Can Tai Chi Cure Depression?

DOES TAI CHI, LISHI AND DAOISM HELP CURE STRESS, ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION?

A New Article in the Guardian Suggests Reasons This Could Be True…

Stress, anxiety, low confidence and depression are all common reasons why people turn to Tai Chi as a natural anti-depressant to help boost their mood.

I’ve seen many times how joining a class transforms people’s mental health and I’ve just read an article that provides some evidence why.

“It turns out that, in the same way that we have basic physical needs like food, water and shelter, all humans have certain basic psychological needs.”

“We need to feel we belong. We need to feel valued. We need to feel we’re good at something. We need to feel we have a secure future.”

“There is growing evidence that our culture isn’t meeting those psychological needs for many, perhaps most, people…

….we have become disconnected from things we really need, and this deep disconnection is driving this epidemic of depression and anxiety all around the world”

Lishi Way Out Daoist Path 3D Compressed 533 x 667In my book, I describe how the modern world is crazy!

Working life, the economy and technology mean there is a constant pressure to operate at an unnatural pace.

By trying to keep up, we neglect our true nature and suffer the consequences.

Some people are more sensitive and recognise this imbalance earlier.

Others continue to drive themselves until a major physical or mental illness slaps them across the face and makes them sit down and take a good look at their life.

The Drugs Don’t Work

The article reveals that much of the ‘evidence’ that depression is caused by low serotonin levels has been conveniently fabricated by drug companies in order to sell the idea to prescribing doctors.

Whilst it is convenient to absolve responsibility and blame it on one’s genes, the research suggests…

That using these drugs to boost serotonin only provides temporary respite.

These feelings are in fact messages that there are things about our external world that need changing.

The author of the article found, when speaking with local doctors in countries where they don’t use drugs as anti-depressants,That they looked for other more effective approaches. According to these doctors:

“Finding an antidepressant didn’t mean finding a way to change your brain chemistry. It meant finding a way to solve the problem that was causing the depression in the first place.”

…we need to change our understanding of what depression and anxiety really are.

Finding A Way

Sometimes people are not aware what is causing their mental health challenges.

Often people don’t know how to change their situation or they feel powerless to do so but after coming to one of our classes for a while they experience how they can shift their mood.

It is within their control.

There are things they can do that naturally make a difference to how they feel.

This realisation can be hugely empowering. It starts a positive feedback loop. They start to make choices that are more positive. This brings further benefits.

Perhaps they start to come to two classes a week instead of just one…

Perhaps they start to implement some of the Daoist dietary guidelines we teach.

Perhaps they start to rise a little earlier and start their day with some breathing exercises.

They start to contribute to the running of a class. They feel part of a community.

Soon it becomes clear that their life can continue to get better and better and they have the strength to influence how.

The research asserts that one of the main causes of depression is the perception that one’s life is meaningless.

When people begin practising Tai Chi, Yoga, Meditation and Lishi regularly, they discover that they can create the life that they want.

What could be more meaningful than that?

______________________________

Wai-Yii Tai Chi Teacher and Author Daoist Way Out BookIf you want to read the full article, it’s here

If you’d like to explore how daoist philosophy and practise could benefit you, why not get my book ‘Way Out – A Daoist Path to a Fearless Life

Read the reviews to find out what people are saying about it 🙂

To start doing lishi, either use this special link to get a big discount on my online course here

Or if you’re in Leeds come along to a class

Or if you’re not near Leeds,  find a class near you

#naturalantidepressant #naturalhigh #depression #anxiety #confidence #stress #stressed #stressedout #taichi #taichileeds #taichiliving #taichilife #taichilifestyle #health #healthylifestyle #healthy #balance #leeds #headingleytaichi #chapelallertontaichi #yoga #yogatime #livewell #wellbeing #wellness #peace #loveleeds #lishilifestyle

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Leeds Daoist Podcast

Daoist Paths to a High Energy Life - The Podcast - Episode 1

On this page you can watch the podcast or listen to the podcast or read the transcript of the podcast

SHOW NOTES

1 min 20 – How did you first get into Lishi and the Daoist Arts?

1:58 – Why do people come along to a Lishi class in the beginning?

2:20 – What sort of exercises do you do in a Lishi class?

3:23 –Lishi as a doorway to understanding Chinese philosophy

5:08 – The history and lineage of Lishi

6:44 – What is the IDS or International Daoist Society?

7:48 – What are the Daoist Arts of Lishi?

8:51 – What’s the difference between Tai Chi and Qigong? Or are Tai Chi and Qigong the same?

11:08 – Is meditation the same as qigong?

13:22 Why practise qigong?

14:28 – Tai Chi and qigong as insurance policy

15:19 – What are the immediate benefits of Tai Chi, Lishi and Qigong?

16:29 – What does Tai Chi and Qigong feel like?

17:32 – What can I expect when I come to a Lishi class?(Tai Chi, Dao Yoga, Qigong, Meditation and Kung Fu)

19:18 – Can you learn Tai Chi from a video?

23:23 – How is a Lishi class similar to a temple in ancient China?

25:11 – What do you do when you stay in China each year?

27:55 – Which Tai Chi should I learn? Which Tai Chi is the best?

29:06 – How to decide which Tai Chi to learn

29:50 – What makes Lishi different from other Tai Chi, Qigong, Yoga or Kung Fu Schools?

