Taijiquan & Daoyin

This post is about a special technique to open one’s shoulder joints.  Opening shoulder joints is important in many areas.  Firstly, it can prevent frozen shoulders (or 50’s shoulders).  In our daily life, we seldom open our scapula upwards and sideways.  In times, the movement of the head of our humerus (upper arm bone) inside the shoulder capsule will be limited, and, again in time, the chance of getting frozen shoulders, sometimes repeatedly, will be increased or become unavoidable.   Secondly, opening the shoulder joints are important for facilitate qi-flow needed for the practice of zhan zhuang, tai-ji and meditation.

The exercise as per the diagram above is called a facilitative exercise because it is not meant to be a stand-alone exercise.  A foundation practice of zhan zhuang to the (junior) level of able to feel qi-flow is a pre-requisite.  Only if one can feel qi-flow can one direct the chi to flow from the wrist towards the shoulder in a spiralling action when one pushes one’s wrist out.  Through the spiral action, one’s shoulder joint will be loosened little by little.  It is a facilitative exercise in another sense that even in tai-ji form, the scapular will seldom be made consciously to move up (though in zhan zhuang, tai-ji and taoist mediation, one does need to extend one’s scapulars outwards during the practice). 

The “Day of Limit of Heat” 处暑 (Chǔ shǔ) falls on the 23rd of August this year. “处(chǔ)” means coming to the end, and “暑” means summer, so “处暑(Chǔ shǔ)” is the ending of the hot summer. After the Day of Limit of Heat, the daily temperature will reach its peak at noon but turn cold in the morning and evening. There is a saying that goes, “After each time it rains in the autumn, it gets colder and colder.”

There is probably not a martial arts teacher on the planet who has not had a thousand students complain about the difficulty of memorizing “all those moves.” It’s to be expected. Our ancestors had prodigious memories, but now we struggle to retain all our computer passwords.

Here are a few memory tricks that might help your learning process.

Tip #1.  Memory is required. Incredible as it may seem, many students don’t realize the obvious: memorizing is your responsibility. CMA is an ongoing legacy, not aerobics class.

Tip #2. Practice Soon, Retain More. If you practice new lessons within 8 hours of learning you have a 90% chance of keeping the information; within 24 hours there’s about a 50% chance. After that, be happy with 10%.

Tip #3. You can ONLY practice wrong; you are a beginner. Students are typically afraid they might practice wrong and thereby seal their doom. This is plainly not true. After all, if your memory is so impressionable, a few words from the instructor and some additional reps can repair any mistake. There’s no danger from a little incorrect practice.

Tip #4.  Reps are Cheap. Repetition, rather than reflection, rules. Each new move repeated 100 times a day between your weekly classes would total about twenty minutes in the space of a week. That’s 700 repetitions of a move in twenty minutes,  not at all unreasonable. It takes more time to feel guilty that you aren’t practicing than it takes to go ahead and practice.

Tip #5.  Levels of Correction. Your teacher will give you a lot of information, some of it instructional, some of it ‘hopeful’. Initially, your job is to listen to everything, but only memorize the big things: stance, direction, posture, etc. The ‘hopeful’ things, the fine points, such as relaxation or dropped shoulders, are on a different level for future study. In other words, dropping your hips when in a horse stance is important, but the drop only comes once you are actually in a horse; priority is everything. Pay attention and you will quickly learn the difference between what he expects and what he hopes for.

Tip #6. The 1-2-3 Approach: Bridging. Have a nasty move to contend with? Don’t practice the entire form to “get at” the critter. Just practice the movement directly before, and the one directly after. In other words, corral the non-compliant little beast and then try to break him. You don’t need to keep playing all of Beethoven’s Fourth to get that slippery little note near the end. “Excerpt” can be a verb.

Tip #7. Take a Mental Journey. Stop, just stop. Close your eyes and go through the form mentally without moving. Try to do it with as much “truth” as you would if you were moving in space. Pay particular attention to the parts you have trouble with. Do you mentally skip over these? Later, go back and try NOT to skip. See if you can imagine the movement.

Tip #8.  Make a story. To paraphrase a famous writer: ‘Anything can be memorized if it is seen as part of a story.’ The most basic story is, “A” happens then “B” happens then “C” happens…this is very much like a form. Can you imagine how some sequences of moves might be strung together, each action following from the previous? The easier it is to imagine phrasing, the easier it will be to memorize. Take an active rather than passive attitude to your memory.

They work not only because they are good memory tricks but also because they put you into the realm of experiencing the learning process as it happens.

