Episode Transcript
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Hi, this is Rachel Recovery.
We've got a special guest with us.
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Violently, She's gonna tell us a
little about herself, and then she's gonna
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tell us a little bit about taichi
and the health benefits and that uh,
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that she's researched and um, that
she's experienced. All right, tell us
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a little bit about yourself. Hi, Rachel and everyone listening to this podcast.
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I'm very honored to be invited to
to talk about the health benefit of
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tai Chi, especially for people with
PTSD. And well, how did I
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get into taichi? It was purely
by accident. What does that mean.
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I'm a Chinese and I was born
in China, but I living the US
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most of my life. And uh, both my children were born in the
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US, and they were attending Chinese
language school oh Sundays, And normally I
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would take them to the school,
uh Sunday afternoon, and then sometimes I
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ran a little bit aaron when they
are in the classrooms. But you know,
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I really did not have much to
do. And besides doing that,
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and uh, one year and the
school hired someone to teach taichi, and
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I was really intrigued by how the
instructor was doing it, and some of
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you probably have the impression. And
the tai chi is really really really slow
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movement and only good for seniors.
As a matter of fact, taichi is
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very very diverse, has so many
different styles, and it's good for people
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of all age ages and physical capabilities. And so the instructor, she was
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doing the oldest taichi style, which
is so called chin Star, tis very
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regulus and it's very intricate and very
complex. And so right away I said,
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oh my god, this is so
looks so fun and I want to
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try it. And the rest is
history. And I've been playing taichi or
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practicing taichi for twenty one years.
And but that was just purely by accident.
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How I stumble upon the ti um
tell us a little bit about the
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history of tai chi. I'm glad
you asked that question. And taichi chwan
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is quite old, and people probably
no Taichi chwan is from China, and
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China has a very long history,
right and with all these uh just written
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history is at least five thousand years
old. And sure that there are people
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there are conflict, they are fighting, so Chinese people have developed a lot
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of the fighting skills. And um
so about four hundred years ago, and
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you know chan Wan King and he
he was very good at the martial arts
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and also the warring strategy and so
forth. And unfortunately, um that time,
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the emperor did not really appreciate him. So he retired back to his
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own village and at a younger age, and so he tried to um,
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you know, develop assistant which is
good for the health as well as for
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uh defense self defense. So he
based on the Chinese philosophy of the dullest
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and and confusionism, and then he
selected a lot of great fighting techniques and
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then he fused with so called Chinese
Meridian system. So taichi ch one was
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born that time and then for the
purpose of health and as well as self
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defense. So it is very unique. It is a martial art as well
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as healing art. Fair enough,
Um, how has tai chi helped you
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over the years. Well, um, first of all, it was found
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to play with so so yeah,
it doesn't makes me happy. And and
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now I was a very uh weak
and also sick child and growing up and
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in high school I at an injury, so I had a real uh problem
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and it was my lower back.
So basically I have the so called US
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still US writers in my lower back
and then you flare up, um twice
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a year, yeah, and sometimes
even more. And it was very painful
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every time it happened. And I
remember there were days, you know,
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I I could not hold my child
and I could not drive myself to work
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and was very very bad. But
after tachi practice and I am I'm free
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of their lower back problem and also
helped me, you know, to sleep
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better and U and one thing people, UM, I was very surprised to
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learn when I traveled safe to Europe
for work. I traveled to I want
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to see my friends and my my
mom. I don't have jell lack,
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and the people just said, well, how come you don't have jet lack.
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Yes, And throughout the years and
traveling for work, and I have
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developed some kind of strategy how to
deal with that. But then once I
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learned taichi, it really helped me. And then so so I I am
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able to adjust my body and very
easily, and so I did not have
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suffered from like say, you know, insomnia during the knives because it's night
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time in Taiwan, say okay or
in Europe, but it's still early or
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even daytime in the US. But
it was taichi practice and I'm able to
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to do that easily. And there
are some other health benefit. However,
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I do want to point out two
to uh your listeners, and a lot
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of people say, well are you
the typing masters and there so sure you
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have a lot of health benefit from
it. UM, you know you gain
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a lot of for your health.
