Feel The Chi?

Why? Because it is T’ai Chi Chih. Because it is scrumptiously delicious. Because it is all, because it is love, because it is life inside you and me.

How can we feel the Chi?

• by letting go;

• by slowing down;

• by paying attention to all the nuances in the body;

• by being strong, rooted in the feet and light in the body, soft and powerful all at once, flowing from the tan t’ien;

• by opening and relaxing the wrists to encounter the air;

• by letting go completely.

For my presentation, I chose three movements: Rocking Motion, Daughter in the Valley and Pulling Taffy.

Before the start of the movement, we surrender to the place where we stand; we let go totally; the shoulders drop, the arms and hands hang along the body and we breathe; we get quiet; we drop in the body and we notice, so we can start to feel. We get ready to start moving and we release again allowing the tan t’ien to take us in its flow. And the minute we end the movement, we let go, standing tall, rooted, aligned and free to just be. Totally delicious, scrumptious.

Feeling the Chi means understanding all the principles that Justin gave us about how to move. With those, TCC can teach us TCC. That first glimpse of feeling it in the body will show you the way… if you pay attention and listen closely. We all can do this since we know how to move and because we know the principles of how to move. Those are the secrets. So there are no secrets. We want to focus and flow from the tan t’ien, to allow the waist, wrists and hands to be relaxed and opened, to release stress from the body by letting go of tension, to move with softness and continuity, to be aware of the polarity and circularity… and to be patient while we move and with ourselves.

When there is polarity, let’s make sure there is polarity. Let’s not miss it. When palms of the hands face one another, can we feel their energetic connection? Can we feel the polarity even when they pass each other so quickly in Pulling Taffy? Yes. We bring our attention immediately into the palms of the hands; we slow down a smidgen, still flowing. We feel it for sure, we feel our feet strong and rooted on the floor and we let it flow inside. We become mindful, not thinking, light in the body. Delicious! 

From the beginning, we become aware of that heavy air and our wrists and palms moving through it. We become aware of the connection between the hands, the connection of the feet with the floor; we make it count, we notice. And we let go more and more.

TCC is an “exercise” in letting go – letting go even of the idea of how it should be.

We are aligned, we move slowly, we are aware of our feet that support us, we flow from the tan t’ien, allowing the movements to be full before they turn into their opposite, yinning and yanging without hurrying. We let the movement unfold with softness and power, with strength and grace, and we become aware of every little nuance, freeing ourselves from trying too hard, from reaching too far or not enough; we listen inside and let each movement come alive all the way to the fingertips and the toes. Alive inside and outside, we become aware of our own self. That is love.

What an amazing practice! Thank you, Justin, for this gift.