Conserving Chi During Practice

An important consideration of T’ai Chi Chih practice is the conservation of chi. There are several ways in which this is accomplished.

While performing each movement we do so in a soft, flowing manner in order to expend the least amount of chi while allowing it to increase in potency and circulatory efficiency.

Another way we conserve and build chi is to move with the ideal alignment and synchronization, which can be improved and refined through time by sensitively monitoring ourselves as the various patterns are executed, always with the T’ai Chi principles in mind.

At the conclusion of each movement we contain the chi with palms facing down in front of the lower abdomen while resting in stillness, so that the aroused chi can penetrate deeply and accumulate.

We are careful to avoid extreme positions when we extend, withdraw, rise up and sink down, in order not to dissipate chi unnecessarily. In the most yang postures we do not become completely yang and in the most yin positions we do not contract completely. There is always some leeway so that transitional moves flow smoothly and chi is conserved.

T’ai Chi Chih is largely an internal art which is why we direct a good portion of attention toward the tan t’ien or soles of the feet. When the mind is directed outwardly in a fragmented, random manner, the chi is likewise dispersed. In T’ai Chi Chih practice we want to cultivate and mature the chi for self-cultivation: physical, mental and spiritual integrity and optimum function. The key to this cultivation is in the interdependent relationship between mind and chi.

– Steve Ridley