UM. I always tell people don't look
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at individual because UM, we all
are different. Our makeup, genetic makeups
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are different, right, so really
if we just based on one or two
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persons experience and not be scientific,
that just put it out like that way,
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and we should look at what science
have told us. And so UM
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I have been working with many scientists
and then when I say work with them,
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doesn't mean say I actually have done
any research work, but that I
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have interviewed them and talking to them
and discussed with them about the type health
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benefit as well as some of the
research they have done. And and also
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I have UH read a few hundreds
of UM research papers. And you can
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find all those kind of information online
yourself if you have any doubt. And
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the best resource is UH pop map, pub M E D dot I think
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dot org and that's the government website
which and uh collect all the um reputable
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research studies in that database. And
then you can just take type tichi and
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taiching US writers taichi and you know
uh pulmonary uh diseases that tichi hard or
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whatever you're typing, typing PTSD.
You will find out a lot of studies.
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And normally what I look for is
not just whoever say they he or
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she down the research and the some
of the research and that they don't have
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they don't follow a very uh stringent
um a standard. So and normally I
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don't use that in my uh reporting. And I normally use the study which
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you follow so called the gold standard, and they do the blind um you
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know tests and then to see the
result. So yes, you you will
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find out that there are huge health
bend effeit practicing type. UM. I
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think we kind of skipped ahead.
But um, is there anything else you
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to add to the health benefits you've
noticed as being a tai chi instructor or
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a research and researcher. Okay,
good And the first of all, and
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let me just address a little bit
about who I am what I have done
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in this area, and um you
mentioned it and I'm a tyching instructure.
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Yes, I have taught UH people
all the world from age six up two
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hundred and six. Yes, and
I have taught all the age groups in
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between six and one o six,
and I mean globally, I have taught
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over ten thousand people. But in
person, I have taught UH a few
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thousand. Yeah, in person.
So that's one part of things I have
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been doing just teaching taichi. And
the other party is I'm I'm a journalist
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and I have written more than seven
hundred articles and the on the healing art.
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And that's why you know, I
was doing in the research work and
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UH and talking to scientists. So
now back to your question and Rachel regarding
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the health benefit I have seen in
my students. Just a few days ago,
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I received email message and let's just
call him Jay. Okay. Jay
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has taken private lessons with me,
and he actually is like a body builder
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and it's very very strong, and
he's over six ft tall and always bulging
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muscle and it's just just like a
muscle man, you know, just so
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strong and I he can pick me
up and throw me easily. So so,
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but he wanted to study um,
you know, Tiching. She gone
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with me and uh, I only
work with him for two things. One
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is a very short form and only
has eight movements, and the other one
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is meditation, and but it's a
tiching type of a meditation. And he
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uh J. Let's just say j
J had a lot of injury in his
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life, and so he had a
lot of surgery. And because of surgery
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and H he was on penkillers and
those were opiates. And the reason he
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came to me is because he it
was sick and title of work taking those
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pills, and he he knew them, you know, those UM side effect.
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The problem was the O P eight
and it's very dangerous and so he
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but he is a very good student. He practiced UM one hour sometimes two
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hours every day. And one day
he sent me a message he said,
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you know, I am so grateful, and I've been off the pen killers
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for a while. First he thought
it was just okay, once a while
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it might happen, but he had
was off for a while and he really
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sent me for it. And but
I told him, you know, I'm
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only a messenger. I'm sharing the
art with him. And uh and now
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of course he did uh work.
He practiced like I said at least one
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hour a day and sometimes two hours. Um. And that's one of the
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reason said, you know, I
like to teach because I'm really helping people.
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And then this is this is true, and you know it's not something
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you know, people make that up. And as far as other students,
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and and people thank me for not
taking pills for for US writers or any
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chronicle pens, and people thank me
for their they don't have taken insulin anymore
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for diabetes. And there are a
lot of hard issues. And people say,
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oh, now I can sleep so
well, sleep like a baby,
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and so again and again. You
know, I have heard all these um
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things and the feedback and that they've
been helped. So that's why I quit
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my day job and then and them
and teaching tai chi and so yeah,
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even though there's a little financial incentive, however, I feel this is the
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most rewarding job I ever had.
Okay, um m hm. You have
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written a lot of articles about Taichi. What are some of your favorite interviews?
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Well, that's that's an excellent question, rachel Um. Excuse me.