30:14 – What is Daoism?

31:30 – What should I wear to class?

32:28 – Are there black belts in Lishi?

33:46 – Are there any Daoist temples in the UK?

34:57 – Can Lishi Leeds Tai Chi help me get a job?

35:42 – Tell me about your book “WAY OUT – A Daoist Path to a Fearless Life”

37:02 – What is the Lishi Community?

37:47 – Where can I do a Lishi class?

38:33 How can people connect with Wai-Yii from Lishi?

Listen to the Podcast


Connect with Wai-Yii on social media here:
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Youtube

Transcript of the Podcast Interview

– [Interviewer] Now

Wai-Yii has been practicing these Daoist arts for over 20 years. You wouldn’t believe it.

Look at her. You don’t look a day over 18.

She’s the author of a best-selling book called Way Out – A Daoist Path to a Fearless Life.

Her classes are based in Leeds in the U.K.and she travels and teaches courses in America, France, Germany, Tenerife and China and she also has an online video course for beginners on Udemy, where she has 165 students in 28 countries around the world.

Wow. That must keep you pretty busy.

Wai-Yii – Uh, yup. I’m pretty busy with all of that.

Interviewer – Okay, so we’ve got plenty of questions to get through today that will hopefully give people a better idea of what the Daoist arts are.

But I’m curious to learn, how did you get into this first of all? How did it start?

Wai-Yii – I started doing Lishi when I was first at University and a friend belonged to a class. I was looking to do some sort of exercise, Tai Chi, meditation sort of thing. But I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking for.  So they recommended that I come on to the class. They were doing it at the time. And I just loved it from the first class. Something just resonated with me and I’ve been doing it ever since.

When you first come to the class, often you just wanna feel good at the end of the class.  You wanna feel relaxed. People often come to the classes that I do, they’re feeling stressed, they’re a little bit anxious, and they just want something to, some sort of exercise.

It might not be your conventional sort of team sport, you know, football or kind of gym kind of exercise. It’s something that’s a little bit more holistic in terms of you’re exercising your body but there’s a mental kind of emotional wellbeing element to it as well.

If you’re wanting some sort of exercise that is not really conventional, that requires a little

bit of self reflection, a bit of curiosity about spiritual things or the East, but also works with more than just your muscular system.

You know, we have exercises that work with your breath, with your energy.

There’s self defense applications but there’s also partner exercises.

There’s exercises that you do by yourself.

So there’s a broad scope of exercises, not just for your body but for your mind as well.

 

– [Interviewer] Cool! I was looking through your Youtube channel before, when I knew we were gonna

be having this interview, and I saw some videos on there of a Chinese dude and he’s chatting away and

then you’re translating what he’s saying. So that’s amazing to see, that ability to speak and understand Chinese and put it into terms that possibly we can understand that maybe isn’t as accessible for people.

– [Wai-Yii] Yeah, I mean, this is one thing that I loved about my Master, my teacher. When I first came to him he made these sort of lofty, airy fairy notions in Daoism very very accessible, very practical.

And I mean, I am lucky because I studied Chinese at University, but I come from a Chinese background and so I’m able to sort of bridge maybe that gap between sort of the East and the West and through the practice of Lishi, I’m able to translate some of the concepts from the Chinese to English but also through the understanding of Daoism in practical terms.

 

– [Interviewer] Cool, so we’ve been fortunate to have that kind of package and that ability to access this through a native speaker.

 

– [Wai-Yii] Yeah, but it’s not just me. I’m not the, kind of the bridge. We’re very very very fortunate to have such a system and access to such a system in Leeds, or in the U.K.

 

– [Interviewer] I know the people that look at these kind of arts, martial arts or other kind of arts, they’re often very interested in the history, in the lineage, in kind of the teachers that, how did this knowledge come to be in Leeds?

 

– [Wai-Yii]  Of all places.

 

– [Interviewer] Of all places, yeah. So can you talk a little bit about that?

 

– [Wai-Yii] Well these arts obviously originated in China and they originated from the Shandong region of China, which is the seat of Daoist practice in China. The last surviving member of the Li family, came over to England. It was a time of political turmoil and chaos in China so many many traditional arts were lost at that time.

You might have heard of like the cultural revolution. There was lots of famine and civil war.

So the last surviving member of the Li family came to England and he met with Chee Soo, who was half Chinese, half English orphan, and he began teaching classes and teaching, Chee Soo, and that was the seed of how it started in the U.K. Chee Soo was an amazing, amazing man who spread Lishi arts throughout Europe, not just in the U.K., and just before his death he handed on the presidency of the IDS to my Master, Desmond Murray.

 

– [Interviewer] The IDS?

 

– [Wai-Yii] The International Daoist Society, so it’s the organization that’s been running since the 1950’s that promotes Daoism in the U.K.

 

– [Interviewer] So the International Daoist Society is like a global organization? Is it not just in the U.K.?

 

– [Wai-Yii] Yeah, it’s a global organization.

And so we have classes and teachers of Lishi all over the world. So in France, in Germany, Holland, in America.

 

– [Interviewer] How come I’ve never heard of this stuff before?

 

-[Wai-Yii]  Because until very very recently, it was a family system. So in terms of family system, it was only a system that was passed on within the Li family. And by luck, or by Dao, or by fortuitous events, it arrived on the shores of the U.K., and then it was, it’s been spread now and it’s open to anyone who would like to learn it.

