| Interview
Ensuring a Healthy Feature
– interviewed by Instructor Lis
Around his daytime job as Project Manager for a
construction company, Frank crams two sessions of squash per week,
running, bike riding, socialising and two classes of Tai Chi. He is
also trained in the Bowen soft tissue manipulation technique and plans
one day to switch professions to that less stressful, but less lucrative
activity.
Project managing generates stress, Frank said. He spends
a lot of time negotiating with people and trying to reach agreement on
matters which almost always involve large amounts of money, a subject
guaranteed to raise tempers and stress levels. Squash and running are
for Frank, ideal ways of quickly and physically releasing the pent up
tension after work. “There’s nothing like belting that little black
ball against the wall to get rid of the stress.”
Tai Chi works more slowly for him. Often, his mind is
still churning over the day’s problems through the warm-ups, the Qigong
and the Silk Reeling exercises. He therefore enjoys practising the form
the most because by then, he feels more relaxed and focused.
I wondered why a young man — twenty four when he began —
who was fit and active would take up Tai Chi which he admits he at the
time regarded as an old person’s activity. The answer was a girlfriend.
She was into yoga and wanted him to do it too. However, Frank
found yoga too passive and was more interested in learning a martial
art. She suggested Tai Chi as a compromise.
|
| The Old City
Wall, Xian |
What made him keep coming back, even after the romance
with his girl had fizzled? After all, he had plenty of other sporting
interests to keep him fit. “Early on, in the first term, I had
feedback from my body — warm hands, a boost of energy and I always felt
good after class, slept really well.” Another appealing aspect for
Frank was Tai Chi’s individual focus. He’s always enjoyed solo sports —
running, yachting, squash — preferring to challenge and rely on himself
rather than on team mates.
In 1999 when Frank started classes,
the Academy taught traditional Yang style. He particularly liked the
leg training, the Walking, which made him work hard and sweat. He
has never been very interested in the Qigong
practice, despite enjoying it in class. “I
much prefer to practise the form. I like the flow of the movements. I
liked the Yang style because it was longer and I could really relax
deeply.”
Frank has a very slow pulse rate and low blood pressure.
He discovered that by controlling his breathing while practising the
form, he could relax better and his heart rate would become stronger.
He is conscious of his own mortality. I tentatively suggested that this
may be related to the slow pulse rate and the fact that one frightening
day, his heart slowed to almost stopping point, causing a flurry of
medical activity. He agreed that could be the case. “I have, not a
fear exactly but a very strong aversion, to being incapacitated, sick or
frail in my old age. It’s sort of a conscious goal in my life to stay
strong and healthy as best I can.”
He has discovered that mentally visualising the movements
is as good for relaxation as practising, especially for going to sleep.
Frank went on the recent
China
trip with Brett and a group from the Academy (2004). Everyone on the
tour agreed it was a fantastic experience.
Frank listed in no
particular order these things he enjoyed and remembers : the good group
of travellers, the shopping, the extremely friendly Chinese people, a
general feeling of safety, tour guide Vincent, pollution, smog.
At Shaolin: Qigong
training with the Buddhist monk and the exquisite feeling of total
relaxation when lying on the floor at the end of each session.
In the park in
Beijing: the multitude of different Tai Chi forms and the different ways
people did the Hun Yuan 24 form. “That’s not a bad thing. It’s just a
more flexible approach. As long as the basic principles are correct,
then individual differences don’t seem to matter. Everybody’s
circumstances and bodies are different. It’s like China itself — things
flow and fit in; everything seems to work somehow.”
(This is an actual
interview, but the name
has
been changed for reasons of
privacy.)
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