JUNE 27, 2016
WLOS — ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- There's
a healthy relationship between movement and life.
Eric Schlensker of Asheville could
have just stopped in his tracks eight years ago.
"It's therapeutic," he
says of Tai Chi. "This is my therapy."
Eric says the kinetic energy of
Tai Chi made an instant impact after he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
"So, it exercises that part
of my brain that is having trouble," he tells us. "You can see my
left hand, my left leg, my voice is affected."
Linda is his instructor and his
wife.
"The minute you stop moving,
it just goes downhill," Linda tells us.
They're partners on the floor, but
in a very different way than when they first met more than 30 years ago.
"He said, 'Does anybody want
to dance with me?' and I said, 'Sure,'" Linda recalls. "So, the lady
with the cast is the one who jumped up and danced!"
Eventually, the two became
partners in life and ballroom dance.
"Our goal was not to be the
champion couple. We wanted to have fun together," she says.
"Oh, it's always great to
have a partner that you like," he says.
Back then, the last dance might
have been the last thing on their mind.
"Under stress, the tremors
would start," Linda recalls. "I think they were the first signs, so,
he would get stressed out."
"We were heavily into
ballroom dancing when I was diagnosed with Parkinson's," Eric says.
"But for many reasons including Parkinson's I couldn't keep on
dancing."
He lost one passion but quickly
stepped into a new one.
"It's like chapters in your
life," Linda explains. "You have chapters you can go back to, and
this is a new chapter."
The man who spent more than two
decades in the Air Force wasn't about to stop fighting.
"And there's a lot of life to
live," Eric says. "Just go out and grab hold of it and don't be
devastated by the prognosis they tell you is there."
The Schlenskers say Tai Chi has
made a world of difference. One study published in the New England Journal of
Medicine concluded that the martial art improves balance, posture and mobility.
"It challenges my balance. It
challenges my tremors," he says. "If I move my hands and legs, the
tremors stop."
Despite Parkinson's, he's found
new life after dance. In the process, he shows a different kind of grace.
"He rolls with the punches," Linda says.To watch video:
http://wlos.com/news/local/despite-debilitating-disease-asheville-man-shows-a-different-kind-of-grace
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