Long description
Western medical studies demonstrate that Tai Chi-- 'the perfect exercise, ' according to Time magazine-- combats immune deficiencies, mitigates arthritis, improves circulation, decreases high blood pressure, and helps the elderly regain physical balance. This comprehensive guide reveals how and why. Rather than teaching a specific style of Tai Chi, the book gives readers the intellectual foundation and inspiration to use the practice as a potent preventative healthcare routine and regain control of their health. Written by one of the first Westerners to become a Taoist lineage master, the book is full of practical, down-to-earth information, and covers wide-ranging topics including choosing an appropriate style and teacher; using Tai Chi to boost mental stamina and improve workplace productivity; how it enhances sexual, athletic, and intellectual performance; Tai Chi's relationship to Chinese medicine and Taoist philosophy; and how it can be used as a moving meditation and spiritual practice.
Review
From Library Journal, April 15, 2006
A well-known and popular tai chi teacher and practitioner, Frantzis ( Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body ) presents a thorough foundation for anyone thinking about starting tai chi or students of the practice who have not been introduced to the discipline's philosophy and benefits. In other words, readers will not find a demonstration of the movements. The author opens by defining tai chi and placing it in the larger context of Chinese thinking and traditional Chinese medicine before moving to a discussion of the health benefits, most of which derive from the control of stress and movement as well as meditation. Frantzis closes with some nuts-and-bolts issues of what students can expect to learn from tai chi and how to choose a teacher. The appendixes contain great information on how tai chi differs from yoga and chi gung and the Five Elements. Highly recommended for public, hospital, and consumer libraries. --Howard Fuller, Stanford Health Lib., Palo Alto, CA
Tai Chi; Health for Life is not only an encyclopedia but is the foundation for the inspiration to begin the study and practice of this fabulous approach to life. --C. Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D., Founding President of the American Holistic Medical Association and author of Life beyond 100: Secrets of the fountain of Youth and Healing Remedies.
I've been a tai chi teacher since 1971. This book answers many questions I have had about tai chi and those my students have asked me. --Ken Van Sickle, tai chi sword specialist and original student of Cheng Man Ching, one of the first high-level chi masters from China to teach in the West.
Bruce Frantzis is a true master. --Michael E. Gerber, author of The E-Myth Revisited and E-Myth Mastery: The Seven Essential Disciplines for Building a World-Class Company