 

– [Interviewer] So, obviously you mentioned China. You’ve mentioned Daoism, Daoist arts. Let’s get into the nitty gritty of this. What exactly is Lishi and what are the Daoist arts?

 

– [Wai-Yii] So Lishi is a system that incorporates many many arts. So we have something called Daoist breathing and we have Tai Chi and we have Qigong and meditation and self defense. We have something called Chang Ming, which is lifestyle, dietary therapy. And we also have healing arts, which include the massage as well.

So there’s many many arts that’s about leading a healthier, more energized lifestyle.

 

– [Interviewer] Sounds great. Now I’ve got some questions that people have asked me. I told them I’m interviewing you today and one of the questions that people have asked is about Qigong and Tai Chi and they’re asking are these the same thing? Are they different? What’s the difference between them?

 

– [Wai-Yii] Okay, so Qigong is a Chinese terminology. Qi means energy, so your body’s intrinsic energy. And gong means to do work. So it’s essentially a set of exercises that allows you to strengthen your body’s energy.

Tai Chi, Tai Chi Chuan is the same thing, is primarily a modality of moving that is slow that you might have seen on TV where it’s very graceful and slow movements.

And then you might have Qigong within Tai Chi but that depends on your teacher basically.

You can also do Tai Chi purely in a biomechanical way and the focus is on that, the body movements, rather than the energy working it.

 

– [Interviewer] Okay, so Qigong, that means energy work and that can be a practice on its own.

 

– [Wai-Yii] Absolutely

 

– [Interviewer] And Tai Chi is moving the body and that could just be the movements of Tai Chi. But with you and with your teacher, there’s Qigong within the Tai Chi that you do.

 

-[Wai-Yii]  Yeah, that’s, it’s more of a difficult, more of a more, you could say advanced way, of doing it, but really, you have standing Qigong as well as sitting Qigong exercise, where you don’t necessarily move.

But then you have sets of Qigong exercises where you move as well.

So you’re focusing on various things which is why it’s a little bit more complicated.

 

– [Interviewer] Okay, and so Tai Chi can be one of those kind of moving Qigong exercises.

 

– [Wai-Yii] Absolutely, yeah.

 

– [Interviewer] Okay, and you said there about sitting Qigong. And that conjures up in my mind the kind of idea of someone sat there meditating. Is it the same thing?

 

– [Wai-Yii] So there are crossovers. Qigong is primarily about strengthening and building your body’s energies. So there are a set of exercises that were designed to strengthen your body physically

and relax your body, the muscles, the tendons, the ligaments, but also at the same time, you focus on your breathing to allow the smooth flow of Qi around your body.

And with the practice of Qigong over time, you open up the sort of gateways in your body that allow the energy channels to move unhindered basically.

So your energy around your body moves smoother and flows stronger, so you become healthier.

If there’s some blockages in your body sometimes that can manifest as pain. So if all the channels are open in your body, then you become much healthier mentally, emotionally, healthier, not just in your physical.

 

– [Interviewer] Okay, and so I’m just thinking. So I know that when people meditate sometimes they concentrate on a candle or maybe they have a phrase that they say over and over in their minds and I’m guessing from what you’re saying that the focus is slightly different.

 

– [Wai-Yii] Yeah, the focus then is slightly different. When, let’s say if you’re doing sitting Qigong, there’s a focus on concentrating and sharpening your concentration, but it might be on your breath rather than a actual visualization or like a guided meditation to focus your mental energy.

So you’re focusing basically on being relaxed.

 

– [Interviewer] I understand this stuff exists and….why would someone bother practicing Qigong?

 

– [Wai-Yii] Well in the West we’re kind of concerned with how you look and you do exercises to stay fit and it’s mainly about your muscles. In China and in the East the concept of energy is much more intrinsic to the way that you exercise.

And you have to have a balance between having a strong physical exterior as well as a strong internal because over time, as you get older, and we’re talking a couple of decades, then your physical body starts to, the strength in your physical body, will start to deteriorate and then

if you’ve done the work on keeping your energy strong and youthful, then you will go into your later, your old age, with much more vitality and health.

 

– [Interviewer] Okay, so it’s kind of like an insurance policy?

 

– [Wai-Yii] Yeah, it’s an insurance policy but you’re gonna have to start it young. I was saying this to my class the other night actually. You know, so I have a lot of young people that come to class and when you’re young, you don’t really think about what’s gonna happen sort of decades down the line because you’ve got plenty of energy and you’re not really thinking that far ahead.

But when you hit that age and you haven’t looked after yourself, then what I’m saying is there’s less energy in that bucket for you to do stuff in your life with. So when you’ve got plenty of it you need to try and preserve it.

You need to build more of it if you can so that you’ve got more of that battery to play with throughout life.

 

– [Interviewer] Okay, so it sounds worth doing. And so, if I’m a young person and I’m looking, thinking ahead to the future, and it’s not maybe that relevant to me right now, why is doing this stuff good for me now?

Why would I do it?

 

– [Wai-Yii] Well, it’s good for you now. If I think back to me and the reasons I stayed with doing the arts is because a, it gives me a feeling of being alive and energized but relaxed that I couldn’t get from anything else, that’s totally natural.

And it’s, it just gives you more energy in your life so you’re able to focus and direct your life wherever you want it to go.

