Greetings. This week I am offering a couple of ideas to help you find more enjoyment in your practice. I wish you well.
Posture
Man’s posture is mostly determined by how he thinks he should look and move. We are conditioned to stand and move in ways that we have been taught from the outside, and these are mostly determined by society. Think of the posture of a soldier, a model, a bully, a loser. We can pick out these people just by how they stand and move. An actor can come on stage, and without saying a word, we can know a great deal about this character. What he will do and how he will react in a situation. The goal of a Tai Chi practice is to form feelings from the inside out, so as to harmonize and balance our body. We move from thinking to feeling, from outside in to inside out. Instead of causing situations, we react to them. Instead of pushing, we join with, and flow with, the energy. Just act naturally, and allow yourself to grow and change, and be who you are at this moment.
Sensation
As you progress in your practice of Tai Chi, you will start to feel various sensations as the energy moves into and through the body. It is important to view these as sensations, not pleasure or pain. If we think pleasure and pain, we will seek one and reject the other, and that will most assuredly cause us to miss the reality of the moment. Examine your body sensations closely in order to gain an understanding of how the body works, and how it is put together. There is no good or bad energy. Energy is just energy and, as it moves through your body, it will interact with your structure to cause sensations. As you become more sensitive, you will be able to detect ever more subtle forms of energy movement and its results. One of the major ideas of Tai Chi as a healing art and a martial art is to become so sensitive to chi flow that we can tell if it starts to get too yin or too yang, and be able to deal with it before it becomes out of balance. Remember, every big problem started out small, and if we examine ourselves daily through Tai Chi practice, we will be able to keep ourselves in balance and optimum health.