Dr Lam Tai Chi for Health Newsletter
- Issue Number 239, July 2021
In this issue:
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Hello <<First Name>>,
We have rescheduled my mid-year workshops at the Novotel Wollongong Northbeach Hotel to July 30 for the Depth of 24 Forms and July 31 to Aug 1 for the Depth of the 73 Forms. The hotel has graciously moved the time and allotted us a larger space.
I investigated traveling to the USA for the Fall workshops this year; there are too many uncertainties so we need to move these to 2022. I am going to miss my friends but will yield to reality. We are channeling our energy to next year.
All credible experts say that vaccination is the only way to overcome this pandemic in the long run. I would like to explain how vaccines work as I did over the last 40 years as a family physician. It is like an army training against foreign invaders or a fire drill; it is quite necessary to improve our chance against diseases. Vaccines use modified germs retaining the same outside shape cutting out virulency. When the modified virus is injected into the body, our immune system has a practice run, so that we have a better chance when in contact with the real virus. Medical advances have made vaccines safe and amazingly effective. Smallpox has been eradicated in the world because of vaccination. Just looking at the vaccination rate against the dramatically-reduced infection and death rate in USA, the efficacy of vaccine is without doubt.
In a previous Newsletter, I cited a study on the effect of vaccines, the effect of tai chi, and the effect of both vaccines and tai chi combined. Vaccine alone is more effective than tai chi. But the effect of tai chi alone is still effective at increasing immunity. Both vaccine and tai chi combined have the highest immunity compared to each one on its own.
Vaccines are specific, e.g. chicken pox vaccine only works against the chicken pox virus. Tai chi induces better immunity that works across the board. Not just against almost all virus and bacteria, it also reduces the chance of cancer. Cancer cells are mutated cells from our own body. The defect is the inability to control their growth. The body produces many of these cells every day, but our immunological system eliminates most of them. The ones missed grow into cancers. Higher immunity not only protects us against germs but also cancer cells.
There are robust studies showing tai chi improves immunity, so my friends: why not do both, take vaccine and tai chi. Remember to use the principles and dan tian breathing to improve tai chi’s efficacy.
For people who cannot or don’t want to take up tai chi, I believe most healthier measures should improve immunity to some degree. For example, healthier food, regular activities, happiness and positive social relationships all should improve immunity. I offered my recipe for health in my memoir, which is included at the Global Community, included with Online Tai Chi Lessons. I have posted the first two parts on YouTube:
Recipe for Health - Intro and Part 1: https://youtu.be/Ot7HDTvD6n0
Recipe for Health - Part 2: https://youtu.be/DioXAFrTSro
Subscribers of my Online Tai Chi Lessons can access the complete recipe. If not, you can subscribe for just the admin cost for the Global Community, be a member of our community and check out more than 100 fascinating videos in the growing library of videos.
In this Newsletter, Marlena Fiol, a great writer, and the author of “Nothing Bad Between Us” shares her views about health and stress and tai chi.
Dr. Guoyan (Emily) Yang, BA MMed PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, NICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University has recently published research analysing Tai Chi clinical studies over the prior decade. It was featured by a famous international academic organisation – the Consortium in Integrative Medicine and Health! The final full version of this paper is available in Complementary Therapies in Medicine. I hope this research is useful for you. Please feel free to share with colleagues and on social media.
Yours in Tai Chi,
Paul Lam, MD
Director
taichiforhealthinstitute.org
Please don't reply to this Newsletter, contact us via service@tchi.org
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Upcoming Workshops by Dr Paul Lam
July 2021
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Product of the Month
Dr Lam composed the form Tai Chi for Rehabilitation to aid relaxation and stress relief. It is short, easy to learn and you can practice it in a very small area. We invite you to use this rejuvenating program to restore your health and continue to better health and wellness.
This July, get a special discount to Tai Chi for Rehabilitation instructional material:
- Get 30% off when you purchase the Tai Chi for Rehabilitation DVD at Tai Chi Productions
or
- Get 20% off your subscription when you subscribe to Tai Chi for Rehabilitation at Online Tai Chi Lessons (applies to both 2-Month and Annual subscriptions, and includes access to the Global Community)
Note: If you already have an online subscription to the Total Bundle (access to all programs online), then you would already have access to Tai Chi for Rehabilitation online at no additional cost!
Please use the promo code TCRJULY30 at Checkout. Offer expires end of July 2021. Discounts cannot be used in conjunction with any other discount or promotion.