It helps with motivating you, disciplining you, connecting you to kind of who you really are and what drives you, what motivates you, what makes you happy.

 

– [Interviewer] So what does it feel like when you’re actually doing Qigong or these Daoist arts that you’re talking about?

 

– [Wai-Yii] What does it feel like? Well it feels absolutely gorgeous. It’s a beautiful feeling when you’re doing it.

It can be very very calming, relaxation at the deepest level but at the same time totally exhilarating and making you feel very alive and it’s very exciting to be in the room.

However, I mean I’m using words to try and put across a feeling, which is quite difficult because the feelings are quite subjective. And you know, I can describe it as being soft and light but powerful.

But ultimately, it’s a feeling that you have to feel for yourself and that feeling changes and refines as your practice in Qigong changes and refines.

So it changes year on year and your understanding of it deepens.

So it’s quite fascinating.

 

– [Interviewer] So if someone came along to a class, what could they expect?

 

– [Wai-Yii] The unexpected!

The classes that we run aren’t necessarily like a set class that you would do with a set routine of exercises each week.

There is a general range of exercises that we cover and that would be ranging from the Daoist yoga to the deep breathing to the Tai Chi and the Qigong exercises.

There would be some meditation and also some self defense, the kung fu side of things.

 

– [Interviewer] That’s all within one class?

 

– [Wai-Yii] That’s all within one class.

And you might not know necessarily what you’re doing but the whole of that package is Lishi.

And you might think, well, I didn’t wanna come to do the self defense bit or I didn’t wanna come do the Tai Chi bit, but actually they all complement each other.

And it’s quite intrinsic to what we do. So you might get someone that’s let’s say done a harder style of martial arts for many many many years and then after sort of a decade of doing that martial art, actually, I quite need to learn to soften and to use my energy. But we just chuck it in right from the beginning and you get to experience all of that and have a better, well rounded sort of experience of all the arts and of the different energies and you get a more rounded individual.

 

– [Interviewer] It sounds very… well it sounds fantastic.

It sounds very in-depth and I know you’ve spoken about that you teach classes in Leeds and you also have an online video course on Udemy. I’m just curious, is it really possible to learn Qigong and Tai Chi and self defense from a video?

 

– [Wai-Yii] Well, how my teacher describes it is that the arts is like a big big lake. And your experience of the arts can vary. So you can just have a very very light experience and you can just be on the edge of that lake.

You might just dip your toe in.

And that would be something like having a video course.

But if you want to deepen your understanding and you really want to get some more, I’m trying to think of the words, but not such a superficial light touch experience with the arts then you have to really find a teacher.

You really have to go to a class and get that sort of one on one instruction with someone that’s more experienced, that’s teaching what you want to learn.

And that really is quite essential.

 

– [Interviewer] Okay, so it’s kind of like you could learn the moves or the theory from a video but there’s something more in depth that you have to have someone observing you I guess?

 

– [Wai-Yii] Yeah but it’s also, let’s say it’s, when we talk about feelings, it’s when you come into the room, hopefully there’s a feel to the classes, there’s a feel to the practitioners, and that feeling is what we describe as being passed on through transmission.

So it’s, another way of describing it is it’s an embodied learning knowledge system.

And you have to… it was practiced way before a written system was ever invented, before books.

And so it was practiced and passed down generation to generation through touch and through the transmission of energy from teacher to students.

So if you are more serious about getting in touch with the kind of depths of these arts then you can learn the basic movements without a teacher but really, you need to get a feel of the kind of layers involved and the refinements in the exercises.

 

– [Interviewer] I don’t know why but I’m thinking of surfing and I’ve got this idea of like it’s one thing to watch a video of how to surf, or even to be on the beach and practice jumping onto your surfboard on the beach.

And you can stand there and think “I’m surfing”, but it’s quite a different thing when you’re in the waves.

 

– [Wai-Yii] Absolutely, we describe this as a doing art. It’s very very much a practical, doing art. So you can theorize…You can read books and that all helps with the knowledge of what to do, but you actually have to, you know, when you come to a class you’ve got to practice.

And within the practice comes the understanding. In the practice comes the depth of learning and the kind of embodied realizations that come from that.

So in terms of what we do, it’s fundamental that you do it, basically, rather than talk about it.

 

– [Interviewer] Yeah, from your talking now I’m getting a sense that there’s a kind of a vibe to this Lishi stuff.

You’re saying that when you come into the room it should feel a certain way and certainly from your voice and stuff there’s a certain kind of feeling and vibe to you.

And that’s nice.

It feels different and it feels nice to think that there can be space within the world where… ’cause what you said is this is a very ancient practice, where kind of this tradition is kept alive or.

 

– [Wai-Yii] Yeah, absolutely. This is a family system that’s been passed on through the generations. But it has also got influences from the temples of China and very much part of what we do can be described as being a community temple.

When you enter a temple, you come into a space of serenity, of quiescence, of calmness that takes you away from sort of the kind of stresses of your life and the hustle and bustle.

And it allows you to connect with certain things in yourself and hopefully coming to the classes you get a sense of that and you leave all that kind of, how can I say, bullshit outside and you come in and you come in to practice and you enter a space where everyone’s doing the same.

And for me it’s a palpable feeling. And that feeling is essentially that feeling that’s been transmitted through generations over time and that feeling doesn’t change, which is the beautiful thing about that, because we’re talking about energy, basically.

