Tai Chi for learning, amazement and deepened meditation
AND
improving your brain
balance
and
sense of humor


If you know tai chi,
and want to radically improve the awareness/ mindfulness
benefits
try this:

start the form as you usually do
with extra attention on whether your weight is on
your left foot
or your right foot

gradually expand your awareness
so that each time you weight is on your left foot,
you add on as well
attention to your right hand,
and vice versa

do this as fully as possible:
all fingers, all toes,
the meat of the hand, the fullness of the foot
the wrist, the ankle

and in the foot
attention to where your weight is being placed

keep doing this and then add on:
selecting one digit of the "lit up" hand ( which is the
hand opposite the foot pushing down into the Earth)
select one finger of the "lit up" hand
and put attention on that finger and the equivalent toe
of the opposite/ weight bearing foot

And switch in the next posture
as your weight shifts to the opposite foot

Like this:
left foot on ground, right hand lit up: chose the thumb and the big toe
right foot bearing weight, left hand lit up: choose the little finger and the little toe

toward the middle of the foot,
those toes are "harder"
but that is the fun of it
in a way

and you'll forget to keep this
awareness game going,
maybe,
and just come on back
and "light up" your brain
as you do tai chi

Cheng Man Ching
decided that he didn't want to do the "long" form, so he invented the
short form

Through some charming mistake somewhere along the way
this is called the "shot form."

Oh, well. If we watch this for a bit
(and in this day or Internet rush, rush, do we actually
have 7:41 minutes?
But surely we can hang in there for 3:33,
so let's see what we can see....
Be back in 3:33 (notice the simple minded rhyme scheme
creeping up on us.
Good, eh?)

Well, actually, he moves a bit fast for my taste,
kind of like I do on days I want to "get the form over."

However, he wasn't rushing, more like moving
seamlessly from one pose to the next
with no
"look at me, I'm here now"
feeling.

His weight shifted slowly and completely
like sand going from one foot to the other.

His hands seemed to float,
and knowing what I do of the form as taught
by his pupils, I'll guess that he had a great deal of
attention
in his hands

and feet

and spine

and feeling of soft arms

and knowing exactly where and how
his feet where.


Have you ever noticed that tai chi is a lot like walking,
weight on one foot and then weight on the next.

Unlike walking, but like some of the work we do in the Feldy/ Anat worlds,
his arms don't have a stable pattern vis a vis his legs.
In walking left leg forward pairs up with right arm forward.

In tai chi, many of the moves are like that:
in the punch (here right handed), the right fist is forward and the left foot

in brush knee, left foot and right hand and then right foot and left hand

However, many are right right and left left

the single whip is such a move

the kicks, which come later

and fair lady shuttles, again later, has same foot and same hand forward

And so it goes;

move slow

put attention on gravity and both arms and both legs and spine

create variation in patterns of arms and legs

It's a dance, don't you think?

And what's the other half of my roots for the Feldy/ Anat work.

Well, maybe I should have been dividing into thirds
with one third good old fashion NOW

and one third the Gurdjieff meditation of keeping attention
all day in both arms and both legs (plus light and sound)

Or maybe four:
add to Tai Chi
and Now
and Gurdjieff
a love of nature, and how natural can we get by being attentive to slow and novel and delicious movements
movements
learning
awaring
in the so called "body"

Waking us to Now.

Tai Chi can do that,
and it can be a "thing" we do.

So can reading.

So can writing.

It's all the dance: am I awake now,
and if so what is my experience.

Is that a good question for you?

I hope so.

Chris

 on Wednesday in Austin, where the cold was last week
and then it got warm and toasty this weekend
and now the cold is back.
Cold means 40s, sissy winter for most of the county,
and "too cold" for the spoiled Texans and all the immigrants.

In May I'll be back in the Northwest,
and in March visiting No. Cal.
If you are interested in connecting,
let me know.

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