Beginner Tai Chi Fundamentals - All Levels

In this beginner Tai Chi class, you’ll learn the foundational principles that create balance, strength, and mindfulness through movement.

We’ll explore the power of abdominal breathing — how it works, why it’s essential for relaxation, energy flow, and overall well-being, and how to apply it in daily life.

You’ll also be guided through gentle Qi Gong exercises, basic Tai Chi movements, and light stretches designed to improve mobility, posture, and inner calm for everyday living.

Transcript

Everyone.

My name is Nicola Beaux.

And today I'm gonna guide you to some Tai Chi.

Shivam Fundamentals.

If you don't know much about Tai Chi,

This will be a good class to understand a bit and see if this is something for you to learn or just to try one time or just to have a consistent Tai Chi practice in your tool belt.

So in this class,

I hope that you understand why I love Tai Chi.

And why so many people are doing it across the world.

So now let's get started.

My name is Nicolado and I learned Tai Chi about nine years ago in California when I moved to Newport Beach.

My teacher has a lineage from Master Yang,

A really famous Tai Chi master.

So we learned,

My master learned from him and also we saw master again coming to a temple a lot of times.

So to really see how using your own energy can actually be beneficial for ourselves and also to push it away.

Capability.

So Tai Chi and Qigong are similar.

The difference is Tai Chi uses martial art principles as a self-defense art that you're using as you're learning the breathing and Tai Chi and Qigong movements.

So similar.

Qigong is mostly for relaxation and just to learn how to breathe and to relax.

To be present And yeah.

So.

Today we're going to start with debriefing.

If you notice your breathing,

A lot of times we breathe the wrong way.

We breathe from the chest.

Most of us do that.

I used to breathe from my chest too.

Then I learned to breathe from my abdomen.

Going to Tai Chi,

The first principle was,

Learn to breathe again.

So when you learn to breathe again,

Meaning that instead of breathing from your abdomen,

From your chest,

Learn to breathe from your abdomen.

I want you to do this.

Place one hand on your belly,

One hand on your chest.

We light the shadows back.

Take a big inhale through your nose.

And exhale the air to your mouth.

Now to be mindful as you inhale does your stomach expand first or does the breath comes up to your chest first.

And your chest rises.

Close your eyes.

Do this a few times.

Inhale slowly.

Notice where the air is going.

One more inhale.

Inhale to the nose.

In how to do noodles.

One more,

Notice your hand,

Which one is rising first.

One more inhale,

To your nose,

Fill your lungs.

And they say I'm a big girl.

Regards.

See how just a few breaths can give this give us to a different state of mind or just being more present because the breath is always here this is why tai chi yoga and all those practices focus a lot onto the breath In yoga we call it prana,

Life force.

In tai chi you call it chi,

Ki.

Whichever you like to say,

But is the same concept.

Everything all the energy comes on the air under the breath you breathe in that's give you the energy the chi to work there this is why tai chi involve you Moving breath to move as you move.

Imagine with each inhale,

The movement comes in.

With each Excel,

The new one goes out So now,

How was your breathing?

Was your chest breathing or belly breathing?

So,

It doesn't matter.

This can be trained.

So now,

From now on,

You should start to be more mindful on how you breathe.

And when you start to breathe now,

Every day,

Remind yourself to put the tongue on top of your palate just lightly do not put any pressure any anything there.

Just put the tongue on top and relax it.

That will allow the breath when you inhale to just go from your nose rather than your mouth.

We want to eliminate mouth breathing which is so not good for us.

Learning to breathe normally through the nose is so important.

So now I want you to really be focused on that more,

Every day.

When you breathe in,

It's a breathing of stomach.

This is what I'm going to practice today.

Focus on your breath.

When you inhale,

You want your belly to expand like a balloon.

The nut forcing.

So go ahead and put your hand on your stomach.

As you inhale,

The belly expands slowly.

Naturally.

And exhale but it was in.

Do not force the belly.

You don't want to contract any tension there.

With time,

This becomes so much more natural.

And this is the way to breathe.

If you have kids,

Babies around you,

Just look how they breathe.

You will see that the stomach expands first to leave room for the diaphragm so that we can have more oxygen in your belly.

This is natural breathing.

When we age 3 to 4,

We start to stress about life or breaths have to be more shallow and we start to breathe the wrong way.

So it's really time to retrain ourselves to breathe the right way,

To really have longer in-takes and out-takes of oxygen.

Try to match the two.

Inhale for 5 seconds BATIC SPAMS Excel for 5 seconds,

Baby goes in.

One more,

Inhale,

Belly rise.

Chest rises,

Shoulders relax,

Exhale,

Release,

Belly goes in.

Learn this pattern.

At least this is something that you must master in order to really understand Tai Chi and to really feel the Chi moving through you.

If you don't master the breath,

Tai Chi is useless.

