Thanks for watching and over again.
Tai Chi is based on the ancient Chinese concept of yin and yang, the union of opposites.
Full and empty, explosive and flowing, man and woman, heaven and earth.
For over 700 years, it's helped people improve their mental and physical well-being.
And now, more and more Americans are discovering its extraordinary power.
Hi, my name is Doria. These are my students, Jenna and Wendell.
And today we will explore Tai Chi, or as they call it in China, Tai Ji.
Practiced regularly, this method of exercise will tone your body, reduce stress, and give you more self-control.
Over the centuries, five basic styles of Tai Chi have developed.
The yang style taught in this tape is the most popular style in the world today.
We're going to start with a series of exercises that will center your body and focus your attention.
The second part of the tape, you're going to learn five of the 13 basic postures found in most Tai Chi forms.
And in the last section, we're going to take a moment to distribute and settle your energy.
But before we begin, try to find yourself a quiet and private space.
These exercises can be done in flat shoes or bare feet.
But what's really a good idea is to wear loose, comfortable clothing.
Watch this tape at least once through so you can familiarize yourself with the movements
and then let go of any worries you have of learning everything at once.
If you focus on learning one thing at a time, before long you'll be surprised at the improvement in the quality of your life.
We're going to begin our Tai Ji instruction with an ancient breathing exercise.
Place your hands two to four inches below your navel.
This is the place where the Chinese believe that the center of the body is.
Now feel the warmth of your palms sinking in to the middle of your abdomen.
I'm going to be referring to this on the tape several times as the Dan Tian.
That translates to the Xi of Qi.
And Qi means life energy.
Place your tongue lightly on the roof of your mouth, comfortably on the front half.
And watch your breath as you inhale, it goes deep into your abdomen.
And exhale.
Just continue doing this.
Inhale the fresh and exhale the old and used.
This meditative type breathing increases the efficiency of your breath.
You should do it while you're doing Tai Chi and also do it while you're sitting, reading a book,
listening on the phone or sitting in your car.
Inhale and exhale.
Good.
Okay, now the feet.
Place your feet approximately a foot and a fist apart.
This is the proper Tai Ji stance.
You want your toes to be pointing straight ahead.
Take a look down and make sure that they're not sideways.
Because if they're split, then your energy will be split.
And what we're trying to do with Tai Chi is to focus your attention,
get your actions and your mind working together.
By the way, this is very good for your Achilles heel if your toes are pointing straight ahead.
This is the first of two Tai Ji stances that we're going to introduce on this tape.
It's called the horse stance because it resembles hugging a horse with your legs.
Alright, now let's focus on the areas of agility.
Move them with us, the ankle and the ankle.
You want to do left and right all the time.
The knees bend and straighten.
Think of the back of your knee.
Close it and open it.
Great.
And now the top of your legs.
Bend over and open it up.
You're going to close and open.
This is called the qua in China.
And they know that if they can keep this area flexible,
they have a better chance of a long and healthy life.
Now hold the belted waist area and just move the top part of your body.
This too should be flexible.
Hold on to your rib cage and make circles, moving the middle of your back as well.
Reverse.
Make sure your tongue is on the roof of your mouth, breathing deeply.
Now an area that is often holding tension.
Start from the bottom of your body.
It goes through and up.
We're going to make circles.
One of the fundamental principles of Tai Chi is to bring the energy from the ground.
It goes through your body and it's manifested in the upper body.
Great.
And see the circles that you're scribing.
Use your mind by looking peripherally.
Good. Now reverse the circles.
Really use your legs to spring off the tension that you have hidden in this area.
Whole body exercise.
Great.
Now look at your elbows.
Relax your wrists, but just focus on moving the elbows.
I know these are unusual movements, but if you stick with it, you'll begin to feel it.
And reverse.
Very good.
These are familiar places, but we've often forgotten them.
Now your wrists.
Don't move the elbows.
