First Double Workshop in New Zealand

[HazelG]

Last week Dr Lam conducted two consecutive workshops in Auckland; Tai Chi 4 Kidz and Exploring the Depth of TCA. Many participants attended both workshops, so by the last day the camaraderie was incredible.

Dr Lam was ably assisted by MT Chris Hattle, three assistants from Australia; Marta Venegas, Maree Lamb and Greta Reidy, his organiser Tamara Bennett and myself. Tamara has a lot of experience with teaching tai chi to children, and shared some very innovative ideas with the group. It was quite something to watch highly skilled and normally serious practitioners perform TCK to rap music, with balloons tied to their wrists!

It was also great to see a lot of new faces, especially at the Depth workshop. Despite changes to funding TCA continues to thrive in New Zealand, and I look forward to catching up with everyone again at the next workshop.

Many thanks to Dr Lam for another excellent workshop.

Hazel Thompson
Authorised Agent for Dr Lam

[HazelG]

Here are some of the many positive feedbacks we have received since the workshop. Do feel free to add your remarks; the best review wins a New Zealand exclusive prize of Dr Lam's China photo CD, China Tour DVD and the Alaska photo collection.


Dr Lam is a pretty amazing person and I felt really privileged just to have had the opportunity to be there in amongst it all. I certainly got a lot out of the finer points of TCA. Margaret Lee

Thank you so much for a fantastic seminar that you all put on. Well organised and set out! Memorable! Annabel Lee

Thanks so much for all you did to help Tamara at the workshops in Auckland. You and others made it a memorable experience. I learned so much. Christine Widdowson

Thank you again for an amazing workshop, it was well organised. Petrina Broughton

Neat to meet you last week I had an absolute blast and am keen to keep up my practise and start teaching kids. Loretta Robin

Congrats on a well run workshop. Big ups to you and your team on a fantastic job looking after us participants and I know how grateful the Tai chi family were. Dr Lam was most pleased with the hospitality, your team made his workshop easy. Koia Teinakore

Thanks for the o for awesome weekend Richard Reiri

A big thank you to you for your help to making such an interesting and enjoyable workshop. I have come back still feeling so enriched for being with so many like minded people and exchanging and picking up good ideas as WELL as Dr Paul Lam's hard work and patience. As well as Chris Hattle and Tamara and her team of wonderful helpers.
I have come back feeling I gained so much from it. Having been to an In depth workshop before this one I think I understood and was able to take it all in and still left wanting to get up the mountain a bit further. The top still seems a long way off. But the foothills are pulling and pushing me up. Jane Rees

I'm still coming down to earth after the workshop which I thought was wonderful.
I enjoyed meeting Dr Lam again and practising Tai Chi with him. I also enjoyed meeting the other participants in such a friendly, relaxed atmosphere. You and Tamara must feel very proud of yourselves to have organised a most successful workshop. Susan Pichler

[HazelG]

Jill Freeman from Mangonui has sent us this lovely piece on how Dr Lam's July Auckland TCA Depth workshop has had a very positive effect on her health. Thanks so much for sharing this with everyone Jill:
This post also wins the special New Zealand only prize for the best review. The prize is Dr Lam's China Tour DVD, China Tour Photo CD and his Alaska photo collection. Congratulations Jill!

WHAT GOES UP MUST COME DOWN
(Breathing as I climb the mountain)

Dr. Lam, on the recent EDTCA course in Auckland, used the image of climbing a mountain in learning Tai Chi. However high you have climbed, you can enjoy both a wonderful view and oft times, the delusion that you can see the summit. I have, for many years, been enjoying the view from my position on the mountain of breathing, confident that I was near the top. Dr Lam’s teaching caused the clouds to part and I realised that I was nowhere near reaching the summit.

As a young child, I’d been sent to physiotherapy for breathing exercises. I remember blowing out candles and blowing puffs of cotton wool off the therapist’s hands. I was praised both when I inhaled with all my strength, pulling UP my chest and sternum and when I exhaled with a forceful collapse DOWN through my torso and spine. The more I was praised, the more I rhythmically alternated between pulling my sternum UP and collapsing my spine DOWN.

