Emotional Yoga is a unique approach to healing that combines two proven, well-developed modalities – yoga and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique).

There is nothing else like Emotional Yoga.  The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), founded by engineer Gary Craig takes a scientific approach to treating pain, disease, and physical ailments and, combined with the widespread physical, mental, emotional and spiritual discipline of yoga that unites mind, body and spirt, Emotional Yoga offers an almagimation of the best of these two disciplines.

About EFT
The premise behind EFT is the “discovery statement” that “The cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body’s energy system.” From this discovery, it has become clear too that emotional imbalances often cause physical maladies. So whether you are suffering from physical or emotional pain, EFT will work to eliminate stored stress and help you to heal.

The miracle of the Emotional Freedom Technique is that it resolves physical and emotional issues rapidly and permanently when used correctly. And, because EFT is emotional acupressure, working on the body’s energetic meridians, there are no adverse side-effects. EFT works equally well no matter what the magnitude of the ailment or the emotion. It is effective in treating physical pain, allergies, asthma, depression, OCD, anxiety, guilt, anger, PTSD, addiction, grief, loneliness, and a host of other issues. Furthermore, the technique provides rapid relief to both acute and chronic ailments. Within minutes, the body’s energy system is revitalised and the body’s energetic equilibrium is restored.  Negative emotions and physical pain vanish.

Benefits of Yoga
The benefits of yoga are widely recognized. It is clear, too, that many practitioners of yoga report feeling strong emotional responses when doing yoga poses. By taking the time to tune-in to the inherent wisdom of the body, emotions often arise.

Emotional Yoga
The Emotional Yoga approach employs yoga as a way of getting in touch with the underlying emotional issues that keep people feeling stuck and then uses EFT to release the underlying energetic imbalances. Emotional Yoga brings the experience of EFT to the body level. Effectively, EFT functions as emotional acupressure. The technique, is designed to reduce or eliminate emotional and physical stress by unblocking energetic meridians through tapping on pressure points. Generally, the EFT practitioner works with his or her clients to uncover issues through talk therapy followed by this tapping technique.

Emotional Yoga is designed to unearth emotions that are stored within the body and then to release their energetic impact upon us. Yoga gives us a way into the body and a language for expressing ourselves. EFT releases negative energy from the body. The reason the Emotional Yoga approach can be more effective than EFT alone is that, in Emotional Yoga, both the diagnosis and the treatment occur at the level of the body. The traditional diagnostic approach for EFT relies on the mind for answers. This can be limiting because clients have to interpret their emotional experiences and use their brains to try and make sense of their feelings. Taking this approach, analysis is still essential to the healing process. However, as Gary Craig points out in his explanation of EFT, “The cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body’s energy system.”

About Emotional Yoga
Are you suffering from persistent physical or emotional issues?
Are you plagued by any of the following:
·        Anxiety
·        Anger
·        Depression
·        Fears and Phobias
·        PTSD
·        OCD
·        Trauma
·        Addiction
·        Disordered Eating
·        Stress
·        Headaches
·        Persistent Physical Pain

Try Emotional Yoga, it can help.

About the Founder
My name is Daralyse Lyons and I am the founder of Emotional Yoga.  I’m a walking testimonial for the method, which combines yoga with the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).  Using Emotional Yoga, I have recovered from a rampant eating disorder, OCD, depression, anxiety and PTSD.  My life before finding Emotional Yoga felt hopeless. I was institutionalized 18 times at residential treatment facilities for my eating disorder and associated emotional problems. Yet, I remained stuck.

When I first began practising yoga, I used to sit in silence and emotions which I had buried deep within my body finally began to spring forth. Through yoga, I began to become aware of the stored body-pain that had accumulated over years of emotional trauma. Yet, yoga only gave me a means of recognising my pain. It did not ease the emotions that arose “on the mat.”

