Tai Chi For Kids

July 24th, 2008 at 06:39pm Cari Shurman 1414

I had the opportunity to meet with the Superintendent of Schools in a suburban, upscale community of college bound students. He was a bit curious about what Tai Chi could offer his students and agreed to talk to me. After listening for a few minutes he replied:

“Your idea may be exactly what we need but we don’t believe we do. It won’t help our children get into college. It doesn’t enhance their applications to college. Our parents are looking for the experience that makes their child stand out from all the rest. We are thinking of offering Mandarin. Maybe you could come one day and teach a Tai Chi session as an enrichment to that course.”

Knowing that many college admissions counselors mention stress as the single greatest problem of the incoming freshman class, I found his comments disappointing. Parents are powerful. They want the best for their kids. Or at least what looks best on the transcript. It can be much harder to convince the parents than the kids.

Fortunately not all communities have the same reaction. In a small town in the Rockies where the teachers are happy for the kids to call them by their first names, where the green mountains are filled with magnificent wild flowers in tones of orange, pink, blue, yellow and purple, things are a bit different. I received a call from the policeman who was in charge of school security asking me to participate in a Wellness trip with a group of high school students. The students could choose from fifteen itineraries, including bike trips, hiking, college visit, Habitat for Humanity and others. This Wellness trip involved a week on a houseboat on a beautiful lake, eleven hours away by school bus. We were going to practice Tai Chi every day and do organic cooking. Of course my answer was yes.

What a pleasant surprise when the Wellness Week was quickly filled with 22 excited students during the selection process. We asked the participants why they selected this trip.

“Because this is the first time in my life that I am unscheduled!” called out an enthusiastic 11th grade boy.

“Because I get stomach aches all the time,” said an uncomfortable 10th grade girl.

“Because I’m not having fun,” said another girl, more quietly.

“Because I’m confused and don’t know what to do,” piped up a fourth throwing his hands in the air.

The answers were surprising for such an idyllic community. How did we get to the point where the school day can start at 5AM with early morning training for sports, where 5 hour car trips are taken for athletic events, where lunch period is to gobble food and get to a special meeting or club during that time.
The first night of the trip we formed a circle in the parking lot under the stars.

Everything was silent. The cool, calm night air was still. The trees were tall, dark and strong next to us. We swayed slightly side to side, rooting our feet to the earth like a tree. We talked about abdominal breathing. This is something we all did as babies to take in the oxygen we need for growth and development. I’m not sure just when we change to shallow chest breathing but we do. It is not so easy to breathe abdominally. It demands practice and concentration. But these kids were open to everything. Expand the abdomen as you inhale, let it contract as you exhale. Focus on the movement in the abdomen. Try to feel the energy, maybe even see the energy.
They loved the session. The darkness made it special, more intimate in a way. But at the same time each person was alone in his own space.

“All the tension of the long drive left through my feet into the earth.”

“I felt like my head was lifting up to the stars. I was growing taller and taller. The stars came inside my head. I could see the light everywhere as if I was inside a multifaceted diamond.”

“I was as strong and still as this tree next to me.”

“After sitting so long on the bus I wanted to collapse in my sleeping bag. Or maybe run around or wrestle. I thought this would be frustrating because it is so slow. But I feel really relaxed. All the tightness is gone. It’s amazing.”

The next morning, as we prepared to load everything onto the houseboat four of the students made me promise we could do the same thing again that evening. They had slept well. They felt calm. They liked the new experience.

Entry Filed under: Health, Aspen, Family

9 Comments Add your own

1. Kit O'Carra | July 25th, 2008 at 8:02 am

Welcome to Aspen Post, Cari. It's great to see new bloggers with their ideas and experiences.

I have a special interest in your blog and ways to enhance the health of others through various methods. I was recently appointed as our department's representative for the City of Newport, Oregon on the Health Promotion Committee. It isn't easy to come up with ideas that haven't been instilled in us from grade school as far as healthy lifestyles go.

