Reading the cool tai chi magazines is fun, but the primary way to improve your tai chi is to practice. Anecdotes about one tai chi master, the famous Chen Fake, say he practiced his styles form 30 plus times a day. While you certainly don't need to go to this extreme, practicing once a day is preferable. Twice a week is about the minimum amount of practice in order to learn most effectively, and feel a tangible benefit. When practicing, focus on what you remember. Don't beat yourself up about not remembering, but rather improve what you can work on. Even if you only remember one posture, standing and holding that posture is good for you.  Develop a routine so that it is both easy to remember and you find it a pleasant association between practicing tai chi and how you feel about your day in general. What you get from your Tai Chi practice is largely determined by how, and how much your are practicing. To get the most from your training consistency is needed. Set aside some time for yourself every day, fifteen minutes will do. Then, every day, take that time to care for your body and clear your mind with your practice. The reward will be well worth it. You can practice indoors or outdoors, with friends, or solo. Whatever fits in best for you, tai chi will work with you. You need at least three months of practicing tai chi before you will notice the benefits. At this point, they should be very evident and ongoing but don't give up – give yourself at least this minimum period to see the benefits. And once you reach this mark, continue for longer and bigger benefits, and for greatly increased skill. During the tai session, you are expected to put aside distractions and focus. The deep breathing aspect will help, as will relaxing:   Relax. Tensing your body is the best way to prevent getting any benefit from tai chi. However, relax does not mean turn into a wet noodle. Retain proper posture without excess tension. Classic tai chi literature often describes this as standing "as if one were suspended on a string on the top of the head".  Breathe. Part of the secret of tai chi's health benefits comes from deep, abdominal breathing. The majority of styles teach "abdominal breathing", in which one breathes in, expanding the abdominal area (not the chest) and exhales by contracting the abs. All inhalation is done through the nose; exhalation through the mouth and the tongue should touch the roof of the mouth, stimulating salivary function. Live in the moment. Develop the tai chi mental discipline to live in the moment rather than focusing on anxieties. Once you are more proficient at tai chi, move it into your daily life to reduce stress. Practice the concepts of tai chi in highly stressful situations, such as traffic jams, or a high-intensity work meeting, to lessen the tension and restore inner calm and balance. As a form of meditation, tai chi is able to help you learn to understand yourself better and thereby deal with others more effectively. Thus, when stressful situations arise, tai chi learning will help you to be assertive and respectful of others, as well as staying in the present and dealing with the situation before you with calmness. Tai chi helps you learn to merge the opposing forces of yin and yang, self and the world to achieve a natural balance for physical and spiritual well-being. This balance is represented by the tai chi symbol. Cross-training in other forms and styles, after you've achieved a basic level of mastery in your first form, is often very helpful at improving your general tai chi knowledge. The iconic practice of tai chi are the "hand" forms; the slow movements performed in a group or solo. But tai chi includes a vast array of forms which can improve your health and self-defense abilities. Most teachers only go on to such forms after a demonstrable proficiency in the basic hand form of the style.  Learn about weapons forms. Almost all styles, including those which disregard all martial intent, have tai chi forms practiced with weapons. These can range from simple staves or swords to esoteric Chinese weapons. Try a faster form. Ironically, and in opposition to the public's general idea of tai chi, most traditional family styles (including Yang, Chen,Fa and Wu) have a "fast form." This form is often used as a way of expressing the martial power honed and stored in slow form practice. It is sometimes called "Cannon Fist" (pao chui) in Chen style. Learn about partner work. If forms practice is tai chi's solo workout, "pushing hands" (tui shou) is its partner exercise. Though eventually it can lead into free sparring, push hands is essentially an exercise meant to develop the sensitivity and skill of tai chi in a cooperative way. Generally, the learning of push hands builds steadily; moving from fixed-stance patterns with a single hand, and ending in a moving step pattern with both hands sometimes varying in height and speed. Classwork is one thing but learning the meaning, philosophical underpinning, and history of tai chi takes time and much of it is best done through reading and learning in your own time. This is an important part of learning tai chi because it provides you with the opportunity to get a deeper understanding of how tai chi benefits you mentally and physically, and enables you to find new ideas about enriching your tai chi experience. Other people's learning about tai chi can inform your own and you may want to put some of their ideas into practice to see what works best for you.  Feel free to ask your teacher questions about your self-directed learning, such as what to read and questions about what you have read. That way you will expand your understanding a great deal. Read the Tao Te Ching and the I Ching. These books discuss the concept of "chi" and how it can become blocked and when this happens, so does illness.
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One-sentence summary -- Practice. Commit to practicing for 12 weeks minimum. Keep distractions out of your practice zone. Practice in stressful situations. Expand your repertoire. Read deeply about tai chi.

Q: Bring the soles of your feet together so that your legs make a diamond shape in front of you. Then gently pull your feet towards you as close as you can without discomfort. If you're new to this stretch, you can start out by sitting against a wall. Set a pillow between your lower back and the wall for support. To extend the stretch, you can put gentle pressure on both knees to force your hips to open further. Be careful not to go past what is comfortable for you. Keep the outer edges of your feet pressed together and use your hands to “open” your feet upwards like a book. You should feel a slight stretch on the outer muscles of your calves. Keeping your back as straight as possible, gently push your upper body forward as far as you can without lifting your sitting bones up off the ground. Hold your feet with both hands to keep them from sliding further away from you. Hold this stretch for at least 30 seconds, then come back up.
A: Sit on the floor with your feet together and your knees falling apart. Use your elbows to gently push down on both knees. Turn the soles of your feet up towards the ceiling. Hold on to your feet and lean your torso forward.

Article: You'll need a good amount, at least 1 cup and preferably 2 cups. Clean the petals in a colander placed under running water.  Then strain and pour into cups or mugs.
Question: What is a summary of what this article is about?
Select pesticide-free petals. Place the 1 to 2 cups rose petals in a saucepan filled with 3 cups of water. Boil for five minutes. Sweeten with honey or enjoy as it is.