I had been going to therapy for many years. I went to psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, nutritionists and even hypnotherapists. I believed that if I could correct my negative thinking patterns I could let go of my bulimia and move beyond my childhood traumas.  Then, I stumbled upon EFT. I was hooked from the first session. I let go of negative emotions that I had never been able to release. Yet, for me, something was missing.

The idea to combine yoga and EFT came to me suddenly. I realised that, instead of uncovering the issues that needed to be released through my thoughts, I could get to the underlying feelings physically. The body possesses intuitive emotional wisdom. By tuning in to the body’s messages and by linking specific yoga postures with specific emotions, I could unearth negative emotions that were stored within my body. I could then perform the EFT tapping sequence in order to achieve breakthroughs. These methods have given me lasting emotional freedom.

Ever since my own healing, I have been working with others to help them break down their own emotional walls and to let go of their pain. Using Emotional Yoga, I have successfully helped clients to resolve such problems as chronic pain, phobias, eating disorders, addiction, trauma, OCD, depression, allergies, anxiety, and other physical, mental and emotional barriers to wellness. The Emotional Yoga technique (by combining yoga and EFT) requires tuning in to the wisdom of the body and allowing your body to articulate your emotional state. The practice holds that your experiences in your body and “on the mat” act as a mirror for your experiences in life.

The miracle of these techniques is that they release negative emotions. Once the attachment to the emotion or the behavior or the physical problem is gone, it will be gone forever.

Biography
Daralyse Lyons is a Certified Yoga Instructor.  She received her Yoga Teacher Training at the Yoga Education Institute (a Registered Yoga Alliance School). She has also been trained in Advanced Level EFT. She works with individuals, couples, and groups to help people transform themselves and their lives.  Sessions can be conducted in-person, on the phone, via e-mail or via Skype. Visit www.emotionalyoga.info for more information or email Daralyse on alyseL17@aol.com.

There was complete silence in the room and a deep, profound sense of tranquillity emanated from the people there.  They were practising Restorative Yoga and healing themselves from the effects of stress, or, in some cases, even burnout, as they lay quietly in Waterfall (Legs up the Wall position or Viparita Karani)…

One could almost hear the bodies changing gear as the gentle, fully supported asanas gradually helped overloaded systems move down through the gears from fourth to third, to second and then neural as the body engines stopped racing and the brakes were slowly applied through regulated breathing.  Slowly they each came to complete rest as their PNS (Parasympathetic Nervous System) took over and started to bring them into balance again.

What is Restorative Yoga?

Although all forms of Yoga are able to bring great physical and psychological change and healing to many people, Restorative Yoga is particularly designed to provide a restful and restoring experience for practitioners.  It has been described as “a supported, conscious body/mind relaxation practice.” or  “active relaxation”.  The emphasis is on relaxation and rest – but not sleep.  The body is in a state of active rest as it is supported by props and does not have to work the muscles to keep upright or balanced.  Neither does it work the bones or joints to place them under any pressure.   In these wonderfully cradled positions each person can enter into a state of mediation as they observe their breath quieten and settle into the silence, stillness and tranquillity where body tissue can find release and ease from its toxic condition and restoration and wellbeing can start to flow again.

Restorative Yoga as a Healing Tool

The theory behind Restorative Yoga is that in our hugely pressurised world we seldom give our bodies a chance to settle back into perfect equilibrium after a period of intense activity or anxiety.  As a result our bodies become flooded by stress hormones such as adrenaline (short term stress hormone) and cortisol (long term stress hormone).  This leads to a build up of toxins and the body become acclimatised to being operated by our SNS (Sympathetic Nervous System) which keeps us in a state of readiness to flight, flee or free depending what stressor is around.  It is like leaving your car running all the time, rather than switching it off when you have completed the journey.  Instead of cooling down and stopping wear and tear of all the mechanical parts you would be keeping your car constantly running, all the parts would be over used and break down faster, the oil and fuel would run out more quickly and you would be stranded with a car that couldn’t be used until it was repaired and refuelled.  It is the same with our bodies.

