Tai Chi and Sign Chi Do at the Claret Center

Greetings!  We are very excited to introduce Tai Chi and Sign Chi Do to the Claret Center Offerings. These two practices will be integrated into a six-week class series, teaching partipants deep breathing and the healing art of  body movement and meditation. The series will be taught by Fr. Art Gramaje, Claretian Missionary and Priest. Fr Art has a life-long love of basketball, weight training, and martial arts. His martial arts training includes Tiger-Crane Kung-Fu, Yang Style Tai Chi, and Sign Chi Do.

Tai Chi Yang Style Short Form The Chinese characters for Tai Chi Chuan can be translated as the 'Supreme Ultimate Force'. The notion of 'supreme ultimate' is often associated with the Chinese concept of yin-yang, the notion that one can see a dynamic duality.    In Chinese philosophy and medicine there exists the concept of 'chi', a vital force that animates the body. One of the avowed aims of Tai Chi is to foster the circulation of this 'chi' within the body, the belief being that by doing so the health and vitality of the person are enhanced.   Another aim of Tai Chi is to foster a calm and tranquil mind, focused on the precise execution of these exercises. Learning to do them correctly provides a practical avenue for learning about such things as balance, alignment, fine-scale motor control, rhythm of movement, the genesis of movement from the body's vital center, and so on. Thus the practice of Tai Chi can in some measure contribute to being able to better stand, walk, move, and run in other spheres of life as well. Many practitioners notice benefits in terms of correcting poor postural, alignment or movement patterns which can contribute to tension or injury. Furthermore the meditative nature of the exercises is calming and relaxing in and of itself. Sign Chi Do Sign Chi Do is Moving Prayer, Mindful Meditation and Sacred Scripture. It is one way of calming the mind, strengthening the soul and at the same time bringing a sense of health and well-being to your body. When we incorporate breathing, intention, prayer and movement...it unlocks (things that we call stress) in the body and the result is wonderful!