World Tai Chi and Qigong Day

Our work is to educate the public about how ancient mind-body tools, according to emerging and mounting medical research, could save society trillions in future health costs, penal and law enforcement costs, and dramatically reduce human suffering on many levels. Our goal is to see Tai Chi and Qigong use expanded into Medicare coverage, public education, corporate wellness, and senior care nationwide and worldwide.

We organize an annual public media event that has been officially proclaimed by governors of over 22 US States, as well as officials in many states and nations including the Senates of New York, California, and Puerto Rico.

The United States alone, spends upwards of $2 trillion annually on health care. Tai Chi and Qigong and mind-body arts have been proven beyond a doubt to be powerful stress management tools that so profoundly affect the health of practitioners that Harvard Health Publication called Tai Chi "medication in motion."

Imagine the human suffering that would be avoided if our children were prepared for life with tools that could more than cut in half future health challenges they might face.

Imagine what we could do with an extra one trillion dollars a year, year after year, after year.

Currently, the United States imprisons more of its people than any nation on earth. Imagine what would happen to our prison rates if all American children were mind-body meditation masters when they graduate from high school. A program at Folsom Prison that World Tai Chi & Qigong Day's Founder was invited to present for, involved prison inmates practicing a hybrid form of Tai Chi and Qigong, known as Tai Chi Chih. They found that recidivism rates for inmate participants was much lower than the ver high norm for recidivism, or returning to prison upon release. They also tracked "incident" or "bad behavior" rates, and the meditation groups incident rates were much lower than the prison norm, however they also found that the entire prison's incident rates lowered as the Qigong program progressed over the years. This may suggest that when a percentage of a population is meditating that it can have a positive impact on the larger population. The Transcendental Meditation Foundation has done numerous studies showing the same effect, that when a small percentage of a company, institution, or city are meditating, that the entire larger population is positively affected.

In study after study, Tai Chi and Qigong have been proven to reduce depression, anxiety, and mood disturbance; to reduce symptoms in ADHD diagnosed teenagers, and to lower the recidivism rates of prisoners who use these tools.

Educating children through one hour per day, five days per week, mind-body practices that would calm their minds and improve their ability focus and learn, while also training them to literally heal health challenges before they form in their bodies, would so profoundly change our society that it is beyond even our most hopeful imaginings.

There are Tai Chi, Qigong, Yoga, Meditation, teachers all over America and the World. Years ago, I and a handful of top Tai Chi experts from around the nation came together to create a Tai Chi Teaching Efficacy Guide that could be used by aging professionals to start effective Tai Chi classes in their centers.

This same approach could be taken for education. An efficacy guide could be created for teaching these tools in age appropriate ways. Then, local tai chi and qigong teachers in cities all across America could be contacted, provided with the guide, and then interviewed by a national panel. Those selected to participate, which many would be because to teach at all levels of education, preschool through 12th grade, will require a number of teachers, would go through training programs on how to teach in age appropriate ways.

This would not require a standardized for, because it is recognized that all Tai Chi forms are equally effective in producing all the benefits. But, each teacher of any style of Tai Chi and Qigong would be trained in how to approach teaching in a public educational setting, and how to teach at various age approprate levels as part ofa 12 to 14 year program of mind-body education.