T’ai Chi for Health, Peace, and Soft Power

T’ai chi (taijiquan) is more than just a healthy exercise and moving meditation. It is a powerful internal martial art and proven vehicle for transformational body-mind-spirit integration. Its slow graceful movements are a portal to superconscious awareness. But students can spend a long time and barely scratch the surface of its hidden treasures.

In this six-week course, Rick Barrett shows how to enter this trove through the “Western Gate,” using language and methods both easily understood and immediately applicable. Rick has spent decades translating the sometimes arcane instructions of this paradoxical art into simple concepts that you can empirically test.

In this course, you will learn:

• Yang Cheng Fu’s 13 Original Postures, a short, powerful t’ai chi form that is great for beginners and advanced practitioners looking for a big infusion of internal energy.
• How to calm and clear your mind—anytime, anyplace—replacing fear and anxiety with a calm confidence.
• How coherent body-mind integration leads to super consciousness, a whole-brain state not limited by the slow processing of the rational mind, which is like a “flow” state or “being in the zone.

More important, you will learn Rick’s Three Pillars:

• Energetic Coherence (whole-body energetic connection).
  Central Equilibrium (the “sweet spot” in body alignment that opens the energy gates).
• Song Kua (releasing muscular tension in the hips that blocks energy flow).

The Three Pillars are a fast, dependable way to access the “soft power” of t’ai chi by changing and controlling your internal state rather than depending on crude muscular contraction. In the practice, they say, “Four ounces of pressure diverts a thousand pounds.”

Health benefits attributed to regular t’ai chi practice include:

• Better balance, flexibility, agility
• Enhanced energy and stamina
• Lower levels of depression and anxiety
• Reduced inflammation
• Enhanced blood oxygenation
• Improved core strength
• Lower cholesterol levels