Most of us experience relief and joy when the end of the working day has come. For our own health, when the end of the day is here it is time to change pace and let go. This “letting go” can be different for each of us as it is a time to relax and recharge. The faster we let go of past activities and focus on the present to refresh, gather forces, and dissolve the tension and stress from the day, the quicker we will be able to enjoy the rest of the evening.
Energy Stagnation
Not only relaxing is a problem, but also getting a good night’s sleep. Just look at the number of sleeping pills and other sleeping pharmaceutical helpers that we as a society are using. When you cannot change pace during the evening hours, and then have a hard time falling asleep, this is a sure formula to not succeed at your job or attain personal goals the next day.
Many individuals have developed their own ways to relax, dissolve, let go, or change pace. It is human nature to find ways to achieve relaxation when stress builds up. We are programmed that when stress and tension build up to find these solutions. Not dealing, being in denial or lazy, is a part of this mechanism; it is the distractive part. Not coping with these issues or not recognizing the importance of the need to let go and deal with the stress and tension that has accumulated throughout the day, will lead to what the Eastern world refers to as, energy stagnation and an unbalanced energetic system.
Energy to Relieve Tension
Depending on different body types and personalities, over time, instead of calming healing water energy flowing through our system, fire energy will build up. This fire build up will first lead to physical problems and may continue to emotional ones. Both you and the people around you will notice the fire energy that you are manifesting. Life without an energetic system, which is balance, is much harder to flow and live through when it comes to day-to-day life.
If you are looking for balance in life and an energetic system, which is not weak and stagnant, but instead is strong and abundant, you need to take control and be empowered. You need to understand that part of the Tao, the way, or the healthy way, is to invest time and energy to deal with daily negative energy build up. This includes impurities and tension, which is built and accumulated from stress at the workplace and life in general.
You need to understand that spending some time and energy after a working day and interacting with people is essential to your well being and improving your martial arts. Some solutions, for spending this time, are distractive and others are constructive. Some are commonly used, but do not really contribute or are significantly distractive, and just a waste of time, at least when it comes to improving your health or martial arts.
Some Stress Solutions
There are different ways to relieve stress. One is coming home to a quite, relaxed home atmosphere; spend some time with the kids or family, or deal with family issues in a positive way. Another way to let go and forget, is to go on a nature walk especially if the surroundings are calm and inspiring. Or go to the gym. Each of these activities will help increase your heart rate, quite your mind, and allow you to let go physically and emotionally. Others create the needed change by reading a good book or listening to calming music or spending time with a loved one. This change of pace can serve as a nice transition from the stress you are holding and bring you to a more relaxed and healthy place.
Many find the solution through pharmaceutical or at the bottom of a glass or a bottle. This behavior will lead to health problems and self-distraction. Instead of investing in a positive and constructive method, some fall into a path of distraction, a path with negative forces that work against you and your positive logical goals.
Negative forces may easily put you on a path of negative chain reaction, which can lead to depression and other negative health experiences. Healthy prevention is the key word, but before prevention time and energy are the ingredients, which are needed to be recognized and embraced.
The skill of winding down and being able to let go is not easy. Many are still trying during the early evening hours, if at all to let go. Some are forced to deal with the accumulation of stress and not able to let go even into the late hours of the night. Falling asleep is a common problem and waking up tired is a normal experience.
When we fall into a positive pattern we strive, we grow, and we are happy and productive. When we are happy we spread this energy and we affect the people around us. It is a positive chain reaction, which leads to growth on many different levels. We experience positive from within as well as around us, but when falling or finding yourself in a negative pattern you are on a path of distraction for yourself and for those around you.
Tai Chi Stress Solutions
If you are interested in an authentic Eastern method, which has been taught for thousands of years, I suggest that the answer may be found in the tai chi philosophy. In Sunrise Tai Chi, I teach principles and techniques from the Eastern arts, such as tai chi and yoga, with the rising sun to achieve the goal of improving on the five building blocks of our being—body, breath, mind, energy, and spirit. I use the rising sun’s powerful energy to nourish and charge the physical and energetic body as well as up grading our energetic system. While in Sunset Tai Chi, I teach the principles and techniques from the Eastern arts tai chi and yoga along with the setting sun to achieve the goal of cleansing yourself from daily stress as well as up grading the energetic system, while fine tuning the five building blocks of our being until fine tuning is not needed.
The Sunrise Tai Chi series offers you 19 of what I call mind-body prescriptions or the mind-body program, which will lead you to fine tune your body, breath, mind, energy, and spirit. Plus a tai chi program that includes simple basic tai chi preparation as well as 12 tai chi moves from Yang-style Tai Chi. These moves are more energizing and are energy builders to prepare you for a long hard day. The Sunset Tai Chi series gives you a clear and simple mind-body program, or mind-body prescriptions, which includes 21 totally different mind-body prescriptions, or a mind-body program, that will lead you to find balance between strength and flexibility while developing your lungs and quieting the monkey-mind—the emotions—and training the horse-mind—the wisdom. At the same time evoking spirituality and again a tai chi basic preparation and different 12 moves from Sunrise Tai Chi, from the Yang-style Tai Chi, that focuses on cleansing the physical and energetic body from stress, stagnation and other impurities.
Since we are all different with varying degrees of tightness, it is necessary to focus on the mind-body prescriptions from both the Sunset and the Sunrise series.