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My story is tickally. I was
interviewed Indor Chin Chen Wang and she is
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um um very prominent scientists and she
she works for Tough University and her research
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paper was published in New England Journal
or Medicine. So this is like the
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publication for scientific medical studies, and
so you can google her. You can
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go to a New England Journal of
Medicine and find you know, her studies,
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and she she's very very um good
and highly respected. So I was
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talking to her and then she said, you know violence, you can never
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understand the problem I have. I
said, well, actually I wasn't really
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interviewing interviewed her at that time.
We were just chatting. And I said,
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okay, what do you mean by
that? She said, you know,
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because type is so good. Now
I'm having problems. Once I heard
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that, I'm just like, I'm
totally lost. I don't know what you're
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talking about. That she said,
she's doing a study with veterans, the
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veterans from the Gulf Woo War.
And so because she always followed the so
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called gold standard, and the gold
standard is you you randomly select people and
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uh who have the chronicle disease,
and then you assigned in two different groups.
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So one group probably would be doing
nothing, just like you know a
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lot of people they don't do anything
but with their health problem and some people
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do. So they were assigned in
to do some kind of aerobic exercise and
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so differen things, and then another
at the same time, you know,
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and they continue to take their meds. And then there's one google we'll be
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doing taichi and uh, they were
major people's bios before the tests and see
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how everybody you know, their body
responds and and so forth, and then
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um, normally um the research processes
in the mid turn and then they will
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do it again. And then at
the end they were to the test all
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the the major bio indexes again and
then they also were as a patient or
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the subjects to do self reporting.
But what happened was and the group which
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practiced taichi right away feeling so good
they could be of math and whatever and
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uh, but then the words got
it wrong and the other two groups they
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heard people in the tai chi group
actually is doing so well, and they
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said, we don't want to be
in the school anymore. We want to
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join the taichi group. And then
you cannot make that kind of switch during
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the the experiment, right, So
she said, this is now becoming my
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biggest headache, because how am I
going to persuade people to say, okay,
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just stay in your current group until
we gotta study down right and so
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so, yeah, that that was
one of the stories. Really you know,
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how should I say? And the
most memorable And yeah, um,
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thanks for asking that question. What
are yuh ways to find a good TICHI
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instructor? Well you you really really
know how to ask good questions. And
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there are many typing instructors now are
available, and uh, unlike when I
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first started, and there were not
too many, but like saying in St.
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Louis area, and I used to
live in St. Louis, the
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Louist Missouri for almost forty years,
and now I live in Las Vegas,
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and I'm familiar, very familiar with
the Louis situation. There are at least
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um oh, forty or fifty tychi
instructors, but not all the typing instructors
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um have the same training, the
same background. And touching chron is not
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just a so called of physical movement. It's a so called mind, body
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and breathing exercise, and it is
very very important. We have to understand
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the fundamentals and how to do it
properly and to get a great health benefit.
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Yes, you may see some touching
structure. They are amazing, looks
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like amazing. They can they can't
even fly, you know, they can
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kick hi, they can swallow,
but that's not a gustandard too to judge
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if someone's tychi choin is good.
And a lot of people they say they
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said, well, um, no, there's YouTube, there's a very uh.
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Anyway, there are a lot of
online resources people can look and then
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they saw that they can learn their
way. But that's a very dead just
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well, and I highly recommend people
to find a good instructor. But then
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how do you find a good instructor? Like I said, there are forty
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fifty or even more instructor how do
you do it? And uh, I
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would say, um, in St. Louis and most instructors, we don't
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do it for money. We do
it because we're passionated about it. So
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maybe you can first ask a find
instructor close to your where you live and
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in a deal schedule, and if
it's suitable for you, then you asked
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it. Can you just take um
a free lesson to like say audited a
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class or if they say, well, because I don't own the studio,
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I cannot say just let you come
in and do a lesson for free,
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but maybe you can ask it.
Can I just watch it? Okay?
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And I think that's very important.
And then you you can see if the
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instructor really pay attention to students and
uh and uh and so forth. And
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for people if they're in in some
areas there are not any typing instructors.
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Then there are so many online resources
now available. When I say online resources,
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I don't mean say it's like YouTube, because that's one directional you're just
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watching the video. And I don't
mean say you buy a video tape.
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I recommend you take a lesson and
the online with someone, and especially if
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someone can provide you with feedback,
can see how you do it. And
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a lot of time we think we're
doing the right thing, but actually it
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is not. So it is very
important to find a good instructor. Even
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though you know, type join my
exercise, the chances of you getting um
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sports injury by doing it wrong.
