Maggie Newman had a few classes a few years ago that asked us to do a very vague yet specific “principle” while doing the form. Polish the stone!
Tai chi is an exercise where we are making ourselves more round and relaxed, more oval-ish and smooth. We are balancing our chi so the whole chi is full and round and soft. We were asked to do the form as if we are polishing our outer surface and making those rough edges and sharp corners smooth. It is as if we are a stone being prepared as a perfect gem. Make the chi smooth, make it glisten, make it round. You are the stone and you are the jeweler, polishing as you go along.
How? Well, therein lies the challenge. No one can tell you how.
Awareness, attentiveness to detail, relaxing, not being hard on yourself, softening the interior so that the exterior is also soft, pulling back where you are sticking out, filling up those areas that are too collapsed, melting away tension that impedes the fullness of the stone to appear, finding ways to hold this precious body in your hand as if it were a precious jewel. It is, after all, the most valuable thing you own. Take care of it.
There is only one way to approach this. Just do it. Explore, discover, play, try some more.
You are the stone, you are the polisher.
See what happens.
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