Start the new year off right! After several years of daily turmoil, stress and strife living with COVID, and divisions in so many areas of our society, are you ready to focus on bringing harmony, balance, and clarity into your life?
If feeling physically stronger, more agile, and flexible sounds appealing, you may be surprised to learn that there is a practice, based on sacred teachings, that has proven over centuries to be successful at yielding profound physical benefits — as well as mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing.
With Tai Chi (Taiji), often referred to as meditation in movement, the slow, deliberate movements of the body activate Qi (vital life-force energy) and balance the natural polarity of Yin and Yang, resulting in bringing your whole being into balance and harmony.
Tai Chi is so much more than physical movement.
At its heart is the empowering and compelling Taoist teaching that honors simplicity, nature, and Wu Wei (non-action).
Join us for a transformative 7-week online course with renowned Tai Chi Master Helen Liang to discover the healing, harmony, clarity, and serenity that results from her teaching of Tai Chi.
Helen will masterfully guide you through 13 postures — eight fundamental energies/principles with five stepping patterns — teaching you the movements and the sacred ancient principles of Taoism that are essential to the understanding of Tai Chi.
Each week, Helen will teach you new movements. You’ll begin each session by reviewing the movements you learned in the previous sessions, delving deeper into the details and practices. After Helen’s repetitions and gentle corrections, you’ll move onto the new postures you’ll be learning that week.
As you’ll discover, each pose requires a change in breathing, concentration, and balance — while helping you cultivate inner peace.
While the movements are slow and gentle in Tai Chi, the practice addresses the key components of fitness — building muscle strength, flexibility, and balance — while also providing aerobic conditioning. When practiced regularly, Tai Chi is comparable to resistance training and brisk walking.
Helen will show you how to apply the principle of Wu Wei in everyday life — in personal relationships and in stressful work situations — so you can go with the flow of what each day brings, adapt to change, and let the universe play itself out through you.
Master Helen Liang is the eldest daughter of Grandmaster Liang Shou-Yu, and began training in traditional Wushu at the age of four, under his strict tutelage. At the age of 11, she was chosen to train with the Sichuan Provincial Professional Wushu School in China and since then, she has won many gold medals in competitions throughout the world. She immigrated to Canada in 1985 and has become one of the most revered Chinese martial arts experts in North America. Her deep wisdom and compassionate teaching style are grounded not only in her family lineage and extensive training, but also in her personal history of overcoming severe illness.
In this 7-week transformational intensive, Helen will guide you through the fundamental Tai Chi skills and competencies you’ll need to successfully cultivate physical strength, mental clarity, and inner contentment.
You’ll connect with Helen and experience her teachings through livestreaming video via any connected device. This connection is easy to use and will enhance the impact of her transmissions. Can’t make it live? After each class, you can stream the video and audio recordings to enjoy anytime and anywhere at your convenience.
This course will feature LIVE teachings, interactive training sessions, experiential practices, and Q&A with Helen. Each session will build harmoniously upon the previous ones, so you’ll develop a complete holistic understanding of the practices, tools, and principles you’ll need to activate the vital life force within you… your Qi.
The practice of Tai Chi is the physical interpretation of the Tao philosophy — a teaching built upon the belief in unity of all things found in the universe.
In this opening session, you’ll learn the pivotal, spiraling, coiling force of Tai Chi as it first emerges in form. You’ll learn how this opening Tai Chi movement activates the Yin and Yang energies of the body and moves Qi throughout your being… and dive deep to discover the role of the mind in harmonizing the Yin and Yang polarities.
Helen will teach the fundamental elements of Tai Chi Standing Posture (Zhan Zhuang ), which is essential for building proper body alignment and cultivating your reservoir of energy.
In this session, you’ll:
You’ll review the Standing Posture, the first and second posture that you learned last week, and be introduced to the third posture — Ba He Liang Chi (White Crane Spreads Its Wings). As part of this posture, you’ll contemplate the image of the crane… in Taoism the red-crested white crane is a symbol of immortality and wisdom and is associated with heaven. The third posture helps bring clarity and calm to the mind and spirit. When you have a calm mind and you’re in a state of Yin, you generate fluid movements and power.
The third posture also contemplates the energetic skill of Peng — the first and foremost energy principle of the 13 postures, which allows the entire body to feel strong and solid, yet flexible and energized with springlike vitality.
In the fourth posture, Lou Xi Ao Bu (Brush Knee Push), you’ll explore the classic Tai Chi teaching of Wu Guo Bu Ji, meaning “not excessive” or “deficient,” and you’ll learn how balance and harmony can be maintained in your life when you don’t let things reach a critical point.
In this session, you’ll:
After reviewing the first four postures, you’ll move onto the fifth posture, Shou Hui Pi Pa (Playing Lute), and the sixth posture, Lu Ji Shi (Roll Back and Squeeze).
You’ll learn that when performing a form, your hands, legs, and feet are in constant transition between Yin and Yang in a continuous flow, mirroring the ongoing change in the universe that’s brought forth by the dance between the two opposites. You’ll also learn that inherent in every Tai Chi posture is an “opening and closing,” a powerful way to express the dance of Yin and Yang in your body.
The fifth posture is one movement that vividly demonstrates the notion of “opening and closing” and helps open up important energy gates in the body to promote smooth circulation of Qi in the spine, the Governing Vessel meridian, and out through the arms.
You’ll explore the mystic teaching of allowing and yielding through the energy of Lu. By contemplating on the energy of Lu, you’ll learn about realizing peace through non-resistance (acceptance) when you allow the events of life to unfold naturally. Once you’ve mastered the way of yielding, you’re empowered to resolve challenges by learning the technique of Ji (Squeeze).
