Friday, May 02, 2008

Tai Chi, Yoga, Health, Weight Loss



Life is good.

In Tai Chi, you move slowly,
from foot to foot,
and move your hands and arms, too.

Most fools
teach it in a very strict
and anal way:
do just this,
do just that.

Boring.

Bad for the brain.

Good for getting people up off the couch,
and out of the car,
and away from the computer
(yeah, this one, right
in front of us!!!!),
and
still:
boring.

Think about moving your weight,
from foot to foot,
when do you do that?

When we walk, eh?

And Tai Chi is fun
or should be fun
because we change directions
as we are pretend walking
and waving our hands
into this shape
and that.

But it's still this:
using the pelvis to rotate,
shifting the weight from one foot to the other,
noticing our breathing,
noticing our spine.

This is
or could be
way fun.

Fun to be present.
Fun to notice two arms and two legs
and gravity
and breathing
and moving from foot to foot.

Balance.
Awareness.
Rotation.
Shifting.

Fun.

Okay,
and what about yoga?
There you don't get to move
around as much.

Oh, well.
It's more popular in the West,
it would appear, by the vast number
of yoga studios "helping"
and torturing vast numbers of people,
most of whom are desperate to like
themselves and their bodies more,
torturing again
with the same old:
do it "just right"
stuff.

Boring again.

And, truth, to be told
beautiful when you "get it right,"
and sometimes
fun
to try for the various contortions,
like crow, or Warrior 3,
good for balance,
good for figuring out how
we work.

And still:
how to make these two
potentially ahttp://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifmazing activities
and turn them into learning
and enjoyment and discovery.

If you thought
http://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifI might mention the Feldenkrais Method
and the Anat Baniel Method
you are right.

and that's all
for now.

they are mentioned.
plenty of other essays,
especially in Wake Up Feldenkrais blog
to shed light on these
amazing ways
to improve
thinking
feeling
learning
knowing
discovering
and
moving

and what about health
and weight
loss??

maybe tomorrow
or the next post,


ciao
for now

chris


1 comment: