Tai Chi Gong For Brain Fitness

This session introduces gentle Tai Chi movements designed to support brain fitness and healthy aging. By combining slow, mindful movement with breath and focused attention, the practice helps stimulate coordination, balance, and mental clarity. These simple patterns encourage body awareness while engaging the mind, supporting cognitive function and helping maintain a sense of calm, presence, and stability.

Transcript

Welcome to this practice for brain fitness. Well, You're definitely gonna feel the benefits of this. There's some loosening and some stretching. So we're used to thinking about movement just being good for the body. What I wanna really emphasize with you in this practice is how we can use exercise and movement to actually be good for the health of our brain and the mind and preventing cognitive decline. We're gonna be doing movements where one side of the body does one thing and the other side of the body does something else. We're gonna cross the arms from right to left, And we're really utilizing this kind of complexity of movement that kind of energizes and utilizes different aspects of the brain. So we're gonna start off just loosening up through the shoulders, But instead of rolling the shoulders both at the same time, We're gonna stagger them. So for example, We're gonna go forward and like the left goes and then the right. So you see they're kind of out of sync. So you're just rolling, Making sure they're not going at the same time. Just loosening up through the shoulders. Now let's go back once again. Roll it back, But in staggered motion. All right, Now we're gonna work on just some stretching one arm up, One arm down. So on a physical level, You feel a nice side stretch, But we're also doing one thing on one side, One thing on the other. One hand goes up, Palm up. One hand going down, Palm down. Lean to the low hand side. Exhale. Inhale, We stretch. And exhale, Relax. Come down the middle. Inhale, We stretch. Now we're gonna be bringing in a little more motion with the feet. So now what we do is we're gonna come up and you notice I'm going up with my right hand. The low hand, I'm gonna come off that heel. So though my left, On the left side, The hand and arm go down, But the heel will come up. So really connecting that, This complexity of movement. So the movements are simple. They're also a little complex. A lot of times we think about movement and exercise is just good for the physical body, Whether about easing aches and pains, Cardiovascular or flexibility, But we could really use movement and exercise for the health of the mind. Now what we're gonna do is we're actually gonna raise that leg. So as my right arm goes up, I'm gonna raise the left leg. Come down, Raise my left, The right leg comes up. Remember, If you're having trouble with balance, Bend your knee, Grab the floor at the toes, Find a place to focus on. And let's go one more each side. Next movement is what we call diagonal flying. We're gonna make the stance a little wider than shoulders. And it's like the arms are making a diagonal movement. There's my left arm goes up high and left, Palm up. The right hand will go down, Left. We shift the body weight. So you're here. So your body weight will shift to the high hand side. Exhale. Follow, Let the eyes follow the middle finger of that lead hand. Lead in the middle, Diagonal. Let's go one more each side. Keeping this wide stance, Bring the big hands, Bring the hands together. So now what we're gonna be doing is we're gonna be bringing our body to one side with the hands and the weight rotates as we look the opposite way. When we take an inhale, Say exhale, I shift my weight about 80% over my left leg. If you're working with your right, That's no problem. The hands are on that side, But I look over my right shoulder out to the right. Come in here, Inhale to the middle, Exhale. I shift my weight to the right. I look over my left shoulder. So as the weight shifts left, My awareness goes right. As I shift right, My awareness goes left. Do one more each side. All right, And to finish this set is a really nice movement called the dragon and tiger. So what we're gonna be doing is one hand will raise and that heel comes up as well. And then as that hand comes up, The other hand pushes down. As soon as the heel comes down, We raise the other leg and hand. Come down. So just going up, Linking the arm movement with the leg and foot movement, Trains the awareness, Really connecting to the feeling of the feet and to the ground. Remember, As soon as you feel the heel, Boom, That's the pressure that brings the other one up. Tipping the scale. Do just a few more each side. Inhale up, Exhale down. Just picking a side. So if you want, I'm gonna pick my left side. So inhale up, Exhale down. Shifting the weight, Linking the arm movements with the leg movements. And then just closing up, Just bring the arms to the sides of the body, Raising the arms and then relaxing the mind, Enhancing awareness by keeping the mind with the hands and just relaxing layer by layer. All right, Thanks for joining me. Hope you enjoy that practice.