Author: Payton Swick

Vegan. Digital craftsman. Tea explorer. Avid learner of things. Writes code @automattic.

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Schedule

Tai Chi Fundamentals Begins February 7th

On Tuesday, February 7th, I will begin my final Fundamentals course of the Winter. This will be at 7:30-8:30pm on Tuesday evenings at the North End Studios (see my class page for more information).

In April I will be traveling to China and hopefully will be able to bring back some interesting Qi knowledge to share in the summer. I will post about more classes at that time.

If you’d like to try out the Tai Chi material, now is a great time to do it. The depths of the slow, crawling Winter are past and the days are lengthening. The energy of the sun is becoming stronger and our own energies are beginning to stir, even though true Spring is still far off.

If you’d like to try a class without committing to the whole course, you are welcome to show up on either the first or second week. I’m also happy to work with your schedule to provide private instruction if desired.

May snow and sun nourish your days.

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Theory

Tai Chi and the Dishes

How do you wash the dishes? This is one of those things that, I think, everyone has to do (at least once you stop putting it off). But how exactly do you wash plates, cups, and spoons? It’s no simple task to judge the weight and shape of every piece in a pile of objects, choose one, then hold it in one hand while using the other to clean its contours. At the same time, you visually assess the object for debris, add soap and water as needed, and then stack it someplace for drying.

Of course we don’t think about any of those things. We just wash the dishes and try to be done with it so we can go back to playing our Tai Chi forms (heh).

What I see here is a perfect microcosm of the fundamental principle of Yi or intent in life. We are not usually present with our individual actions when we go to wash the dishes. We are not conscious of what we’re doing. But as Thich Nhat Hanh cautions,

If while washing dishes, we think only of the cup of tea that awaits us, thus hurrying to get the dishes out of the way as they were a nuisance, then we are not “washing the dishes to wash the dishes.” … If we can’t wash the dishes, the chances are we won’t be able to drink our tea either. (Thich Nhat Hanh)

When you practice Tai Chi long enough, you can perform postures and transitions without thought, but this is not Tai Chi, nor is it really “alive”. The idea of using “intent” is to fully be present with each movement of the body (or hey, the mind!) while playing your Tai Chi form or while working on any task.

As I pick up a bowl, I feel its weight in my hand, supporting it (Peng) while I move in my other hand to begin cleaning. If I find my attention wandering to other events, I gently bring it back to the bowl, telling myself, “I am washing this bowl right now; the other thing can wait.”  Often I will get impatient with the endless sea of bowls and try to speed up my washing, a tactic I’m well aware has broken many bowls! When the bowl is clean, I need to get it to the rack, so I shift my weight smoothly to one foot and rotate my body using my hips so I can comfortably place the bowl in its place. If instead I were to stretch my arm to the side and twist my torso, I may find that my lower back is sore later (for some weird reason). Tai Chi alignments aren’t just for the form.

In Tai Chi we never stretch when we could comfortably reach and if we cannot comfortably reach we move our core (or your lower dantien) to make the distance easier. With a little practice, the art of lift, wash, turn and set down, lift, wash, turn and set down can become a rhythmic qigong set in itself (I believe Tai Chi is just applied qigong anyway). It’s at the least more interesting than just creating clean dishes. Keep the focus turned inward on your body and its motion and your “chore” can even be relaxing.

Now what about the breath? I’ll leave that as an exercise for you. When my mind is present with the actions, my breath is smooth and even. If I am moving in straight, jerky lines, my breath is also jerky and tense. As you put your hands in the water, take a moment and feel your breathing. What does it feel like for you? Practice letting your breathing become soft and gentle before picking up the next plate.

If you clean out the sink before you know what happened, you may have made some progress in your Tai Chi.

  1. Nhat Hanh, Thich (1975,1976). Miracle of Mindfulness, A Manual on Meditation. Boston: Beacon Press books. ISBN 0-8070-1232-7
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Schedule

New Session Next Week

A new Tai Chi class will be starting next week! I think Tai Chi in 2012 is going to be even better than 2011, but I’ll let you be the judge of that. Come find out!

A new session begins January 10th at the North End Studio in Burlington or January 9th at the Chace Mill.

Both the Chace Mill class and the North End Studios class are the same material, so I invite people to choose which class fits their location and schedule the best. The Chace Mill class is at 6:45pm on Monday evenings and the North End Studios class is at 7:30pm on Tuesday evenings.

In the classes we’ll learn the Eight Foundation postures of Wu style Tai Chi and a great many principles that underlie both Tai Chi and Qigong. I like to put a lot of emphasis on how Tai Chi can be useful in daily life and focus less on choreography.

No experience or special clothes required. If you’d like any more details, just let me know or check out my classes page.

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Schedule

New class at the Chace Mill

Starting on January 9th, I’ll now be offering a second Beginners class at the Chace Mill building in addition to my class at the North End Studios.

Two classes? Which one do you take? Well, just like in Tai Chi itself, find the path that’s most comfortable for you. The class at the North End Studios is near downtown Burlington and is on Tuesday evenings from 7:30pm-9pm. The Chace Mill class is closer to Winooski and is on Monday evenings from 6:45pm-8pm. Perhaps one of these times or locations is better suited to you.

