Welcome to this month’s IRQTC training tips newsletter and thank you everyone for the continuous stream of support over the past month. This month’s topic is Tai Chi listening: how we can improve our nervous system’s protective functions by employing “sung” or active relaxation. The principle of “sung” is one of the most important components in Tai Chi practice. “Sung” or active relaxation can be seen most readily in cats, where at rest they appear supple and floppy; however, when a mouse scampers by they immediately spring into action, wasting no energy in their movements.
When employing “sung” energy in movement, the body is able to listen more effectively to small changes in both the internal and external environments, resulting in the nervous system’s ability to make more efficient and accurate responses. When the body carries excess tension, environmental messages get lost in all the internal noise and neural responses become inappropriate and potentially harmful. It’s like being in a nightclub and trying to hear what your date is saying. They could be saying that you look nice and instead you hear that they have lice!
To learn more about how “sung” helps mindful body listening according to the Weber-Fechner law and its effects on patient self-efficacy, click the video training to bring this simple bodymind principle into practice.
Do you have a question or comment for your IRQTC community? Share it with everyone and together we can all become the cats of rehabilitation: relaxed in body, alert in mind.
Be well,
Brian