Video: Tai Chi - Upward and Downward

Tai chi expert Barry Brownstein demonstrates the Upward and Downward movement. After entering the Meditative State, you begin this tai chi movement by lifting your arms from your belly outward and up. When your arms reach shoulder height, bring them toward your body and lower them. Then repeat, imagining you are spinning a ball of energy with your arms in a steady, fluid motion.

 

Music: “Misty Mountain Valley” by George Bolger | www.gbolarts.com

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Video Transcript: Tai Chi – Upward and Downward

My name is Barry Brownstein and this is Jason Webster. We’re going to show you upward and downward. You bring the energy out of your belly and into your palms. Face your palms to the earth; let your hands fall and your knees bend. Bring your hands up to shoulder height, point your fingers forward, bring them up a little bit higher, pull them all the way back to your shoulders and let your hands round down and as your knees bend, your hands go down. You point all 10 fingers into the earth, you rise to the sky, and then you point forward, raise a little higher, pull back, and round the chi down. This exercise – you coordinate your arms and your legs to move together, integrative movement. You want to link your breath to your motion. When you rise, you’re going to inhale. And when you sink, you’re going to exhale. Remember to keep the string on top of your head at all times, so you do not lean in any direction.
You want to be like the yin-yang symbol, smooth and continuous, even, with no interruptions. That’s a thing to repeat again and again, smooth and continuous, even, with no interruptions. Side view, you can imagine taking an energy ball and spinning it, and adding spin to this energy ball. Gaze into infinity, tongue at the roof of your mouth, feet planted into the earth, listening inwardly. Take your time. After many, many, many repetitions with small bits of improvement, you conclude by bringing your hands back in front of your belly and then you settle. After movement comes stillness. Don’t neglect stillness, that’s the other half of yin and yang. Movement and stillness is a pair. So stillness, you should begin and conclude in stillness.