 

– [Interviewer] Sounds really wonderful. Have you ever been to temples?

 

– [Wai-Yii] Yes yes yes yes. I go to China each year and I go with my Master and we go each year and we visit. It’s like a kind of study tour I suppose. We take students and we exchange with other Tai Chi, Wu Shu practitioners.

We exchange with Daoist or the Daoists, other Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners and we just sort of–

– [Interviewer] Can you speak about that word, exchange? I don’t really know, what do you mean, you exchange?

 

– [Wai-Yii] Um, business cards.

No, so the way that we, we learn from each other.

So in China the verb that you use for doing any of these arts, Tai Chi, Kung Fu, Qigong, whatever, is to play. And that’s really crucial because it’s the attitude that you’re enjoying it, you do it with joy and you’re playing.

And so when you work with another practitioner, you’re playing.

You’re exchanging in, you’re learning from each other.

And there’s a sort of give and take, a mutual kind of harmony to kind of the exchange.

You get what I’m saying?

 

– [Interviewer] I get a real sense of kind of equality rather than there being like, I don’t know, like a lecturer telling someone else

 

– [Wai-Yii] Absolutely

 

– [Interviewer] or one person telling another person what to do. It’s, as you say, it’s an exchange. It’s a giving and a learning from.

 

– [Wai-Yii] Even if the, let’s say, the person is an expert, they’re often, because as I was describing before, it’s so important to touch and to feel. They’ll come around and they’ll adjust you and you know, and work with you.

And that’s priceless and, yeah, and so there’s that interplay with what, they might do a different system or they might come from a different background of practice, but that doesn’t matter.

That informs what they do and we inform what they do and vice versa.

 

– [Interviewer] ‘Cause earlier you’ve done different sorts of Tai Chi.

 

– [Wai-Yii] Uh huh, yep, so Tai Chi—

 

– [Interviewer] ‘Cause I’ve got a question here, which is, which Tai Chi should I learn? I guess which is the best one?

 

– [Wai-Yii] Which is the best one? Lishi is the best one.

No, I’m joking.

There’s no best one, there’s no best one.

You don’t have a best system.

You just have, you have individuals that are outstanding, that are extraordinary, and they make that, they make that system work.

And you know, they maximize what it was designed to do.

So in Tai Chi for example, there are let’s say five main systems that most people have heard of, like Yang or Chen, but really, there are actually thousands of systems of Tai Chi that exist, that people practice day in day out.

But there are some major ones that are very very popular currently in today.

 

– [Interviewer] Okay, so for someone who’s thinking of starting something like that how do they decide which one to learn?

 

– [Wai-Yii] I just say let the Dao decide.

I didn’t set out to do Lishi but it was something that I liked the look of, I liked the sound of. And I just went along to the class.

But you know, some people might want something—

 

– [Interviewer] So I guess if someone’s listening to this podcast then this has put this in front of them and they could look into it.

 

– [Wai-Yii] Absolutely, yeah, if it resonates with you. What we do that’s different, I would say, is that it’s, the heritage of what we do is Daoist. Not just the heritage.

Let me just repeat that.

What is different, I would say, from what we do, is it is a Daoist practice of Tai Chi.

So the Daoism is very much fundamental, intrinsic to our practice.

 

– [Interviewer] Okay, so other Tai Chi schools might not have that Daoism within it.

What is that? What does that mean?

 

– [Wai-Yii] Um, what is it?

 

So Daoism is a science but also a philosophy that was created in China but it’s not just for the Chinese, basically.

And it was people that observed nature thousands of years ago and the principles of nature and they put together systems to work with that energy in nature.

So Daoists, for example, invented things like acupuncture, which you might have heard of, or Feng Shui, which is geomancy, or Chinese herbal therapy, concepts like yin and yang.

So they were all discovered by Daoists.

And so what we do in Lishi comes from, not just comes from, but is a Daoist practice.

Initially when students come in they just wear a tee shirt so we have tee shirts for different arts.

We have the yin arts where students wear a blue tee shirt and that signifies water, the calming effects of water, and there’s certain exercises that we only do in the yin arts.

And then we also have the yang arts, which they wear yellow, which is much more dynamic as a color.

You think of the sun. You think of the yang energy from the sun and it’s faster. And those are the characteristics of yang energy.

And students wear that and we do the Kung Fu, the soft style Kung Fu that we do.

As people progress and they get more of the Daoism in terms of what they’re doing, and the Daoist practice, then we wear different, we wear other jackets as well.

 

– [Interviewer] So do you have like black belts?

 

– [Wai-Yii] Um, yes and no.

So we have gradings and over the years you can work towards a black jacket.

That’s what we call, or a black sash.

But also teachers are, it’s not something that’s very obvious.

We don’t kind of parade that around and people know their own levels within what we do, ’cause the grading is an indicator of your progression within the arts and what you need to do for yourself.

It’s not a sort of like, hoop jumping exercises let’s say or, ah, I’ve done that grading and I’m gonna do that.

 

– [Interviewer] So is it more about kind of a personal journey rather than a—

 

– [Wai-Yii] Absolutely

 

– [Interviewer] comparison or a better than other people?

 

– [Wai-Yii] Absolutely, absolutely. It’s all about the individual and your individual journey through the arts, your individual journey with connecting to Daoism and deepening your understanding of the Dao.

