Tai Chi Walking for Balance & Stability | 10-Minute Practice

Hello earth citizens. Welcome to Brain Education TV. My name is Chris. Today's version of Tai Chi walking, we are going to improve our balance. We're going to increase our energy and our longevity. One of the key components of a long healthy life is balance. So this one can be a little challenging on the balance. So at home if you need to use a chair or stand near a wall, perfectly acceptable as we start to improve our condition. Over time if you continue to practice, you will see great improvements in your balance. So first let's bring our feet about shoulder width apart and start with a gentle bounce. Just a little bouncing, bouncing, bouncing. Feel the feet on the earth. Squeeze the earth with your toes. Deepen the bounce in your knees and your legs. We want to wake up the legs. So when we talk about balance, we need strength in each leg. One to hold us up while the other one's in the air. You can exaggerate the shoulders. You can shake it out. So many people start to limit their movement in life as they fear falling. As their balance starts to slip away. So the only way to improve our balance is to practice balance. So today we're going to focus on improving that balance. We're going to focus on connecting mind and body. That is the essence of Qigong. And Tai Chi has to do with perfecting specific movements. Specific movements that can be utilized in other ways. Exaggerate the shoulders. Release that tension. Feel the feet, the knees, the hips. Where you feel tight or you feel stiff, focus there and breathe there. Where your mind goes, energy goes. So if my thighs are feeling heavy, I might want to bounce a little deeper. If I feel the fatigue in my ankles or my knees, I need to bring that energy there. And I need to strengthen them to help improve that balance. Good job. So a little bouncing, a little bouncing. Good. And slowly stop. Just feel that gentle buzzing and tingling all through your body. When we talk about Tai Chi walking, one of the main principles is about shifting weight from side to side. One leg becomes heavy as the other leg becomes light. So right now, all of my weight, majority of my weight is on this left leg. And then as I drop this heel and I shift my weight over, this leg becomes heavy and this leg becomes light. So to walk, to move, we need a heavy leg and a light leg. I can't move the heavy leg, so I have to shift the weight out of it to be able to move it. So we start to get the hang of shifting of weight. Focus on your second chakra. It's two inches below your belly button, two inches inside by your spine. And as I shift to the right, I want the spine over my right foot. My spine, my head, everything's over that foot. Empty left leg. Coming the other way, shifting the weight. So if we can start to move with this kind of a sense, instantly our movement becomes Qigong, becomes Tai Chi. Anytime you walk in any way or form, you can practice a Tai Chi walking. Now today's is very specific for creating balance. So I'm going to show you the leg portion first. So as I shift my weight to the left side here, my right leg becomes empty. I want to take it and I, ideally, I want to bring it back and set it on my calf. I'll turn around so you can see in a minute on my calf. If that's too hard for my balance, I can put it on my down towards my heel. I can even touch the earth behind me if I need to. So I'll turn around as I show you again. As I shift my weight over, I want to make the light leg come up and rest on my calf. That's the perfect world. Good. And then if that's too hard, I kind of put my foot down towards my heel. If it's still too hard, I can kiss my toe on the earth or I can put it back further so I have a bit of a kickstand to help me. I still want as much weight in this front leg as possible. Now as I turn back around, so then as I switch sides, shifting my weight over here, this leg becomes light and then I'm going to set it on my calf. Now for those of you that balance is a struggle, you can put a chair in front of you or touch a wall or use some kind of a walking stick of some sort to help you manage that balance. For those of you that it's pretty easy, you can sink a little deeper, you can lift a little higher. So first, I want to step, shift, lift my leg up. So we'll start with a standing posture and just shifting our weight side to side. Find the right level as you move side to side. Feel the weight come over. Once you feel lined up, this leg becomes empty. Then you can usually hold it up. It's okay to put your arms out. We're going to add some arms here in a moment. Coming over to the other side, shifting and lifting. So as we start to move with more energy, more breath, more movement, we're going to start to add the arms. So as I shift my weight, I'm going to sweep my arms down and up. So as my arms come up, so does my leg. It rests on the back of my leg at high, low, medium. And then as I exhale, I'm going to push out and sink in as deep as I can. As I inhale, I shift over. I pull the energy up. As my hands come up, my leg comes up. I'm as tall as I can