Tai Chi, Concentration and… What was the question again?

You are trying to focus on your Tai Chi training and all of a sudden, BAM - You are mentally scanning the isles of your favorite grocery store or fixing your car, or twenty; of a million other thoughts bouncing through you mind. This week our attention was drawn inward, to the mind. That elusive part of our selves which seems to have a “mind of its own”.

Mental flexibility, concentration, focus, attention; All are ways to describe the practice of exercising our cerebellum. In class, we found some fun ways to determine what level of concentration you have and ways to improve it through your Tai Chi and Qigong practice.

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
During our Qigong warm-ups we posed several challenges including our “Alphabet Meditation” (see below) to add a layer of complexity to the warm ups. When the warm ups moved down the body, many students found it difficult to maintain their focus. This adds more proof to the observation that we have a disjointed connection to our bodies from the Dan Tien (belly button area) down. When a student first begins their Tai Chi training with us, we notice that they are very challenged to connect upper and lower body movements. As they progress in training, the connection begins to establish itself and they become calmer and much more stable. This is what people hear about as “grounding” or becoming “centered”.

Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble
One of our students brought a wonderful device in this week that helped each of us better understand the level of concentration needed to perform Tai Chi properly.
BUBBLE WRAP!! Not just any bubble wrap mind you, but the small bubble kind. Each of us tested our concentration and soft Tai Chi step as we walked our way across those treacherous tattle tales! One lapse in concentration, placing too much emphasis on one of the three points and POP! You were ratted out. We tried the bubble walk with each of our classes and found that it was a wonderful tool for helping students understand the amount of attention needed for proper Tai Chi walking. We found that size had very little to do with it as some of our smaller students popped bubbles and some of our larger students did not.

I would encourage each of you to try it on your own and see how you do. When done properly, Tai Chi Walking is one of the best tools I know of you help develop you strength, sense of balance and a basic understanding of what each step in Tai Chi should feel like.