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Health and well-being (part 1)

This is the first of a number of articles in which we hope to widen the debate around health and give an interpretation based upon the practices and philosophies of Tai Chi Qi Gong. It is the intent and purpose of these articles to give some insight into health and well being, if these articles, and the practices and principle underpinning them contribute something toward this end they will fulfil their objective.

To combat or Prevent that is the question ?

There are in my opinion two ways of treating ill health:

a. Combative,

b. Preventive.

The trend of modern medical research and practice remains almost entirely along combative lines, whilst the individual, and an increasing number of doctors learn to work more and more along preventive lines.

The usual procedure for a combative approach in ill health intervention is to wait until acute or chronic diseases have fully developed, and then, if possible, to deal with them by means of drugs, surgical operations, serums, antitoxins, vaccines, etc.

The preventive method does not wait until diseases have fully developed and gained the ascendancy in the body, but concentrates on prevention, through exercise, diet, environment, and mental intent. The idea being to reach a position where the body is healthy and strong enough to use its own natuaral defences in coping with any potential illness be it physical or psychological.

There is truth in the case that the medical profession has good reason to be alarmed by the inroads made in its work by irregular, unorthodox systems, schools and cults for treating illness; but instead of at best being unhappy at worst ignoring the so called unorthodox or alternative therapies, would it not be better to inquire if there is not some reason for the astonishing spread and popularity of these therapeutic interventions?

In my opinion, the growing interest in such therapies is based on the fact that they concentrate their best efforts on preventive instead of combative methods of treating disease. People are beginning to realize that it is cheaper and more advantageous to prevent disease than to cure it. To create and maintain continuous good health means greater efficiency for mental and physical work; greater capacity for the true enjoyment of life.

Traditionally the Chinese physician was hired and paid by the year; that he receives a salar, as long as the members of the family are in good health, but that the salary is suspended as long as one of his patients becomes ill. If a similar method of engaging and paying for medical services were in place in the UK today the trend of medical research and practice would soon undergo a radical change.

Tai Chi Qigong does not focus upon the pathological conditions or to the symptoms of disease. It works towards the regulation of living on a natural basis, teaching posture, correct breathing and exercise, and establishing a positive mental and emotional attitude and, in so far as it succeeds in doing this, builds health and diminishes the possibility of disease. The successful health practitioner of the future will have to fall in line with the procession and do more teaching than prescribing.

All one can ask of the medical profession is not to judge too quickly; to observe, to think and to test, and I am certain that they will find verified in actual experience many of the teachings of Tai Chi Qigong Philosophy. Medical science itself has had to abandon innumerable theories and practices which at one time were as firmly established as some of the pet theories of today.

We at the UKTQF do not deny the necessity of combative methods under certain circumstances. What we wish to emphasize is that the regular school of medicine is spending too much of its effort along combative lines and not enough along preventive, however pure economics may push it in this direction.

The practices of Tai Chi Qigong are combative as well as preventive, but if correctly applied they do not in any way injure the organism or interfere with Nature's intent and Nature's methods. We question only those methods, which are suppressive and destructive instead of curative.

What Is Truth?

There are numerous individuals and groups ready to show the way to physical, mental well being. Thousands of different cults, isms, teachers, books and periodicals dealing with this subject area.

However, there are certain fundamental laws and principles, which nature follows with great success.

I shall attempt in the coming articles to formulate and elucidate some of the fundamental laws and principles underpinning the Tai Chi Qigong, and shall try to ascertain how much use these are in the context of health and well being alongside other theories that exist.

It is clear to me that the reason that Tai Chi Qigong is not more popular iis twofold, the first is that it is too simple, and secondly it places responsibility for our own good health back on to us, a responsibility many of us are unhappy or unable to take on board. The average mind is more impressed by the involved and mysterious than by the simple and common sense.

However, it remains a fact that "exact science" reduces complexity and confusion to simplicity and clearness. Science becomes exact science only when the underlying laws, which correlate and unify its scattered facts and theories have been discovered.

Orthodox medicine, so far, has attempted to build a medical science on the observation of "effects" and " experiences," but since one fundamental law of nature may produce a million seemingly differing effects it becomes self-evident that it is utterly impossible to found an exact science on such uncertain and conflicting evidence.
The primary laws and principles once understood, it becomes easy to reason from and to explain through them, the various phenomena that they produce. Herein lie the merit and achievement of Tai Chi Qigong and the principles which are its foundation stones.

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