Even In Pauses

My last article in The Vital Force was about awareness of weight in the feet during the rest pose that facilitates grounding. Continuing that topic, let’s consider various brief pauses/rests in Carry The Ball To The Side (CTBTTS), Pulling Taffy, and Pulling Taffy, Variation 1, Anchor. Each time we come into the rest position, do we really ground, come into stillness, with both feet firmly planted and evenly weighted, with our awareness fully present in the soles of our feet?

Sometimes the rest is just a pause, as between the three sets of CTBTTS, but even then the pause should be long enough – just a heartbeat or two – for us to feel both feet evenly weighted. The same applies to Pulling Taffy and Pulling Taffy, Variation 1, Anchor. Each time as we come into a rest position, take an extra second to feel the weight flow evenly into both feet before moving on. One thing that sets TCC apart from other forms of T’ai Chi is the balance of movement and stillness throughout the practice. Stillness, whether a second or five or fifteen seconds, should be honored and given our full attention/awareness.

I’m also exploring the fullness of receiving weight at the end of each weight shift. In class as we are moving I sometimes say, “Glide, arrive, glide, arrive,” stretching out the word glide twice as long (two beats) as the word arrive (one beat). The goal is to feel the weight evenly fill the bottom of the foot when “arriving” at the end of each weight shift. This may be helpful if there’s a tendency to shift the weight too far forward, creating lightness in the heel of the front foot. This may also help with awareness in bringing the weight completely to the back leg and foot, if there’s a tendency to not fully shift the weight all the way coming back.

In our longer rest poses, such as between the left and right of a movement or at the end of a movement, I feel as if a plug is removed from the bottom of my feet and there is a draining downward which is immediately being replaced with a calm, vibrant stillness. Sometimes this process takes three or four seconds, sometimes five, six or seven. When it’s done there’s a feeling of completeness.

Each of us will experience the ground/rest pose in our own way. It’s important to make it our own, to become aware of how we are feeling. Also, it might be helpful for other teachers to share in The Vital Force how they feel the grounding pose and what feelings or visualizations they use to ground the energy.