So if they're neglected, tension can hide there for long periods of time
and cause extra stress on our body.
And reverse.
Great.
Here's one.
All the digits in your fingers.
You can do this any way you want, but just put your mind to all the different parts in your hands.
Great. This will increase the circulation there.
Okay. Now the neck.
It has two sections.
The bottom of your neck doesn't get much rotation or bend.
Place your hand on the side of your head.
Without pressing too hard, just enough to strengthen the muscles, press down.
And with your hand, you're going to press your head up.
Don't forget to breathe.
Inhale and exhale, pressing down.
And press up.
Hope you're doing it the same direction I am.
It makes it easier.
Press down.
And press your head up.
Great.
Shake it out a little bit.
And now go to the other side.
Press your hand down with your head.
And press your head up with your hand.
The Shaolin monks did this thousands of years ago, and it worked for them.
Pressing your head up with your hand.
One more time.
Inhale and exhale.
Really enjoy that stretch.
And exhale.
Right.
Okay.
The upper part of the neck, hold onto your lower neck.
And just circle.
Feel the pleasure of focusing in this area.
Reverse.
Do these exercises as many times as you like, sometime during the day.
Great.
Now, lastly, at the top of your head, there's a spot.
It's called the Bao We in China.
It's the place of 100 meetings.
Many different invisible energy pathways meet there.
When you're a baby, it's called the baby soft spot.
Imagine that this spot is attached to a bright energetic cloud above.
And like electricity and lightning, it just is attaching you further and further up.
It's stretching out your spine.
And to get further stretch, point your tailbone down towards the ground.
And there you are, taller than usual, with just a thought in your mind.
You've improved your posture.
You've taken away the tired feeling from the end of the day.
You've relieved pressure from your joint.
Now we're ready for the exercise.
All right.
All those areas we want to keep loose with opening and closing movements.
Breathe in from high, gathering energy into these areas.
Bring it into your heart.
Now, gathering in from the horizon level.
Bring it a little bit lower this time into your C of G.
Now pull up from the earth, lowest, lowest, and bring that to the C of G, the Dan Tian, your center.
Now we're going to expand this area and contract this area, compress it.
Then it explodes and you give it away.
Again, they do the Taoist breathing exercises in a series of three.
You inhale from 10,000 things as the Chinese called before and after creation.
Bring it to the heart center where they thought the home of the mind was.
You reach out and now you gather in the yang energy from the warm sun in heaven.
Bring that to the center, your center.
Then you pull up from the yin, cool, receptive earth.
Bring that to the center.
Only man can unite heaven and earth.
So you expand your center, your Dan Tian.
You let these yin and yang energies mix.
And then when they've neutralized and harmonized, you press them together, compress it, compact it,
and like the sun's rays, it explodes and you give it away.
Back to the universe one more time, tongue on the roof of the mouth.
Feel the pleasure of this circulation, pull.
This is really good and soothing to your nerves.
It loosens the smaller muscles and it clears your mind.
Now we're ready for the stretching exercises.
We're going to borrow some modern wushu exercises because it's going to bring warmth and agility to our muscles quickly.
Put your feet together, cross over your hands.
The palms are touching that cloud above, and with your mind you imagine that the cloud is so strong that it begins to pull you upwards.
This is what's good for developing your concentration.
It pulls you upwards.
Don't think about your legs, think about that cloud and your palms pulling you up, up, up.
And now you are going to expose your bubbling well.
It's at the ball of your foot.
You're stretching it, another energy gate.
Okay, gravity wins now.
You're about as tall and long as you can be.
And you bend, keeping a straight line from the tailbone to the top of your head, bending as low as is comfortable for you.
And then when you get to the bottom, you begin to curl your spine upwards.
The arms are loose.
One vertebra at a time to that cloud, slowly at the shoulders, up, up, up.
Good, you can do that a lot during the day, anytime.
All right, let's get into our horse stance.
You can do it this way, feet to the side.
