Tai Chi Beginners Routine with Mike - 30 Minutes
Get started with mind, energy, and moving in harmony
This Tai Chi Beginners 30-Minute Routine is led by Strala co-founder Mike Taylor. It introduces the mindset and approach of tai chi, along with its three practicable elements:
1) Softness. A mind practice, for mobilizing yourself.
2) Breath. An energy practice, that begins with accessing what you already have. It can also be used to increase what is available to you.
3) Natural Movement. A body practice, for coming into harmony with yourself. You learn to move with grace and coordination, in everything you do.
And of course if you're pregnant, and for everyone, please always check with your doctor first. It's important to follow advice from a qualified professional who knows your particular history.
When can I use this class, and how long can I keep using it?You can use it whenever you like! And once you've completed a class, it remains yours to use whenever you want. Wherever you have an internet connection, just log in here using your computer, tv, phone, or iPad, and get moving!
Tai Chi gives us a wonderful mindset for life, that says our best way to get where we're going is to feel good along the way. It also works miracles for whole health, by helping us learn to bring our whole self into everything we do, unblock energy where it's stuck, and move more naturally and efficiently through challenge.
Tara and Mike designed Strala around this mindset, combining the principles of tai chi for moving and healing, with the more extensive form vocabulary of yoga. Mike has used this mindset and movement practice for a long while as his cross-training for mountaineering, snowboarding, and triathlons, and it carried him through a 17-year career in competitive martial arts.
Tai chi is a useful practice for athletes, helping us learn to use our whole body more easily - every part in harmony with every other part. And for everyone, it's important to find a better way to move, at every age.
When we're older, this means we'll still be able to move capably, when force is no longer an option. And wherever we are, it means we'll create the right conditions for optimal health, and achieving our own highest potential, in everything we do.
Strala combines the movement and healing wisdom of tai chi with the rich form vocabulary of yoga.
Get ready to drop the stress and tension in your body and mind, that keeps you working much harder than you need, to achieve much less than you can.
You'll learn to move powerfully through your life and handle challenge with ease.
Strala was created by Tara Stiles, drawing on her background in classical ballet and choreography, as well as her long-time personal practice in yoga. Tara trained with Paul Taylor Dance Company choreographer and dancer Eileen Cropley, and began her yoga study in the 1990s with her ballet teacher, Rory Foster of American Ballet Theater.
The science and movement of Strala is also guided by Strala co-founder Mike Taylor. Mike studied mind-body medicine at Harvard, and complementary medicine at Oxford. He has practiced Eastern movement and healing, including tai chi and qi gong, for 30 years.
Your Instructor
Mike is the resident healer and co-founder of Strala. Named “Best Mover” by MindBodyGreen, he’s practiced Eastern movement and healing techniques, including tai chi, qigong, and shiatsu, for more than three decades.
In his younger years, Mike challenged centuries of reasonable and well-tested martial traditions in hundreds of competitions, by applying unruly imagination to a world where rules were unbreakable. As he got older, he continued on to medical applications of the mind-body connection in university. Mike studied mind-body medicine at Harvard, and alternative medicine and psychology at Oxford. After running into walls with standard medical practice in the U.S. and England, Mike left his healthcare roots. He worked at a steel mill for a while, joined a web company, and then founded a few more.
Now Mike has found his way back to health care done right, helping people let go of stress in their bodies and minds, and become their own best caregivers. Mike climbs a few mountains in his spare time.