Saturday, December 1, 2012

Preparing for the Rest of Your Life


"If you wait for an emergency to happen before you decide what to do, you're already dead."* We need to be prepared for unexpected things to happen. However, it's even better to be prepared to prevent unexpected things from happening. Prevention is way better than cure.

We all expect to live forever. We all expect to be healthy and competent. Maybe hope is a better word than expect, but it doesn't change the message. Life is full of unexpected things: injury, illness, and loss. There is a certain amount of randomness to these things, but we can develop plans to minimize the probability of these things happening.

If you really, truly want to prepare for the rest of your life, you need to plan for ways to maintain health and prevent injury. If you really, truly want to plan ahead, you should be living a healthy life right now. Tai chi is proven to help with improving health, reducing depression, and preventing falls and other injuries. Don't wait for the time when stress has already caused damage to your body. Don't wait until your health deteriorates. Don't wait for the depression of old age and poor health.

Here is a brief list of benefits of Tai Chi for Health that have been proven through extensive studies:
Improved balance, reduced falls, and reduced fear of falling
Reduced blood pressure
Improved strength, range of motion, and endurance
Improved management of chronic pain
Improved strength in the deep stabilizer muscles
Strengthened immune system
Reduced bone loss in post-menopausal women
Improved outlook on life (symptoms of depression and stress)
Enhance mind-body connection through improved proprioception and kinesthetic awareness

You have a choice about how you live the rest of your life. You can be proactive and take charge right now. Or you can be reactive and wait until the damage is done. Prevention is much easier than cure.

Don't think you have time? I believe that TV should stand for "The Vacuum" because it sucks your brains out. I believe that investing 15 minutes a day in maintaining and improving your health is more important than having your brains sucked out by The Vacuum.

Sign up for a tai chi class now. They're everywhere.

Please share this article with anyone that you think would benefit from it.

*Quote from the movie, A Perfect Getaway (2009)

© 2012 Eric Borreson

2 comments:

  1. GREAT blog sir!! Makes me want to learn more about Tai Chi. I really loved the quote at the beginning of the post - so accurate and true.

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  2. Eric, from my research adn reading I believe that qi gong does all these things too. It is more accessible to many people. So don't forget qi gong.

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