All posts tagged: Tai

My first time doing tai chi: ‘It feels like my brain is solving a Rubik’s Cube’ | Australian lifestyle

My first time doing tai chi: ‘It feels like my brain is solving a Rubik’s Cube’ | Australian lifestyle

Published by skeptic

For the first 15 minutes of my tai chi class, we remain entirely in one spot to warm up. From afar, it probably looks as though we’re standing with our arms by our side and then – in slow motion – lifting them in front of us to 90 degrees. But if you were to look inside my brain, you would see my synapses firing trying to keep up with the instructor’s directions to do things that can’t be seen. “Form the arches under your feet. Soften your knees, not bending,” says Angela, a tai chi instructor of 28 years. “Visualise the back of your knees. Relax there to relax your knee bones in front.” I realise I rarely direct thoughts to my knees (there hasn’t been much knee-d to before this), but again, before there’s time to dwell, there’s more to do. According to Angela, a successful hour of tai chi is an hour with no negative thoughts. “If your mind and body go together,” she says. “That’s all that matters.” ‘It turns out …

Tai Kwun Contemporary’s ‘Green Snake’ Exhibition Explores Indigeneity

Tai Kwun Contemporary’s ‘Green Snake’ Exhibition Explores Indigeneity

Published by skeptic

In Back to Mu Village‘s Fairy Big Lake (2023), a two-channel video installation by Chengdu-based artists Cao Minghao and Chen Jianjun, a disembodied voice speaks over a rippling blue-gray lake, describing a Tibetan herder ritual meant to resolve illnesses and disasters caused by human environmental degradation. The lake in question has already fallen prey to these interventions: it is shrinking due to climate change. In the second channel, the herders meticulously enact the ritual against a lush grassy plain. “Its purpose,” the voice explains of the ritual, “is to establish a relationship between humans and other non-human beings, visible or invisible to us, that transcends the present time and space.” Related Articles That sentiment might as well be a mission statement for “Green Snake: Women-Centered Ecologies,” an exhibition at Hong Kong’s Tai Kwun Contemporary. Drawing together over 30 artists and collectives from 20 countries, the exhibition, on view until April 1, explores the deep connections between Indigenous communities and the natural world. While many of the cultures represented in these works live far apart, the …

Tai chi is better at reducing blood pressure than aerobic exercise, study finds : Shots

Tai chi is better at reducing blood pressure than aerobic exercise, study finds : Shots

Published by skeptic

Tai chi has many health benefits. It improves flexibility, reduces stress and can help lower blood pressure. Ruth Jenkinson/Getty Images/Science Photo Library hide caption toggle caption Ruth Jenkinson/Getty Images/Science Photo Library Tai chi has many health benefits. It improves flexibility, reduces stress and can help lower blood pressure. Ruth Jenkinson/Getty Images/Science Photo Library Tai chi, a traditional, slow-moving form of Chinese martial art, is known to increase flexibility and improve balance. Now, new research suggests it’s better than more vigorous aerobic exercises for lowering blood pressure in people with prehypertension. Prehypertension is blood pressure that’s higher than normal but doesn’t quite reach the level of high blood pressure, or hypertension. It’s considered a warning sign that heart disease may be ahead, and it raises the risk of having a heart attack. The new findings, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, add to a large body of research pointing to health benefits from tai chi, a wellness practice that combines slow, gentle movements and postures with mindfulness. It’s often called meditation in motion. In the …

The best dim sum in London, from Din Tai Fung to Dim Sum Duck

The best dim sum in London, from Din Tai Fung to Dim Sum Duck

Published by skeptic

This relative newcomer to Islington’s restaurant mile is a tranquil spot of white walls and pan pipes where the dim sum is so good it is served until 9pm. It is also halal, which means no to pork dumplings, but thumbs up to chicken puffs, pan-fried chicken dumplings, and chicken and shiitake mushroom buns. Seafood, though, is the best thing to order, from steamed prawn or prawn and chive dumplings, to crab and chicken siu mai and pistachio green-coloured seabass rolls, while veggie options such as spring onion pancake and carrot and salted egg yolk bun are good shouts too. Don’t ignore the main menu, either: candy-sweet mango golden floss prawns, chewy ho fun and spicy dan dan noodles, or one of the glossy whole ducks shimmering in the window. Source link