Page 126 - Ocean Blue World 27th Edition

HEALTH & BEAUTY
WMoving Meditation
ellness is on everyone’s minds these days, Tai Chi is about slowing life down, and focusing entirely on and there’s a renewed interest in turning a series of graceful movements, anyone, whether young or to trusted techniques of the past. Tai Chi, old, can benefit from doing it. Research has shown that it is or shadowboxing, has been practiced for beneficial for people with rheumatoid arthritis, and aids in
more than 1,000 years as a way to stimulate the flow of preventing heart disease.
energy through the body using slow, rhythmic movements with whimsical names like “swallow skimming the pond,” “wave hands like clouds,” or “dragons stirring up the wind.”
Although it is more of a mental exercise designed to address stress and anxiety, Tai Chi also promotes muscle strength, memory, flexibility and balance. The martial art is practiced by an estimated 20 percent of the world’s population.
Model Gisele Bündchen practiced Tai Chi through her pregnancies, as did her husband, Tom Brady. Steven Tyler, lead singer of Aerosmith, is a devotee as is French actress Emmanuelle Seigner.
While not nearly as popular as yoga in the west, Tai Chi is quietly gaining ground as a means of focus and relaxation, a moving meditation for the body and mind.
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