So remember,

Master the breath.

Will take time,

But with time and dedication,

You'll see you have less stress,

It will become more normalized.

And life is better.

So learn with Tai Chi.

So now let's do a quick loosening set with Tai Chi.

Because Tai Chi is important to have our limbs fully relaxed.

So in the beginning of the class,

Usually you want to attach a little bit of etiquette and respect to whoever is leading.

So let's say we start a class,

I want you to bring your feet together.

Right Fizz?

Left palm on top.

Hands forward.

Bend your knees a little bit,

Then release.

Let's do it once more.

Now shut up and open in the beginning.

So take a bit,

Relax your shoulders,

Take a bit in here.

Excel.

Time is forward,

Baby.

Bend it a little bit,

Release.

Now bend the knees a little bit.

Do a half circle with your right leg.

I'll mirror you.

Half circle with the left leg.

Inhale.

Like he's having a big boss in front of you and then exhale palms face down.

Inhale once more like a bitch.

Big bitch boyfriend of you that you're holding.

And enhance combat strength.

This is how we're all planning for Tai Chi,

To really get us to be grounded because so much going on.

A ritual you want to try to do.

It's not like just do Tai Chi and just for Tai Chi.

No,

Make a habit where Tai Chi is for me to be relaxed because I'm too stressed right now,

Too much going on.

All right,

Let me calm myself down.

Instead of meditation,

Let me do some Tai Chi.

So you first start,

No matter where you're at,

Learn to educate.

Even if there's nobody in the room,

It's a good habit to do so that later on we see somebody high master,

We know what to do,

And we see that you know your thing.

Okay,

So let's start again.

And hands together.

Right fist,

Let's form,

Let's go.

Inhale.

Excel Relax.

Have a circle.

Half a circle Inhale.

Relax the shoulders,

Arms face down.

Thanks Sarah.

Inhale.

And exhale,

Handstep.

With Tai Chi,

It's important to have good equilibrium,

Meaning that you want to have your back hip straight as you move to the motion.

You don't want to have.

.

.

Equilibrium degree at an angle.

So learning to have the tau down chain so this is a down chain in your body the Chinese call it down chain it's energy centers the main one is the one in the center of your belly right under your belly button can feel it put your hand right there very belly this is the dantian where most of your energy is stored right here so when we do tai chi we manifest energy out around us and between us at the end we want to recycle it back to the dantian back here okay So this is the down chain from the earth,

And this is down chain from the heavens.

So the idea is to have both of them like antenna.

You want it to be straight.

Connect ground to heaven.

Learn to build angle.

Learn to really not have the tailbone out.

Tuck it in every time.

Let's do a quick loosening of the hips.

Hips is really important in Tai Chi because every motion is to generate the hips.

Force comes from the legs to the ground up to your hips to manifest it back to your hands or fingers or wherever you want it to be.

So now.

.

.

Opening legs,

Hip-width distance,

Not too wide,

Not too small,

Just good enough.

When you feel like really good support there,

Want to push you,

You can still hang there.

So now this is where you take your hips,

Going clockwise,

Then kind of clockwise.

Put one hand in the front and one hand in the back,

Just like this,

To support your hips.

The idea remember we try to keep the equilibrium straight no angle i don't want to do like this okay just just rotate the hips only the body the chest upper body should stay straight so go clockwise we'll slow Rotate the heads left to right.

And go die that way.

Of the direction.

Open hips.

Close your eyes.

Relax.

Remember also,

Every movement and touching involves the breath.

So as you go back,

Inhale.

Forward accept.

Enhance the back.

Excel 4.

Try to keep the equilibrium straight.

OK,

There you go.

My email is from yesterday.

I'm going to stretch the spine because the spine is so important.

Relay all the energy up to the whole body.

So,

Notice your fingers,

Bring your hands up to the sky,

Palms facing up,

Big stretch,

Reach up to the heavens,

Try to stretch,

Try to touch the ceiling and the sky.

Inhale.

And exhale,

Open your hands,

Chest forward.

Move your tailbone forward on your hips.

It was good back then to open a chess server.

Bring your elbows in towards each other a little bit more.

Great job!

Now,

In here has come back the.

.

.

Inhale,

Exhale,

Release slowly and let down.

So when we touch here,

We want our body to be really loose,

So that when we do our touching online,

There is no thinking,

The body just moves.

That's why we gotta loosen the body first.

We might be tight right now,

Haven't done anything too,

So let's stretch a little bit.

So now,

Feet together.

Rest to your knees.

Put your palms on top of your kneecap.

Now,

Rotate the knees.

Remember you have a lot of joint socket that rotates a lot of time you don't work out on oil.

Knees which is so important because you also support your body and involve having good movements with your knees.

So rotate circular direction clockwise then counterclockwise.

Okay,

Now what?

