How Tai Chi’s Song Heals Spinal Compression and Instantly Improves Balance

So this, okay. Now, there's no way you could pick up your left leg. Right, find your expansion, expand your body. So now, okay, now pick up this leg. Well, pick up your other leg. See, look at that. Who's got bad balance? It's amazing. I'm addicted. All right, thanks for helping me. This is her first time in my class and she had a question for me. So once upon a time, there was some compression in your back that made the nerve affected, made your legs feel weaker and you feel like your balance, you would like that to be better. And so today, we're having to be learning about Song and the right day for you to come. You're one with the universe. And so the reason for that is in Tai Chi, you learn to be expansive physically and not just metaphorically, but literally expansive because otherwise, most of the time we are compressive. We are crushed by our body weight, by gravity and all that kind of thing. So if you put your hand on my shoulder and you push me, all right, if I fight you my muscle, then that's okay. I'm stronger than you. But my muscles are pulling on my joints and my joints are grinding together. And if I did that a thousand times, a billion times, then I'm going to wear down the cartilage in my joints. And as you push, as that conducts down to my legs, I'm strong, but my spine's being crushed together. So if you push with 30 pounds of force, then 30 pounds go through my shoulder, crushing this. 30 pounds through every segment of my spine. 30 pounds, 30 pounds, 30 pounds, 30 pounds. 30 pounds, 30 pounds, 30 pounds into the ground like that. So everybody's being crushed a bit and nobody's happy about it per se. And some people think Tai Chi is about relaxing and being limp. Well, let's see what happens if we do that. So, so push me again. Yeah, that's wrong. So I use my muscle. So my muscle is carrying and then 30 pounds going through. Now push again. I go limp. Okay, I'm not going anywhere, but you can feel like there's this like line of like stacked, um, like rods going to the ground. So if I don't use my muscles, that means for sure, 30 pounds is crushing through all my joints. And that's still going to beat up my joints over time. And it'll crush my spine. You don't want to crush your spine. So in Song, we're learning to activate our fascia, which is this network of connective tissue in our body so that we could distribute the pressure that was just in our muscles and bones into this so that it inflates like a yoga ball. So I expand. So push me again. So right now I'm resisting and then I expand like this. How does that feel? Wow. What did you expect? Expansive. And so if you put your hand on my, one hand on my chest, one hand on my upper back like this. So this is tense, right? That's no good. I get a good massage. I relax. Okay. But what Tai Chi is more than that. It's this. Wow. It feels like I expand. Yeah, you did expand. Yeah. You see in some, um, some athletes, like a ballroom dancer, like Fred Astaire, he comes out and then they get ready to dance. They expand. Ballet dancers, they expand. Gymnasts, they expand. So in some activities you learn to expand and all, in all these activities, they look very graceful, right? That is a key to that gracefulness because your whole body is connected and working together. But more than that, for what we're talking about, when I'm expanding, your pressure doesn't, when you push me, no longer goes into my joint, crushing every joint until they're all worn away and I need replacement surgery. No, instead what happens is they spread along the surface. Just like when you push on a yoga ball, you don't push the inside of the ball. All your force will go along the skin, along the outside of the ball, into the ground. Does that make sense? Yes. So, so you can, you'll actually feel the space increase, right? If you go like this and push down my head, yeah, down like this, right? Yeah, maintain that. So three, two, one. That is the feeling we want. Okay. So we want this expansiveness and now your force is no longer wearing down my spine. Got it. So when you get used to this, right, then you don't have that, your body weight pushing down and hurting your spine. Then you can get blood flow back into your disc, back into your nerves and they could start to heal slowly, slowly, slowly. They do heal. And then you can start regaining the muscle in your legs. But in addition to that, a yoga ball will distribute your force everywhere to anywhere that has contact. If it's on the ground, it'll go to the ground. If it's in the corner against the wall, it'll go to the ground and the wall. You'll adapt, right? If it's rolling, you'll keep adapting. So that means even if one leg is stronger than the other, your other leg can work well. And when you do Tai Chi, the song will help you make use of where you're strongest most effectively. Meaning if you push me, push me. If I'm using my muscle, I could move this foot, but I can't move this foot. If I lift this foot, I'll flip over right away. I'll just fall, right? Push me again. From here, see, I expand. Now I have song. I can lift this foot. You know, I could dance. Not very good, but I could dance. So because however way I want to pick up my foot, song will automatically take your pressure and route it to where I have connection. So that way you can feel confident, right? So take, put one foot forward. Which leg is stronger for you? Well, this leg is stronger. This leg is stronger, okay. So stand facing that way. Yes, feet side by side, just like this. So muscle me and don't let me push you over. So this, okay. Now there's no way to pick up your left leg, right? Now relax, right? You could go like this. Find your expansion, expand your body. So now, okay, now pick up this leg. Well, pick up your other leg. See, look at that. Who's got that balance? It's amazing. So amazing, right? Yeah. And you can walk like that. I have no balance. Yeah. And now you have no problem even as I'm pulling you, right? And then when you walk, normally when we walk, every step, our body weight crushes through our knee, crushes through our ankle. And you may not like how that feels after a billion times of that. But if you expand yourself, expand yourself, then when you walk, so you take a few steps, go ahead. You can put your arms down once you have the expanding feeling. You'll feel like there's airbags in your joints. I'll get there, but it's not as bad. I'm not as wobbly. I don't look like I'm drunk a little, but yeah, got it. See, this is your first day of Tai Chi. Amazing. And there's something that's life-changing and beneficial for you. It's got a path forward for you. Yes. Yeah. Yes. I'm addicted. All right. Thank you for sharing your story. Thank you so much. I'm happy to see you improve. Thank you. Look forward to more of that. Thanks for watching. See you next time.