For more details about the classes, see my classes page and please sign up by sending me an email or giving me a call.

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Theory

Tai Chi Classics: All Parts Connected

The first verse of the Tai Chi Classics by Chang San-feng reads,

Once you begin to move, the entire body must be light and limber. Each part of your body should be connected to every other part. (Liao)

The emphasis here is on lightness and connection. While playing Tai Chi, it is possible to move the hand, the arm, the leg, and the foot, but this view can be misleading. If the hand moves, it naturally moves the arm as well. As the arm moves, so too does the shoulder. As the shoulder moves, the torso is affected, and so on. This is obvious in large motions, but remains true in subtle motion as well.

One summary for Tai Chi I’ve used in the past is that, externally, it is the art of dealing with force: yours, your environment’s, or someone else’s. Sometimes this force is the weight of your body on a stair, and sometimes it’s a heavy bag in your hand. If any force is applied to your body, it is possible to feel that force in many other parts of your body as well. Of course, you may not feel it in some places. In order to feel (and respond well) to force, you must be soft and light. Parts of the body that are tense or hard have lost their spring and cannot transfer energy very well. Force that enters those areas can become stuck. Worse, without a full connection, that stuck force can stagnate and spread the tension to other parts of the body.

What does this mean in practical terms? If your hand is tense, your whole body will carry some of that tension as well. If you make a hard fist, the pressure of that contraction will also be evident in your arm, in your shoulder, and maybe your face and neck. Perhaps more dangerous, when allowed to remain, that contraction can appear in your breathing. Similarly, if your breath is tight and shallow, your movement will never be completely relaxed. This tells us that we need to check in with all the parts of our body regularly (during a Tai Chi form or anytime, really) and try to relax any tension we find in order to help release tension in other places as well.

That said, if my body is not well connected, then relaxing my face may not have much of an effect on a my tight lower back, but it’s likely to have an effect on my neck and shoulders. You never know where you’ll find a connection; some may surprise you. Try it and find out!

So how do we improve connection? Another translation of this classic reads,

In motion the whole body should be light and agile, 
with all parts of the body linked as if threaded together. (Scheele)

This gives us another analogy. Imagine a thread pulled taut; if one side is pulled, the other side moves also. This is true for either side of the thread. The body is like this thread. If the thread hangs slack or is tangled, pulling on one side will still affect the other side, but not immediately and not evenly. On the other hand, if the thread is too tense, a single pull will cause it to snap.

To best manage the daily forces that apply to your body (carrying, lifting, pushing, pulling, etc.) you should try to find a level of extension and fullness in your body that removes the slack without creating additional tension. In this way, when the dresser you are pushing suddenly gets stuck, you won’t fall over or wrench your shoulder. Even while walking, it can be helpful to feel and respond to the pressure and feelings you get from your foot in your whole body.

So remember: the body is one piece. You can consider its elements as separate for convenience, but when one part is affected by force or discomfort, so too will some other part. Relax one part, you’ll probably find relaxation everywhere.

1. Liao, Waysun (1977,1990). T’ai Chi Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications. pp. VIII. ISBN 0-87773-531-X.

2. Scheele, Lee N. (2009). T’AI CHI CH’UAN CLASSICS. Retrieved from http://www.scheele.org/lee/classics.html

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Theory

Tai Chi in the Cold

When the temperature starts to drop, many other mammals begin to slow down their activities; not so for humans. Other mammals also grow thick pelts to keep them warm in the ensuing months; for most of us, we start layering on the flannel instead (not a bad idea). There are, however, important lessons to learn in the colder months of the year.

For one thing, cooler temperatures naturally cause our metabolism to slow down. Our ligaments and muscles tighten up a little to retain our body heat. Tai Chi follows the principles of the Tao, one of which is flowing with the natural order of things. To follow the Tao in the cold, you need to feel the conditions outside of your body and respond appropriately. This usually means slowing down and being more gentle with your movements. Where a large stretch or a big reach may have been possible in the Summer, as soon as you feel the first frost you should be mindful that your body’s range of motion is a lot smaller than you might remember. Reduce your speed and focus on moving within about 60% of your full range. Since you won’t be fighting the environment to extend too far or move too fast, you’ll be a lot more comfortable and still be able to get things done.

Another effect of the tightening of the tissues of your body is that your blood flow is greatly reduced. Even though your body is tightening to preserve warmth, it is actually cutting off warmth to your extremities to preserve that heat for your core. Obviously this is a good thing when you might be miles from any source of heat, but in our modern society it can actually cause us to be colder than we need to be (and can make getting home to bask by the fire take that much longer). Much of Tai Chi teaches about relaxing tension in the muscles and joints. Using your sense awareness, you can feel the parts of your body that get tight in the cold (notice especially the armpits and belly). When you feel that tightness, see if you can just let it melt away. If you need help feeling this, just make a tight fist, hold it for a few seconds, and then, very slowly, let it relax. That’s the feeling of releasing muscles. Of course some tension is harder to release than others, and practice will definitely help. If you can relax even a few muscle groups while walking around (or playing the Tai Chi form!), you’ll find you get warmer pretty quick.

