The First Lesson

 Last Saturday evening, at the park with the Astronomy club and our telescopes, we had good weather for the first time in a few weeks! No rain, not too many clouds or too much wind! A church group had joined us to view Jupiter, the Moon, and other celestial sights. 

In conversation one of the group asked me about T’ai Chi and I gave an impromptu demonstration of the Walk and the first moves that begin the Form, and also demonstrated the methods of teaching the Form and the principles.

The Walk, Relaxation and Shifting the Weight

(Watching the videos on the 'Video' tab, in the 

Home Page helps here a lot.)

1. In the beginning we stand relaxed with our hands and arms at our sides, our feet parallel and maybe a foot apart. First we raise our Right leg from the knee until the Right toe is just touching the ground. We then straighten the knee and lower the leg until the heel touches the ground, keeping the weight on the back foot, and bending the back knee enough to keep the balance 100% on it as we lower the Right toe, flattening the foot on the floor. At this point, both legs are parallel from hip to knee.
2. We then shift our weight from the Left to the Right leg by turning our Right hip forward and to the left, leaning forward and bending the front knee, bending the back ankle and maintaining a straight line from the back ankle through the back knee, hip, spine and top of the head, leaning forward until the weight is balanced on the front leg and foot.
3. As the body is brought back to vertical and the Left hip comes forward, the Left knee raises and straightens. The straightened Left leg then lowers to the ground with the weight on the Right side and the Left hip forward and unweighted. 
4. We then repeat the first moves, shifting our weight forward 100%, back and forth as we move forward by rotating our hips 45 degrees back and forth, Right, Left, Right. Each step always in balance, always moving the unweighted side while balancing totally on the unmoving, weighted side.
5. The backwards walk may be learned and practiced in the same way, in the opposite order.

The movements all originate from the center of the body and and some of it’s largest muscles. This center is the spine, with the hips at the base and the shoulders across the top. 

Since we are never out of balance (Always balanced on the weighted side), We are able to totally relax without ever being out of balance or falling! This relaxed body state allows all the parts to work together without the muscle tension that creates energy blocks between the joints.

For example, if my shoulders are tense, this tension disconnects the extremities from the powerful strength and healing available from the core (spine, hip and shoulder muscles).

Just as a group of people working together may work much more effectively than those each working alone, The separate parts of our bodies (or any other organism) can function more effectively as well!

Simply put, 1) Shift your weight from side to side with each step, 2) Always move the unweighted side while balancing on the unmoving weighted side, and 3) move from your center (out of which extend your legs and arms).

We begin with the leg movements, that are more difficult to change, as they are supporting our weight. 

Habits

When we first learned to walk, we learned to first fall forward and then to catch ourselves. We were constantly out of balance and tensing up in order not to fall. By now those are some very strong habits. These may require lots of time, patience, and effort in order to change them. After all, we don’t want to fall!

The bad news is that changing these strong habits takes time.

The good news is that as we are able to change them, this can gradually change not only how we move, but also how we feel and think, and possibly allow us to outgrow many earlier limitations, things we might have accepted before we knew better…

First Lessons

In the beginning of the form there is a lot going on. We are moving our hands, our feet. Shifting our weight, changing direction, turning from our hips, paying attention to our movements in a new way… It can be a bit overwhelming. 

In order to begin this process we may break it into smaller steps. If this is still too overwhelming, we might break each of these steps into even smaller steps.

In China, for very advanced students, often for those who wish to teach, private, or “indoor” lessons might be offered to particularly promising students. When the Chows came to the West and began teaching, they offered this to all their students. It requires much patience, but offers training at a very high level from the very beginning. As my friend Carol, that I teach with, said, “T’ai Chi is not for everyone.” The Chows would only teach this “Step by step” (Square) method for several months before teaching the “Continual” (Round) form that is commonly taught.

I teach both from early on, recognizing that us Westerners are double plagued, by both a lack of patience, and by a lack of the tradition and culture that Chinese students might bring to the mix from the very beginning.

Step by Step

The first lesson begins with the Principles, such as balance, relaxation, and moving from the center. It also covers what Mr. Chow called the Standards, including that the feet are usually parallel and begin under the shoulders, the elbows are dropped down and bend 45 degrees, making a right angle (one might put a book in the angle). To demonstrate, for defense, placing the hands not too close, where they might be pushed into you, or so far from you that they might be pushed out of the way. 

Then the beginning movements are shown and followed, step by step, and then done without a model to follow, so that the student goes home having at least once having practiced the movements on their own before leaving the class.

From the very beginning, I also have the students watch, then follow the continual form through the beginning movements in order to get a feel for the flow, and perhaps the energy that is generated, whether one feels it or not.

At this point, after a lengthy attempt at creating a verbal description of the movements, I found that this would not help at all. 

I suggest you go to the ‘Videos’ tab on this website Home page in order to see some perhaps useful examples of the Square and Round Form.

Best Wishes to All,

Dan

My Work

 In my last Blog entry, I mentioned my Neuropsych testing work, and one of the responses from a friend was: “Good stuff Daniel. How’s the neuro psych testing done?”. 

The following was my response:

Hi All,

I’ve been feeling a little overloaded the last few days, nothing serious, but I wanted to let D. know I’m working on a response about my neuropsych work and haven’t forgotten.