be. And as I exhale, I sink in. Imagine you're sending energy out through your hands. Inhale. Exhale. Now for those of you where you're having a little challenge with this balance, placing a chair in front of you, and then as I come over here, I can set one hand on the chair and reach out. And as I go to the other side, I can switch the hand on the chair. So coming in, inhaling, and exhaling. Just sinking with the breath. One more to each side. And then coming back to your stance, feet about shoulder width. Feel how the body has changed a little bit. I'm going to back up. I'm going to take two steps forward and two steps back. You at home, continue to walk forward. That's no problem. If you want to challenge yourself to go backwards, feel free. So from here, I'm going to inhale my arms up and exhale out. As I inhale, instead of stepping side to side, I'm going to step forward. Inhaling, shifting my weight and exhale. As I inhale, I step, I sweep my arms up and out. You're welcome to keep going forward. I'm going to go back. So as I drop my leg backwards, inhaling and exhale. Inhale and exhale. Coming forward two times for me. And exhale. So it's not important that you watch me anymore. It's important that you breathe. Feel your body. You can walk forward. You can walk backwards. Walking down the hall. Walking along the kitchen table. So you can rest your hand on something. Perfectly acceptable. And exhale. Good. Slowly coming back to our horse stance here. Feet about shoulder width and just give a little shake. Temperature's probably up. Legs might be a little, getting a little tired. Now we're going to move to a second flow. That's really good for our balance and it helps us to address different areas. Again, a slightly different challenge, but do your best. And don't be afraid to put your hand on something if you need to. So for the second flow, we're going to shift our weight to our left foot. This time our right leg comes in front of us into a figure four. Tailor stretch over your leg. Just above your knee and relax and sink into it as much as you can. It's okay to touch if you need. And as you inhale, you're going to set the foot down. Shift your weight. Now the left leg comes up and crosses over the right leg. Good. So as you inhale, dropping side to side is a good start. This allows you to hold on to a chair, a counter, whatever you need in front of you to start to build this balance. When you start to feel more comfortable, we start to take it to the walking posture. Good. Stepping out, shifting the weight, feel that connection. When you know it has it, when this leg has all your body weight, this leg becomes light, you can lift it pretty comfortably. One more time to each side, coming over and up. Good. Coming back to our feet about shoulder width. Normal for you to start to feel a little tired, a little fatigued. It's difficult work. It's more challenging than our day-to-day life. So you start to feel the fatigue, but that's the proof that we're getting stronger. So I'm going to back up again. I'm going to take two steps forward, two steps back. We're going to add some hands in this one as well. So relaxing. Now, this time, as I inhale, my hands are going to go out and up, coming up. And then as my hands lift, my right leg is going to lift. As I get to the top and I start to exhale, I'm going to sink into my leg. I'm going to pull my hands down into a prayer posture in front of me. As I inhale, I drop my hand and my leg, and then I shift my weight. And then as I inhale, the other leg comes up with the arms. Prayer posture, sinking in, stepping, inhaling, and exhaling. So keep walking forward if you need to. Good. Even take a break if you need to. But I'm going to go backwards. So as I drop my leg behind me, I can rock my weight back, exhale. Taking shorter steps can really help you with the challenge and the balance. Coming forward again for myself, stepping, inhale, sinking in. So the goal is to fall into a rhythm where you, your breath, your energy can start to flow, improving our balance more and more, our confidence more and more, building more strength, putting more life into our years. Good. Inhale down, gather energy, and pull it down. Deep breath in and out. One last time. Let your arms hang freely. Feel the connection. Feel the changes in your body, legs, joints, mind. This Tai Chi walking for longevity and for balance helps us to extend the vitality of our youth into the older years. Many people stop moving, stop challenging themselves when the balance gets a little shaky. As we keep the balance and improve the balance, we add a lot more vitality to those years. So with that, we'll finish our practice. Feet together, hands together, and thank you. For those of you that want to experience more brain education, check the link in the description. It'll provide you access to our free online community we call BE Circle. There you can meet with our instructors more intimately. There's some on-demand classes. There'll be future workshops and webinars that you can join, and you'll get notifications. So I really hope to meet you in the circle.