At the start of each Kai Chi Do session, Charles reminds us to listen to our bodies. This is so important!
First of all, it’s so much more fun when we’re not pressuring ourselves to do more than what feels right.
Second, it helps us learn self-regulation, how we can modify the intensity of our own experience by varying our movements and breath.
And third, learning to listen to the signals of our body is part of what keeps us safe in the world. The New York Times made this point strongly in an article this week entitled How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body.
I don’t really know why people try to push themselves into positions (or places) that don’t feel good. Is there some kind of rule that says you have to? If someone, somewhere, made that rule and is trying to put that on you – just give your attention to your inner teacher instead.
Kai Chi Do is meditation in movement, a kind of aerobic yoga – helping you to connect with yourself, your Source, and others.
In this video, Charles Robinson leads you in some of the Kai Chi Do Basics. He introduces the powerful SA breath to help calm your mind and release resistance, and a few of the basic movements of Kai Chi Do: Chi Circles facing the Earth, Chi Circles facing the sky, Crossovers, Side Strikes, and Thrusts.
Kai Chi Do is not something you watch. It’s something you DO! So we created a little warm up video. Get up outta your chair and give it a try! Pretend it’s your own little Wii Fit. Get the energy flowing, and learn some of the basic movements and breaths of Kai Chi Do.
Try doing this while you are thinking about something else
One thing that Kai Chi Do has taught me is that you can’t simultaneously hold onto resistance and allow Life Energy to flow. They can’t exist in the same space. They’re mutually incompatible – like trying to whistle and eat at the same time.
If I go into a Kai Chi Do session with a bunch of grumbling and upset in my head, all that “stuff” dissolves as soon as I am willing to relax, do the breathing, and the movements, and the rhythm. I can’t keep the grumbling going and also do the process. It’s either one or the other – Which would you choose?
If I try to hold onto my upset – as if there’s something constructive in that – my body feels heavy and my mind feels out of sync. The only way to fully participate is to set those upset thoughts aside.
Then once I let go of the upset, the breathing gets in my head and I feel present in my whole body (not just in my head). And I feel the tingly vibrating flows of energy.
All of a sudden it looks like how I feel really is my choice. I really can regulate my own energy.
And I can pick up the grumbling again as soon as I stop Kai Chi Do, but who wants to?
Feeling better starts with that willingness to let the resistance go. To just set it aside for a little while. I’m not ignoring my problems, I’m elevating my view.
At the start of each Kai Chi Do session, Charles reminds us to listen to our bodies. This is so important!