So, the next time you have to walk around your house before the heat comes on or when going to work before the sun comes out, take just a few moments to slow down and feel your body. Melt the tension in your muscles as you move. Suddenly it might not seem so cold out there.

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Theory

Tai Chi Vacuum

You’ve heard of Tai Chi Sword, Tai Chi Staff, and Tai Chi Fan. What about… Tai Chi Vacuum?

Ok, this is not a traditional training tool. Still, Tai Chi can be practiced with anything in your hands, and certainly the principles hold true for something as mobile as a vacuum cleaner (or mop or broom). To reiterate from a previous post: anything you touch with your body becomes, in effect, part of your body. You can feel through it, it can influence you, and you can influence it.

The unfortunate truth is that we tend to see many things that we carry as separate from us and, in fact, annoyances. Why should we pay attention to our alignments while vacuuming the floor? We really just want to be done so we can go watch that video online about Tai Chi Spear. This is a mistake. Every repetitive movement is practice. Even if we don’t want it to be practice, even if we really really just want to finish cleaning the carpet, it is practice. From practice, from any repetition, our body learns. Our nervous system creates patterns which can be very hard to break.

Here’s the good news: focusing on an activity like vacuuming or sweeping as Tai Chi can make your chores a lot more interesting. One of the key components of Tai Chi is Yi or Intent. Most of the time when we’re doing a chore over and over again we aren’t using our intent. We aren’t really even there for the sweeping or the cleaning. And yet, our body is still learning from the motions. Since we are teaching our body how to move, why not teach it something worthwhile? Your health depends on it.

The first thing that you’ll find when you start bringing your attention to your body is how your back feels. Uncomfortable? Notice how it’s aligned. If you’re bending forward, make sure to keep your spine straight from your hips to your head. What do I mean by “straight”, though? Not just straight up and down. Straight like the broom handle, meaning lined up from top to bottom even while leaning or tilted. The lean in your body should come from the hips rather than from the back. This will help keep your spine from complaining. Remember that in Tai Chi there is no tension. Straightening your back in this way should be comfortable and relaxed, although it may feel strange at first.

Also pay attention to how you shift your weight. As you move around the room, you’ll be shifting all your weight from one foot to the other many times. How you shift your weight matters. As you shift, try to keep your hips at the same level. If you do move up and down a little, make sure that the both hips move up and down together. Each step forward and back should feel as smooth and gentle as the rolling of a rocking chair.

If you have time, also play with slowing everything down; while you are about to take a step, slightly exaggerate the motion so you have an extra moment before your weight shifts. During that moment notice how balanced you feel. If you find yourself falling over to get to the next step, try to move more carefully and allow even the middle one sweep to feel as stable as the end of the sweep. As you push the vacuum away from you, take care not to over-extend your arms. If you must extend your reach, lean or turn your body and bend your legs to get the added stretch, staying balanced and comfortable the whole time.

Finally we get to the vacuum itself; when you push it along or pull it toward you, are you struggling to move something unwieldy and stiff or (as is the case with a mop) throwing the other end carelessly around? Try to feel the implement you hold as an extension of your arms. Focus on the movement of your hips, rather than your arms, to power the movement of the handle. As you turn a corner, let your hips and your legs do the work, relying on the alignment of your body to carry the motion to your arms.

Vacuuming (or sweeping, or mopping) can be very much like a dancer leading his or her partner around the floor: you can’t just whip your partner where you want to go; you have to feel that your partner has a body and gently guide it from one step to the next, moving together as one. So the next time you start your cleaning, think of it as beginning your practice time. The house will be spotless in no time.

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Schedule

Second Week Coming Up

For those of you who weren’t able to make the first class of the new session, you can still join in! Next Tuesday we’ll review all the information we covered this week and practice both the first and second movements of the Eight Foundations set.

If you’ve come to my classes in the past, remember that we’re at a new location at the North End Studios, Studio B. Please contact me if you have any questions!

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Tai Chi Demo at North End Studios This Saturday

Want a quick (and free) sample of what Tai Chi has to offer? This Saturday afternoon I will be teaching a 25 minute Tai Chi mini-class at the North End Studios beginning at 4:30pm as part of their Grand Opening of Studio A! More info from 7 Days here. No need to sign up. Just stop by and get a few minutes of peace in your Saturday (and enjoy the other fine festivities).

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New Class At North End Studio

A new Tai Chi class is beginning on September 20th at the North End Studio in Burlington. The class will be 8 weeks on Tuesday evenings from 7:30pm through 9. If you’d like to sign up, please email me at payton@greenleaftaichi.com.

As I’d like to make the class open to as wide an audience as possible, the cost will be on a sliding scale from $10 to $20 per class, with the recommended fee at $15. I will soon put up a page to explain this further, but basically if you can afford the $20 fee it will help lower-income folks take the classes as well.