We hear so much about chi, but how can you actually feel it when doing Tai Chi if you haven't done so already?

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Eleazar from the Internet writes:
"Hi Sifu. I hope you can help me with my problem. I have been practicing Tai Chi for almost 3 years now, but it is a competition routine of Wushu which is the 42-steps Tai Chi Chuan. and I can't feel this "chi" thing. Sifu may I ask how do I feel when "chi" is already working within me? What are these specific feelings that I should be feeling while practicing Tai Chi? I hope you can help me. Thank you Sifu."

Dear Eleazar,

Everyone has Chi or intrinsic energy. If not, your heart would not beat, and your brain would not think. If you bang your head, you go to a hospital for an electroencephalogram, or EEG, to measure the electrical output of your brain. If you have chest pains, you go for an electrocardiogram, or EKG, to measure the electrical output of your heart. We are electrical as well as chemical beings.

What Tai Chi does, is kind of like CPR (Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation) for Chi. You can control your breath, but when you are asleep, you let control go completely, yet you still breathe.

To control and feel your Chi, try to do it in the posture of your Tai Chi form (probably at or near the beginning), where you raise your hands, and then draw them back and down. We call it the Chi exercise because the Chi is easy to feel doing this exercise. Move as if you are up to your shoulders in warm water. Move slowly. Feel the warmth in your hands and then the tingling. The heat is improved circulation (blood) and the tingling is the Chi.

Chi is already working within you if you are alive.

In Tai Chi,
Bill

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William C. Phillips began his study of the martial arts in 1965. He currently holds a 7th degree black belt in Karate, and a 5th degree black belt in Ju Jitsu. He began his studies of Tai Chi in l967, studying with Prof. Cheng Man-Ch'ing from '70-'75. He became the most junior student ever to become a teacher in Cheng Man Ch'ing's New York school, the Shr Jung. Sifu Phillips became interested in the field of holistic health in the early 1970's, when a lifelong allergy problem was alleviated with Chinese herbal medicine. Since then, he has studied widely in that field as well. Sifu Phillips is available for seminars, lectures and demonstrations. He has produced two very successful Tai Chi DVDs, and is currently working on a book on Tai Chi form and a third DVD.For more information...

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