Sneezing in Tai Chi

When we sneeze, there is an incredible build up of energy, a hover, then a powerful
release. This is the natural way our body works and we can use it in our Tai Chi practice.

The lines in our body that we can use this skill in are called ‘jins’, to identify them we need to practice neigong (meditation and standing postures) to calm the body, mind and emotions and then qigong (energy work) exercises to understand the sources of power in the body created with movement.

When we have practised these skills we can employ them and the ‘sneezing effect’ in our Tai Chi techniques. Within the cycle of each technique their is a build up of energy, where our yi (intention) goes, our chi (energy) follows, in the beginning it can be a bit slow, so the ‘hover’, like in a sneeze can take a few moments to build up before we release it into the technique and opponent.

By putting it into ‘sink, swallow, float and spit’ in training just be careful you don’t spit too much on your training partner as you sneeze!