Nasty.

Forward bend.

So try to keep your back straight,

Hands on top of your I mean,

Thanks Inhale.

So inhale,

On the return,

Release your neck up.

Exhale,

Reach your right hand towards your left ankle.

Grab it,

Hold it and breathe here.

Purple breath.

You know those?

Ow,

To good nose.

Inhale,

Rise up slowly back to the center.

Yeah,

Except bring your left hand towards your right ankle,

Grab the ankle.

Through it as much as you can through the stretch.

I use rags,

Backplates.

Stay here,

Relax.

NOT A INHALE!

In Excel,

Back to center Put your hand on top of your.

.

.

Nice!

Push yourself up!

So I have them right here and right in here.

Except for that damn growth behind your leg when you had to wash your knees.

Release.

Inhale.

Slowly rise up,

Slowly.

Whenever you are tired.

Then roll shaders up in circles.

One circle.

Choose circle.

Three circles chest forward Now go relax the shoulders.

Now just open your legs wider.

Then hip,

So your hips.

And then we're gonna just move our hips left to right.

Maintain arm angle,

Left and right.

Your right hand should touch your shoulder.

Relax the front of the shoulder.

And then when you sweep around.

.

.

Your back hand should hit your organs.

This is called tapping in Tai Chi.

What are we doing now?

We're massaging our organs as I tap.

Bring energy down to the body.

To relax the tension.

At the same time,

I'm massaging my kidney and my liver on both sides here.

The optimical mass size is all game,

Right?

But they're so important to our life,

To how our body functions.

Bad kidney,

No good.

You can die from this.

So massage yourself.

This is why you see people at the park just doing this in the morning because it's a great exercise,

Really simple,

It's fun.

To do much.

Let's drive it in.

As it stays.

Alright,

Let it go.

Okay that she has one more important part so the hips is important so it makes you move side to side But the next one is becoming like a wave.

So it's called spinal.

.

.

So it's like pretty much using the spine.

Like a wave,

So as you inhale.

In Excel.

It's like doing this wave,

Almost like.

.

.

Break dancers on the floor during the wave.

So try to learn to do this.

This takes time to practice.

The thing is,

Don't go too crazy,

But really be focused and intentional on the movement.

Where as you put you Hips forward,

Your chest to his back.

Shoulders forward,

Hips goes back.

Just like the S.

Draw it as your spine.

So one hand on the belly,

One hand on the chest.

That way you feel better on where those two parts of your body is.

The third part that I'm going to teach you today is another important concept of how everything,

The body structure,

Is is attained this one is called bong or pong like a bong you know like but anyway so think about this more like a hugging a tree so you have a tree the tree is big a big tree right you want to hug it have all your own position right just like this look too high shoulder should be lower elbow should be down too relax just like this right you're hugging a tree you're making this arc this big circle in front of you it's called vang because this structure hidden just made That's a shield.

People cannot penetrate that.

Because instead of the waist position,

We have a lot of strength over here.

And this helps with martial art because everything in martial art relates to the circle.

We understand circle,

Geometry,

How the universe functions.

So important.

You know,

How everything is circular,

Right?

Connect to each other.

So learning how to really do that.

And yin and yang,

The same concept where the circle,

Right?

One end with the other end.

It's never-ending.

So Tai Chi is just like that.

It's a never-ending process.

If you say cause,

Then it comes back.

So now,

After working on this,

We work on the hips.

That's good.

So we make this class short.

I'm going to show you now.

Another thing that we do is a few Qigong exercises for you to relax.

You can do that anytime.

Instead of just sitting and meditating,

Come sit down.

I used to,

When I first started yoga,

Tai chi and meditation,

It was hard for me to sit down and just be in my mind.

So I decided to do activities that also activate the same alpha wave or beta wave,

Which is whatever we want to be in the state of mind of meditation.

So that's why yoga and Tai Chi are good moving meditation because as you do those practices,

You are moving and your mind is just focused on this moment.

You don't have any thoughts.

So it helps you meditate and be more present.

That's why I like Tai Chi.

So we're going to do a few of those exercises.

The first one,

So open your legs.

This card,

This card.

Scooping sand to the sea.

Scooping sentences is just how it sounds.

We're going to bend our knee,

Back is straight.

We're going to inhale through the nose and exhale through the nose.

No more mouth breathing.

Remember,

Tongue on top of your palate.

Put it there,

Keep it there.

Inhale,

Bend your knees,

Squat down.

I'm scooping air.

Inhaling.

I'll shoot back,

My bomb,

Push it forward.

Okay,

This is removed.

And then after that,

We recycle once more.

We come back down.

Inhale.

And I accept push.

Okay,

Show you again from the side.

So,

Make sure the back is straight.

I want you to be leaning forward.

The equilibrium is not correct here.

Make it more straight.

