Movement Fantasque TAI CHI

Ride the Wave of Transformation in 2025 with Tai Chi

The beginning of a new year is the perfect time to reinvent yourself. January brings a unique energy—a wave of new beginnings rippling across the planet. This is your moment to set a fresh course for the year ahead.

In 2025, we welcome the Chinese Year of the Wood Snake, a time known for transformation, growth, and steady progress. What better way to embrace this energy than by starting something that enhances your health and well-being?

Tai Chi is more than just exercise—it's a practice of restoring balance to your life. It helps you focus on what truly matters: your health, longevity, and inner peace. Through gentle movements, Tai Chi strengthens your body, calms your mind, and nurtures your spirit.

Take a moment to reflect: What do you want to keep in your life this year? What can you let go of? Replace what no longer serves you with something that supports your journey. Tai Chi can be the positive change you’re looking for.

Join a Tai Chi or Qigong community this January and ride the wave of positive transformation. Picture yourself surrounded by like-minded people, moving in harmony and embracing the promise of a healthier, happier 2025.

You know what steps to take. Now’s the time. Let 2025 be the year you prioritize your well-being and set the tone for years to come. Take your first step into a brighter future—start Tai Chi today!

Louise La Fosse, Sensei
www.movement-Fantasque.com

How Tai Chi Helps You Build Self-Confidence

Self-confidence is vital for navigating life and influences your work, education, relationships, and friendships. Tai Chi, a gentle but powerful practice, plays a key role in fostering personal growth. It teaches awareness, balance, and self-control—of both the body and mind. The slow, deliberate movements require focus, encouraging you to tune into your abilities. As you progress, you develop a sense of mastery, which boosts self-esteem.

A core aspect of Tai Chi is its emphasis on breath and relaxation, which helps reduce stress and calm the mind. As you gain control over your breath and body, you’ll feel more at ease with yourself and more capable in other areas of life. Tai Chi also builds resilience by encouraging patience and persistence—qualities that enhance your overall self-assurance.

Incorporating Tai Chi into your life fosters inner peace, strengthens your sense of self, and transforms the way you approach challenges. Over time, you’ll notice how your practice helps reduce anxiety and cultivate greater self-trust.

Focus on the positive aspects of your journey and celebrate your progress. Avoid comparing yourself to others. Embrace your growth with kindness, remembering that building self-confidence takes time. You are capable, and you can do it!

Our Happy Tai Chi & Qi Gong Family

Tai Chi & Qi Gong practitioners find joy in sharing beautiful, graceful, calming and unifying movement and meditation.

Each student comes to practice for different reasons. It can sometimes be physical; blood flow and increased circulation have all kinds of benefits, especially as people practice moving “like water”. One of the most pleasant examples is how people move as if they are in Hawaii in the ocean, moving with the ebb and flow of the waves in salt water keeping them light and buoyant. There is much joy in moving with so little effort, but with increased energy and calmness of spirit.

In our classes, students share with each other on many levels, making and nurturing friendships and sharing the joy of this fun practice. There is often lightness and many have a great and fun sense of playfulness and humor. Every class is memorable. Every person brings some wonderful energy to the group. It’s a special kind of family and we love it!

Interesting insights from medical professionals on the benefits of Tai Chi. Here are a few lines from the article, which you can read in full in the York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/20/well/move/tai-chi-workout.html #:~:text=Tai%20chi%20blends%20mental%20focus,School%20Guide%20to%20Tai%20Chi.%E2%80%9D

"Tai Chi Is a Workout for the Brain and Body"
The mental and physical benefits span cultures and generations.

“With around 250 million practitioners around the globe, tai chi is often cited as one of the world’s most popular physical activities. It originated in China in the 17th century as a martial art. Unlike karate or taekwondo, tai chi focuses on quiet strength rather than combat, which makes it more accessible to older adults or those who have been injured.”
Why practice tai chi?
“Tai chi blends mental focus and physical effort to build strength, flexibility and mindfulness, said Peter Wayne, the director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine and the author of “The Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi.”
Research suggests tai chi can also improve balance and mobility, including in people with neurological conditions like Parkinson’s disease. It also helps prevent falls in older adults. By strengthening surrounding muscles, tai chi also reduces strain on joints, said Dr. Amanda Sammut, the chief of rheumatology at Harlem Hospital and an assistant clinical professor of medicine at Columbia University.”

Tai Chi Is a Workout for the Brain and Body The mental and physical benefits span cultures and generations. Here’s how to get started.

Happy New Year to everyone!

