Making Me Happy

When I do Daughter in the Valley (DITV), I’m thinking about zipping up, feeling, and strengthening the Chi in my body. Since Chi follows thought, by visualizing it, I can really feel it, and it makes me smile. A few key points here include: polarity (it’s very powerful in DITV and felt in different ways); softness (in the shoulders, arms, wrists, and fingers); elbows do not rise (everything with the arms is done from the elbows down so that the elbows rest by our sides); and arms and hands are in front of the body throughout. I mention this because many people bring their hands too far back and then extend their circle backward to the sides too far, breaking the flow of Chi with tension. This can be a difficult movement to get the flow right, but once you do, it’s a beautiful thing.

We begin by sinking and getting our weight on the right leg while bringing the hands up. Once in position, the left leg steps forward (straightening) and the heel softly touches down as we shift our weight. The whole thing here is continuity, moving and flowing as one unit. As we shift our weight forward, the arms circle out and extend downward, letting go into the valley where the palms meet and face each other with the fingers pointing toward the earth. For me, this happens just as my foot flattens out. The palms are close but not touching. Feel the polarity. Our wrists are soft and relaxed. As we begin the journey up the center of the mountain, we continue shifting our weight forward. The wrists rotate upward, following that weight shift. When we are all the way forward, the wrists are in front of us and starting to round up with fingers rising towards the sky. As we shift backward, the wrists follow, moving towards our body in unison. Feel the polarity. Just before our weight is all the way back on the right leg, our palms begin to separate and move straight outward following the collarbone and shoulders. Fingers are still aimed at the sky. Enjoy the polarity, being aware of when it begins to dissipate. (For me this is when my hands are about shoulder width apart.)

When it’s time to come back to a graceful conclusion, we shift our weight backwards, enjoying the powerful Chi and polarity between our palms. We shift until our weight is completely on the back leg and our hands are nearly shoulder width apart. Moving as one unit, the back leg begins to straighten as the palms turn outward and simultaneously float straight down at our sides – all while our left leg comes back to join the right and we sink to conclusion.