Students practice tai chi at the Taoist Tai Chi Society of the USA Austin Chapter location in Cedar Park[/caption] When Diane Owens began having recurring back pain in 2011, she said her health was transformed by the combination of physical therapy and tai chi, a practice she calls a moving meditation. Tai chi classes at the Taoist Tai Chi Society of the USA Austin Chapter helped her to rebuild balance, strength and flexibility, she said. "What I found was that the physical therapy helped me, but it was the tai chi that helped me maintain that improvement," Owens said. "For me it was a way, if not to completely reverse the aging process, [to] definitely improve my health." The local chapter of the Taoist Tai Chi Society of the USA teaches classes at its office in Cedar Park and at other locations in Georgetown and Round Rock. The goal of the nonprofit is to make tai chi accessible to everyone by offering donation-based tai chi classes, volunteer instructor Jan Rasmussen said. Tai chi is 108 physical movements strung together in a continuous motion that is synchronized with other students, Rasmussen said. Some of the 108 poses are repeated during classes, which are taught in a silent room for 90 minutes to two hours. Although it can be challenging to memorize the sequence of 108 poses, Rasmussen said the postures become instinctual. "If you let go, the body will get to muscle memory," Rasmussen said. "When you get in a class and you're with other people and start the movement, there is a group chi. Its that community feeling and that group feeling that you belong, that you fit in." The Taoist Tai Chi Society of the USA was founded in 1986. Regional and national committees manage the nonprofit, and all instructors are volunteers. To become a society member, a monthly donation is suggested, which allows members to take an unlimited number of classes. Some benefits to tai chi postures, Rasmussen said, include strengthening the liver, kidney and spine. Society student Allen Breeze said tai chi helps keep him calm during times of emotional and physical stress. "Tai chi is a method of working on the process to become more balanced," he said. The Cedar Park location offers workshops or weekend-long classes taught by international and advanced instructors. For beginners, Rasmussen said, it is not important to master poses, but rather to continue coming to class, focus on obtaining good balance and have fun. The society offers classes for beginners as well as for students who have been practicing for more than a few months. "After you've been in tai chi after three or four years, depending on your background and your body, you begin to work on the internal [muscles]," Rasmussen said. "It's more external in beginner classes. ... Eventually we work a little deeper, and it involves our organs and our gut and our lungs."