Story by: Shifu Neil Ripski

As the world around us grows cooler and the animals and trees retreat, we too have to change our training to take better care of our bodies. The fall is the time for slowing down and taking care to understand things more thoroughly, paying attention to our training in more intricate detail than we do in the warm months of summer.

My tai chi (taiji) classes have been growing this year and as we head into fall I am changing what and how I teach to match the seasons, the cycles of the world that we are not separate from but a part of. So why fight it?

The idea we have been focusing on in classes and in the workshops I taught recently inEdmontonhas been filling the shape of our movements to give them more meaning and benefit to our bodies.

So what does this mean? It seems that on the surface of any martial arts posture we all look the same but you can see, especially as people practise more slowly in the winter, what it is within them that drives their motions.

I am sure you have seen many tai chi people practising, kung fu players on TV and the like, and it is obvious to us that some people seem to have more substance than others when they practise. This substance or life within their movements is a result of their mental state while practising.

As I have often repeated, the way you think affects your physiology and so how we think while we practise heavily impacts the benefit of our practise on our health and longevity.

Take, for instance, any movement you perform in everyday life, like opening a door. Do you pull the handle with your arm or do you try to connect your torso to your hand and pull the door mindfully open with your waist?

Do you go through life with your waist active and pushing and pulling your arms as you perform daily tasks or do you simply, unthinkingly move like everyone else?

This is the question that can bring a change in our bodies throughout our days. Moving from the waist will gently massage the internal organs as they are pushed around in the torso, which moves stagnant blood from them and allows fresh fluids to circulate, enhancing our organ health, efficiency and longevity.

Something as simple as opening as door can be an effective way to improve our health, longevity and practise of mindfulness.

Martial arts training should be something that changes our everyday life in attitude as well as our physical movements. The real benefit becomes apparent as our everyday movements change, our bodies remain healthy and we remain vital even into our later years.

How do you open doors?

(Neil Ripski teaches kung fu and tai chi at Red Jade Martial Arts in Creston and also teaches tai chi at the Wynndel Community Hall. He can be reached at 866-5263 or at www.redjademartialarts.com.)