T'ai Chi Chih: Joy Thru Movement; 4

. . . . . Welcome to Tai Chi Cha. Joy through

movement. I'm Carmen and I'll be your host. Let's begin with the opening review of the movements that we learned the last time. The first one that we're going to do is rocking motion. Put your feet shoulder with the part. Notice that I'm not separated too far that I'm staying within the body. When I say staying within the body I'm only going as far as the shoulders. Not right here real close, but just opening up just a tiny bit. Just enough to feel that centeredness. Then gently get the hands. If this is your first time joining us the movements are done very softly and very gently raise the toes. Come up onto the balls of the feet. The whole head is pushing up the ceiling. Notice that as you bring the hands up that there's no fancy snaps on the end that you just catch a wave. Come around. Trace that curve. Again,

very good. Trace that curve. Bring it up. Good. Let's do three more or two more. One. This is eight. We'll go to nine. This is our last one. Bring the feet together. Bring the left over to the right. Roll the hands over. Bring them back to your chest. Separate and close. The next one is around the platter. Variation number one. Bend the knees. Let the left leg out. Remember it is done the same way as around the platter. Except this time you pick up a ball and carry it halfway. Come off center. Pick up your ball. Gently let it go. Pick up your ball. Carry it slowly,

slowly. Now here you let it go. There's something that we've been carrying around for a long time that you've been carrying around. Here's our last one. Like an old job. An old hurt. This one is our third one. Bring everything back. Let it go. It's time to let those go. This is a good time when you let go here. Drop it in it's gone. Most people find that their shoulders relax a lot more when you do that. If you can't go fishing, this is a good time to relax. Sometimes we can't go out in a park. We can't go fishing. We can't go and do all those other things. And so right here in the middle of our busy lines, we just do a few movements that help us tune back in. This is our third one. To that quietness that always exists right down here in the dantian. So breathe and breathe again.

And again, as we're doing the movements, the most important place that we can focus is either on the dantian, which is two inches below the navel or the bottoms of the feet, which are known as the bubbling springs. The next movement that we're going to do is base drum. Get your ball ready. Come down the body. As if you were carrying a ball, except it's tracing the outsides of a base drum. Come forward. Back heel is up. Roll the hands back or curve them. You curve at the bottom. Fingers are pointing down. Gently now. They're pointing up, bringing everything back. And the hands stay about a foot apart. Breathe. Now the other side. And here's one. Back heel is up just a bit. And you might even try if your back heel is coming up too much. You might try keeping

the back heel down until the very last minute. And then let it up and you'll find this is number three. Gently bring it back and close. When I say that you want to do that, you want to let that back. Keep it down. And then at the very end, just raise it just a little bit. Alright, daughter on the mountain top. So here we are. Here's one. Right hand farthest from the face. Your right hand. Here's two. Your right hand farthest from the face. And here's three. Remember, you start low to go high. The other side. That the right foot out now. And here is one. Two. And then here's three. And this is the end of our review of the movements that we've learned before. Bring the foot back and close. And we're ready to teach the

new movements. We will begin today with daughter in the valley. We just did daughter on the mountain top. We went to the top of the mountain and it was wonderful and glorious up there. But we're very interesting and very generous people. Whenever we know of something good, what we want to do is we want to share it with somebody that we know. Who do you know? Maybe you invited somebody to come and watch this show with you or to do the movements with you. So you get your hands ready. You're at the top of the mountain. You've had this peak experience. Now it's time to come back down in the valley where the work is. So you come back down to and down here you meet a friend. Now they're even. They're a friend. They're no hires, no lower. So they come up together and then you open up. You come down the body. Come up. And then you open up. Some of you are tuning in for the first time you might notice that my fingers are moving. That's not part of the movement. These are movements that happen because the Qi or the

energy inside of us is moving those fingers. And sometimes you might just feel a trembling. Sometimes you might just feel a sensation. All those things are evidence that the Qi is moving inside of the body. The fingers move very gracefully when that happens. It's something that I couldn't do by myself if I tried to. So breathe now. Bend your knees. Get your left leg out. Get your hands ready. And come forward. Here's one. Here's two. Three. Slowly, very, very slowly. Here's four. Down here. The fingers are pointing down to the floor. The knees at the strongest. Then start the hands up just to tad and then open up. Come down. Start the hands up just a tiny bit and then bring everything back. That was number five.

And here is number six. Bring it all the way back and close. Notice that you're again leading with a daunting every time. You might forget because you're working with the arms in. And so you might want to, you might be tempted to reach out there and grab. You don't need to do that. Staying close to home, your own body, your own insides. That's the place that we want to be. Get ready. You're high to go low. You are one. Here's two. Three. And feel that energy as you're making two circles. This time they don't intersect. This time they just come to each other. And here's our last one.

