The Details:
It's 46 at the house. I plan on going into The Studio to teach the 8:00 am Taiji and Qigong Class. I had a response from 4 students that were planning on attending and two of them cancelled out at the last minute and I ended up with two students for the class; Jack F. and Lucy it was great to have folks to talk to about what I've been working on and great to do a round with students that practice and know the sequence of the form.
The Practice:
I started with Jack talking about the topics below. I had sent an email to myself so I had that to refer to. That worked out great.
Topics for Taiji Class this morning:
- Correct thinking
- Consistency tops Intensity
- Feel the earth/floor pushing up against the bottoms of your feet. Follow the Jin upward along the 9 Zig Zag Path.
- Abdominal Breathing - The key is in and out through the nose with the tip of the tongue against the hard palate (roof of the mouth). The abdomen is active the rib cage is passive, keep the rib cage directly on top of the pelvic floor. (Breathing in the heart enlarges, breathing out the heart becomes smaller). TLB (Taoist Longevity Breathing) stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest) = Calmer and more relaxed state of mind. Feel the floating ribs move to the sides. Keep the chest from lifting, but rather expand the entire rib cage in 360 degrees, especially the floating ribs and back.
- Express Jin in the fingertips (even if it's an external movement to begin with)
After presenting the above material for consideration we did a round of The 10+ focused on adjusting the mind set to reflect the principles and functional exercises that help in daily life and encourages longevity.
Next we did a Round (right side) I recited my version of the Taiji Classics during Part I. I encouraged using neutral postures and observing the 'space' between the postures. I pointed out that the form is more about transitions from posture to posture as opposed to actually training the postures.
We ended (out of time) with Standing Post Training and Healing Qigong.