Neuropsychology relates the different brain functions to the different parts of the brain, (It’s brain location specific). 

I have batteries of tests for adults, adolescents, and various aged kids. 

These test batteries include the various subtests of the Wexler IQ tests and verbal and nonverbal Memory tests, motor and perceptual tests, psychological tests that eliminate non-neurological causes of problems, tests that rule out the faking of problems (So called “motivation” tests), attention and learning disability (LD) tests that document problems warranting extra time for tests such as the SAT, LSAT, and other academic exams, among others.

Working for a private practice, it’s a little of everything, including all kinds of legal cases. 

Due to confidentiality issues, I’m not at liberty to discuss most of those, and this has been an issue that has slowed down my response concerning my work.

In the past, we’ve tested clients involved in large pesticide cases, auto rollover cases, oil rig explosion cases, carnival attraction ride accidents, and recently a large auto driving car accident case.

It’s interesting work. 

The people I work with are straight shooters, and the lawyers that engage us want the truth, not a “hired gun”.

We only use standardized tests that have high proven validity and large data bases, that hold up in court. 

I’m honored to be part of a class practice with integrity.

So my response was a little complicated, and I had to stop and think before I could respond.  :)  .

Best to All,

Daniel

Patterns

 In my Neuropsych testing work, the useful, pragmatic results of the tests given are not usually used by themselves for decision making regarding the client’s condition, treatment, or other salient features. 

They are always combined with a multitude of any other relevant information, including medical records, education, history and interviews, all incorporated into a search for patterns indicative of the client’s total prognosis. 

As a therapist and healer, I find this search for a holistic and comprehensive view both useful and applicable in many areas of my work. 

It meshes beautifully in applying T’ai Chi principles to all areas of one’s life, going far beyond the physical instruction and generating  applications for the  emotional and intellectual growth that may be engendered through our personal voyages forward through time.

For example, a tendency to sometimes fall forward, out of balance, physically, can be taken as our body’s language expressing a more general pattern of our letting our anticipations regarding the possible future, that which isn’t even here or real yet, affect our consciousness and throw us out of balance. 

Sometimes these anticipations can be so subtle that we aren’t even aware of them!

The real Tai Chi may reside not in the physical, but in the awareness of our balance that is generated. 

We can’t change what we aren’t even aware of! 

Herein is the real value of practicing the form, meditating, or any other contemplative practice, if it aids in our ability to choose a more balanced path, say, for example, in our emotional or other balance.

Medicine for Ants

Ants, automatic negative thoughts, are, by their automatic nature, not so easily changed. 

This is important because they affect our emotional balance. 

As the computer saying goes, “Garbage in, garbage out.”

These can become habits. 

Habits like smoking, snacking, assuming the worst, can often take more than a day to change!

The thoughts we take in, be they from the television or media, or from our assumptions about life events that aren’t necessarily correct assumptions, or from what we were taught before we knew better, all go into this mix!

It has recently been pointed out to me that Finding Positive Thoughts, and developing this as a new habit, can be a powerful medicine that might work to counter these ants. 

As a therapist, these things, apparent when working with others, may often elude me when working on my own stuff!

To be continued…

Blessings to All,

Daniel

Remembering Allen Zamrok

 Zam’s Celebration of Life (1/10/26, Key West, Florida)

Hi, For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Jacki’s older brother, Daniel.

By Marriage, Zam became my brother. My parents taught me from when I was very young, that they had always strived to treat all their children equally. 

I’ve always kept that thought in my heart to accept all of my family that 

I’ve been blessed with, by birth or by marriage, equally as well.

My folks had seen other families that didn’t always do this, and we were all very lucky to have this wonderful tradition.

I may not have always been rich in money, but I’ve always been Very rich in family and friends!

Zam and Jacki finding Happiness with each other was always a real Blessing that made us all more complete and Joyful!

I remember visiting them in the Cayman’s in the last Century, with my teenage son, Louis. We both learned to dive for that trip, and I became certified. 

I also remember another later trip to Key West with Louis, when we took a trip over Key West in their friend Fantasy Dan’s small plane, from Big Pine Key.

Back to the Caymans; It was a Magical experience! I had just recently met my wife to be, and sent her post cards. 

On a dive with Zam, I spotted a dive computer watch amongst the coral on the sea floor, that someone had lost the week before. 

Louis recently reminded me that once, when I had borrowed Jacki’s car to drive around the island, she got a call from their friend the police chief of Cayman Brac, that I had been seen driving on the wrong side of the road. 

They were part of a wonderful community there where everyone knew each other. The Island’s population was around 900!

There were stories of a ghost that haunted the rooms of the hotel we stayed in.  (one of two on the island). We heard the ghost moving around, but never saw it.

Zam, six months earlier, had made friends with Jean Michel Costeau, and had spent time showing him around the local waters. 

Jean Michel had returned for a week during our stay, to document the evolution of sea life around a destroyer that had been recently sunk to create an artificial reef. 

We had some interesting evening conversations with him at the hotel bar, and later spent some time with him while awaiting our flights at the Cayman Brac Airport Terminal.

Zam was a Very Special person in our lives, and I miss him and my sister Jacki.

I know that they are not gone as long as we carry them in our hearts.

Blessings to All,

Daniel