According to the American Psychological Society stress impacts on our lives in dramatic ways:

• About half of the adult population say that stress has a negative impact on both their personal and professional lives and on their physical condition.
• About one-third (31%) of employed adults have difficulty managing work and family responsibilities.
• Over one third (35%) cite jobs interfering with their family or personal time as a significant source of stress.
• Stress causes more than half the adult population (54 percent) to fight with people close to them and one in four people report that they have been alienated from a friend or family member because of stress. 8% connect stress to their divorce or separation.

Stress affects us physically in the following ways:

• Feelings of fatigue (51%)
• Severe headaches (44%)
• Upset stomach (34%)
• Muscular tension (30%)
• Change in appetite (23%)
• Teeth grinding (17%)
• Change in sex drive (15%)
• Feeling dizzy (13%)

We have to get back into the habit of letting our bodies find homeostasis (balance) regularly or we will be kept ‘revved up and raring to go’ by our SNS and then one of these days we will splutter and fail to ignite.   We need time when our PNS is in charge again and our heart rate can return to a normal, healthy rate, our digestion can function easily and our muscles can relax instead of remaining tense.  At that time our innate body wisdom and cellular intelligence can take over and heal our bodies and minds again, reconnecting us with our souls and reminding us why we are here.

When to use Restorative Yoga

Restorative Yoga comes into its own when a person has reached a point of deep fatigue and even a gentle Hatha class feels like too much for them.  They might describe themselves as feeling a bit fragile.  A session of Restorative Yoga would give their bodies a chance to rest and begin to heal in a way that can never be achieved by lying down in front of the TV and ‘resting’ because one is tired. Lead by a Restorative teacher they would be taken through a sequence of postures, of which most would be done lying on the mat.  This sequence would gently alternately stimulate and relax their spine and move their bodies though a range of movements from forward bends to backward bends, to easing twists and very gentle inversions.  Each asana would be ‘held’ or rather, they would be held in position by props such as bolsters, pillows, folded blankets, blocks and sandbags, for anything between 3 minutes to 30 minutes, depending how familiar they were with this form of yoga.  In this totally supported position they would tune into their breath and let themselves just ‘be’ for a while, rather than working on ‘doing’ the posture.  This might be combined with the use of mudras to focus the body’s energy or chanting or short periods of guided pranayama.  Finishing with the usual relaxation pose, savasana, people usually leave a Restorative Yoga session feeling deeply at peace and reconnected with themselves.

Letting the Healing Continue

Having learnt the principles of supported postures and Restorative Yoga students can begin to incorporate them into their normal yoga class in order to give their body a little relief and be less demanding on the muscles if they are tired that session. They can also carry on using the simple poses at home – they can even be done in bed!   Waterfall, the posture mentioned that the start of this article is a great example.  Said to be the “Bringer of Youth” it is a wonderful pose that has very many benefits and can easily be ‘held’ without strain for up to 30 minutes once the correct props and positioning have been found.  It is an excellent posture for people who have raised blood pressure and who are taking medication to help to control it.  In fact it helps to lower blood pressure.  It is not good to do if you have a headache, or neck problems, ongoing heart problems or a hiatus hernia.  Once in this position the upper body and head tissues become oxygenated and revitalised with fluid which has pooled in the lower body as it is redistributed again in the elevated position.  The face can relax and rejuvenate and look fresher and clearer once the session is over.

Try it out and listen to your body as it responds to this new form of yoga – your body is likely to heave a huge sigh of relief and whisper ‘thank you’ as it senses the permission from you just to ‘be’ still, silent and tranquil for a while.

