November 2022: Many Ways to Enjoy a Practice

Sandy McAlister’s message for the November 2022 newsletter was entitled “Many Ways to Enjoy A Practice.” She outlined different ways that TCC can be practiced, including:

• Formal Practice: All 19 movements and the pose in the proper order

• Working Practice: Spending part of practice focusing on a particular movement 

• Play Practice: Doing movements with creative freedom, changing the order or repetitions, etc.

• Tailored Practice: Doing an abbreviated practice for a specific purpose or intention

Teachers shared ideas and examples from teaching and from their personal TCC practice. Exploring the feel of the movements — by consciously practicing too fast or slow, or too big or small — allows one to find the feeling of “just right.” Playing with a tailored and abbreviated sequence of movements can be used to jumpstart your day with feelings of well-being, calm, and joy in a shortened amount of time.

Some teachers used “connected forms” for their personal practice, such as flowing from Daughter on the Mountaintop into Daughter in the Valley. Perhaps this can be thought of as a way to strengthen the principle of continuity. Some described the use of imagery for a particular movement, such as visualizing the pushing away of a negative emotion while pulling in the positive during Push Pull.

There was discussion about the shared energy in a group practice and the value in spending time talking about individual experiences with the group. One teacher shared an enthusiastic account of a new discovery about Passing Clouds after teaching TCC for many years. Perhaps that is a tribute to the idea that our practice of TCC is alive and evolving. As Sandy shared, Justin Stone was fond of quoting Paul Reps: “If it isn’t fun, it is better left undone.”

Sandy and Pam Towne stressed that while we can use what we learn in play and exploration to inform our practice of TCC, it is important to remain true to the practice as it was originated by Justin Stone.