Prolonged Sitting is Killing You Tai Chi and Qigong to improve your posture in daily life If you have attended my Tai Chi and Qigong classes, you’ll know how emphatic I can be regarding frequent healthy movements and postural health in your daily life. By practicing the Classical Chinese arts regularly, the corrections to your…
Tai Chi for All Abilities Our aim at Earth Balance Tai Chi is to create classes that are accessible across the whole community. We provide Tai Chi and Qigong for all abilities, meaning seated and chair based for those with restricted movement / mobility whether through disability, age, disease, injury or for rehabilitation. Find out…
Taiji Qigong Chronic Fatigue How the Classical Chinese Arts can aid the symptoms of CFS One of my students has written a personal account of her Qigong practice relating to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: “I had been diagnosed with CFS in 2009, following a bout of swine flu and a chest infection, which left me with…
Organ Health in Taiji Qigong There are over 70 organs in the human body which work together to keep us alive. The core of our health and longevity stems from how well our internal organs function. Poor lifestyle can reduce the effectiveness of our organs leading to ill-health and reduced wellbeing.   In the practices of…
Improving Health Naturally Are you happy with your health? Imagine this scenario: ‘You go to the Doctors surgery for a general check up with a few nagging problems and he offers you a course of tablets that could offer the following health benefits. There aren’t any side effects and the tablets are totally natural, would…
Not a Quick Fix Is Tai Chi or Qi Gong what you think? Lots of new students come into a class saying “I’ve always wanted to do Tai Chi, it looks so soft and gentle, with the wavy hands in the air.” People are drawn to the Classical Chinese practices for many reasons, and often…
Qigong for Parkinsons Disease Parkinson’s disease is a nervous system disorder where the nerve cells found within the brain that produce the chemical called dopamine start to die off. This leads to the many symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Main Symptoms Tremors Slowness of movement Rigid body / rigid movement Bladder and bowel problems Swallowing and…
Tai Chi for Heart Failure What is Heart Failure Heart failure is a chronic condition. When the heart muscle becomes damaged it is unable to heal itself, this results in blood/oxygen not pumping around the body as well as it could do. This creates stress on the body as it cannot function normally. Possible Damage…
Tai Chi for SAD SAD stands for seasonal affective disorder. Commonly talked about as the winter blues, SAD is a serious condition that affects many people over the winter months. Linked with the lack in our bodies of Vitamin D from natural sunlight, this condition can be hard to diagnose as the symptoms are similar…
Tai Chi for Cancer Over my years of teaching, I have had the honour of teaching many students who have cancer or are in recovery from cancer. Whether through private tuition in their own home, in my public community classes, teaching as a volunteer within cancer support groups, to teaching care-givers. Some of my students…
Psoas Muscle in Tai Chi The psoas (pronounced so-az) muscle isn’t well known and yet plays a huge role in our bodies. It is the deepest muscle in the body and unlike most other muscles it lays buried. This muscle is vital for appropriate alignment/structure, full muscular range of motion and correct joint rotation. Location…
The Absence of Resistance The meaning of relaxation Through practice, effort and patience you can learn to release physical and mental tension. This helps to reduce pain and fatigue and increases the ability to cope. We are not designed to live in a tight body, it’s a nasty by product of modern life. What if…
Living Well With Chronic Fatigue As a Tai Chi and Qigong instructor living with pain and fatigue, I cannot now remember a day without either. It is a difficult road to walk and one I wouldn’t wish on anyone. It’s an invisible condition that is often not recognised, validated or understood by society, doctors, employers,…
Tai Chi for Fibromyalgia Fibromyalgia is a non curable medical condition/syndrome that causes chronic musculoskeletal pain and fatigue in the muscles, tendons and ligaments. It is often misunderstood by the health service here in the UK, and effective treatment outside of long term pain relief medication is lacking. There is a natural approach to try,…
Tai Chi Trigrams How Taoist philosophy & the I Ching relate to Tai Chi Chuan practice. In Taoist philosophy, the 8 Trigrams are symbols of change found within the Book of Changes, known as the I Ching. Each trigram represents a unique set of characteristics; tai chi application, qi gong movement, natural identity, cardinal directions,…