 

– [Interviewer] You mentioned that you’ve been to temples before in China and I’m just wondering, ’cause people listening to this may well be in the U.K., is there, are there any kind of Daoist, well also they can come to a Lishi class and learn about this stuff. But are there any Daoist temples in the U.K.?

 

– [Wai-Yii] Well, funny you should say that ’cause we are setting up a temple in Leeds called the Sea Cloud Temple and it’s in collaboration with the White Cloud Temple in Beijing, which is the foremost Daoist temple for the Northern school of Daoism, which is the Quanzhen Daoism, Complete Reality Daoism.

And we’re on it to be setting that up and it’ll be hopefully a small seed that will grow into something bigger as more and more people find out about it.

 

– [Interviewer] Can doing Lishi help you to get a job?

 

– [Wai-Yii]  Um, in the long run, if that’s what you want. If you wanna get a job, then yeah, because what the classes are for, they’re to help you create and harness more energy into your life, basically, so that you can direct your life in any direction that you want.

If that is to get a job, that’s great.

If that’s not to get a job, that’s great as well.

We try to encourage the philosophy of not having kind of failures or success or having that sort of competitive, there’s only one route to success. In Daoism that doesn’t really exist.

You just gotta learn to be happy.

 

– [Interviewer] So, we’ve not mentioned your book. The title sounds fascinating!. WAY OUT – A Daoist Path to a Fearless Life.

Who is the book for?

Who should read it and what’s in it?

 

– [Wai-Yii] Well from teaching around the world and my classes in Leeds, I often get people who come to the class and they’re feeling stressed and anxious.

They kinda don’t quite fit with what’s going on in society so they feel a little bit out of place.

And they don’t really feel like there’s, what’s offered to them conventionally, is something that resonates or strikes a chord with them.

So we wanted to write the book, to bring some of the principles and the concepts in Daoism to help people like that, to basically find a way, a natural way, that gels with them and that allows them to live a life that’s happy and fearless.

 

– [Interviewer] Cool, fantastic, and where can people get that if they wanted it?

 

– [Wai-Yii] The book’s available on Amazon and there’s also a Kindle version as well.

 

– [Interviewer] So are you the only person that does this?

 

– [Wai-Yii] Oh, what, no. It’d be really boring if it was just me in the room.

There’s a community, a Lishi community, of practitioners, of students, of coaches of Lishi, throughout the country and throughout Europe.

And people with a great skill level, people who have devoted their lives for decades, for 10, 20 years, practicing Lishi, but also students that have just come into it who have an interest in Daoism.

They want to find out more and they’ve just, everyone’s just starting their journey, basically, but there’s a big community of people doing this around the world.

 

– [Interviewer] Okay, so you’re based in Leeds but throughout the U.K. there’s other teachers?

 

– [Wai-Yii] Absolutely.

 

– [Interviewer] Where can people?

 

– [Wai-Yii] Where can people access this? Well the center of Lishi is in Leeds, of all places. Lishi coaches all over the country. So we’ve got classes in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, coming down to Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Leicester, York, all the way down to London.

If you like the sound of doing some exercise that has a spiritual element, that has a wellbeing element for your mind, then come along to the classes, ’cause they make you feel absolutely wonderful and alive and full of beans.

 

– [Interviewer] How can people find out more about you, what you do, your classes, how to kind of connect with you?

 

– [Wai-Yii] Well you can just go on lishi.org/leeds and there will be a list of all the classes that are available or if you’re not in Leeds you can find a class near you at lishi.org/find-a-class

So if you’re interested in finding out more about the classes, you can follow me on social

media as Lishi Leeds, on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and on Youtube.

 

– [Interviewer] Okay, cool, well thanks very much for coming in today.

 

– [Wai-Yii] Thank you very much for asking me.

 

– [Interviewer] You got all of these different things going on, books, podcasts, videos. I’ve been on Youtube. You’ve got lots of videos there that we can have a look at.

And then you’ve got all the classes that you run and this great sounding project, offering free classes

for young people in Leeds

 

– [Wai-Yii] That’s very exciting

 

– [Interviewer] Suffering from anxiety or depression or stress. That’s fantastic.

And then you’ve got this new project starting the first Daoist temple in the U.K. in partnership with the White Cloud Temple in Beijing. That’s really quite something.

So thanks very much for sparing the time to come in and talk with us all today.

 

– [Wai-Yii] Pleasure, pleasure, thank you very much.

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Best Exercise for People in their twenties

If you had just one piece of health advice for people in their 20’s what would it be?

Leeds-Tai-Chi-Healthy-Living-Young-People-compressed-600x314

We asked two experts at the ancient practise of Tai Chi and this is what they said….

The first person we asked was Abbott Zhao a senior Abbott at the White Cloud Temple in Beijing and the second person was Wai-Yii, head coach at Lishi Leeds Tai Chi. As they discussed the topic, the key theme that they both agreed on was the need to balance yin and yang activity.

Abbott-Zhao-compressed-for-web-200x258

Often, in the West, young people take an “either or” kind of approach to exercise. They either go to the gym and lift weights or they do yoga. A better approach is to balance strength training with exercises that also improve your suppleness and flexibility.

Whilst cardio-vascular exercise was seen as important and both of them agreed that moderately increasing your heartrate for prolonged periods was a good thing, this should also be balanced with slower, more restful exercises.

