Sunrise was at 7:01 this morning. It was a washout, very cloudy and warm. Virtually no wind so the nsrms (no-see-um's) were very pesky. At one point about 7:10 ish there was a little bit of color way south off in the distance. The curvature of the earth is visible on the horizon. I think it's because of the super wide expanse of the Atlantic Ocean. An unobstructed view of the Atlantic Ocean visible from the beach.
The Practice:
I started with a round of The 10+. I have many variations and permutations that I use. This changes day to day according to how I feel and what I need to work on. The biggest change I've made recently is to just 'do it'! I'm back to full warm ups, giving the warm up priority. Those simple qigong and neigong are essential to 'getting it'. IF the principles are not in play during simple movements and stillness then it will not be in more complicated forms like the T'ai Chi Ch'uan solo form, weapons or Bagua Zhang.
Next I did a Round (right side).
The mental focus this morning was 'swimming in air'.
*My personal variation is swimming in salt water. Many years of scuba diving has given me a ton of experience in salt water. Combining the feeling of scuba diving while doing T'ai Chi Ch'uan did several things; I simultaneously felt light and buoyant, while I could still feel the resistance of the water! All the while I could also feel Zhong Ding in the field of earth gravity.
When you scuba dive you use a BCD (Buoyancy Control Device.) A BCD is a vest that has a bladder that you can fill with air from your tank. You can also bleed air out of the BCD with the ultimate goal of being neutrally buoyant at depth.
Next I reviewed Anyo #6 (Anim) and Chinto Kata. I added awareness of Zhong Ding throughout. Challenging on the beach.
Notes:
Because there was no wind the nsms were awful this morning. Made me wish for a little breeze! But it was warm on the beach.
GG and Echo came down for a visit
We saw this mother and daughter walking
I saw these little guys scampering after breakfast.........