Tai Chi retreat for physical/emotional healing for my mother . . .

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Adam F, modified 11 Years ago at 10/18/12 5:36 PM
Created 11 Years ago at 10/18/12 5:36 PM

Tai Chi retreat for physical/emotional healing for my mother . . .

Posts: 48 Join Date: 9/9/10 Recent Posts
Hi Guys,

My mother is in her late-50's and recently had BOTH hips replaced due to sever arthritis.

She has expressed an interest in attending a retreat or residential program utilizing meditation and, particularly, tai chi to address both physical and emotional distress.

She is a very anxious person, completely repressed and old-school, having absolutely no experience with any sort of meditation/holistic health/emotional self-care/normal human emotional expression etc. Think Lucille Bluth from Arrested Development, except honest and with a good heart.

It's a blessing for me personally to hear her willingness to open up and do some soul-searching.

It'd be great to get her meditating with regularity and to begin an earnest search for enlightenement/self-knowledge/spiritual strength, but one thing at a time.

One caveat: she is used to being coddled and spoiled, god bless her, and austere conditions of any kind would be completely distracting and counter-productive. The place needs to be a bit swanky, at least for this first retreat/program.

Please help! If you knew my mom you'd love her too. She's reaching out to us hippie, new-age, seeker types for the first time in her life and it's really pretty wonderful.

Any advice is infinitely appreciated!

Thanks!

-Adam
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Brian Eleven, modified 11 Years ago at 10/18/12 8:32 PM
Created 11 Years ago at 10/18/12 8:32 PM

RE: Tai Chi retreat for physical/emotional healing for my mother . . .

Posts: 221 Join Date: 9/14/10 Recent Posts
Adam,
From my own experience I would suggest having a look at the Taoist Tai Chi Society (http://www.taoist.org/) I took classes with them for a couple of years and saw a lot of positive results for people with health issues. The classes that I've been in have had a mix of age groups so there is a good chance she won't be the oldest or youngest, which may make her a bit more comfortable stretching her boundaries this way. Some of the locations also have meditation classes and Taoist temples if she wanted to head in that direction with things. Here in Canada they offer the first class free, so she could check it out without risk, then it's a monthly fee($35-$50) and you can go to any classes(and as many) as you want, day, evening, weekend. The entire set takes about 3 months to learn the basics and then they offer intermediate and advanced classes
They take a beating from some on line groups about not being "real" Tai Chi. It was started by a Taoist monk who came to Canada from China and essentially bastardized several Tai Chi styles to maximize health benefits. I met Master Moy several times before he died, and he was the real deal, a no BS old school kind of guy with some amazing abilities when it came to control of his chi.
The group is run by volunteers, is non-profit and is in 28 countries so hopefully something may be near where she is. I wouldn't recommend this group to necessarily further a hardcore spiritual practice, but for health benefits and to "dip a toe" into new age kinda stuff it may be a good fit.
Feel free to ask any questions you have and definitely check out the website.

Metta,

Brian.
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yuri k, modified 11 Years ago at 10/19/12 8:15 AM
Created 11 Years ago at 10/19/12 8:15 AM

RE: Tai Chi retreat for physical/emotional healing for my mother . . .

Posts: 10 Join Date: 9/21/12 Recent Posts
Any 'true' Taoist (or Buddhist) type of practice that raises qi ('qigong' being a common name) should NOT be practised by anyone with implants. Once qi flow is raised natural immune functions are increased/initiated and the implants will be rejected. Hip implants and lens implants (cataract operation) in particular will be near the top of the list for foreign objects that will be attacked.

However, Tai Chi practice does not have the technique inherently required to increase qi other than is typical for any type of light exercise (walking, dancing, yoga, etc...). So it should be fine. These days there are quite a few teaching more of the "wushu" style of Tai Chi that is more dance than anything martial; she might enjoy that.

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