What it's like to be a volunteer Tai Chi instructor
Published on 22 September 2022 12:36 PM
Mary has lived in Bristol for the last 30 years and, since retiring 6 years ago, has got a dog and looked for other new interests. She came across our advert looking for people to train as Tai Chi instructors for a form of Tai Chi suitable for the over 55s, and run classes for people in their community. We caught up with Mary to hear about her experience of being a volunteer Tai Chi instructor.
Mary says, “Tai Chi is a very calming thing to practice, it's the control and beauty of the movements. Learning to teach Tai Chi fitted in with me wanting to find something positive I could do with my time.
The fact that it’s geared towards promoting health in older people, and promoting sociability – that’s what jumped out at me. And as things tuned out – it has promoted my health and my sociability!
Tai Chi has many health benefits and I particularly value two aspects: learning to slow down the breath, which is hard at first, both lowers the blood pressure and energises you; and learning to rest the mind in moving meditation. The images you can conjure up with the Shibashi moves can take you to lovely places, for example, ‘Commence – I am asleep in bed, calm and relaxed; Opening the Chest – I am waking up and stretching to a lovely morning…’”
Mary runs her group on the tennis courts outside the Ardargh Community Centre. To begin with she found teaching a class quite daunting but over time her confidence doing the movements and guiding other people has grown. The classes stopped during the pandemic but started again last spring and moved outside to the tennis courts. Since last summer these classes have increased in popularity so much so that Mary has started 2 further classes and introduced the Fragrant Qigong as an optional extra. After the session, which lasts around half an hour, most people from the group will head to the café for a coffee and a chat.
“It's really nice because I know most of the people by name now, they’re a great bunch. I even get treated to hot chocolate after the session on a good day! It's been fabulous for me in my life, they have given me such hope and confidence for the future because of because of the range in ages in the group and the different interests they continue to have in retirement. I think as long as you've got reasonable health there's so much you can keep doing.
I think it's important to have this kind of thing because of the health benefits. This Tai Chi is designed to strengthen the ankles, knees and legs which helps with balance and promotes the feeling of being grounded and confident on your feet.
There’s one woman who comes who goes to physio as well. She hadn't told the physio she was coming to Tai Chi. I think it was after six weeks of coming to Tai Chi once a week, her physio said she’d improved! It’s also important for the social side. People that didn't know each other when we first started, now we'll mix and match and have coffee together. Everybody knows everybody now.”