Leave your toes, straighten your heels, and there you are, your feet are pointing straight ahead.
All right, I want to talk about sitting.
Sitting in the horse stance, it doesn't mean kneeling on a cushion in front of you.
That puts all your body weight on your kneecap.
It doesn't mean leaning backwards.
It crunches another energy gate called the Ming Meng, the gate of life.
You don't want to close that off.
So what it does mean is to reach for a bench behind you.
This opens up the back.
It stretches it out.
You pull for your balance towards that cloud.
And if you feel you're just about to fall over, grab the earth with your toes, and your whole body is alive.
It's relaxed, but it's sung.
It's very alert.
All right, that is the horse stance.
So we're sitting in the horse stance.
Tongues on the roof of the mouth.
Now bring your thumbs to your shoulders and bring the fingers to touch the opposite wall, back and forth.
The other part of this exercise is the palm turns up.
It goes to the side.
It's not as high, higher than your shoulders, nor lower than your shoulders.
It truly is shoulder height.
And you have a generous stretch, but the elbows aren't locked.
Water should be able to drip down in Tai Chi to the elbows in all the different moves.
So here we go, one, two, three, four, five, six.
And turn the palms down in one, two, three, four, five, six.
Stay loose.
Look around the room.
Moving your shoulders and your neck naturally.
And now we're going to shift the weight.
Another principle of Tai Chi is empty and full.
And last time, one, two, three, four, five, six.
Make this as natural as you can.
You will after a while.
Okay, good.
The next exercise, the arms will be straight.
We're going to stretch out the triceps and the sides of the torso.
We're going to make a Tai Chi fist.
That is, this is flat across the face.
You want your thumb to go across your index finger and your middle finger.
And you want the wrist to be straight so the energy can shoot straight through.
The elbows are straight.
They're not locked, but they are straight.
And let's go, one, two, three, four, five, six.
Change, and look around the room again.
Four, five, six.
One, two, three, four, five, six.
And change your weight.
Two, three, four, five, six.
One, two, empty, full, five, six.
Good.
All right, the next one.
We're going to come down, and we're going to stretch out the groin area.
Make your horse stance wider.
This is how you can do this the same way.
Toes at an angle.
Leave the toes.
Move the heels.
And sit back on that bench.
Very good.
Put your hands on your hips, and just draw a circle with your tailbone.
Be sure to breathe.
You know, I got these warm-up exercises from a martial arts wushu champion.
So you can see why they're so quickly stimulating.
They have to be quite loose and balanced when they do their performances.
Great.
Okay, reverse.
Let go of the tension.
Just exhale.
Be sure to exhale during this class.
Let it go.
And six.
Good.
Okay, now the knees.
Bring your feet six inches apart.
There's another energy gate in the middle of your palm.
It's called the lao gong, the palace of effort.
It's where healers heal and martial artists exert pressure.
You can place them gently on your knees and make circles.
One, two, three.
If this is slightly uncomfortable, I want you to watch Jenna and Wendell.
They'll do a more moderate version of this.
If you feel comfortable with this, you can get very large with the circles.
And reverse.
One, two.
Notice that I'm not looking at my feet.
This keeps my weight back off of my kneecaps.
Five and six.
Good.
Okay, now rub the kneecaps.
You just stimulated that qi.
This is the feeling of qi, the warmth between your palm and your knees.
And the sides.
And tap the back.
You can do this before tai qi warm-up
or any sport that you play.
The next one we're going to work on the quadriceps and the ankles.
Just bring one foot straight back.
As far back as is comfortable for you.
But be sure to keep your hip and your knee and your ankle in the same line.
You might want to check in front of a mirror.
You want to go down and almost touch the knee.
But please do it like Wendell and Jenna.
They'll do it moderate.
And the hand comes up.
You're going to stretch out the abdominal wall.
Bend just a little bit.
You're nudging.
You're not really bouncing.
Stretching out those muscles.
Improving your balance.
Great.
