Tai Chi Chuan – Five Simple Tunes
Here are five simple things you can do to warm up with. I usually rock from foot to foot and do the push posture over and over and over again. Any posture will do however. With each one of these individual foci, I may spend a few seconds or a few minutes, depending on my mood.
The first is being aware of both legs BEFORE you shift. You relax into the leg you are on, AND you line up the un-weighted leg, being sure that you are fully connected to the ground, but with no weight on that foot. It is like a double rooting. One root is full, into the full leg, the other root is empty, into the empty leg. Both get equal attention.
The second tune is simply putting your mind into the tan t’ien (center) and going back and forth with that as a primary focus.
The third is putting your attention on the external oval that surrounds your body. I’ve written about this in a previous blog in greater detail (Polishing the Stone). You focus on balancing and polishing that outer smooth continuous oval that you are contained within.
The fourth is simply feeling the whole chi of the body as you rock back and forth. To me, this means the sensation of every cell participating in the movement. Millions upon millions of cells are contributing to your wholeness. Nothing is left out.
Fifth and final tune, as you sink into the full part of the push posture, your body fills up, the shape is full, and you are extending to the whole room, the universe, with your mind. Your body relaxes accordingly. I’ve written about this one previously in greater detail in blog essay Release Into Form.
These five aspects seem to me to be central to what we want to achieve in our practice.
What can you discover in the midst of reminding yourself of these tai chi functions?
What can you add?
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