By Elizabeth Henshall

About The Author: Elizabeth Henshall lives in the Eastern Cape and Edinburgh, Scotland.   She is a trained Hatha Yoga teacher with a speciality in Restorative Yoga and Yin Yoga.  She is passionate about the use of these forms of yoga for recovering full health again after anything major and traumatic in a person’s life and in incorporating them increasingly into yoga practice as we age and have different physical requirements.  She often says that there is a time in everyone’s life when the challenge is to go back to learning how to just ‘Be’ – be still, be the you that you really are and be totally at ease in your mind, body and soul.  She has a Doctorate in psychology and is a mental health specialist on the lifelong development of positive mental health and wellbeing for children.  She has been practicing Yoga for thirty years and brings a wealth of knowledge to the workshops she runs

Visit www.restorative-yoga.net for more information or email admin@restorative-yoga.net

Nia blends martial arts, self-healing and dance into a creative and energising fitness art that works to build strength, agility and flexibility in body, mind and spirit. Nia provides a synergistic workout that addresses the whole person through integration, play and sensory awareness. It’s a workout that is fun yet efficient, providing cardiovascular conditioning while inducing the feel-good sensations of dance that bring with it transformation on many levels.

Origins: Nia was born out of the aerobics craze of the 80s. In the USA in 1983, Debbie and Carlos Rosas took off their shoes and eliminated the repetitive up and down jogging that embodied traditional aerobic exercise. In 2002, The Nia Technique was brought to South Africa by black belt trainer Kathy Wolstenholme from Boulder, Colorado, who introduced Nia as an alternative and effective means of dance therapy.
The Benefits: On a physical level, Nia is designed to increase strength, flexibility, agility and grace and can be used to complement any other sport or fitness programme. With Nia, you trim, tone and define more of you, with less effort, the focus is on pleasure and potential, rather than pain and competition.
The Focus: Emphasising holistic health through conscious awareness, participants are encouraged to focus on “the joy of movement”. Nia uses three tools to stimulate, motivate and create positive change: music, movement and magic. Music is used for inspiration and as an energy in which you learn to sink, ride on and flow with. Movement is used to integrate your body, mind, emotions and spirit. The magic is you – how you do what you do, how you interact and connect, and how you create. Nia uses systemic movement, moving the entire body with grounded steps from the martial arts (Tai Chi, Tae Kwon Do and Aikido), the dance arts (Jazz, Modern and Duncan Dance) and body integration therapies (Alexander Technique, yoga and Feldenkrais Method).
Spiritual Aspects: Nia works by stimulating conscious body awareness through movement, sound and intention– the conditioning is not just physical, but “whole body”– incorporating body, mind, emotions and spirit.
What to Wear: Wear comfortable clothing to move around in, similar to active wear or yoga clothes and bare feet.
Contact: Visit www.niagp.co.za for a teacher in your area or call (011) 880 5223.
Cost: Around R60 to R80 per class. Monthly class cards are available at around R420, depending on the venue.

Compiled by Hayley Alexander

Belly dance is a Western term for the traditional dance genre known as raqs sharqi, meaning “oriental dance” in Arabic, and is an expressive form of movement that emphasises the complex movements of the hips and pelvic area. Because it is an evolving dance form, there are many styles currently practised – from the traditional Egyptian, Gypsy and Arabic Flamenco styles to the more recent American Tribal style