In my first challenge on this committee I am currently in the process of starting a drum circle, not only for city employees, but for the entire community and the surrounding cities here on the coast. So far the response has been encouraging. Once we have our first drum circle I will probably be blogging about it.

Good to have you here. I hope to read more from you.
2. Mitch Mulhall | July 25th, 2008 at 7:47 pm

Hi Cari, and welcome.

Kit... sorry for my ignorance, but what is a drum circle?

Cheers,
3. Kit O'Carra | July 25th, 2008 at 9:25 pm

[sorry for my ignorance, but what is a drum circle?]

Mitch, I like the explanation someone posted on Wikipedia, especially since it quotes Mickey Hart from Grateful Dead:

"A drum circle is any group of people playing (usually) hand-drums and percussion in a circle. They are distinct from a drumming group or troupe in that the drum circle is an end in itself rather than preparation for a performance. They can range in size from a handful of players to circles with thousands of participants.

In 1991, during testimony before the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging, Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart stated:

Typically, people gather to drum in drum "circles" with others from the surrounding community. The drum circle offers equality because there is no head or tail. It includes people of all ages. The main objective is to share rhythm and get in tune with each other and themselves. To form a group consciousness. To entrain and resonate. By entrainment, I mean that a new voice, a collective voice, emerges from the group as they drum together. "

The health benefits that have been proven range from stress reduction to circulation and mobility for seniors.

Check out YouTube. You'll find plenty of videos. But my main recommendation is to catch a film called The Visitor that will be out on DVD next month.
4. Mitch Mulhall | July 25th, 2008 at 10:45 pm

You mean, something like this?
5. Kit O'Carra | July 26th, 2008 at 8:14 am

Doggone you, Mitch! You just made me spew some of my tall vente vanilla capuccino all over the screen.

Leave it to you to find a video where the acid dancers are more fun to watch than the drummers. Somehow I think the whole idea of the drum circle and Tai Chi have been lost in the translation.

Thanks for the morning laugh!
6. Mitch Mulhall | July 28th, 2008 at 5:48 am

My Pleasure

Cheers,
7. Cari Shurman | July 28th, 2008 at 10:22 am

Hi Kit and Mitch

This is the first time i have blogged and was excited to see comments, but it took me a while to reply. Kit, it is great that your town is interested in health and stress release. Let me know if you want to try a form of Tai Chi that is easy to learn. It can be difficult and some people become discouraged before they really learn it and before they begin to feel the benefits. It doesn't have to be hard to be good.

I hope the drum circles are a great success. I would love to hear.

Cari
8. Kit O'Carra | July 28th, 2008 at 2:17 pm

Cari, I would love to introduce Tai Chi to my committee. I'm not sure how to achieve this, since I have very little experience myself and the fact that I'm 1100 miles from Aspen. However, I do have the perfect beach setting and some fantastic sunsets to provide a great atmosphere.
9. Cari Shurman | July 29th, 2008 at 9:06 am

Hi Kit

I have ben a teacher for over 30 years. When I decided to offer Tai Chi in the schools I wanted to train teachers so that they can use the movements in the classroom before tests to calm the kids down and get oxygen flowing to their brains to concentrate better. I also wanted them to be able to use it to help ADD and ADHD kids, to give focus to a discussion on bullying, to calm kids down who are feeling hyper.

So I decided I needed to simplify Tai Chi so a teacher could learn it quickly and use it easily in the classroom. Teachers have little extra time in the day. Sometimes Tai chi can be hard to learn, but these simple movements using Tai Chi and Qigong are very well received and produce a wonderful change in atmosphere.

You might look at my website www.taichiforkids.com.

Sorry i don't know how to make this connect directly on the blog.

the CD for the older kids would be great for a community group looking for stress release, focus, calmness, well-being and a nice feeling of working together.

If it looks interesting, let me know and we can talk more about how to use it.

Cari