Right from the get-go I noticed that I was breathing from the neck up and the rest of me was in an "alert" tenseness. Since that is not at all effective nor does it encourage flow or healing in my shoulder, let's adjust that one, shall we?
I started with the modified lunges in otoyu (spelling?) stance that we do in our Tai Chi warmup to bring my breathing down into my body. After I accepted that my feet are feet and that they are the perfect size and shape for me, I noticed that my left knee wants to roll in to compensate for the weight load, a side-effect of years of sliding from the hack in curling. I kept doing the lunges until it was enough making sure my stance form was correct. "Picking fruit" stretches out my shoulder and that both feels good and says "hello". Now that I am more grounded, I'll carry on.
Kicks: still continuing with going in and out of crane very slowly. My thought is that I am building the strength and stability in my knees (especially left) by going slow and being sure of each movement. Right now I'm sensing that it's more important to be stable and strong than to have a high crane. I closed my eyes for a few and images of glass pieces came up. I think I'm being hailed.
Situps/core: when I work my core I visualize the muscles contracting and pushing out the breath. I take each move to the maximum and then release. My focus here is that ONLY the core are doing the work, the rest of my body is along for the ride. I noticed that I can get into the good breathing here. My stopping point is when my core says "enough already!!" and that's after I have worked upper, lower, and obliques, basically the whole shootin' match.
Forms: still with Awakening the Dragon. Being in the kneeling position of this form is trying, but I'm persisting as I believe it's stretching out what needs to be stretched in my legs. I'm breathing through what feels uncomfortable. I let go of the number structure of the form and let the energy/chi take me to where I needed to go. The next go-around (I switched positions to sitting with legs loosely crossed in front) I tuned into the colors and again, let it take me where I needed to go. At the end of the form, I was folded forward giving my hamstrings and glutes a much needed stretch. Felt good.
I realize that I have distance to go for getting present and tuning in when it comes to training. I am sensing that I will know my body and movement on a whole new level or 20.
Sherri Donohue
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