restored function to my atrophied limbs and revived my stamina and vitality. I have told my story in my book, Rising Up! An Epic of Heart and Spirit, to be published soon by HarperCollins. Eventually, with Sifu Moran’s encouragement I began to teach and share with others the Tai Chi Tao and Chi Kung practices that have been so powerful for healing in my own life.
Today I am healthy and fit. I have four married sons and one granddaughter and look forward to the future with joy. Life is good.
For more information about my story, see my website at www.annayork.com.
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