Tai Chi and Yoga Tips

Our tai chi and yoga practices are meant to change with the seasons – and this includes both our personal seasons as well as the earth’s seasons. This is true all the time, but especially in the Winter it is important that we learn how to balance how much we are moving our qi with how much we are holding on to and consolidating it. The more we consolidate and the less we move, the more yin our physical practice becomes. There are as many ways to achieve this balance, and as many variations on it, as we can imagine.

This month, I want to focus on the Qi Gong exercise of Consolidating. When we practice consolidating, we study and observe the energetic principle of making the same amount of energy more dense and compacted. We start with our feet in basic tai chi stance, and we are holding a large ball of energy with one hand above and one hand below. Inhaling, we sink, bending the knees slightly, and the ball of energy gets slightly smaller and more dense. Exhaling we rise and the ball of energy rotates 180 degrees at its newly consolidated size so that the hands have shifted places. After 9 breaths and consolidations, the ball should be between the size of a grapefruit and an orange. Place this consolidated ball of energy into your lower belly, or dan tien, and breathe into the space a few times to integrate the energy into your body.