These thoughts come from 40 years of making notes after class or practice or thinking. Some are almost-finished writing; others are only thought out, and need to be organized. If any of them capture your interest, please let me know via the Contact page, and I will finish up that essay in a few weeks. Nicholas
- BASICS/
- The Fundamental Concept: Focus vs. Full-Form Practice
- Five years of improvement in six months
- Learning to move like a great river
- Repetition cannot completely replace the full form
- Body/Space Awareness: Proprioception, Exteroception, and Interoception
- The Need For Daily Practice
- Developing Balance
- Holding Postures - the Health Benefits
- Muscle Innervation
- Muscle Capillarization
- Muscle Hypertrophy
- Holding While Injured For Joint Rehabilitation
- A Good Time to Relax Your Torso ("core")
- Criticisms of Posture Holding
- The Three DanTian
- DETAILS-BIG/
- Three Mental Elements of Mastering T'ai Chi: Concentration, Discipline, and Patience
- Overcoming Mental Blocks in T'ai Chi
- Quiet Standing: an Essential Part of Qigong
- T'ai Chi Breathing: Slowly
- Practicing Indoors or Outdoors
- CROSS-TRAINING/
- The Trouble With American Feet
- Cross-Training and T'ai Chi
- INTERNAL-ASPECTS/
- T'ai Chi and Unnecessary Mysticism
- Practicing Like a Lady Dancing
- The Importance of Perfection in Practicing
- T'ai Chi Relaxation Techniques
- Beginners Cannot "Relax" - They Can Only Tense
- "Dropping" (relaxing) the Shoulders
- PHYSIOLOGY-HEALTH/
- Cardio-Vascular Benefits of T'ai Chi Practice
- Practicing When Sick or Injured
- When Ill
- When Injured
- Chronic Illness Is a Great Motivator
- T'ai Chi Vision: Seeing Far and Wide
- Motivations That Lead to Success or Failure
- The Precious Ten Minutes After Practice
- Where Short-term Memory Becomes Long-Term Memory
- Maintaining an Erect Posture in T'ai Chi
- What Does Not Improve Posture
- Western Tips
- Eastern Advice
- Other Suggestions
- What Does Work
- Don'ts
- Note
- Relaxing / "Sinking" / "Dropping" Your Shoulders
- Real Qigong Teaching