tai chi in park slope

 This morning,  in my qigong class,  I introduced the classic t'aiji image  -- a needle in cotton -- that like so much of t'aiji and qigong, is delightful and mysterious.  What it signifies to me is  -- is nothing less than becoming t'ai chi.   what I mean by that is that you will change and in a magnificent direction.   One day -- after years of  waving your arms around gently and stepping firmly and turning your waist  as instructed,   one day,  you will feel this odd new ... connection.   Your breath enters and leaves, you might feel a tingling in your wrists and suddenly your limbs are weightless.   It's so hard to convey.  I feel I"m not succeeding and I'm not sure that this writer,  Danny Dreyer,   does the job much better but I"m going to let him try.      I'm excerpting from his book,  T'ai Chi Walking,  to better explain it “NEEDLE IN COTTON: GATHER TO YOUR CENTER AN...

"in class, we move hands like clouds and when we leave class, we walk on clouds"  In a nutshell, the piece summarizes a recent study reported on this past April, about the benefits of t'ai chi in improving balance and alleviating arthritic pain.  This is a finding that has been reported on repeatedly, but it never hurts to remind ourselves.  I believe that improved balance is perhaps the most striking and confirmable benefit of regular t'ai chi practice.   Re back pain:   A report that came out earlier in the year --  The scientific community seldom recognizes t'ai chi among the mindfulness techniques. Anyway,  there was an exception recently.   The American College of Physicians published last spring a new study re back pain.   Basically, it states  that someone suffering pain should not "medicalize" the problem -- in other words, don't go the route of X-rays, MRIs and def not opioids.  But DO go the non-medical route. to qu...

a season's greetings card We can all feel it -- the coming into the major holiday season which will culminate in an eternally  hyped up New Years.   It's, as oft-noted, very commercial,  ironically materialistic  and the season  sometimes feels like just too much!  (If I hear the little drummer boy piped into the supermarket one more time kind of thing)    But there's a lot of fun stuff, --  joyful giving and receiving of gifts, the  coming together to eat food that's not good for you, just in general  "being merry"  on the streets, in friends'  homes.   But, well.   sigh.  deep sigh.    sometimes there's a sadness mixed in.   Many of us remember happier times,  or feel more sharply,  losses that have occurred over the past year. and before.   The holidays can be as difficult as they can be merry.      I've drawn from the Taoist philosopher, ...

On this eve of Thanxgiving 2019,   I'm finished shopping for the dish I plan on making for tomorrow's feast -- simply roasted caramelized veggies -- and I find myself with a little free time.                                                                               So I begin to noodle around on-line looking for the date of next year's  World T'aichi  Day (WTCD)  and voila!    It's the last Saturday in April,  aka  April 25.    My class and I have been chatting for a couple years now about possibly hosting our own demonstration/class in honor of this banner day.  And something in my bones tells me that next year,  that is 2020,  is it!    What shall we do?  Teach some of our favorite qi-gong move...

Some final prescriptions from the Lou Reed international Tai Chi Day The impresario of this day-long event and celebration was Laurie Anderson.  Anderson is known of course for her pithy,  wry and wildly inventive performance art.  But on  this mild summer day at the Brooklyn Public Library day she wasn’t in her performance mode — at least not at first.  LAnderson led the early comers  (of whom there were at least 100) in a meditation.  But unlike most meditation leaders she didn’t stay quiet!  True to herself and here’s where her irrepressible propensity for performance came in Anderson  talked through our 20 minute meditation almost constantly.  But no one seemed to mind.  Laurie was hilarious and wise And she left us with a few pithy,  wry words of advice 1.       Don’t be afraid of anyone 2.    Get a really good bs detector and learn how to use it 3.    Be really tender...

As the summer winds slowly down and we resume the hectic lives of busy New Yorkers and before the slipping into our fall gear is fully realized,  let me just post a couple pics from the 1st ANNUAL LOU REED TAI CHI DAY!  About a half dozen of us met for a picnic, some qi gong, and then a wow of a performance choreographed by Laurie Anderson and her wondrous partner and husband -- alas,  deceased -- Lou Reed.   The bandshell was literally throbbing with his ambient music.   It was overpowering,  thrilling.  and for a brief moment I thought of downloading some of it for our classes.  Then I thought,  no,  it's too much.  Then I thought why not.  So we will probably try it. Anyway,   here are some pics.    Thank you Ting for bringing such delicious treats!  Thank you Alex for demonstrating your soccer moves and keeping two energetic boys enthralled,  thank you Nancy and Michael -- it was such a great eve...

My July post is going to be brief.  It's just too hot and impossible  for in depth post-making.   So,  a very short note which may give you some pause.  There's the  phrase in t'ai chi,  "fighting based on softness."   In today's world, this may be more metaphor than prescription  How many of us need to physically fend off enemies, or prepare for battle?  I hope its very very few!  (though we still have a military mindset in this country,  that's based. on literal heavy artillery.  We're in the mindset in this particular moment in our nation history particularly that we have to fight aggression with physical aggression but that's probably a digression)    So,  the point to maybe meditate on.  Why does fighting have to be hard?   Why does one need to combat ones enemy with force?  The idea of fighting aggression with softness.  It's quite something isn't it? stay cool... ...