When you're finished, put both hands on your bent knee.
And just bend forward and there won't be any trouble getting up.
The other side.
Bring it straight back.
You can get real long if you feel good about this.
But make sure you're all lined up.
The hip, the knee, and the ankle.
Hand up.
If this is difficult, you can have both hands down.
All right.
Both hands down.
Bend forward and just rise.
Very simple.
Okay.
Now we're ready for some internal stretches.
Qigong.
You want to get into another horse stance.
Sitting back, suspending the head, shifting the weight.
One leg is empty.
One leg is full.
This is a Tai Chi principle.
Yin and yang.
Substantial.
Insubstantial.
Then they switch.
Substantial and insubstantial.
Let's do this with a little more energy.
Keep your feet flat on the ground.
Focus on the outsides of the feet.
Press and it surges through your body and it comes out the upper body.
Remember that Tai Chi principle we talked about?
The movement comes from the ground and it goes through your body
from the bottom to the top.
There's another one.
It's called synchronicity.
Everything is moving at the same time.
If you find that your feet are lifting, you are taking your tension with you.
So stretch away from the ankle, the knee, the hip, the side, and the arms.
You can also stretch out your neck and your shoulders
if you turn around and find a spot behind you.
Are you sitting on that bench?
That might be a little much to ask for in the beginning,
but when you watch this tape several times, you'll pick up different things
and you can keep adding them to your program.
Your head is suspended.
You're sitting on the bench.
You're bubbling well and your heels are flat against the ground.
Your hips are loose.
The elbows are loose.
And you're tapping real special parts, the energy gates in your body.
Very good.
All right, the next one we're going to do is really great for calm and lower back aches.
Put your palms on your hips, right over your belt.
The fingers are down, the thumbs are out.
Your head is attached to the sky and your feet are still.
Make a circle with your pelvis area.
Make a circle with your hips.
Remember the dantian?
Now you can imagine it's a marble inside and you're swirling it around.
Notice that our knees are straight.
This makes it a 360-degree lengthwise stretch.
As you reach up, you're one line, like a rubber band that's pulled.
Try to be one line, making a circle with your hips and reverse.
This is so good to do in the morning, at night, in the middle of the day,
after you've stood for a while.
This could prevent problems after years and years of doing one movement.
Do years and years of this movement.
Okay, very good.
Now let's move on and we're going to do something called the emperor's mirror.
It's a very wide horse stance.
You're going to sit.
It's very important to follow the rules where you sit behind your heels.
You're going to use your arms, reach up, inhale, and exhale.
Inhale, keeping your eyes on your hands.
Exhale, inhale, and exhale.
If you're leaning over when you do this,
you're sitting down too low for the level that you're at right now.
Just let it build up.
Do this every day and you'll find yourself getting better,
more in tune with the posture, correct posture.
And inhale.
Very good.
Let's reverse the circle.
This time, shoot up like a rocket with the energy.
Exhale.
And when you open up all your joints, you're going to gather until it's so full.
You just shoot it up like a rocket,
although you want to keep your tongue on the roof of your mouth
and let the breath go in and out of your body.
This is very good for streamlining your lower body.
It's great for your kidneys.
The mirrors in China are so large, you really want to keep your palms flat.
Why?
Because it moves the wrists.
Energy lines go through the wrists.
You want to exercise them to keep all those things in your torso healthy.
Okay, good. One more time the other way.
Very good.
Okay.
Now bring your feet together.
We're going to do something that's great for your digestion.
It's called pushing away heaven and earth.
The palms are going to reach up flat against the heaven
and flat against the earth.
And you stretch.
Come again together.
Keeping the arms circular, circular, circular until they're in position.
And you press and come together again.
Really feel flat against the earth.
See if you can reach down and sense the earth and sense that cloud up there.
Breathing naturally or if you feel comfortable, try this.
Inhale and exhale.
That's very calming.
It's really good for your circulation on the top.