As I contemplate the unfolding of this new calendar year, one of my goals is to connect more. To listen to inner feelings and intuition as they are a guidepost; to tune in more to other’s thoughts and feelings as they are a venue for engagement, inspiration and feedback; and to do whatever I can to support the beauty and the good in life around me. From those will grow the seeds of dreams and goals for the year 2023. I believe that life is like a musical instrument. What you get out of it depends on how you play it.

Can you relate?

We grow each year by building connections, by learning how to flow in this world, while growing our inner and outer strength, empowerment and peace simultaneously. Tai Chi is a lifetime teacher of chi (energy) and flow. I don’t know a single person who doesn’t want to increase energy and flow in life (myself included). How can we increase our chi and flow in 2023? I believe we can start with whatever inspires us that can last throughout the year and not just at the beginning. By holding a vision derived from our intuition and sharing energy with others, with a commitment to move our dreams forward and support the dreams of others with whatever tiny or large steps we are willing to take. By never giving up!

What are your dreams and thoughts about 2023 as it relates to your energy, connection and flow in your world? Feel free to share in the comment section.

Here's to a bright New Year to all for a life that brings you ever closer to your vision of a meaningful life filled with love, health, abundance and joy!

Louise La Fosse, Sensei

Saratoga Country Club Tai Chi – Moving to Release Stiffness

Invited to teach at the Saratoga Country Club, and honored. What a beautiful environment. Dr. Joe Rideau, a dedicated student with Movement-Fantasque, participated in demonstrating for club members how to move with accuracy for the best benefit with the Tai Chi form we practiced. Thank you, Joe!
One of the members at the Country Club said that she had been having a very stiff neck and that after just two Tai Chi/Qi Gong classes, she now enjoys more mobility in her neck and is greatly relieved. Always so good to hear that someone feels better after just a few classes.

Simple, Easy Tai Chi practice at the park

This ancient system of mind-body movement definitely improves balance. As important, it improves your mood. Folks who come to practice at the park love being out in the open air and enjoy practicing in nature. A group of people practicing tai chi in a park can be a beautiful thing. It’s a mixture of being focused and relaxed, as well as in harmony with nature and with each other. And sometimes meeting afterwards for tea or coffee getting to know each other is an added pleasure. Tai Chi is fun to do and has no barriers. When the weather warms up and the sun is out, we’ll be re-starting our Tai Chi at the park. Come join us!
For information about Tai Chi, our studio and our classes, please visit our website: www.movement-fantasque.com

Tai Chi Escape

What makes a Tai Chi family? During this time of tragedy and world turmoil, we all pray for the people currently affected by war. And while we have been engrossed in the news of so much turmoil and suffering, a group of our Tai Chi practitioners took time to appreciate nature -- a little escape to Heaven and gratitude for God's nature and our blessings.

Beautiful people with kind and loving spirits gathered at Asilomar Beach in Pacific Grove, California, to breathe in unison, express gratitude, and share the joy of friendship while practicing the wonderful art of Tai Chi and Qi Gong.

Happy New Year 2022!

We are now IN STUDIO!

After 23 months of holding classes online via Zoom and in the parks, we now have a gorgeous new studio for our Tai Chi/Qi Gong classes. An important factor in selecting the right studio was finding a studio with extremely high standards of ongoing sanitization and safety given the current health environment. The facility and amenities are top-notch, including superb flooring, lighting, sound system, and technology, after class tea and more…
If you have been waiting for a return to the studio to come back to or try Tai Chi and Qi Gong, we welcome you!
Please visit the website to learn more: www.movement-fantasque.com.

Great Tai Chi Practice at the Park

Intermediate students practiced Tai Chi Yang 24 form, 5-Animal and Swimming Dragon QiGong.

February 12th Marks the Year of the Ox - A Year of Positivity

After a year of anxiety, what can we expect from 2021? The Ox denotes positivity, hard work and honesty.

In the Year of the Rat (2020), the energetic force was the fast, hard, active YANG energy, and the element was WATER, known for continuous flow and fast-moving change.

By contrast, the Year of the Ox (2021) denotes the ox’s earthly branch, which is associated with YIN energy, which is slow , soft and passive. As it represents EARTH, it will be characterized by stability and nourishment. It is a year of HEALING.

What is your interpretation? Please feel free to share.

This past month, we have continued to practice our Tai Chi and QiGong forms as we deepen our knowledge and skill on the following: Yang Form 8, Yang Form 24, Bafa Wubu, 8 Brocades, Golden Crane, 5 Elements and 5 Animals QiGong, and more.

If you would like to join a park practice in San Jose or Campbell, California, please write to [email protected].

Louise La Fosse, Sensei