Refine and Repeat

I haven’t done Zhan Zhuang in a couple of months. As far as I can tell, these are the consequences I’ve noticed so far:

• reduced body sensitivity
• reduced level of energy
• reduced ability to do Zhan Zhuang (well, that’s a no-brainer)

The first one became manifest in a small way at Mr. Rosenfeld’s Tai Chi workshop. During an exercise, he corrected my hands, saying that they were too tense and needed to be softened. It took me a few seconds to realize that I had forgotten the feedback mechanisms that I had developed (to some small extent) because of Zhan Zhuang. In other words, it was hard for me to tell whether my hands were soft or not. (This processing delay may explain the dumb look I gave Mr. Rosenfeld at the time.) I then attempted to implement the correction, but it felt very manual, deliberate and clunky. In contrast, a few months ago, if I had been given the correction at all, I probably would have recalled immediately what soft hands felt like and been able to return to that state by recalling the slightly tingling, open, “un-anchored” sensation of soft hands … as I’ve experienced it, anyway.

Guess I’ve got some work to do. More standing? More standing.

I’ve just returned from a terrific weekend Tai Chi workshop with Arthur Rosenfeld, oft-quoted author, Chen Tai Chi master and really funny guy. In future posts I’ll relate my experiences from the workshop, how I was challenged, as well as what I think I learned and what I now know I don’t know.

… y’know.

Thanks to my good friend Sally Rich for arranging the whole thing.

The title of this clip is Bet you’ll clean your desk after watching this video.

Start watching the video. Then see how long it takes before you start to clean your desk.

It still works on subsequent viewings, but I turn off the sound. Sorry. PJ.