It's not like yoga or some other exercise.
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However, I think time is the
most variable assets people have these days,
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so you really want to use your
time wisely. And then you learn
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from someone with integrity. You learn
from someone who has knowledge or Another thing
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is to find out the the instructors
uh, their background, their lineage,
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who they started from, and then
and and so forth. And also there
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are so many different taichi so called
styles and forms, and some may not
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be suitable for certain individuals, and
so ask questions and as how they teach.
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And I I have a work with
so many people, as I mentioned,
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ten thousand people around the world.
And some people they say, you
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know, I can walk and I
can stand. I have no problem of
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doing that, but I have sort
of healthy issue which does not allow me
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to stand for long. And guess
what taich One can be practiced in a
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seated position also, or it can
be a combination. So ask a question,
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what what the instructor can do?
And um to accommodate the needs of
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for people of all all kinds of
capability and physical condition? Okay, um
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how long does it take to learn
tai chi on average? Okay? And
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well, this is a very interesting
question, and so what do I mean
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by that? There are so many
taichi choin styles. As I mentioned,
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the chance style is the oldest,
and then it's most complicated one. It's
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probably the hardest to learn. But
there are also some more simplified taich each
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one and they're easy to learn.
Like I was talking about Jai my student,
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and it was a very simple um
um form. It's only a movement
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and uh, of course he was
taking private lessons and I was able to
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do a lot of you know,
coaching in the one on one adjustment for
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him. So it only take him
like a month in the right away.
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He has a great results. However, you know it is he's practicing self
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and he also he has his own
physics fitness company, so so he's very
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very good of learning movements and so
for us. So he's a special case.
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But I would say normally, you
know, if you want to do
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it just for the health purpose and
then it can be just a month to
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three months and then you you learn
something and to be beneficial, but you
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have to practice. But some people
like myself, even though I have learned
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the art for twenty one years and
people in the global taichi, uh every
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industry called me address me as a
master, I am still learning. So
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how long it takes to learn taichi
and it is a life along journey for
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me for sure, and you you
may find out the sin with many other
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um instructors and because the type to
each one is like UM curing the onion.
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It has a lot of layer once
you go through uh one day yea,
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and they are always more and more
and more. It's extremely extremely profound.
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So it depends on individual's goal.
If your goal it's just for the
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health purpose, and then you're very
self disciplined, and then you can just
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practice on your own. You don't
need to take lessons for long and one
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to three months that's sufficient. But
some people they say they need the environment.
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They wanted to go to the class
and there's a teacher there and they
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had to remind them. Yes.
Then you can just you know, do
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it at once once a week and
then just keep going. That's fine too.
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And then like I said, there
are a lot of um form and
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style. It's really fun to play
with. And then it's also very spiritual.
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It's a spiritual but not religious,
Okay, people with all religious backgrounds
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they practice tai chi, and some
people they wanted so called the spiritual pursue.
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They can just keep going and going
and keep learning. So I hope
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I answer your question. It's a
very long answer. I guess the next
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question is how long does it take
to see some of these health benefits to
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take effect. And how yeah,
how often do you need to do tai
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chi for it to be beneficial?
Excellent question, And I mentioned j J
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is a special case. And so
let me just tell you the journal things
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and voice ample the scientific studies.
Uh, they have done the clinical study
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and normally they train people like three
or four times a week and each time
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it's about thirteen minutes two an hour
and a lot of just forty five minutes.
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And after they do the research,
you know, and or training for
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six months, they see amazing results. So you don't need to say you
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know, how should I say do
like Jay, you do it every day.
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But if you just do it like
three times a week each time and
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thirty to forty minutes, you get
great results and you can help you of
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course, it's it's like taking medicine. If you don't take medicine, then
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it just gradually was awful. So
if you want to sustain the health beneffects,
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you have to keep working on it. And uh, but not say
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you know that every day and they
just three times a week in thirty minutes,
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that would be sufficient. Okay,
Um, what are some of your
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favorite things? About taichi. Um, I'm nice. Actually I fully understand
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the question. You say the favorite
things. Um, well, first of
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all, you know, as a
practitioner myself, and I like it because,
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um it is extremely soothing and it
relaxed my body and relaxed my mind.
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And um, I like movement.
