At this time of year, you hear a lot about New Year’s resolutions. This year, I was happy to see a lot of people saying “New Year’s resolutions don’t work.” We all know that’s true from personal experience, but these folks were referencing a growing understanding about how learning and skill-building take place. Most of what we now know about how the nervous system works flies in the face of changing through the strength of your willpower alone. ...
I got an email the other day that was a little bit different than the usual requests for lessons. It read: “I learned the Short Form at Brookline Tai Chi under the tutelage of Bill Ryan back about 1996-1997. For seven years, I continued to do the short form three times every morning. Then for the past eight years or so, I have done the short form four times every morning. ...
Frozen shoulder is one of those terms that people accept with resignation and it seems like a plausible explanation…until you start to poke around in your own nervous system. If you’ve ever been told you have a frozen shoulder, I urge you to look a little bit beyond the (overly) simple mechanical explanation. Obviously, I’m not diagnosing your shoulder from a YouTube video, but I just want you to ask a few more questions and try these two experiments: ...
In this case study, you’ll see how Kevin improved his Cloud Hands and Swings through video feedback. While you can follow a guided practice for the standing qigong portion of Energy Gates, doing a follow-along for the moving exercises doesn’t really help you improve your practice, so feedback is key. Going through the process of not only getting a correction, but watching yourself before and after, helps you internalize the new movement pattern. If you are just told to change the way you are moving, sometimes the new pattern is so different from what you are used to that you can’t feel the difference, and the correction doesn’t stick. ...
In just ten minutes of head-to-toe movement, you can get rid of stiff joints in the morning. What’s the secret? There isn’t one really…you just have to move every single joint. Z Health exercises for joint mobility give you an easy template to use to get this done, though. Check out this example of head-to-toe joint mobility: The metronome-like quality of the music got me. Sorry! You know why I like metronomes. ...
As part of the State of the Art survey, I asked people to explain what drew them to Tai Chi initially and what keeps them interested. I was also curious to know more about what role, if any, Tai Chi plays in their physical health, mental/emotional wellbeing and spiritual development. Weighty stuff, I know. People came back with some surprising and great answers. Here are a few: ...
Just a quick note to let you know that if you missed Sunday’s webinar on the Three Swings from Opening the Energy Gates, you can check out a replay here.
A successful movement practice -- one that fuels you, nourishes you, and lets you explore your mind and body -- is built on these 5 pillars: 1. Basic Instruction The first pillar of your movement practice is basic instruction. No matter what kind of movement art you are learning, you need some clear and simple "how-to" instruction to get going. There are three main ways to get basic instruction: in-person with a qualified teacher, through high quality DVDs and books, or through free resources like articles, YouTube videos, and tutorials on the web. ...
Lately, I’ve been trying to do somesinking during standing qigong, in addition to other practices, like opening and closing, but I don’t get the full calming effect of the sinking. This is a problem, because it gets a lot of energy moving and something this manifests as more anger than I would like. What should I do?
This year, why not persuade your friends and family to be a little healthier and move better? I know that’s always a tricky area to wade into, so I’ve picked out a few things below that will help anyone become better educated about movement and inspire them to act (or trick them into it, depending on how you look at it!). Check them out: The Perfect Shoe If you ask me how many pairs of Vivo Barefoot shoes I own, I would ask you if you mean for just wearing around or for tai chi or for formal occasions. I’m only kind of kidding… ...