Tai chi has been scientifically proven to be beneficial for your physical health. This type of gentle exercise could help fend off heart disease, reduce your risk for getting type 2 diabetes, and improve your immune function.
But what about your mental health? Could tai chi offer equally impressive benefits in this regard? According to researchers in North Carolina, the answer is a resounding “yes!” Not only does tai chi boost your mood, but it does so in some pretty sophisticated ways.
The researchers conducted a study to find out whether participants in tai chi classes would report increases in mindfulness greater than those in a comparison group.They also wanted to know if these changes in mindfulness were associated with improvements in mood, perceived stress, and sleep quality.
What exactly do the researchers mean by the word “mindfulness?” The answer lies in the design of the study. The researchers used an analysis tool that included five facets of behavior: observing; describing; acting with awareness; non-judging of inner experience; and non-reactivity to inner experience.
Now back to the study: students aged 18-48 years old enrolled in 15-week courses of either tai chi or a special recreation that was used for a control group. Chen-style tai chi classes were offered two times per week for 50 minutes each time.
The researchers found that increases in total mindfulness scores occurred only in the tai chi group, not in the control group. All well-being variables showed a pattern of improvement in the tai chi group, with either stability or decline over time in the control group. Increases in mindfulness were significantly linked with improvements on all well-being measures and with sleep quality.
If you want to improve the mindfulness with which you approach each day, consider taking some tai chi classes. Mindfulness is often a hard concept to put into practice in North American culture. Most of us tend to approach life at a fast pace, with no time to evaluate our thoughts, emotions and reactions.
You can see that developing mindfulness through tai chi exercises could lead to a better awareness of your state of mental and physical health. Mindfulness could help you understand and remedy imbalances before they cause you serious problems.