A close up of Hall of Happiness by Prof. Cheng Man-Ching
The Details:
It's 62 at the house. It rained last night and it's damp but it's not currently raining. Yay! Sunrise was at 5:49.
The Practice:
I started out in the driveway. It was lightly raining so I did most of my personal practice in the apron on my garage in front of my Volvo.
I started with a brief warm up followed by a Round (left side) I focused on consistent daily practice and the health benefits that produces. Taiji and Qigong/Neigong are truly marvelous exercises.
I have gratitude and appreciation that I have these skills to bring into old age. (bow)
Next I drove my Volvo to Hatfield to meet with Paul for 10 am.
When I got to Paul's we went upstairs to his Taiji Room
We started with:
- Up and Down trying to move the elbows above the head (big open movements)
- #1 stretching and opening going back and all the forward like tying your shoes.
I added palms up and down to promote the flow of Qi
- #2 attempting to reach as high as possible
- #8 (functional exercise) squating as low as possible.
Next we did:
- Open and close the hands to prepare for pad work
- Jab and Cross to focus pads w/ stance work. The bouncing did not work. I suspect that it was just too fast and his sneakers got caught up on the floor.
- A round of Part I of the Taiji Solo Form slightly pausing in each posture and talking out loud throughout the round to help prompt the postures.
- Big Circles in both directions
- Single Arm Push-Hands first with resistance. Paul was closing his eyes without prompting.
- We ended with walking first counter clockwise then reversing direction.