_This is a guest post from my friend and fellow instructor, Paul Cavel. I asked Paul to talk a little bit about his experience teaching all over Europe and what he’s learned after nearly 20 years doing it. There are some great insights here about the internal energy arts that you can apply to your own practice, whether you teach or not. Take note when he talks about practice mindset! _ ...
One of the most counter-intuitive feelings in qigong, Tai Chi, or Ba Gua is the way that making more space inside the body allows you open more outwardly as well. In these two Inner Form office hours video clips, I show Brendan how making more space in the kwa and shoulder’s nest can help her take a more connected step in her circle walking practice and develop a more fluid single palm change. ...
Recently, on the Insight Taiji Facebook group, we got into a fascinating discussion about the challenges of teaching and the different kinds of student expectations that come across as teachers. As much as this was framed as a teacher’s dilemma, I felt that I came away with some lessons about how I set my own expectations as a student as well. Anthony Court has been studying systems of health, healing, meditation and self-defense for over 41 years. He has taught and given workshops in Britain and Southern Ireland, and holds regular classes in Wales. Anthony started the discussion with this reflection: ...
In this Office Hours recording, we discuss: How to extend your standing qigong practice beyond 20 minutes. The best way to deal with chronically tight muscles while standing. How to relax without collapsing internally. What’s next for your internal organs after you develop a strong breathing practice. How to connect a skill like twisting the soft tissue of the arms to the guts. Download the Office Hours recording here.
One of your practice goals should be to be able to make sense of other people’s movement patterns. Learning how to watch someone move, and see what’s going on, is going to give you really valuable information that you can then apply to your own practice. In the following video clip, I demonstrate two different gait patterns, with different arm swings. If you can start to see how the arm swing differs between the two, you’ll start to gain some valuable insight into how to assess and correct your own movement imbalances. ...
When you see a series of exercises, you can either look at what’s common to all of them, or how they are different. In this video, I go through several variations of turning exercises, where I’m using the connection between the legs and the spine to drive body movement. Most people will look at the arms in each exercise and say, “those are not the same movements” and that’s true, but they would be missing the most important part: how the legs turn the body. ...
Next session at Brookline Tai Chi, we are re-introducing a course on the Marriage of Heaven and Earth Qigong. In preparation for the course, I sat down with several Energy Arts instructors who are certified to teach this set, to discuss why these exercises are beneficial, how they related to other forms of qigong, and what it’s like for people to learn some of the stranger techniques involved, like “pulsing” the joints. ...
Twisting, especially the legs, is one of those techniques that sounds really cool, but it easy to overdo. Going slow and steady with twisting can help everything loosen up. My advice: at first work on feeling what naturally happens rather than trying to make something happen. Develop sensitivity. In this “office hours” clip, we look at twisting the legs in Cloud Hands and troubleshoot some of her stuck spots. We went on to explore the “rings” of the legs, which are horizontal bands of tissue running around the legs. At first, when you work with the rings, you use them as markers for developing better feeling awareness of the soft tissue. Later on, the rings can be adjusted, increasing their internal or external rotation, to fine-tune your leg alignments. ...
Eyercize is a free, web-based reading pacer that turns any text into a speed reading exercise. But, you can do more than just read faster using Eyercize. You can actually improve how you move, if you follow these simple training guidelines. Part of the reason I’m so excited about Eyercize is how easy it is to use. Check out this video demo where I show you how to turn any web page into a eye training exercise: ...
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know I love a challenging practice problem. One of our Inner Form members wrote to me and said, “I need more flexibility, but I don’t have time to add a whole other stretching routine to my current practice. What can I do?” I have good news if you’ve been mulling over a similar practice problem. It all comes down to how you understand flexibility. ...