Origins: While the origins of belly dance remain a mystery, it can be traced back to the Middle East, the Mediterranean and Africa. Used as a social dance for fun and celebration, it was popularised during the Romantic movement of the 18th and 19th centuries when artists depicted their interpretations of harem life in the Ottoman Empire. Traditionally however, it is believed that belly dance was taught by wise women to prepare for pregnancy and childbirth.
The Focus: Uniquely designed for the female body (although males do perform belly dancing in some countries), the focus is on the abdominal muscles, hip movements, rib cage and arm movements. It is characterised by smooth, flowing, complex and often sensual movements of the torso, alternating with shaking and “shimmy” movements of the hips.
The Benefits: Suitable for all ages and body types, belly dance is a non-impact weight-bearing exercise that places minimal stress on the knees and feet. Building cardiovascular strength, it can be as challenging as the dancer wishes. Working to strengthen the muscle groups of the abdomen, pelvis, trunk, spine and neck, belly dancing also relieves stress in the back and increases the flow of fluid to the joints, improving hip flexibility and toning the arm muscles. Apart from the physical benefits, there are also numerous psychological benefits including increased self esteem, relief from stress, socialisation with others and increased concentration.
Spiritual Aspects: Belly dance movements focus on the pelvis area and therefore work to unblock and free energies that may get trapped here. Since this is the area known for strength and creativity, belly dance unlocks these potentials. It’s a dance of life and celebration and therefore through it, belly dancers learn to access the power of joy and inner sensuality.
What to Wear: Many studios loan shimmy belts to beginner students (fabric belts with coins attached). For performances, dancers wear traditional costumes such as a fitted top or bra and a skirt or harem pants, usually elaborately decorated with beads, sequins, braids and embroidery, but for regular classes, simply comfortable clothes will do.
Contact: Call Gwenyth King of The Belly Button Dance Studio on 084 769 2017 or visit www.thebb.co.za
Cost: Usually a monthly fee ranging from R150 to R250 for a weekly lesson.

Compiled by Hayley Alexander

Biodanza is a South American movement style with rhythmic and harmonising effects that facilitates a richer enjoyment of life and a healthy expression of inner instincts such as joy, creativity and vitality. Biodanza uses music, movement, expression and a sense of community to awaken human potential. It does this through creating unique intense experiences, known as vivencias

Origins: Developed over 40 years ago by Chilean doctor, psychologist and artist Rolando Toro Araneda, Biodanza is practised all over Europe and South America and has been in South Africa since 1995.
The Benefits: With Biodanza over 70 percent of communication is non-verbal, making it a practice of body language skills. Beneficial effects include the regulation of the nervous system, emotions and improved immune system functioning as well as increased self esteem and a greater capacity to relate to and communicate with others. A great practice for “letting go” and counteracting stress, most people also find it also helps develop their smile muscles!
The Focus: Different to formal dance choreography, Biodanza follows organic rhythms enabling participants to experience freedom of expression within the structure of a class and proposed dance movements. The first part of the class is more active, with upbeat and exhilarating dance rhythms, which then evolve into more relaxed and fluid dances.
Spiritual Aspects: The entire system of Biodanza is holistic as it awakens the potential to live in joyful connection with a sense of wellbeing. It addresses the totality of the human being and health in its broadest sense, including the body, emotions, relationships with others and attitudes to life. The purpose of Biodanza is to bring people back to a life-centred principle of living.
What to Wear: Comfortable clothes and bare feet.
Contact: Visit www.biodanza.co.za or call 082 901 0075.
Cost: From R80 to R100 per class. Many teachers provide discounts for a series of classes booked.

Compiled by Hayley Alexander

Meaning “beautiful movement”, Eurythmy can be put into practice as an art form, a self development process, a social team-building practice, a healing therapy as well as an educational tool. Eurythmy emphasises your whole being by integrating body, life and expressive forces with spiritual and interpersonal forces. With Eurythmy, your body becomes the moving expression for what we cannot see, through music, poetry and story