Some 30 years ago, courtesy of the Alexander Technique, I learnt that this pattern acquired in childhood was not helping my breathing at all. My method of inhalation was creating an overextension (bending backwards) compressing my vertebral column back and DOWN, thereby restricting ribcage movement. My method of exhalation was over-flexing my spine, compressing my vertebral column forward and DOWN, thereby restricting ribcage movement. My intercostals were stuck and my diaphragm totally confused.

I learnt that my diaphragm moves DOWN during inhalation. After all those years pulling my sternum UP to inhale, I now had to think DOWN. Conversely, my diaphragm should move UP as I exhale – forget all that forceful collapsing DOWN. This transformation was far from easy but I discovered intercostals movement, elasticity of my ribcage and power in my diaphragm. Throughout, there was a sense of my spine elongating, no longer being repeatedly compressed by my old habits of breathing. My spine was gently maintaining the distance between my pelvis and my head whether I was thinking DOWN to inhale or UP to exhale.

I had climbed a long way and the view has been wonderful for many years. On the EDTCA course, the clouds parted and I could no longer delude myself that I had conquered this mountain and reached the summit.

Dr. Lam asked us to incorporate abdominal breathing into our TCA practice and to activate the muscles of the pelvic floor in breathing, thinking UP from the Dan Tian during inhalation and sinking DOWN into the Dan Tian during exhalation. As a child, inhalation had been UP, then it was DOWN as the Alexander Technique became part of my life, and now it was UP again. I nearly fell off the mountain! I could not deny that a path had revealed itself leading to even higher ground. I started exploring this path and there were very loose rocks underfoot. I felt unsteady.

I travelled home from Auckland on an Inter City bus, a 6-hour journey throughout which I practised abdominal breathing, visualising the rising and sinking of my chi. Suddenly, it all made sense, both in my body and in my left brain. There was a sense of a pressure vessel protected underneath by the pelvic floor and above by the diaphragm. These two “membranes” moved away from each other during inhalation and towards each other during exhalation. I was, and am, exhilarated. The view from up here is even better!

My thanks to everyone who enabled me to attend this course. It was a life changing experience.

Jill Freeman 30th July 2010

[HazelG]

More inspiring writing from our talented Auckland students! Nancy Sherwood mentioned this topic briefly during the workshop, and is now sharing her reflections with us. Many thanks, Nancy.

At last I have time to sit down and reflect on the Tai Chi workshops in Auckland and what an inspiration they were.

When Dr Lam was talking about tai chi practice enabling a person to be in the "flow" or the "zone" it reminded me of the state of mind I achieve when painting: my focus is so clear - both intense and relaxed - that time disappears. Hours can pass as each brush stroke leads to the next and a painting emerges.

It was not always like this - my early artistic struggles were fraught with tension and disappointment as I tried to force my will rather than be open to the energy. Now the brush work is preceded by quiet meditation followed by the surge of energy, oneness of mind and body..

Similarly I see analogies with tai chi and working with horses. I saved a horse labelled as"crazy" from being put down but was warned never to attempt to ride him. What I saw was not a mean animal but a frightened animal. To work with such a being I needed to find a calm centre in myself, to be gentle but also to draw on my inner strength. This is what needed to be communicated to the animal to give it courage, confidence and respect so we could work together. The dan tien is the centre of energy a horserider draws on and the chi flows through both horse and rider like a river's flow. Within a few months we went on a week-long trek together through the Molesworth, New Zealand's biggest sheep station.

The principles of tai chi keep me balanced in my daily work as a social worker and support me in achieving more than I could imagine. It also inspires voluntary projects like the one I am currently involved in - gathering support for the building of a Peace
House to serve all the different ethnicities and spiritual paths which are new to our province... A round building which will also be a place to practice tai chi, yoga and meditation.

It is a gift to be able to integrate belief, practice and livelihood and to be inspired by those I meet along the way!

Nancy Sherwood, August 2010

[mlamb]

It was a pleasure to watch the participants grow in confidence and understanding as they worked through the Depth Of Tai Chi for Arthritis workshop with Dr Lam. The NZ Team of MT Chris, Tamara, Hazel and their many helpful students welcomed Marta, Greta and myself from Australia with open arms and we all enjoyed assisting Dr Lam with the small group practice sessions.
Thank you to all of you. This was an experience that I will carry with me for quite a while.