Movement can be a powerful tool for creating a calm mind, but only when you follow some very specific rules. Tai Chi was designed with these specific movement rules because the goal is to take you from tense to relaxed and from relaxed to vital and strong. When my Tai Chi teacher, Bruce Frantzis explains the learning progression for Tai Chi, he makes it clear that when your primary focus is on the mind, and your goal is to calm your mind, you must follow this progression.
As you cultivate the mind-body benefits of Tai Chi, you will likely focus on solo training and interactive two-person practices like Push Hands. There’s a third kind of Tai Chi training, though, that will make the link between the other two stronger, Tai Chi Equipment Training.
Using stones, balls, disks, belts, and other objects you find in nature, you can develop important attributes of the Tai Chi body and mind.
When you really find the groove with your Tai Chi practice, it’s like listening to a piece of music. The rhythms, riffs, and notes phase in and out, sometimes blending, and sometimes really standing out on their own, and even though there’s a lot going on, you can soak it all in at once. Can you practice Tai Chi the same way? This isn’t just an analogy, there’s a major lesson buried in here.
I remember the first time I really got a sense for “opening and closing” my joints. We were on a qigong retreat and the person who was helping me probably spent 20 minutes “pulsing” my wrist, so that the fluids in the joint were moving in a smooth, even way, alternately creating more and less space between the bones. When you pulse, you’re manipulating the fluid flows inside your body so that the spaces inside your body compress and expand.
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I’m posting this episode on my annual summer retreat/vacation/recharge, where I assess my practice and teaching from the past year and plan courses for the coming year. This year, in the midst of big changes at Brookline Tai Chi, I’ve been wondering a lot about the way qigong practice informs your encounters with change in other areas of your life. Of course, I always like to think that there’s a strong connection, but this year everyone at Brookline Tai Chi is truly testing whether the art of smooth change in the classroom manifests itself in real life as well.
We live in a culture where doing more, having more, and working harder are valued above pretty much everything else. This is a dangerous attitude, a linear approach to life that denies the need for rest and renewal. Of course, if you constantly push yourself, you know it will lead to burnout. If you operate as if you have an infinite capacity to do and never rest, sooner or later you will get the message in some form that it is time to slow down.
We are in the process of finalizing the details of a Tai Chi Cloud Hands workshop with Robert Tangora this fall in Boston, from October 26-28. As preparation for the workshop, I will be teaching a fall course at Brookline Tai Chi, covering the basic mechanics of Cloud Hands, as well as the prep exercises from Robert’s newly published book. I’m really looking forward to taking everyone at Brookline Tai Chi through these exercises and at the same time, working with members of the Inner Form coaching program to improve their Cloud Hands practice.