(ted mancuso)

diǎn jǐn shēn sōng — points tight body relaxed

How to make meditation successful…

This year, August 7th is the “Beginning of Autumn” 立秋 (Lì qiū)  

  in the Chinese lunar calendar. The “Beginning of Autumn” sees the hot summer slowly turn into the coolness autumn. It is a popular practice for Chinese to “get autumn fat” on the day of Beginning of Autumn. People have small appetites and light diets in summer, so they usually lose some weight during this time. However, the cooler weather stimulates their appetite and Chinese usually start to have the oily and meat dishes that they missed out on during the summer. Do you like the idea of “getting some autumn fat?”

There are 5 seasons in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), corresponding to the 5 elements (Fire/Earth/Metal/Water/Wood). Winter, Spring, Summer, Late Summer and Fall.

Summer represents the outward expression of energy, expansiveness, movement, and activity. It is the most yang of the seasons and is ruled by fire. Life and energies are at their peak. Summer, according to TCM, is the season associ

ated with the heart and the small intestine. The colour is red, the emotion joy, and it is a time for growth, expansion, light, abundance, and is the manifestation of all we have been cultivating throughout the spring.

Many look forward to summer all year round. The weather is hot and the sun is out, improving people’s moods. Many are drawn outdoors to participate in all the activities they have been longing for all winter. Plants grow quickly, people are full of energy, and the body’s qi and vitality are at their peak. It is a time to cultivate the yang energy (fire), while making sure that it does not come to excess. In TCM, the heart, mind, and spirit are ruled by the fire element, so priority should be given to these important aspects of ourselves in the summer season.

Rising early in the summer allows us to benefit from the suns’ nourishing rays. Being up early enables us to get all of the suns’ nourishing energy which is the most bountiful at this time of year. In summer, our work, play, and relationships should be filled with joy and should instill in us a feeling of happiness and delight. We should live our lives and go about our daily activities with joy, passion, and laughter. This is how we know that the heart energy is balanced in us.

Physically, when we are properly balanced, the heart circulates oxygen rich blood throughout the body, and assures proper assimilation in the beginning stages of digestion in the small intestine. In Chinese medicine, mental acuity is associated with the heart, therefore, memory, thought processes, emotional well being, and consciousness are also attributed to the heart and the fire element. This is a time to nourish our spirits, realize our life’s potential, finding joy in hot summer days and warm summer nights.

When the heart is balanced, the mind is calm and we sleep deeply and wake rested. When the heart is imbalanced, we may lack joy (which manifests in depression) or have an excess of joy (mania or manic behaviour). Some indications of a heart imbalance are nervousness, insomnia, heartburn, confusion, red complexion, poor memory and speech problems.

Emotionally, because the heart is connected to our spirits, summer is the best time to heal emotional wounds that we have carried with us from our pasts. Healing these wounds frees up space that we can fill with love, joy, and happiness and ensures that we will not carry our old hurts with us into the future.

Here are some tips to help you make the most of the summer season:

Drink plenty of water and other fluids
Wake up earlier in the morning
Go to bed later in the evening
Rest at midday
Add pungent flavors to your diet
Refrain from anger; keep calm and even-tempered (anger causes and exacerbates heat!).
Summer is about abundance and this is definitely the case with foods. Fruits and vegetables abound in summer and we are lucky to have a multitude of choice when it comes to what we eat. Because it is the season of maximum yang, it is important to stay cool and hydrated. There are many foods that are beneficial to eat during this season. All foods, according to TCM, have a temperature and energetic properties so that, in summer, we eat cool, yin foods that are moistening to balance the heat. Many raw foods are seen to be cooling in nature, so summer is the perfect time to indulge in salads, which are full of raw vegetables, very cooling, and hydrating to the body. Eating more foods with pungent flavours and reducing bitter flavours help to strengthen the lungs, which are responsible for sweat. Foods with cooling properties also clear heat, can reduce toxins, and help to generate body fluids. Generally, most vegetables and fruits are cooling. Eating them raw makes them cooler still and many seafood are also cooling in nature.

Here is a list of foods that are beneficial to eat in the summer months:

Apricot Cantaloupe Watermelon
Strawberries Tomatoes Lemon
Peach Cucumber Orange
Asparagus Sprouts Bamboo
Bok choy Broccoli Bok choy
Corn White mushroom Snow peas
Spinach Summer squash Watercress
Seaweed Mung means Cilantro
Mint Dill Bitter gourd
Mung beans Wax gourd Lotus root
Lotus seed Job’s tears Bean Sprouts
Duck Fish 

Living in harmony with the seasons is at the core of Traditional Chinese wisdom. It was based on living in harmony with nature and one’s environment. TCM is also a system that is rooted in prevention. Food is medicine and the ancient Chinese used food and its healing properties to build up the body when deficient, cleanse it when toxic, and release it when in excess. With these basic principles of eating with the seasons and an awareness of the organs associated with each phase and their emotions, we can all stay healthy, strengthen our bodies, minds and spirits and live long, happy healthy lives.