Start back and close. We're now going to learn a new movement called carry the ball to the side. And with it I'm going to show you how to torque from the waist. So I'm going to take my jacket off so that you can see me just a little bit better. Put it off to the side. You might take your jacket off. Thank you. And now we're ready to carry this ball to the side. The way that you start this is you're going to take a step over to your right because if you're moving to the left and there's something there you don't want to run into the wall. So what you're going to do then is you're going to bend at the knees, lift the toes and you might have noticed that I'm not wearing any shoes on this program. That's because you can do Tai Chi Chi bear footed. In fact that's sometimes the easiest. You certainly can't do it in high heels at the office. So just kick off your shoes. See how comfortable it is. It might even feel how nice that carpet feels. Toes are up. Pick up that heel. Lead with that.

Pick up the toes. Pick up the knee. Lead with the heel and shift your weight. And then bring it back. And bring it over. Bring it back. And step over. And we're going to do this three times. So pick up the toes. Lead with the heel. And you land as if landing on eggs. There's no pressure there. Here's one. Here's two. You're doing great. And here's three. With this one. Bring the foot over. Straighten the body up and then just let it sink. And the third one. Toes are up. Lead with that heel. The knee comes up. Let that leg out. You don't let it out too far. You don't want to be way over here. Just slightly. And one. And the other thing is you want to watch that you don't let that hip out. That's if you're a good dancer. And step over and close. Now let's take it back the other way. So breathe.

See every time that you learn something, your first thought is hold your breath. But with this, you don't have to. Because there isn't anything that's going to stress you. Or no reason to stress you. Raise the toes now on your right foot. Pick up your heel. Lead with the. Pick up the knee. Lead with the heel. Shift your weight. And come back. Shift your weight. And come back. And then with this one, shift and close. And we're counting. Pick up the toes. Lead with the heel. And here's one. So we can know that we do three of them too. And here's three. Step over. And close. And here's the last one. You pick up the toes. Pick up the knee. Lead with that heel. Landing on eggs. One. Two.

Three. Now what you're going to do with the hands is you're going to have your hands here. Bring them. Imagine a platter standing on end. And it's round. You're going to follow that. Not way out far. Because again, that's getting away from the body. But here, close to the body. So let's try that as we move. Get your ball ready. Let your foot out. Snake it out. There's no pressure on that left foot. Here's one. Now, as the right hand is passing down through the bottom, it's pushing just a little bit. And then here's three. Let it push. Let it push. And then you come down. That's a lot of things to remember. So just the most important thing right now is snaking that foot out. I'll remind you about this right hand pushing when you're going to the left. Two. And here's three.

Good. This is our second one. Now we need our third one. So three groups of three makes nine. Generally, there's nine movements on each side. Two. Torque at the waist. As if your waist were connected by little tiny chains. They were relaxed and even little golden chains. So that the elbows and the waist move. One. Two. You shift. Three. And then again. One. Two. Feel that ball in front of you. Three. Good. And one more time. One. You're doing great. Two.

Three. Join me now. As you finish the movement, join me now for a conversation with the originator of Tai Chi Cha Joy Through Movement. And that's Justin Stone. I hope that that movement was easy for you. Hi, we're so glad that you could join us for our talk with Justin Stone, the originator of Tai Chi Cha Joy Through Movement. Welcome, Justin. Thank you. I'm glad to be here. When the student begins to practice, he knows that something is flowing inside of him. And then as time goes by, he begins to become aware that there are more levels to Tai Chi Cha than he realized in the beginning. That he's beginning to tap

into the essence of Tai Chi Cha. The essence of Tai Chi Cha. Let me tell you a story having to do with that. One time I was practicing Tai Chi Cha in a Japanese garden. And as I was doing movements and enjoying motion, suddenly I realized that nobody was doing anything. Tai Chi Cha was doing Tai Chi Cha. In other words, I got myself out of the way. This is a very ecstatic feeling and has a lot to do with the essence of Tai Chi Cha. It won't take very long for practices to get to that point where they feel that the effort is the effort of no effort that things flow by themselves. And when this happens, there is a feeling which is hard to describe. Perhaps I can best describe it by using the Chinese word