Origins: Eurythmy was initiated as a progressive art of movement at the turn of the 20th century by Rudolph Steiner, the developer of Anthroposophy and the Waldorf school movement. It is taught and practised worldwide.
The Focus: Eurythmy is a social movement experience most often explored in a group, but also as an individual practice. Group work unlocks the powers of moving as a conscious organism, sensing your own space (individuality), the space in between you and others (relationship) and the organism between (community). Individual movement encourages self discovery and expression while nurturing personal talents and helping to overcome challenges.
The Benefits: Eurythmy cultivates a connection with the source of inspiration, imagination and intuition by unlocking the many secrets of music, language, movement, nature and the human being. It nurtures the sense of wonder and beauty for life. It develops coordination, flow and mastery of the human instrument as well as spatial awareness and connection to the streaming substance of time.
Spiritual Aspects: This art of consciousness expands and enlivens your subtle senses, deepening and widening your capacity to relate to and express life. As well as working consciously with yourself and others in space, you will also tap into the stream of time. What is referred to as “time stream” is described as “the present moment constantly unfolding in a river of unformed potential”. Through intention and personal creativity, participants can shape the personal stream of movement with feeling, gesture and meaning.
What to wear: Comfortable, loose clothing is worn as a free and light sheathing. Shoes are ideally thin Eurythmy slippers. Artistic Eurythmists wear silk, flowing gowns and an even thinner silk veil which flows through the air making the dynamic air currents visible.
Contact: Call the Centre for Creative Education on (021) 797 6802 or visit www.cfce.org.za. You can also email Liz Smith on lizsmith@kingsley.co.za.
Cost: Public classes are R50 and to study it as an educational course is R24 000 yearly.

Compiled by Hayley Alexander

A movement meditation practice drawing on many indigenous and world traditions such as shamanism, mysticism and Eastern philosophy, 5Rhythms also draws from Gestalt, the human potential movement, and transpersonal psychology. Fundamental to the practice is the idea that everything is energy, and energy moves in waves, patterns and rhythms

Origins: 5Rhythms was established in the USA by Gabrielle Roth in the 1960s.
The Benefits: A dynamic dance platform that teaches a vocabulary of expression through non-verbal forms. It’s a restorative process of connecting with your “inner teacher” through finding the feet and freeing the breath.
The Focus: The practice focuses on putting the body in motion in order to still the mind. The 5Rhythms are flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical and stillness and, when danced in sequence, are known as a “wave.” This “moving structure” gives people the space to improvise, listen, explore and express through their own bodies, discovering their own movement landscapes. The emphasis is on bringing presence and awareness into movement and being conscious of what is moving (and not moving) in the body.
Spiritual Aspects: Through dance you can connect to the essence of the soul, the source of inspiration through which an individual has unlimited possibility and potential. By integrating body and breath, work begins with the physical body and transcends through to emotional, mental and spiritual levels.
What to wear: Something that allows you to be free!
Contact: Call Hannah Loewenthal on 082 777 8257 or email hannah.loewenthal@gmail.com.
Cost: R50 for an individual class. Special rates and workshop rates also apply.

Compiled by Hayley Alexander

Active Meditation is the process of becoming witness to our habitual patterns while being engaged in activity. Through movement such as shaking, jumping or dance, practised in a well-considered and organised way, Active Meditation brings about physical and mental relaxation, which then helps to prepare for self-observation and witnessing to happen of its own accord

Origins: Originating from Sufi Yoga and inspired by the teachings of beloved guru, acclaimed author and philosopher Osho, Active Meditation is characterised by alternating stages of physical activity and silence.
The Benefits: Active Meditation is designed to first release the accumulated stresses of body and mind, so that it is easier to experience the thought-free and relaxed state of meditation. Developing the ability to relax and to be aware without effort, Active Meditation allows you to release your suppressed thoughts and emotions, decrease your anxiety and is also good for losing weight and improving overall health. With regular practice you will learn to balance your energy, find your centre, transform your consciousness, deepen your understanding of yourself and others and ultimately increase your self confidence.
The Focus: The primary Osho Active Meditation is divided into four stages, each stage lasting 15 minutes. Stage one involves just being loose and letting your whole body shake, feeling the energies moving up from your feet. In stage two you are free to dance, any way you feel, letting the whole body move as it wishes. Your eyes can be open or closed. Stage three involves closing your eyes and remaining still, sitting or standing, observing and witnessing whatever is happening inside and out. Finally, in stage four you close your eyes, lie down and rest in stillness.
Spiritual aspects: Active Meditation facilitates the centre of consciousness to move from the brain toward the heart; making the heart light and unburdened.
What to wear: Comfortable clothing and bare feet.
Contact: Call Terri 082 883 8335, email terri@clubmeditation. co.za or visit www.osho.co.za for more information.
Cost: One to three hours are between R50 – R100 per person, currently practised in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

