- Hello, and welcome to Living in the Lehigh Valley, where our focus is your health and wellness.

I'm your host, Brittany Sweeney.

More than ever, finding ways to manage stress is on the checklist for a healthy lifestyle.

Our own Grover Silcox is here to share a little about what he's learned about a low-impact exercise that might just bring a little balance to your life.

- Grover, always great to see you.

- Always good to be here.

- All right, so what's it all about?

- It's Tai Chi, a gentle mind-body exercise often referred to as "meditation in movement."

- Now, is this a martial art?

- It's both a martial art and a mind-body exercise, and great for all ages.

- Great.

So you're getting that overall health, working everything here?

- Exactly.

It's particularly helpful for folks 65 and up to improve balance and prevent falls.

If you've seen people in a park exercising in what seems to be slow motion, you've probably seen them practicing Tai Chi.

It was created centuries ago by the Chinese, but in the last 50 years, Western medicine has also acknowledged its benefits as a way to lower stress, fight depression, curb anxiety, prevent falls, and improve health in a dozen varied ways.

I visited a place to learn more about it, and the instructors and students who practice it.

- Up and in, up and out... Down and out, down and in.

- Tai Chi uses movements and postures modeled on nature.

- Now, your hands are washing the mirrors.

- These gentle movements and natural stances flow into one another, creating a sort of choreography.

- And drop.

And then, you shoot it out.

- Centuries ago, the Chinese created Tai Chi for self-defense.

It evolved with Qigong, the Chinese words for "energy" and "work", as both a martial art and mind-body exercise to promote balance, healing, and relaxation.

- I was in physical therapy for balance issues, and when my physical therapy was over, I thought I didn't feel really secure yet.

I thought I have to keep working on my balance.

So, that's when I thought of Tai Chi and started classes here.

Physically, my balance is better, but I've also found that there's balance in the rest of my life.

- A CDC study showed that practicing Tai Chi can help prevent falls, which is of particular importance for those over 65.

Also, the NIH reported evidence of Tai Chi improving cognitive capacity in older adults.

- Accepting in, then on, sending the energy to the ground.

- This art is more yielding, and you flow more like water, that's the concept.

And so, in my life, I found that I'm becoming calmer.

And that principle is kind of getting more incorporated in my life, and not getting as rigid about things.

- This is my fourth year.

I started when I was 78.

What drew me to it was I fell, and decided maybe I should do something about that so it doesn't happen again.

And I decided to take Tai Chi because it looks so easy.

I just love it.

It's fun, and the people are fun.

- These Tai Chi students, ages 62, 67, and 82, practice as a group at Lehigh Valley Martial Arts.

- The other martial arts are about speed, power, and endurance.

We are not concerned about those things at all.

We are flowing.

You kind of accept - we don't resist, and we don't oppose.

We redirect.

So, we accept the energy coming in at us and redirect it.

- On this day, Shifu Crystal Klein guides her multilevel students through the movements.

- If you're a beginner student, we teach the foundation, moving the whole body together as one in a circle.

Everything in Tai Chi is based on circles.

It could be one circle, or a combination of different circles.

There are portions of it that are very slow, and then, particularly in the chin form, then you have a sudden, quick movement.

Is the energy going away from you?

- Each and every one of the movements that we do can be used for a martial application.

- But the primary goal for us is to be able to learn how our body works, and how we can get people to be able to be strong in all the years of their life.

- Paul Miller, founder and instructor at Lehigh Valley Martial Arts, underscores the observed benefits of Tai Chi's free-flowing and continuous movements.

- The movements that we do are almost perfect movements, because it follows the natural course of how the body moves.

People that can do these things, they are stronger, they recover more quickly from surgeries.

- The students fold the movements into a natural, unified flow through repetition, focus, and intentional breathing.

- You want to be able to balance your breathing with your movements.

For instance, if I'm breathing in, I want to breathe in with a four count, so breathing in... ..and out with the four-count.

So that, now I know that these things are working together.

Our goal here is to be able to breathe and move systematically so that when we do this, we have enough breath and we don't get tired.

- What does someone look for in a Tai Chi instructor?

- What you should look for is, one, do they explain things?

Two, do they have an understanding of how the body works?

And three, that they really care about student.

- There is no bad energy.

- Whenever I come and I have questions, and I want an explanation about how or why something works, these guys don't hesitate to just answer my questions.

- Paul and Crystal both are great there.

They really know what they're doing, and they are very encouraging and inspirational.

- They're so patient and kind.

They'll just come over and say, "Try this."

They'll not say, "You're doing that all wrong."

They'll say, "Try this."

- Many who have tried Tai Chi discovered benefits not just in class, but in life.

- I had a woman who was 80 years old when she got diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

She started taking Tai Chi with me when she was 84.

And, at her 85th birthday, her multiple different doctors all examined her.

She came into class so excited because they all saw improvement.

- Tai Chi, a martial art which heals the mind, body, and spirit by helping folks go with the flow.

- Tai Chi isn't just physical balance, it's balance on your whole life.

- As mentioned in my report, the NIH and other medical organizations point to research which suggests the Tai Chi helps prevent or alleviate a myriad of maladies caused by Parkinson's disease, osteoporosis, cognitive function, and the list goes on.

- And what about the self-defense part of Tai Chi?

- Actually, if you speed up many of the movements, you can use them for self-defense.

- And I heard you say the word "shifu", what does that mean?

Does that refer to the instructor, something like that?

Yes, shifu means "skilled one", master, teacher, and also zong shi is what Paul Miller uses, and that means "founder".

And so, he is the founder of Lehigh Valley Martial Arts.

- A lesson in Chinese, as well.

- Exactly.

- And this seems like it's a good thing for both young and old.

Everybody can participate in this, is that correct?

- It really is good for all ages, and you can even use it when you're not in the class or not in a particular space designated for Tai Chi.

By using the breathing and meditative parts of it, even if you're stuck in a traffic jam, if you want to de-stress, you can call on what you know about Tai Chi to relieve that anxiety.

- It sounds like a good way to just reset during the day.

- It is.

- Grover Silcox, as always, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you.

- And that'll do it for this episode of Living in the Lehigh Valley.

I'm Brittany Sweeney, hoping you stay happy and healthy.