In this session, you’ll:
After a review of the last six postures, you’ll learn Shang Bu Ban Lan Cui (Step Forward to Deflect, Parry, and Punch) and the eighth posture, Peng Lu Ji An (Ward Off, Roll Back, Squeeze, and Push).
Lao Zi teaches in the Tao Te Ching that soft overcomes hard. He uses water as a metaphor for this assertion: water is soft and flexible, but also has the power to erode the hardest materials like rock and metal.
You’ll explore the teaching of living with softness and flexibility through the practice of the seventh posture. To be like water also means that you’re able to adapt to different circumstances. The technique An, taught in the eighth posture, cultivates your ability to survive many different circumstances by adapting.
In this session, you’ll:
In this powerful session, you’ll learn the ninth, tenth, and eleventh postures — Yun Shou (Cloud Hands), Dan Bian (Single Whip), and Xia Shi (Snake Creeping Down).
Lao Zi teaches in the Tao Te Ching that everything around us undergoes a constant flow of transformation and change. All things obey the law of rhythm — expansion and contraction, rising and falling. This is the constant of nature, the Tao.
The continuous flow of the ninth, tenth, and eleventh postures mirrors the cyclic nature of the Tao’s endless motion and constant change, inspiring you to gracefully embrace life’s ups and downs.
These postures and movements help build coordination, flexibility, strength, and balance.
In this session, you’ll:
You’ll review the postures you learned in the past five weeks, then learn two more — Shi Zi Chui (Cross Punch) and Shang Bu Qi Xing (Step Up, Seven Stars). You’ll also learn the first two techniques of posture 13, Cai Lie Zhou Kao (Pluck, Split, Elbow, Strike)
A fundamental teaching in Tai Chi is internal three-unification and external three-unification. Internal three-unification refers to the heart unifying with the mind, the mind unifying with Qi, and Qi unifying with force.
External three-unification refers to the shoulders aligning with the hips, the elbows aligning with the knees, and the hands aligning with the feet. Through posture 12, you’ll learn how to harmonize, unify, and align the body.
In this session, you’ll:
In this final session, you’ll review all the postures taught in the course and learn the final two: Zou (Elbow — Strike) and Kao (Body — Strike). The techniques of Zou and Kao demonstrate two distinct kinds of power that cultivate a calm, grounding centeredness.
Tai Chi is founded on a teaching that harmonizes opposite energies. “Movement starts from the stillness and tranquility of the mind; the Jin (power/strength) should be rooted in the feet, generated from the legs, controlled by the waist, and expressed through the fingers,” these are the lines most often used to describe how power should be expressed in Tai Chi.
Helen will teach that the above sequence should be followed when you emit power (Fa Jin ) and that suppleness and relaxation is the source of power and strength.
After learning the last two techniques, you’ll practice the form from the beginning to the end, weaving together the essential features of Tai Chi 13 Postures to experience a free flow of the entire form.
In the session, you’ll
We feel honored that Master Helen Liang has chosen to partner with The Shift Network to offer this exclusive LIVE online training. This is a unique opportunity to interact directly with a world-renowned Tai Chi master whose powerful insights and pioneering work are helping us heal and awaken ourselves and our world.
If you’re serious about exploring 13-Posture Tai Chi to cultivate physical mobility and mental stillness, then you owe it to yourself to take this one-of-a-kind training.
If you’re ready to take the next step in your own evolution, click the register button below to reserve your space now.
Master Helen Liang is a world-renowned Tai Chi, Qigong, and Chinese Martial Art master with more than three decades of teaching experience. She is the vice president of the SYL Wushu Taiji Qigong Institute in Vancouver, Canada. Helen is the author of numerous videos on Tai Chi, Qigong, Liu He Ba Fa (Water Style), and other internal styles of Chinese Martial Art. Her 24 Form Tai Chi, Beginner Tai Chi, for Health, Tai Chi, for Women, and Qigong for Cancer are all bestsellers on Amazon. Helen was featured twice on the cover of Kungfu Tai Chi, Qigong Magazine in the United States. She was also featured in the books Chinese Martial Arts Elites, Contemporary Famous Chinese Martial Artists, Kungfu Elements, and Extraordinary Chinese Martial Artists of the World.
In 2005, Helen and her father, Grandmaster Shouyu Liang, together with Channel M, Canada, created a one-of-a-kind instructional Tai Chi television series comprising 130 episodes for Canada’s multicultural community. The show, planned and written entirely by Helen and Grandmaster Liang, and hosted by Helen, has been picked up by stations across Canada and the United States. It was nominated for several Leo Awards, namely Best Lifestyle Series, Best Direction, and Best Host, and won the Best Lifestyle Series Award.
In 2017, Helen hosted another Tai Chi video for Canada’s national telecommunications company, Telus Corporation, to promote wellness to Canada’s diverse multicultural community. She has also been featured by many media companies, including Chinese Central Television (CCTV), Shanghai and Sichuan Provincial television in China, national pay-per-view features in the U.S., CBC, Fairchild Television, and Channel M in Canada, as well as numerous newspapers and magazines in the U.S., Canada, and China.
She was invited to demonstrate in the Opening Ceremony of the 10th World Wushu Championships in Toronto in 2009 and had received the special contribution to Wushu award. In 2013 and 2014 she obtained level 8th degree from both International Wushu Sanshou Dao Association (IWSD) and the World Organization of Wushu Kung Fu Masters. She was also awarded Outstanding Martial Arts Achievements by IWSD.
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