Compiled by Hayley Alexander

An Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines elements of martial arts, music and dance, Capoeira resembles a dance because practitioners use a colourful combination of kicks, sweeps, cartwheels, other acrobatics and trickery to converse with one another

Origins: According to one prevalent theory, Capoeira was a fight disguised as a dance so that it could be practised openly under the watchful eyes of white slave owners. Another theory says that in the South of Angola it was an initiation ritual for when girls became women, on which occasion the young warriors engaged in the N’golo, or “Dance of the Zebras,” a warrior’s fightdance. In essence it is accepted as a mix of various African dances and also fights that occurred in Brazil, primarily in the 19th century.
The Benefits: Increased fitness, flexibility and strength as well as gaining fascinating insights about how the muscles and movements work. Further benefits include making new friends and, at the very least, learning to play musical instruments and keeping the beat with a group.
The focus: When practising Capoeira, all members stand in a circle called a roda, with a battery of musicians at the head of the roda. From there, two practitioners enter the circle into a fight known as the “game” (jogo) that essentially involves an attack and quick defences.
Spiritual Aspects: According to Grant Codron, a seasoned Capoeirista and teacher, the roda (circle) represents the universe. “You essentially explore a ‘quasi universe’ with another soul as you converse, negotiate, argue and laugh. You learn to deal with souls on a metaphysical level,” he says.
What to wear: Loose fitting clothing without shoes. In time, you will be required to purchase a pair of Capoeira pants (abadas).
Contact: Call Grant on 084 500 5080, email stevenslotow@gmail.com or visit www.capoeirasa.co.za.
Cost: Around R280 per month.

Compiled by Hayley Alexander

T’ai Chi Ch’uan (commonly shortened to Tai Chi) is a form of traditional Chinese martial arts. Meaning “boundless fist”, it is considered a “soft style” of martial arts since it is applied with internal power. Well known for its slow motion individual routines, Tai Chi is based on the premise that when mental activity stops, natural movement occurs. Essentially you learn to dissolve your boundaries so that movement can flow

Origins: Tai Chi was developed in China during the Tang Dynasty, about a thousand years ago. It derived from the three philosophies of Chinese culture – Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. There are many styles of Tai Chi; however they all focus on the principles of Tai Chi and internal movement.
The Benefits: The Taoistic principles of yin and yang are the core of practice and, as such, Tai Chi aims to bring about a harmony and balance of the active and receptive energies. Balance, control, flexibility, reduced stress and cardiovascular fitness are just some of the benefits of the low impact movements that work to bring about a “moving meditation” at advanced levels. Harmonising breathing and circulation, Tai Chi increases concentration and mental focus as well as stimulates the metabolism and balances the nervous system and internal organs.
The Focus: Physically Tai Chi helps with finding and keeping your body’s centre point and almost all the movements are therefore around the body’s centre point or centre line. Tai Chi also focuses on the five natural principles of movements – expansion, contraction, up, down and “the point of transition”. The core training involves two primary features – the first being the solo form, a slow sequence of movements that focus on a straight spine, abdominal breathing and a natural range of motion. The second style is that of “pushing hands” a more practical training where students are taught to fight instead by resisting force, meeting it in softness.
Spiritual Aspects: “To experience awareness, you realise it is alive”, says Tai Chi teacher Panos Lazanas. “You develop a relationship of ‘dancing’ with energy. Without stillness and silence you miss it and cannot achieve oneness with yourself and the world around you”.
What to Wear: Loose, comfortable baggy clothes.
Contact: Call Panos Lazanas on 083 5363493, email plazanas@uj.co.za or visit www.taichi.co.za for more information.
Cost: Around R170 a month for unlimited classes.

Compiled by Hayley Alexander