But I am really really bad at
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dancing because I I have no rhythm, and I was certified before as aerobic
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instructor, and uh, I can
do all those things very well. I
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thought of kickboxing and then before I
do taich each one. However, I
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did not really go really teaching aerobic
because aerobic lessons you need to play the
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music right and you need to know
how to come the beats. I cannot
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come beats. And the taich each
one it allows me to just you know,
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uh, flow based on my own
mood and how I fear and so
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so people like me who appreciate the
movement and but then have no rhythm,
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and then I can do tai chi
and I can do taichi as a very
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smooth and soothing way. And some
people say, oh, it's like dancing.
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You know, that's an actually kind
of insult comment for people, you
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know, notts about tai chi.
But but yes, some people say,
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oh, it's like dancing, but
the taichichan is also martial. Some of
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the form I do, he was, Oh my god, you know I
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could kick and I can punch and
I can jump and I just you know,
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they never thought that's taichi. Also, so there's so many different ways
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to play the words there and besides
the so called the bare him forms,
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and and then they are so called
weapon forms. We carry a a straight
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sor which is very exclusive form of
tai chi, and there are so called
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adult which is a bra so.
And one of the form I performed is
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the stout. It's only forty six
seconds you're done with, but it's a
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high arcare things like I said,
there's a lot of jumping, chopping and
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whatever. And then it's very no
nonsense. Thank done in forty six seconds.
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But it was found to play with. And yeah, I hope I
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answer your quest, Jim Rachel.
Okay, one last one, UM,
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what was your experience going to China
and studying well? And yes, I
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first uh learned about taichi while I
was in Saint Louis. Then I found
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out this um grand master who has
read the number one in the world.
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I was very very fortunate. I'm
just not going to detail how I got
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to know him. And I went
to his home in in uh As I
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said l A. I took a
private lesson with him for years. But
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he actually the home in l A
is his his second or third home.
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He's um a main school. His
major school is back in China. So
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um back six or seven years ago. I went back to China and then
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to went to his school to study, and I found in general the attitude
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of people in China learning uh taichi
is different than in the US. And
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they do a lot of foundation work
and here in the US, and we
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want to do everything quick right,
we want to quick result, and then
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we wanted instant gratification and up so
people maybe because people are so busy and
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00:35:53.599 --> 00:36:00.880
we we don't have that much time, so we don't really well to spend
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a lot of time and effort to
do the foundation stuff, the basic drill.
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So so that that's a big difference
still as far as uh ti ticho
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and goals. And then and I
went back so many times. I went
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to the birthplace which is called the
Chen village in her non promise, and
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that her no promises in some ways, like similar to Missouri is in the
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middle of the country, and I've
been there several times and just immerse myself
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in their culture and then in their
environment. It's just amazing. That's I
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can say. Um, is there
there anything else you would like to add?
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00:36:46.360 --> 00:36:53.119
That I haven't asked well? And
that you you certainly have done your
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00:36:53.159 --> 00:36:58.920
whole work. You've got a good
questions for me, and all I want
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to say. You know, I'm
really passionated about the art. And if
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any of your listeners have questions about
the art, and you can email me
351
00:37:12.119 --> 00:37:16.159
and it's very easy to find me. And my website is Violently. Just
352
00:37:16.239 --> 00:37:21.239
my name v I O. L
E. T. Last name is l
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00:37:21.360 --> 00:37:25.320
I. Just want word violently dot
com and you can find me there or
354
00:37:25.480 --> 00:37:34.480
you can just email me Violet Lee. Uh and I'm sorry, just violent
355
00:37:34.719 --> 00:37:38.119
no, no, only just Violet
at T A d I dot com.
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00:37:38.480 --> 00:37:44.840
T like tom A like Apple,
d like David I like ice cream dot
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00:37:44.920 --> 00:37:50.000
com. So Violet at T A
d I dot com. All right,
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00:37:50.599 --> 00:37:54.519
Thanks Violet for coming on the show, um, and thanks guys for listening.
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00:37:54.599 --> 00:38:00.639
Always to An on Thursday at ten
am on your favorite podcast. Follow
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00:38:00.760 --> 00:38:04.800
us on your favorite social media network, and as always, if you have
361
00:38:04.800 --> 00:38:09.760
any questions go to Rachel and recovery
dot com. Thanks well, thank you
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00:38:09.800 --> 00:38:12.679
so much for h
