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Copyright © 2010 Andrea Langworthy
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His exact words escape me but my brother in law recently shared his plan to eliminate stress from his life in 2010. This is understandable as a couple of months ago he was diagnosed with a heart condition that could ultimately require open heart surgery. While my husband and I have no cardiac condition, we’d also resolved to seek calm in the New Year. To that end, I invested in a Tai chi instructional DVD. I first learned about the martial art when my husband and I took a stress management course at Normandale College about 13 years ago. Our instructor also taught Tai chi but because we were still working, there was no time for us to learn the gentle, fluid movements of the practice the Mayo Clinic says “promotes serenity.” Instead, we did what most of the students in the class did: at the end of each hour, we ran lickety-split from the classroom to our jobs, next subject, or some other “must be” place, leaving our teacher in our wake.
Last month I reconnected with our former teacher. He told me about a new class he teaches at the college. Tai chi for Arthritis was developed by Dr. Paul Lam, a physician from Australia. Even though I don’t have arthritis, I checked out Dr. Lam’s Internet site and ordered the DVD, figuring if people with inflammatory joint disease can master this, so can the Langworthys.
When the package arrived, my husband and I decided to watch the video for awhile to get the gist of it. Sitting in a chair, studying the movements of Dr. Lam and his students, I felt my heart rate slow down. As the participants moved their feet from side-to-side and turned their hands over and over in a circular motion, we commented that even two uncoordinated oldsters like us should be able to follow suit. The next day, I tried the warm-up session and was so proud of myself I went a step further and played the meditation CD a friend gave us over the holidays. How he knew about our vow to seek quietude, I’m not sure, but it worked. The next day, I told my hubby we had to sit and listen to the “how to” instructions that were part of the meditation disc.
“This is so peaceful, I could fall asleep right now,” he said a few minutes into it. I told him that wasn’t the idea; we were supposed to rid our minds of obsessive thoughts but not snooze. “Still,” he said, “I could fall asleep right here.” I was reminded of a time many years ago when we heard about another type of calming exercise and signed up for a yoga class. At the end of the first session, we were told to lie down on our mats and close our eyes while the instructor led the group in a guided meditation. Three or four minutes into the imagery, my spouse began to snore. Then, he “tooted.” Talk about a stressful situation.