The most interesting point they made was an idea that most Western approaches don’t even consider or aren’t even aware of.

waiyii-lishi-leeds-tai-chi-madeinleedstv-still-compressed-300x183

They say that the key to good health in your 20’s that will set you up for good health throughout your life is to invest in the internal cultivation of your energy through meditation and qigong as well as regular external expression of your energy through dance and martial arts/wushu.

Many approaches to exercise in the modern world are the result of a very narrow focus on getting a specific result for the body. This can lead to imbalances.

The Daoist approach is to consider the whole of life and to approach health and fitness with an understanding of the bigger picture. “It shouldn’t be about whether you look good right now but more importantly how you can feel good throughout the whole of your life.”

Lishi Leeds Tai Chi Teacher
Wai-Yii says “At the classes we teach in Leeds, students get a real understanding of who they are on a physical, mental and energetic level. In the same way that the Daoists in temples across China have practised a wide-range of exercises and lived long healthy lives, we explore many exercises in every class.

Exercise is an individual journey that’s as unique as you are. The Daoist practise of Lishi provides guidance and a route map for participants to discover what they are capable of, whether that be in terms of strength, suppleness or stamina. But more than that, it provides a route to find an inner peace and confidence that ensures a mentally and emotionally healthy experience of life.”

To see the range of exercises on offer in a typical Lishi class you can choose between the class at Hyde Park Corner or the one in Chapel Allerton

Online Tai Chi Video Course for beginners Lishi High energy Tai Chi Udemy
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Combining your Lishi practice with being a parent

Combining your Lishi practice with being a parent

toddler wakes up parents - Lishi Leeds Tai Chi Parenting Kids

Combining your Lishi practice with being a parent

You used to wake up at 6am each morning to practice your forms and improve your own training.

But now you barely get any sleep and you’ve got toddler tantrums, nappies and breakfast to sort out. You can say goodbye to your early morning meditation, me-time and those solid abs….

Actually being a parent is another type of training. But just because there are not enough hours in the day now it doesn’t mean that you have to stop with your training altogether.

Here are 5 suggestions for exercises you can combine with your babysitting 😉 duties:

1. Warm up – Starting the morning with a good warm up sets me up for the day.   I do the warm up and my little one loves to copy along. He doesn’t get everything right but that’s fine, he’s starting to build a physical awareness and is learning the names of the major body parts.

2. Kitchen Stances –  I find a great place to practice stance-work is in the kitchen as I am cooking.  I get the kids to copy along and learn the stances with me, while practicing the qigong in my legs. Frog stance is also great to practice especially if you’re trying to potty train a toddler.

Learning the names of the stances will also give them a head-start when you decide to send them along to the Lishi Leeds Tai Chi Kids Classes

 

3. Swing Evasions – This one is courtesy of my brother Dr Tai Chi. The kids always need a good run around each day – so next time you’re at the park practise Round the Clock or Teacup evasions while pushing the swing. It’s a great way to keep you on your toes and make the evasions work.  Plus the kids find it hilarious!

4. Floor-Work-and Flying Angel – You’re probably finding that you spend more time these days crawling around on the floor putting toys away and crawl chasing your little one.  Remember to use your core muscles and feel the abs work to pull your knees in and reach with the arms. Lifting your toddler over your head as you lie on your back – you can practice the supporting part of the flying angel. I only recommend you do this if you’ve had instruction at a Lishi Qishu class.

5. Virtues – Being a parent is where you really have to test whether you can make the training work outside the hall.  It is a great chance to practice your virtues such as patience and the softest will be the strongest.  It is also a great chance to learn from our little ones – for they demonstrate relentless better than any adult could. Finally remember, “You don’t stop playing because you get old, you get old because you stop playing.” Use this opportunity to enjoy being a kid again and cultivate that playfulness in your parenting and your personal practice.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these tips and if you have any to add then please post them in the comments below.

Lishi Leeds Tai Chi - Meditating child
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5 Tips for Surviving the Winter

5 Tips for Surviving the Winter

Daoist Tips for surviving the winter - Lishi Leeds Tai Chi
5 Tips for Surviving the Winter

This year as soon as 1st November arrived – there was a change in the season brrrrr!

It was like someone had turned on a switch.  Winter had arrived.

We still got the odd day of warmish weather as the season moved from end of autumn to proper winter.  But there is no mistaking the cold damp that seeps into the bones, the nights drawing in and the desire to stay in bed for longer.

The Daoists have long recognised the need to pay attention to the changing of the seasons and so here are 5 Daoist ways to work with the natural changes and help maintain the balance of Yin and Yang this Winter.

    1. Invest in a cosy scarf
      According to Chinese Medicine it is important to protect yourself from pernicious influences such as cold and wind.The back of the neck is particularly vulnerable to wind as it can enter through the acupuncture points here.  This is especially important if you’ve done any exercise and you are sweaty.When your pores open up it increases the risk of Wind invasion if you do not wrap up warm. So make sure you have a good scarf and wear it even if you are hot from exercising.
    2. Make sure you have good quality boots (and slippers)
      TCM also warns against the cold damp entering through the feet. It is important to keep the feet warm with socks and shoes when outside.Even inside, beware of cold floors. A pair of cosy slippers will help prevent the body’s heat being leached out and the cold invading through the soles of your feet.If you suffer from poor circulation and cold feet during the winter months try soaking your feet in hot water before bed. In fact it is worth doing this even if your circulation is fine. Soaking the heat in through your feet helps keep your energy high.Winter is related to the water element and organs associated with this in particular are your Kidney and Bladder.  Warming your feet will help nourish your Kidney energy which is sensitive to the cold during this time.

