tai chi in park slope

                              Children playing,  automatically find that relaxed and alert posture.  How do we get back there?  As an adult,  it will take conscious attention, thinking about it, and silently asking those top neck vertebrae to align themselves in an upright stack.                               I try whenever I can remember to practice the tall, lifted head, when I'm walking the dog,  or just walking...whenever I think of it.

Again, at the risk or being repetitive, class, let me remind you, "Imagine a long thread arising from the crown of your head and running up to the sky. "  and adding something to the effect that this is the position your head should take in taiji.  It should rise up from your spine and sit regally at the top of the last vertebra ,  aspiring to literally great heights. I must say something along these lines once every class.   And no-one minds.  Necks for a moment seem to straighten and extend a little bit,  eyes gazing calmly straight ahead,  yet  within the next few minutes, or less,  they scrunch back down.   The eyes follow,  seeming to search the floor as the student tries to get the foot in the right position for the next move.    We joke -- is there an uneven floorboard, or even a dangerous crevasse you might fall into?  (The floors in my studio at Spoke the Hub are  those sprung wood dance floors with nary a speck of dust btw) And then we  all smile in self-recogn