All right.
You could do that for a long time, I'll bet.
And the next thing we're going to do is curing the heart spire.
This is exciting.
You're going to imagine that you're a dragon sitting in the horse stance.
It's really good for streamlining this and for getting rid of frustration.
You inhale, turn to the side, turning in the waist, bend at the quah, and blow out.
Coming up as you finish the exhalation.
Inhale and turn, exhale.
Inhale, turn, exhale.
Let's go the other way.
Inhale and exhale.
Blow out all that frustration.
Inhale, exhale.
Use your mind.
Imagine you're seeing all of that energy go out.
Great.
Oh, boy, that feels good.
I feel better.
The last exercise we're going to demonstrate,
the second of the two Tai Chi leg stances that we'll be doing on this tape.
It's called the bow stance.
Get into your horse stance.
Turn one foot at an angle.
You keep the horse there as you shift your weight over to this bent leg,
the foot out, and bring the empty leg straight forward.
And you roll your tailbone forward, keeping it under your head.
And there you have a bow stance.
It's still a horse stance because you can see that the horse is still there,
but it's called a bow stance because it may have been when somebody was
shooting a bow this way or this way, it resembles that position.
All right, here we go.
Let's try it.
We're going to do the prayer wheel.
Let's go to the other side.
Turn one foot over.
Sit, keep the horse straight out, and shift forward,
keeping your tailbone under your head, pulling your head to the sky.
Shift back into a sitting bow stance.
Forward, back.
Notice that we're not rising or falling when we do this.
This will really work the little muscles in the joints to accommodate this position.
The second part of the exercise is to make a prayer wheel with your arms.
Tai Chi principles, you use the bottom of your body to bring energy to the top part.
I'm going to press my legs into the ground, and I draw the top part of the circle.
Press my back leg into the ground.
I shift forward, and it draws the bottom part of the circle.
The leg goes into the ground, sends the energy up the leg.
I draw the top part of the circle.
And I unspring my back leg and draw the bottom part.
Synchronicity. I'm not moving my legs and then my arms.
I'm moving my legs and my arms.
Remember the wrists, the elbows, the shoulders, the ankles, the knees, the hips.
The top of the head, the bowie, touching that cloud, sitting on the bench.
And the Dan Tian just keeps pumping energy as you roll on the bubbling well at the bottom of the foot.
Tongue on the roof of the mouth, pulling the energy deep into the Dan Tian and guiding it out with your movement.
All right, good. Let's try the other side.
Turn, shift, sit, get round, tap the earth gently, and roll forward, tailbone under the head.
Pull back with your bottom and move the top.
Shift forward with the bottom and move the arms.
Let's exercise the mind by looking at the circles that you're drawing.
There's a saying that where your mind is, that's where your chi goes.
Let's bring some circulation to the palms.
Watch the circle.
Is it a good circle?
If you need to work on it, do it with your mind.
Control the circle as you draw it with the shifting of the weight.
Remember, you're not leaning back in a chair, nor do you get so enthusiastic that your front knee goes onto that cushion in front of you.
Keep your head suspended.
This will help you keep your body balanced.
That's a great exercise.
You've just finished learning the Tai Chi principles in the warm-up exercises.
Now I'm going to teach you five of the 13 basic postures found in all Tai Chi movements.
We're going to string these postures together in the graceful sequence of the Yang style.
The form is a series of postures connected together with flowing movements so graceful
it's hard to tell when one begins and one ends.
Jenna Wendell and I will demonstrate for you the grasping the bird's tail series.
I'll call out the names.
Grasp the bird's tail to the left or stroke the peacock's tail.
Ward off right.
Roll back.
Press.
And push.
Isn't that nice?
Now I'm going to teach you these postures one at a time.
The first one, everyone face with me the same direction.
Face that wall.
Shift your weight over to your right leg.
Lift your right hand above so you're holding a ball over the right knee.
This ball is not a small ball.
It's about the inside width of your torso.
