by Jocelyn Watkin | Jul 8, 2019 | Information |
Sadly, there is no magic, instant cure for the common cold.
Depending on your immune system, plus how much time and rest you can give yourself, most people will overcome a cold virus in just over a week or so.
However, being aware of the risk factors of catching a cold and reducing those risks can help avoid or reduce the severity of a cold.
There are five broad risk factors:
- Lack of sleep
- Stress
- Age
- Season
- Smoking
Tai chi can really help with the first three.
Sleep: Rest and getting enough sleep is vital for good health. Nearly everyone who attends my tai chi classes mentions how they always get a better night’s sleep after class. It’s not just the exercise that helps you to sleep. It’s also the calming effect of the deep breathing and the slow, smooth continuous movements of tai chi.
If you do get a cold or other illness, try to rest and sleep as much as possible as it will help with your recovery.
Stress: Relieving stress goes hand-in-hand with rest and a good night’s sleep in terms of helping to reduce the risk of catching a cold. Numerous studies and clinical trials have proven the tai chi can reduce stress
Studies at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh suggest that psychological stress can raise your risk of developing a cold. They suggest it affects how the stress hormone cortisol works. This hormone regulates inflammation in your body. When you’re under stress, cortisol may be less effective at managing your body’s inflammatory response to the cold virus. This may cause you to develop a cold. Read more about this
To minimise stress Carnegie Mellon University recommends a number of techniques, which include tai chi. Discover these techniques
Click here to read an article I wrote on how to use tai chi breathing to bust stress in just a few minutes per day.
Age: Children and older people are more at risk of getting a cold. In children, this is because their immune systems are not fully developed. In older adults, it is because their immunity levels drop as part of the ageing process. Clinical trials have concluded that regular sessions of tai chi may boost the immune systems of older adults and could also help to improve the effectiveness of vaccines, including the ‘flu vaccine. You can read more about these trials here:
Season: Just because the weather is cold, doesn’t mean you’ll get a cold. However, you’ll probably spend more time indoors in the winter months and that means more ‘rubbing shoulders’ with other people. You can lower your risk with good hygiene like washing your hands and lower the risk to others by staying home when you are sick and covering your nose and mouth when you sneeze or cough.
Smoking: Smoking compromises your immunity levels and second-hand smoke can disrupt immunity in others. If you smoke, talk to your health professional about how to quit.
While some risk factors are hard to control, others can be managed. Regular practice of tai chi could lower your chances of catching a cold.
Read more about the risk factors for the common cold here
Related information: A cold fact: High stress can make you sick
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 | Apr 11, 2019 | Information |
Please note: This event has now passed.
April 2019: Come along to the FREE World Tai Chi & Qigong Day in Cornwall park. You’ll learn easy, flowing steps of tai chi and the deep, healthy breathing of qigong (pronounced chee – gong).
Free, fun, family-friendly and ideal for all age groups. Complete beginners welcome.
When: Saturday 27 April 2019, 9.30 – 11.30am (The tai chi starts at 10am). (Rain date: Saturday 4 May)
Where: Cornwall Park, on the Big Lawn (Native Arboretum), near the large stone steps (called the Memorial Steps, which face Greenlane Road). There is free parking in the park.
The Big Lawn (Native Arboretum),
How to get to Cornwall Park: Click on this link: http://cornwallpark.co.nz/visitor-info The main entrance to the park is from Greenlane Road West, Epsom, Auckland. Alternatively, you can get to Cornwall Park from Manukau Road, Epsom, by passing through Maungakiekie/One Tree Hill Domain.
Tens of thousands of people in 100’s of cities across the planet celebrate the wonder that is tai chi on the last Saturday in April at 10am local time. It is a world-wide wave of goodwill – a global tai chi whānau, breathing together as one. The event’s motto is, “One World – One Breath”
Join in with Kia Ora Tai Chi to be the first country in the world to start this celebration. All welcome, especially those who have never done tai chi before.
What to expect: At 10am, Jocelyn Watkin (founder and director of Kia Ora Tai Chi) and her team of instructors will begin with a sequence of easy, flowing, warm-up exercises which are low impact and gentle on your joints.
Then, they will guide you through a Tai Chi for Health form – a series of linked postures and steps, accompanied by deep breathing that will energise and give you a lift. In just under one hour you’ll be doing REAL tai chi. It’s easy, fun and really great exercise.
Gather from 9:30 am onwards and be ready to say Kia ora to tai chi at 10am.
Find out more:
Summer tai chi with Kia Ora Tai Chi in Cornwall Park (January 2019)
by Jocelyn Watkin | Mar 7, 2019 | Information |
This is a post from March 2019.
Kia Ora Tai Chi has partnered with Cornwall Park to offer four FREE tai chi lessons at their Park Life event, which will be held on Saturday 30 March, 2019, 11am – 4pm. (If wet, the event will be held on Saturday 6 April).
The tai chi sessions will be:
- 11 – 11.45am: Tai chi for beginners – Learn easy, flowing steps of this ancient Chinese martial art. Low impact, fun, family-friendly and ideal for all age groups. (Note: This will be the same tai chi that we taught at the “Summer Tai Chi in Cornwall Park” sessions.)
- 12 – 12.45pm: Yang-style tai chi – Join in to do the 24-step and combined 42-step forms. It is fun to watch or jump in and have a go in the spirit of “Let’s play tai chi together”.
- 2 – 2.45pm: Tai chi as moving meditation – Learn how to relax and de-stress with special tai chi movements. Once learned you can do these anytime, anywhere. Gentle on your joints and ideal for beginners of all ages.
- 3 – 3.45pm: Tai chi for beginners – Learn easy, flowing steps of this ancient Chinese martial art. Low impact, fun, family-friendly and ideal for all age groups. (Note: This will be a repeat of the 11 – 11.45am session.)
Location: Same as for “Summer Tai Chi in Cornwall Park”. Under the big trees on the left-hand-side of Pohutukawa Drive (as you come up from Greenlane Road). Look for the tai chi signs and the Kia Ora Tai Chi team wearing red shirts.
What to wear:
- Comfy clothes and shoes
- A sun hat, sun block and insect repellent
- Bring a sweatshirt or jacket in case of cool weather. Please bring a water bottle, too.
No need to RSVP. Just come along and join in with your friends and family. A big thank you to the Cornwall Park Trust Board for funding these sessions so everyone can enjoy learning tai chi for free.
Get that summery feeling back with tai chi in Cornwall Park
More about Park Life
This is a free event celebrating nature, exploration and all the things you can experience in the park, which will be closed for motorised traffic. With no cars, you will be able to freely roam the 425 acres of land while discovering activities, games, performances, food and more that will be spread throughout the park!
When: Saturday 30 March, 2019, 11am – 4pm
Bring your friends, whānau, a picnic, and your walking shoes for a free fun-filled day in the park.
Find out more:
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