DEH, which is usually translated as the power of inner sincerity. Now, when people have practiced Tai Chi Cha and become good at it, decide they want to become teachers and take a teacher's training course, which is quite intensive for one week. When they come there, the first lesson that they will learn is that good teaching not only means repetition, it also means the power of inner sincerity. And I believe it is because of DEH that these teachers have spread Tai Chi Cha through most of the world. Because they are sincere teachers and because they have experienced the essence of Tai Chi Cha, I think it's very easy for them to get across to the students. There are no tricks, there are no hype, it's just a very simple movement, and then

after a while of course you begin to get the essence of Tai Chi Cha. I would say that after you do Tai Chi Cha for quite a while and begin to realize the essence, much to your surprise, you will find you get to a stage where you can do it mentally. That won't happen in a few weeks, but it means that you can be sitting in a concert or on a plane, closing your eyes, you'll begin to do the movements mentally. And much to your surprise, you will find that the Chi begins to flow and it's being balanced. So in any circumstance, you are able to do Tai Chi Cha. Well, that certainly takes it out of the realm of just going around and just being able to do it with your hands and your feet. That there's something else going on that maybe Tai Chi Cha is affecting you on more levels than just the physical. Well, I believe that the

essence of Tai Chi Cha comes across very well to all people who practice it sincerely. One thing that they should remember is the Tai Chi Cha practice is cumulative, that is the effects, the results are cumulative. You begin to accumulate Chi, do you remember I spoke about the Chi with which you came into this life and the Chi that you accumulate in this life. As you accumulate this Chi, it is stored in the bones and stored below the navel. And when this happens, of course, the bones of firmer, it has quite an effect upon the health. But I think the greatest effect that one can have is to begin to realize the essence of what is happening. The life force is flowing freely through you, it is being balanced, you yourself are out of the way. Now you understand the essence of Tai Chi Cha. In other words,

you can relate to people much more easily because you know so much more about yourself. When you're at home with yourself, it's much easier to relate to other people. Well, we appreciate you being here to share those words about inner sincerity. I know we all want to relate to life that way. Thank you for coming, Justin. Thank you for having me. We'll be right back in a few moments for the review portion of our program. Stay with us. We're glad you could join us for the review of today's movements. Let's begin with Daughter in the Valley. Bend your knees, let your left leg out, bring your hands up high. Because you start at the top of the mountain, we're coming down into the valley, daughter in the valley. So bring it down, we're going to make two circles.

Bend that front knee, gently bring it back. Come forward, let the hands slightly up and then open it up. And here's three. Bring it back. And let's do four. And on four, let's close. Bring it back and close. And maybe during this program, it's been easier for you to see that my heel does go up and our right leg is out. Your right leg is out. Come forward. I know that it is my left leg. Come forward again. Here's three. And gently, it starts up just a tad before you bring it all the way back. Remember that Justin said, as we were just inviting a friend to come up, we

always want to do it with day, with sincerity. Remember, you always hold that to about the count of five. Carry the ball to the side now. Let's step over to our right so that we can go to the left. Get ready. Get your ball ready. You ready? Your knees are bent. Because if you're standing straight and then you try to go out, you're going to kind of funk. Bend to the knees. Now you can go out and you can land as if you landed on eggs. All the weight is over on this leg. Gently now we push with the right hand. You slightly torque at the waist. Here's two. And here's three. And again, we're not leading with a hip. We're leading as if there were a pearl here and it was staying in a straight line. Get ready. Let your foot out. Here's one. Here's two.

And again, feel that right hand pushing. Push, push, push, push, push. Now one knee is bent, one knee is straight and close. And breathe one more time and one, two. And again, feel that waist turning. Three. Step over with this one and close. Let's go back now. Get your ball ready. Let your foot out. No pressure on it at all. Gently from the shoulder, start down. Fingers are pointing down. Now fingers are pointing up. Now fingers are pointing down. Now fingers are pointing up. And now with this one, you're pushing over. You're stepping over. Bring the hands under the chin and you close. And again, get ready. Let the foot out. And one.

Here's two. Here's three. Step over with this one. Come up and close. And one last one. Get ready. Let that foot out. No pressure on it. Come down. We are pushing. This time with our left hand as we go through the bottom. Here's two. Torquing at the waist. Three. Let yourself torque there. And hold it. Very good. And the last one is cosmic consciousness pose. Put the right foot flat on the ground. Bring the left up against it. Toes on the ground. Heel on the ankle bone. Bring the elbows up so that there's highest the shoulders. Overlapped the hands. Thumbs are up. Elbows are up. Sometimes there's a tendency for people to let their arms relax. You bring the elbows up without bringing your shoulders up. See some people do this as they come up.

Just let the arms come up without letting the shoulders come up. Hold it. Realize that as we make space, we make room for new things, the good things that are waiting for you. With a jar, it's the empty space that holds the new goods. So that empty space is very important. Put the feet flat on the ground. And hold it and close. I've enjoyed our time together and I look forward to being with you next time. Practice at least five minutes a day. Have a great day and share the Chi. For a 60 minute videocassette copy of all 19

movements and one pose of Tai Chi Cha, join through movement with Carmen or a copy of the companion book, call 1 -800 -328 -5663.