The Total T'ai Chi System™--

How it All Comes Together

The first stage of the "Total T'ai Chi System"™ consists in understanding your level of Original Qi (your basic Constitutional Type), and your Present Condition. There are five basic Constitutional Types--Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Ether.

Step One: Know your Constitutional Type

 The Earth type is heavy boned, with dense muscular structure. They have great endurance. They move slowly but relentlessly. Diseases come slowly to their strong constitutions, but once established, can linger for a long time.

The Water type can also be heavy boned, but their tissue structure is softer than the Earth type. They are more emotionally based. Often they can experience cold symptoms, emotional insecurity, or slow digestion.

The Fire type is supremely active, usually decisive and impatient. They love physical (and mental) activity, and often feel warm or hot. Their main problem is "burn out," so they need to learn how to center and conserve their energies.

The Air type is primarily mental and often rather anxious. They are adept at planning and creating ideas, but find it difficult to DO what they can so easily think about. They often change their plans. Their digestion and circulation can be a bit weak; they must learn how to ground themselves (by breathing and mental focus) and deploy their abundant mental energies in a coherent and effective way.

The Ether type is often psychic. Their physical constitution can be rather weak, so they need careful nurturance of their Original Qi  by way of a nourishing but light diet, small meals during the day, and above all by learning some centering method for their energies which vibrate at high frequency.

Most everyone is a blend of three primary types; one is often dominant, and the others subdominant. Before going into a meaningful course of nutritional enhancement or exercise, it is important to know your basic Type, because each Type has different needs.

You have an Original Constitutional Type at birth, which is determined by several factors according to classical Chinese medicine:

The strength of your parents' qi (or more precisely, jing,  their reproductive hormonal strength when you were conceived), the quality of your mother's blood, through which you were nourished in the womb, and the quality of the ambience surrounding your mother while she was pregnant with you. That is, minimal disturbances, conflicts, etc.

After you were born, your "Later Constitutional Type"  or Current Condition is determined by your Original Constitution (which remains your underlying "bias" through life), the air you breathe, and your food, as well as the quality of your everyday thoughts and emotions. Consistently negative thoughts and emotions are tremendously depleting to your qi.

Of course, you cannot control your Original Constitution. But by sensibly applying principles of good nutrition and exercise, as well as understanding how to release negativity from your emotional being, you can "retard old age and make Spring eternal." Take a look at the Sedona Method for the most effective and precise method I have ever found for letting go of negative energies. 

The Chinese developed one of the best and most consistent "longevity technologies" known. You can find out more about this via our audio and video products.

 

Step Two: Create your optimal nutritional program. 

In general, seek to balance your Current Condition with the season, your age, your Type, etc.  In Summer, eat more cooling foods; in Winter, eat more warming ("Grandma" usually taught us many of these principles, which have now been forgotten by most people). Cold, damp types need more well-cooked, spicy foods; hot, fiery types need more mild and cooling foods.

You should prepare for the coming season a bit in advance. A very effective way to do this is to begin to gradually change your nutritional pattern about six weeks before a  new season begins. This can be done  by following the "Twenty Four Seasonal qi Nodes"  which will be described in our "what's new" section.

                  Step Three:  Find your ideal type of Exercise

In very general terms, Earth Type people would benefit from more aerobic, vigorous types of exercises, long walks, more active martial arts or sports.

Water Type people would benefit from exercises similar to those for the Earth Type, but not quite so vigorous. It is good for Water Types to sweat and release the excess moisture they tend to accumulate.

Fire Types, who often exercise TOO vigorously, can be helped by exercise styles which "tonify the Yin," such as Taiji, Yoga, Dance. etc.

Air Types should NOT exercise too vigorously, because their nervous systems are often over-stimulated already. They need gentle exercises such as Taiji, Yoga, or gardening. They should never push their endurance level.

Ether Types need very little physical exercise, but should walk, do gentle gardening or housework, and would benefit tremendously from a centered style of meditation, such as Zen sitting.

For those who want to practice Qigong, there are a few important factors:

Before engaging in any form of internal Qigong, the energy channels ("Meridians") of the body should be opened up. Basic  exercises to open the primary energy channels of the body would include the Standing Eight Brocades, and various other entry-level forms of Qigong. 

A bit further along the way, a student would learn the Five Animal Frolics, a more subtle method of internal integration and body strengthening which embodies many of the qualities of the better known Taiji. The Frolics, like many of the high level Chinese therapeutic movement systems, stress relaxed movement on the outside, but firm concentration from the inside. (Yin and Yang).

Finally, there are the many nei kung or Internal Energy Training systems, of which Taijiquan is one. Taiji practice will yield much greater beneficial results if the student has first opened the channels and done some preparatory type of nei kung, such as the Five Animal Frolics.

Important Disclaimer:  all of the information in the previous paragraphs represent the author's personal conclusions, based on his study and research. They are offered for your consideration in creating a sense of overall wellbeing. None of the information given above is offered or intended to be any kind of medical or professional advice.

Before beginning any kind of nutritional or exercise program, please consult your Physician, or fully licensed health care professional.