practice tai chi

yes sure, i love yoga as much as everyone and their mother. but i took a tai chi class my last semester of college. and though i almost failed it (we had a tournament required as part of our grade and i slept through it… typical of me) i really enjoyed it. i think people misunderstand it as they used to misunderstand yoga. but now that yoga is so huge…
blah blah blah, anyway… i did tai chi chuan (sp? i think that’s right) and i have all my info from the class… i just need to motivate myself to remember it all. perhaps i’ll take another class in the future.

My partner and daughter and I did this for 9 months, ending about a year ago for financial reasons. I tried to find a place indoors or out to regularly practice, but failed and stopped trying. Monday, we started classes again with our old Sifu. It’s coming back pretty quickly. I felt pretty charged up after the first class. There are three classes a week, and I want to hit at least two of them each week. Our schedules might mean that each of the three of us go to different classes.

kata

The two major forms are

A. Mechora [not to be confused with ‘robot’] a fluent kung-fu like motion based on my concept of perpetual machines

B. Dragonfly form—a single hand may be made to look like its 3 million years old hovering and whirring over garden gates

[self-noting self-indulgence; lately I’ve been pondering all too seriously the expression that only the mad declare their sanity]

i want to practice taichi and feel while doing so, i have larnt how to do the steps. i want to be able to forget myself thoughtout not get the feel then lose it. i want to feel.

Well, I HAVE done it, and done it seriously and for an extended amount of time. In fact, I got really good at it and if I can find a decent class, or even the written-out directions of the form I learned before, I will gladly start it up again. But for now, it does not need to be on my list. I have many, many things to do that are more interesting to me now.

L/E/M out . . . Namaste

I went last night. It was at a facility about 12 miles from my house and ended up not really being worth the drive over there.

The classroom was hot. Not just hot. Stuffy. Hot and stuffy is not a condition conducive to Chi.

The teacher talked a lot about what he believed and chose to swear to make his point. Not conducive to ME.

Then, there was no mirror in this room and he stopped talking altogether while doing the form. He was facing away from us so we couldn’t see what he was doing at all and without even a clue of instruction, it was rather pointless to be there. It was like, “let’s stand here watching him do his exercises” class.

And to top it off, he barely did suggestions of the moves. Most of what he did was merely waving back and forth.

Frustrating. Especially after looking forward to it. Hmmph.

This morning I got out the instructional DVD my instructor gave me when I was first learning tai chi. I did the basic warm-ups and two cycles of the chi kung routine. The familiar warmth returning to my extremities and tightness of my thighs reminded me how much my body has missed this as I stopped practicing for a year. Now I only need to keep doing it at least five days a week.

I emailed the teacher I had way back when I was doing tai chi before to ask what the prices are these days.

It’s not too bad, $75 for 2 classes a week. This will become a bigger priority when I get some of the other things out of the way. Then, when I can concentrate on making this happen- well, we’ll see…

I used to do it, and I want to get back into it. Money and time are of course big issues right now. But there’s gotta be a way to get this back into my life.