Your hands are generously placed in front of you.
Now suspend your head from the sky and empty your left leg.
Step out to the left.
Rotate this ball.
Roll your tailbone underneath your head as you shift your weight forward.
And now the ball, you're hugging it to your chest with your left arm.
And there's another ball right here underneath your right palm.
You can almost feel these, the chi.
Can you sense the ground?
Can you sense the buoyancy of this ball in your chest?
Let's try it again.
Turn to this wall.
Hold the ball, right hand on top.
Suspend your head.
Step to the left and rotate the ball.
Shift your weight forward.
The head scrapes along the cloud.
You hold the chest ball and the floor ball.
The next move is ward off.
Turn a little to your right.
Gather energy in your right palm.
Circle down, lift up your knee as you go by it.
And now hold the ball, standing on one leg, over your left knee.
Step straight out to the wall.
Remember, our toe needs to point where we want to direct our action.
Rotate this ball.
Roll the tailbone underneath your head so that your spine is straight.
Straighten out the back leg, but don't lock the knee.
And you're warding off.
You're now holding the ball to your chest with your right arm,
and you're piercing it with your left fingers.
Notice, this is a ward off position, and this is a ward off position,
but they call it by two different names.
Let's try that again.
Hold the ball, step.
Rotate, shifting the weight from right to left.
Open as you stroke the peacock's tail.
Gather from below on the right, ward off.
Next move, turn your waist about a half an inch to the right.
Turn your wrists and grab a basketball-sized ball.
Push your foot into the ground.
The energy surges up the body.
You direct it by turning your waist.
And then the ball ends up over your left leg.
Let's try that again.
Be sure that you're not leaning forward again.
Tuck your tailbone, point it towards the ground.
Lift your head up to that cloud, and sit there comfortably.
And begin.
Turn and pull down that basketball.
Bring it to your left knee.
Great.
Let's go on to the next move.
This ball begins to expand.
You let it expand.
Open your shoulders, your chest.
You want to get a hold of this and control it.
With your whole left side, you're going to compress this ball
to the size of a pea.
I take the spring out of my leg, send it forward.
Turn my hip, join my left palm to my right inside wrist,
and there I have it, right there on my wrist.
That's called press.
Shake out your legs, but don't move your feet.
Let's go from ward off.
Turn.
Pull down.
This is called roll back.
Open.
The next move, gather it from the left side
and press it into the wrist, into the press position.
Next move, shake out the legs.
We'll go from the press position to the last movement.
It's called push.
Your weight is forward, knee is not over the toe
because you're sitting comfortably with your spine straight.
Remember, this is to improve your posture
just with the thought of your mind.
We're going slowly so it's easy to remember these things
one at a time.
We're in the press position.
Now slide that P off of your wrist
and up to the back part of your hand
as you turn your palm to face the ground,
sliding it off your hand.
It explodes into a giant, giant chi ball.
You get underneath it as you go in the sitting bow stance position,
and you uncoil your back leg.
Roll your tailbone.
The energy goes through your leg, your spine, your arms,
and out your palms.
You sit there.
You've relaxed. Just let it go.
Sending it directly from the ground beneath you
through your body and out.
Terrific.
Okay, let's string all of these postures together.
Grass the bird's tail.
Gather.
And roll.
Release into the ward off position.
Gather.
And roll back.
Gather.
And release into the press position.
Gather.
And release into the push position.
Let's go again.
Follow along.
It doesn't matter if you're not perfect right now.
It does take a little practice.
Roll the ball.
Touch the cloud.
Touch the ground with your bubbling well.
Roll the ball.
Direct it with the waist turn.
Pull the ball.
And press the ball.
Get behind the ball, neutralizing its expansion.
Sit.
Then spring forward with your feet, your tailbone,
your back, your arms, and let it go through your Lao Gong,
that healing palm.
Okay, that's good.
Now you've learned it on one side.
One at a time, each of the postures.