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Tai Chi 4 Kidz Today
Patricia Lawson M.S.Ed, Master Trainer, Florida, USA
It is the first morning of the Maine state standardized test season at Ella Lewis School in Steuben, Maine. The students and teachers grades 3-8, all gather in the gymnasium before going to their classrooms. With great enthusiasm, they are doing the warm-ups, breathing exercises, and some movements from the Tai Chi 4 Kidz program. Dr Joanne Harriman, the Principal, comments, “I want to start every day this way!” Thanks to Senior Trainer Nina Zeldin and the non-profit agency Healthy Acadia, the program was a big success until COVID changed the educational setting. Covid19 also is related to an increase in anxiety and psychological issues for youth and adults.
Just as human society continues to evolve and change, tai chi also adapts to support wellness in countless ways. Since the TC4K program was first conceived, there has been a rise in school shootings, bullying, mental illness diagnoses among youth (including anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder),Type II Diabetes among children, and autism. Meanwhile the school budgets are cut and less funding is available for physical education and counseling. Tai Chi 4 Kidz can help support youth despite the many growing pressures.
Research shows many benefits of Mindful Movement, ranging from inner confidence to relieving testing anxiety. When the exercises are shared with an adult caregiver, bonding and communication grow in a positive environment making it more likely for the youth to communicate with that adult when there is a threat or need. Meditation is shown to have a calming effect and reduce anxiety, even improve cognition for youth and adults. Posture can deter bullies. Dan tian breathing helps control emotions when a trigger is pressed, particularly applicable for kids on the autism spectrum. Reducing anxiety during standardized testing can improve scores.
Changes in the Educational environment over the last two decades require some adjustments to how we present TC4K. Formerly, the program was mainly geared to elementary level kids with an emphasis on playful approach and developing coordination. This is still important but TC4K has much to offer the “tweeners,” the kids ages 10-14 who are in the foggy land between child and adult. Educators, counselors, and after-school care workers are feeling pressure from all sides. Staffing ratios are acknowledged to be insufficient. The tweener age group is more responsive to the more adult approaches of mindfulness and self-improvement. In addition, they will benefit from the cultivation of compassion, kindness, and empathy. The bonus is physical fitness!
Tai Chi 4 Kidz is an ideal program to help our youth develop resiliency, compassion, focus, self-esteem and other qualities much needed in today’s society. It is safe and cost-effective, and addresses mind, body, and spirit. Plus, the adults working with the kids gain benefits and stress relief as well! Consider adding TC4K to your toolbox.
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Tai Chi for Quieting the Mind
Marlena Fiol, Instructor,Oregon, USA
One of my recent YouTube shows featured Kim Colegrove. In 2014, Kim lost her husband David, a former police officer, to suicide. She created Pause First: Mindfulness for First Responders to honor her husband’s memory, and to help other first responders cope with stress and trauma.
The stress of police officers has been much in the news lately. But it’s not just first responders who lead stressful lives. If your life is stress-free, you are unique and unusual!
I don’t need to give you all the details of my wonderful, overly full life for you to understand that sometimes it feels like I’m spinning out of control.
It is the norm for most of us.
Stress is so common that a Google search generates millions of results with opinions about what stress is doing to us and advice about how to manage it.
According to an American Psychological Association survey in 2012, on a scale of 1 to 10 (where 1 is “little or no stress” and 10 is “a great deal of stress”), 20 percent of the respondents said their stress was an 8, 9 or 10. And over the past five years, 60 percent of them had unsuccessfully tried to reduce their stress.
I love all of my busy-ness. After all, I am the chooser who puts all these pieces into my life. But when things get too stressful, I lose the sense of peace and joy that is key to living my life filled with joy.
Much of the advice, including Kim’s, about managing stress has to do with focusing our minds on the present, rather than letting it wander to “what ifs” about the past or “shoulds” about the future.
I agree.
It’s the advice that often comes next that doesn’t work many of us:
Sit. Close your eyes. Feel your breath. Gently bring your thoughts back when they wander.
Don’t get me wrong. I believe mindful meditation can be a powerful way to become centered and present in the moment. My husband Ed and I practiced Transcendental Meditation (TM) for decades, and we have attended numerous 10-day silent Vipassana Meditation retreats. Indeed, we have experienced moments of profound serenity and peace as a result of doing so.
But all too often, I find that my monkey-mind never shuts down for long. And sometimes the longer I sit in silence, the louder it shouts at me.