 

    1. Cook up some warming foods
      As winter is a yin time of the year, it’s important to balance the external cold by eating “warming” yang foods to help activate the blood circulation and keep you well.So forget the cold salads and get some hot and warming stews and soups into you.  Add more root vegetables such as parsnips and sweet potatoes, garlic and ginger, and warming herbs such as rosemary as well as spices such as cinnamon in your cooking to boost your body’s yang.For some good Chang Ming Recipes check out our other blog posts or the Chang Ming Cookbook 
    2. Hibernate!
      As the nights draw in you may feel the urge to cosy up in bed and sleep for longer thank usual.  This is perfectly natural!Our ancestors would have lived their lives much more in accordance to the seasons than we do, due to the lack of artificial light.  Go to sleep earlier and rise with the sun.Sleeping earlier and longer in Winter is important to help nourish your yin, as winter is the season to conserve energy and build strength in the prelude to an active Spring.
    3. Stay active
      The best time to do Yang exercise such as the Lishi Hand of the Wind Kung Fu we teach is when the weather is colder.  These arts are wonderful to help condition and strengthen the body, improve and maintain your cardio-vascular system and boost your overall body temperature and resilience to the cold.Doing the Yang Arts will help boost your circulation and increase your body’s core temperature further supporting your lymphatic and immune system in the cold winter months.
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Tai Chi Stick and Kung Fu Staff

Tai Chi Stick and Kung Fu Staff

Lishi Leeds Tai Chi chee soo stick

Tai Chi Stick and Kung Fu Staff

Lishi is a system that was developed for the physical, spiritual and personal growth of it’s practitioners. It is thousands of years old and was originally practiced by ordinary peasant folk in China.

When people first come to a Lishi class they learn to train with the “empty hand”. It is safer that way until they develop a level of body-awareness, co-ordination and skill.

Teachers at Lishi Leeds Tai Chi quickly develop a student’s ability through the Tai Chi classes learning forms and partner exercises like Pushing Hands.

It is very important to train the “Open Hand” before introducing weapons training.

The most basic implement we use in Lishi is the Tai Chi Stick or Kung Fu Staff. This wooden rod is used as an extension of the hand.

Originally, these were tools that were used in the daily lives of the peasants.  They were used for farming the land and were often found on their person. It made sense that they would use these implements to develop their abilities in Tai Chi and Kung Fu in their daily kungfu training.

There are many examples of indigenous people such as Chinese or Philipino peasants using these simple daily objects when fighting off imperial invaders such as the Japanese in the 1930’s and the Spanish in the 1560’s even though they were up against more sophisticated weapons such as metal swords and sabres.

Fighting off invaders is not the main intention of Lishi Daoist practice. The lessons learned by gaining skills in these implements help us understand ourselves and others. They’re also a lot of fun 🙂

We are running a couple of weekend workshops in June for anyone who would like to get to grips with the ancient moves of Lishi Daoist Stick and Staff work.

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Plantified Vegan Recipe Site

Plantified Vegan Recipe Site

Lishi waiyii miso_tahini
Free Vegan Recipes Hub

I recently discovered a fab site where people are sharing lots of incredibly tasty vegan recipes.

The site is called plantified and is the brainchild of Katrina Stuart who is a bit of a vegan whiz in the kitchen.

The recipes are not all Chang Ming but they definitely offer some healthy dairy-free options and might inspire you to come up with your own versions that fit with the Lishi Lifestyle of Cooking and eating.

I have uploaded a couple of easy recipes which you can see here:

Steamed Greens and Carrots with a Tahini and Miso Sauce

Black Rice Porridge with Coconut

I recommend you join the site and would love to read any recipes that you add.

Feel free to comment and link to your recipes below…

Lishi Lifestyle Black Rice Porridge
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Lishi Wai-Yii on MadeinLeedsTV

Lishi Wai-Yii on MadeinLeedsTV

A Fun Day Filming Lishi Leeds Tai Chi Sword

Each winter I escape the cold of Britain and head to sunny Tenerife to run my Tai Chi, Yoga and Meditation retreats in the sun. This year we were lucky enough to have a film crew in attendance and they very kindly created some beautiful videos of us practising some of the different Arts of Lishi Leeds Tai Chi.

In this video, Lishi Ben and I practise the Tai Chi Sword together.

Watch the video and read the description below and if you feel this is something you’d like to learn, get in touch to register for the next beginners Tai Chi course in Leeds.

Two practitioners of Lishi Tai Chi and Kung Fu meet on the side of a mountain to practise the Art of the Jian Sword.

Balance, dexterity, lightness and co-ordination combine to show how practising the natural movements of Tai Chi, Qigong and Kung Fu can be transformed into a graceful dance of the martial arts.

Working with the Daoist principles of Yin and Yang and flowing like water, this video showcases the grace and exhilaration of Lishi.

To watch more great Lishi videos subscribe to our channel here

or just book on the next beginners course below

TAI CHI, YOGA, MEDITATION AND SELF DEFENCE - BEGINNERS COURSE

lishi leeds tai chi sword
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