Let's string them together and learn it on the left side.
Grab the ball.
Bring it down.
Can you feel your body weight shifting from one foot to the next?
It's like a foot massage.
Feel the pleasure.
Okay, one more time.
Hold the ball.
Grasp the bird's tail.
Everything is the same.
It's just reversed.
Ward off.
Roll back.
Press.
Expand.
And release.
All right.
You've learned the sequence on this side and the second side.
Now it's time to teach you the transition.
Let's go to the push position.
Sit back.
Pick up your toe and relax your wrist.
Rotate the wrist and the elbows as you make an arc,
bringing the toe around with your hand.
Then open up like you're separating some curtains.
Pick up your foot.
Press down with your fingers, and your foot goes down.
You lift up as if you've got abundance in your arms.
Turn the palms down and you give it away slowly.
Then you settle from the top to the bottom, sinking your chi,
and let your shin, your spirit, rise, liberating your body inside.
Let's try it from this side.
From the push position, push back.
Relax the wrists.
Pick up the toes.
Bring the toe with your outside hand.
Separate, opening up your upper torso to gather energy.
Put your foot down and your hands down.
Gather from below and release it out.
They call this the sage presses down the stone.
The sage is old, but his movements are sure.
He's had plenty of practice.
Good.
All right.
Once you've learned this sequence, which we'll be doing,
try to do it on your own six to 12 times each workout.
Let's begin.
And now the transition.
Lift up and turn, making an arc.
Separate.
Lift up your foot.
Gather from below.
Release above.
Give it away and settle.
Other side.
Touch the cloud above.
Roll against the earth with your bubbling well.
Rotate your dan tien.
Move your arms with the rotation of your waist.
Another tai chi principle is the waist directs the movements,
even here in the push.
It surges through your body at the waist.
Turn the arms open.
Gather.
Release and settle.
Turn again.
This is so good for the little muscles as you try to accommodate
the perfect posture, moving through it as you do your day.
You have time to think about.
In a comfortable fashion, all these tai chi principles.
When practicing, focus on these five points.
The spine is straight.
Movements flow from the feet to the fingers.
Weight changes constantly from empty to full.
Waist turning directs the movement.
All parts move at the same time.
Think about your energy gathering it and releasing.
Gather.
Release.
Gather and release.
Keeping your eyes reflecting your spirit inside from the ground up.
Last time.
Your eyes are always ahead of your navel.
The dantian leads.
It's in the waist.
The arms move.
And the eyes move with the body.
Sometimes it guides the body.
Sometimes it sits.
Remember, sung means relaxed, but not collapsed. It's alert.
Your dantian, your bao wei, all lined up.
Your tongue on the roof of the mouth enhancing the generation of chi that surges through.
Your body out the bao wei, out the lao gong, out the bubbling well.
Good job.
The more you work with this tape, the more benefits you'll feel.
We're going to spend these last moments to distribute and settle the chi that we've just generated.
Remember, chi is life energy.
Stand in the wu chi position.
You can have your hands slightly ahead of you with the palms facing.
Raise your bao wei, that soft spot on the top of your head to the cloud,
and settle your energy and your body weight into the earth through your bubbling well.
Tongue is on the roof of the mouth, putting your mind into your dantian.
Meditation does not have to be frustrating or mysterious.
You just focus on the familiar, maybe something that's been forgotten for a while,
like your wrist, and feel the energy flow through.
Feel the warmth of the muscles after our workout.
Maybe a palm is tingling.
Your face, the top of your head, any place where the stagnant chi could have been released.
Inhale.
Deep and low, and exhale.
Great.
Okay, this is how we generate and store and distribute the chi.
Bring this energy to your palms.
Let's really bring as much as we got going right here in the palms.
And you're going to wash your face.
It's very light.
You're not really moving the skin.
All you're doing is moving the energy underneath your face
with the energy underneath your palms,
really evening out everything on your face.
Great.