Ed and I have found an alternate route to peace and stillness that has become our daily routine: tai chi.
Tai chi quite literally slows us down and centers us when life begins to feel out of control.
Research studies have conclusively demonstrated the benefits of tai chi for falls prevention, chronic disease alleviation and improved memory and cognitive function. And our teacher, Dr Paul Lam, has developed a series of Tai Chi for Health programs that are supported by many leading organizations and government bodies around the world, including the USA Centers for Disease Control, the Arthritis Foundations and the Administration on Aging. He has trained many hundreds of instructors who provide classes throughout the US and worldwide.
But there’s another benefit of practicing tai chi that doesn’t get as much press. And it has literally changed my life.
When I practice tai chi, I don’t have to calm my mind; the practice does it for me. I don’t have to pull my thoughts into the present; I’m already there. And I don’t have to open my heart; half the time during my practice, tears of joy well up in my eyes and I feel one with the universe.
This all happens as part of my tai chi practice, rather than something I hope the practice will help me accomplish.
So when I feel like my life is spiralling out of control, I often rely on my tai chi practice to bring me back to my center.
It has rarely failed.
Editor’s note:
Along with her husband, Ed O’Connell, Marlena is one of our Roving Reporters. They have both attended many of Dr Lam’s workshops. Marlena’s blog and YouTube shows often discuss the calming effects of tai chi.
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Product Review Prize Winners
Every month we offer a prize to the best review of our products that you have purchased. The winner's prize per month is 3 DVDs of their choice. The winners’ reviews will be published below.
Please contact service@taichiproductions.com (Australia/World) or serviceusa@taichiproductions.com (USA) within one week of this newsletter to claim your prizes.
Australia/World
Product: Seated Tai Chi for Arthritis
 Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by: Kath
Excellent
"This is the second time I've purchased this dvd.
Used in the aged care sector (with approval from our physio first) it's excellent exercise which also provides confidence, accomplishment, social support and mindfulness for our community. It is also culturally diverse and a physical activity. It ticks so many boxes for our programme plan thank you. "
USA
Product: Tai Chi for Arthritis
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by: Daniel
"I've been practicing tai chi in the Yang style for 4 years now. I wanted to branch out and see what the other styles were like, and I saw someone demonstrate the Sun style and immediately knew it was my next method of exploring tai chi.
I do not have arthritis or have movement problems. I'm 31. From my perspective the Sun style has a few upgrades to its form that the Yang style does not - the focus on performing the movements on both sides of the body, and the integrated qigong breaths with the opening and closing hands are pretty awesome for cultivating a sensitivity to one's qi and maintaining a truly balanced program. This would be an awesome introduction to tai chi and energetic concepts in general, not only for those living with arthritis or other joint pain.
Dr Lam is a chill guy that embodies the slow openness of tai chi and makes it all very approachable. I will be including some of his wisdom in my own teaching methodology."
Well done to our winners! Do be sure to post your review when you make a purchase, and you may win a prize!
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Dr Bob McBrien with Dr Lam
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Humour, Laughter and Radiant Health
Dr Bob McBrien, Salisbury, MD, USA
After so many Covid-related restrictions are gradually being lifted, the arrival of summer here in Maryland includes vacation plans and travel being restored. Summer travel provides opportunities for people away from home to use humour to add moments of laughter each day.
I often discover those opportunities in the various humorous signs that merchants use to bring a smile to potential customers. Here are a few for your enjoyment.
In a restaurant window:
"Don't stand there and be hungry. Come on in and get fed up."
In a veterinarian's waiting room:
"Be back in 5 minutes. Sit! Stay!"
Outside a muffler shop:
"No appointment necessary. We heard you drive up!"
On a plumbers truck:
"We repair what your husband fixed."
Door of a plastic surgeon's office:
"Welcome. Can we help you pick your nose?"
On a maternity room door:
"Push. Push. Push."
Sign for a tropical fish store:
"Wet Pets"
Window sign in a downtown diner:
“Eat Here or We Will Both Starve!”
House for Sale sign:
“Not Haunted!”
Do you have examples of funny signs you have seen in your travels? Send to me at drbobtaichi@gmail.com
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Warning: Dr Lam does not necessarily endorse the opinion of other authors. Before practicing any program featured in this newsletter, please check with your physician or therapist. The authors and anyone involved in the production of this newsletter will not be held responsible in any way whatsoever for any injury which may arise as a result of following the instructions given in this newsletter.
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