by Jocelyn Watkin | May 17, 2019 | Information |
Your brain while meditating – calm, clear and confident. Your brain doing tai chi – calm, clear, and confident. This is no coincidence. Even my newer students notice how the more experienced students ‘get in the zone’ when doing tai chi. They want that, too. Don’t we all??
Ah, mawhitiwhiti iti (little grasshoppers), the key is in the breathing. With tai chi you learn how to match your breath with your movements.
I’ve dug out a great article to help you understand how it works:
“… Both tai chi and mindfulness meditation focus your attention on the breath. That single focus may help your brain make lasting changes that impact the way you see (and cope) with things.
Research has found that both tai chi and meditation have a powerful effect on the mind, cultivating a stillness that serves to increase focus, reduce stress, and boost cognitive skills.” Read on
Wait there’s more! This research has also shown that tai chi can train your brain and improve your life in three ways. This is because tai chi:
- grows the size of your brain, even when you are no longer a child (or even young)
- improves your memory and ability to stay focussed
- shakes off stress.
Keep practising and you too will enter the zone. Click here to discover more about this research into tai chi.
by Jocelyn Watkin | Feb 19, 2019 | Information |
Note: This workshop has taken place. Contact Kia Ora Tai Chi to find out when the next workshop will be.
Worried about stress or your health? Struggling to find time to keep fit? Sign up for a tai chi workshop which will help you.
In just three hours, you’ll learn how you can reduce stress and increase your strength and fitness. Tai chi can be done at work, at home and almost anywhere. You won’t need fancy shoes, special clothes or any equipment.
At the workshop, you’ll be taught a very special form of tai chi called: Tai Chi for Arthritis (TCA). It is safer and easier to learn than other tai chi programmes. Clinical and medical studies confirm that TCA helps to relieve stress and pain, reduce falls, increase strength and improve the quality of life.
You don’t have to have arthritis to feel the health benefits of this amazing programme. But, if you do have arthritis, it is more likely you can do this type of tai chi than any other. Dr Paul Lam, of the Tai Chi for Health Institute, developed this programme with the help of a team of medical and tai chi experts. Come along to have a go for yourself.
Your instructor will be Jocelyn Watkin.
This workshop is open to anyone, even if you’ve never tried tai chi before and is ideal for high school students and adults of any age, who are any of the following:
- First time beginners.
- Need to get fitter and/or stronger.
- Feel stressed or worried about their general health.
- Curious about tai chi.
- Are missing Jocelyn’s Summer Tai Chi in Cornwall Park session and are keen to learn more tai chi.
- Jocelyn’s current students (those who attend her evening classes at Clayton Park School), who want to incorporate more depth into their practice of TCA.
You won’t be on your feet for the whole 3-hour workshop. There will be the chance to rest and sit down several times to listen and learn about the medical background to TCA, why it works and also to watch a demonstration. You can also do tai chi while seated at any stage.
When: Sunday 3 March, 2019: 9.30am – 12.30pm
Venue: The Mercy Spirituality Centre, 104 The Drive, Epsom, which has free parking on site. Refer to map.
Price: $40 per person, payable before the workshop.
Please register/RSVP by Tuesday 26 February, 2019: send a text or phone text or phone the instructor, Jocelyn Watkin on 027 493 9851 or use the Contact Form
Places are limited to no more than 14 participants
Cancellation policy: Full refund if you cancel by 26 February 2019. 50% refund if you cancel between 27 Feb to 1st March. No refunds after 1st March.
This workshop is for you if you want to learn how to reduce stress and to improve your flexibility and balance and to increase muscular strength and fitness with tai chi.
Find out more
by Jocelyn Watkin | Jan 27, 2019 | Information |
Please note: This is a post from February 2019:
Free tai chi classes for beginners on Monday 11 February and Wednesday 13 February 2019, 6.30 – 7.15pm in Manurewa.
There is lots of free parking. Click here for more information and a map.
After the free classes, a new beginners class will start on Monday 18 and Wednesday 20 February 2019. Same time and same place.
Tai chi is enjoyable, easy on your joints, flowing and will help you increase your fitness, reduce stress, improve your balance and stay stronger for longer. It is ideal for complete beginners and suitable for adults of any age and high school students. Seated tai chi is also available.
Come along and give it a try with a friendly bunch of people at a great venue.
Classes are taught by Jocelyn Watkin, a fully-qualified, premier instructor with the Tai Chi for Health Institute. She is supported by a team of assistant instructors, who are also qualified.
Find out more on what to wear and what to expect at the classes.
To RSVP please text or phone the instructor, Jocelyn Watkin on 027 493 9851 or use the Contact Form
All of these Tai Chi for Health classes are approved with the BIG TICK for ACC and Age Concerns’ Community Group Strength and Balance Programme so you can stay “Stronger for Longer”
by Jocelyn Watkin | Oct 8, 2018 | Information |
This is a post from October 2018.
Free tai chi classes for beginners will happen on Monday 15 October and Wednesday 17 October 2018, 6.30 – 7.15pm in Manurewa.
After the free classes, a new beginners class will start on the following week. Same time, same days, same place (but not on Labour Day).
Tai chi is enjoyable, easy on your joints, flowing and will help you increase your fitness, reduce stress, improve your balance and stay stronger for longer. It is ideal for complete beginners. Seated tai chi is also available.
Come along and give it a try with a friendly bunch of people at a great venue. There is lots of free parking.
Classes are taught by Jocelyn Watkin, a fully-qualified, premier instructor with the Tai Chi for Health Institute.
Find out more on what to wear and what to expect at the classes.
To RSVP please text or phone the instructor, Jocelyn Watkin on 027 493 9851 or use the Contact Form
All of these Tai Chi for Health classes are approved with the BIG TICK for ACC and Age Concerns’ Community Group Strength and Balance Programme so you can stay “Stronger for Longer”
by Jocelyn Watkin | Mar 30, 2018 | Information |
There’s an old tai chi joke and it goes like this: A new student approaches his tai chi teacher to ask, “Master, how do I live as long as possible?” The master, a woman of many decades experience, replies: “Keep breathing as long as you can“.
Breathing – we all do it automatically: approximately 18 times per minute, 1,080 times per hour and nearly 26,000 times in a 24-hour day. You would have thought we’d got it down to a fine art?
But, what if I told you that most of us could do this breathing thing a lot better? And, by better I mean having more more energy, less anxiety, better sleep, less stress, better posture (with less back ache), and that it was a way you could quickly calm your mind when it is revved up. Of course, you don’t have to do this type of breathing for all of those 26,000 breaths. Instead, you can try it for just for a minute or two and for 2-3 times per day – it could make a huge difference in your life and health.
Tai chi is an ancient, Chinese martial art and exercise that involves a series of movements performed in a mindful, focussed manner and accompanied by deep breathing.
You don’t have to know tai chi to learn tai chi breathing. I can show you how to do this so you can breathe your way to better health. You will be able do this anywhere, anytime, while seated or standing.
Let me show you how in this short, 3-minute video.
Click on this link to find out WHY tai chi breathing is so good for you and why it can help you to bust stress in just a few minutes per day.
Find out more about a winter wellness workshop in June, where you will learn breathing exercises to wallop winter colds and boost your immunity.
Better breathing keeps you warmer in winter and more relaxed. Purr-fect.