Okay.
The next move is very popular in China.
You'll see them do it everywhere.
It's called six dragons.
Want to bring the chi to the tips of your fingers.
You're going to pull the energy across the meridian or the energy channel lines
that go across your head and go down your neck and go throughout the rest of your body.
We're just going to pull it, really encourage it to flow on the top of our heads.
It's called six dragon exercise.
Oh, that feels so good.
All right.
Now let's bring the chi again to the palms.
One hand is on a thigh.
The other hand that's empty goes to the opposite side of the neck.
You put the palm on the neck.
You don't have to move the skin.
Just make circles.
This is really good to keep you healthy.
It's a general massage for your health.
Shifting your weight.
We don't want to put too much focus on one part of your body
and then let the other stiffen up.
Just keep moving back and forth on your bubbling well.
Very good.
Okay, let's go to the other side.
One hand here.
The other goes to the opposite side of your body on the neck.
A soft palm.
Open fingers.
Inhale and exhale.
Very good.
Okay, more chi to the hands and, better yet, the tips of the fingers.
You're going to use two fingers now.
Fold them like this.
Put them at the base of your ear on the skin.
You bring it behind the ear.
Keep it on the skin.
Bring it to the top of the ear and down in the front.
Drawing a circle.
Try not to lift off of the skin, circling it.
Just back and forth on your feet.
Don't forget to breathe.
You can do this in a series of six or nine or 12, et cetera.
Counts of three or six.
Great, okay.
Now we have another one for the ear.
This time put the back of your thumb to the back of your ear,
and you're going to pull the ridge of your ear from the very top
all the way down and off of your earlobe,
as if you're pulling something from deep inside that you don't want.
You want to release it out.
These have been done for thousands of years by thousands of people,
and it's worked for them.
Why wouldn't this work for you?
Very simple.
Just think about something inside.
You want to pull it out and give it away.
Very good.
One more time.
Okay, more chi to the fingertips,
to an area that holds a lot of tension, as we talked about before.
Imagine that there's cobwebs there, and you're just brushing them off.
Really use your mind.
It seems like a silly exercise, but it works.
You're releasing.
You're encouraging the chi, the stagnant chi, to release itself.
Just let it go.
Great.
Okay, more chi.
I picked this up the last time I was in China.
Okay, the palms are down.
These are the yang meridian channels that are here.
One, two, three, four, five.
We're just shaking them awake.
One, two, three, four, five.
These are the yin.
Again, one, two, three, four, five.
One, two, three, four, five.
And then you pull the energy.
Really encourage it to flow.
Out and pull.
Don't forget to breathe.
Good.
Other side.
One, two, three, four, five.
You can shift your weight.
Three, four, five.
One, two, three, four, five.
And pull.
And release it.
And pull.
And release.
Isn't that stimulating?
Good.
Okay, feel the magnetism in your palms by now.
Gee, this energy force is very warm.
And one, two, three.
Reverse.
Just making a spiral in your dantian.
Three.
Good.
Okay, we're going to finish up the lower part.
Get into your bow stance.
Double weighted.
Turn your waist.
Now your weight's forward.
Bend at the hips.
And one, two, three, four, five.
One, two, three, four, five.
Now, with the tips of your fingers pressing hard,
really pull the energy lines.
And in the back, as you come back, shifting,
pull the energy lines.
Pull the energy lines.
One more time.
Okay, other side, bow stance.
Forward bow stance.
Bend at the hips.
And scaring away any tension.
And pull.
Pull underneath.
Pull on top.
Pull underneath.
One more time.
You should feel good about the work you did with us.
Try to use this tape as often as possible,
and you'll begin to feel the benefits.
You'll feel firsthand the yin-yang forces working in your daily activities.
Tai Chi is a pleasant and simple way to accomplish a great task,
to learn the art of living.
And pulling up from the earth and giving back to the heaven.
Pulling in from the heaven and giving back to the earth.
Thank you.