So inhale,

You squat down,

Back in straight.

Ian?

I'll shoot back.

Push it forward!

And come back down and yeah,

Yeah.

And exhale push it forward One more.

Just like that.

Squat down.

Inhale to the nose.

And exhale,

Push.

Forward.

Great job.

This is one exercise you can try now to do anytime you feel stressed.

Just remember the breath.

All it takes is a few minutes of inhale and exhale.

You let go of the past and you are present.

So now let's do a couple more exercises and combine it together into a little tiny flow.

To the next one.

The next one is called Heaven on Earth.

Okay,

This is how it sounds.

We're going to inhale through the nose,

Same thing again,

Same concept.

Come here,

Palettes!

Inhale this time.

Don't bend your knees.

Inhale this time.

So inhale,

Big scoop.

You bring the air up!

Do student albums and exhale hands come back down on relax shoulder relax Inhale.

Relax.

Let it go.

Close your eyes here as you do this.

Inhale as you rise with your feet all the way up to your legs,

Spine,

Arms,

Fingers,

And exhale.

Let's do one more.

Inhale All right.

Now let's get to the next exercise.

The next one.

.

.

It's only like,

Okay.

Hence to gather it forward.

Pull it down to waist level.

Inhale.

Use my right hand.

Brush the left without touching it.

Inhale.

An accelerated bike count.

Out Out of sight,

In hand.

Next time.

.

.

Out.

Imagine air,

I mean air,

Tree energy coming out from your feet.

All the way.

Through the heads and the fingers.

Blue hair.

It's sad.

I remember,

I could stray,

How did you tell them,

That you're dead?

Excel actually be a little bit straight in out In half.

X.

Great job.

Now,

As we cycle the energy,

Inhale,

Hands forward,

And do a big ball,

Big,

Big ball,

And push it back down towards the down ten,

The belly center.

Close your eyes.

Relax your shoulders.

Back is straight,

Take a big big head to your nose.

In exhale,

Relax.

Fear or panic.

Sensational?

Whatever,

Anyway.

Great job!

Now let's finish with one last thing that I love to do is to blow up energy.

You're gonna bring your hands together.

Now rub them.

Federici,

This is Domenico also.

And we all made of energy,

You can make energy,

He sacralized you.

We not save a thing?

Close your eyes,

Hands in front of you like you're holding a ball of energy.

Okay,

One hand on top,

One on the bottom.

Always opposite of each other.

Can't roll the ball?

Can't go forward?

Backward.

Now I want you to.

Inhale.

Extend the hand.

Expand them,

Exhale hands come back closer without touching.

Feel the heat between your palms.

Do you hear?

Exhale.

Palms come together slowly.

Feel the heat.

Focus on the energy.

In here,

Exhale.

Field energy visualizations.

Now bring it in.

In front of you.

By the stomach,

The down chin.

I'm so bad.

Now the inhale.

In Excel,

There you go.

We can chop it together.

Okay,

For this last part,

We're gonna go to forms.

A lot of times,

Each martial art or Tai Chi's tempo have their own little form,

Where we combine all those movements that we learn into one form that we can practice those form everyday into meditation flow,

What we call Tai Chi flow.

So you sure love it.

I'll teach you a little bit of this and with time,

Maybe if people want to learn more,

We'll go to the whole A position.

This A position in the first form is food I came from.

I'm going to show you first and then we'll go to the steps.

The scope of the film.

BUS NOPE!

Swallowable Batteries.

Okay,

That was a quick little tarajifo.

It's a few movements.

So,

This is what I'm going to be learning.

So,

If you're interested in that,

I'll show you around.

So,

This is the first step that we understand how the breathing works.

So,

Feet together.

Henceforward.

Bend the knees,

Scoop wrap a circle,

Half as simple.

It happened then.

Except one says Darren.

Yeah.

Thumbs up.

Extra push Now,

It's 5 star.

Rotate with palms.

Right,

From rotate,

Then from rotate,

She's to be waiting inside.

One foot comes out.

Sweet.

I just want to enhance only my gifts,

Okay?

Not mine.

Bye.

Help the circle come to a false stance.

Feet forward and still loose.

Yes,

Sweep my arm.

Sweep to clear Clear?

And then I put the foam.

Boomy,

Take 4 here I will permit you in.

Let's end it here.

This is a washboard build web.

That you can learn.

With this next class story I offer.

So let me know in the comment if this class was something interesting to you.

Do you know how to.

.

.

Do you know how to remove water?

And let me know.

I'm going to be coming more often and really showing what I've learned because I see so much potential in Tai Chi and learning to breathe and move a body balance.

I'm here Vietnam.

In San Diego also.

So right now I'm here for a month.

So I'll be in this apartment and just showing you what I know.

Maybe we'll go somewhere else too.

Thank you so much again for watching!

See ya.