So today, I was able to follow-up on yesterday’s commitment.  I decided to work on breathwork the whole way through the form, which I was able to do.  The same working pattern of breath, all the way through the form, raised my energy levels and got me moving quite successfully.  I also worked on “chunking” the tai chi form into seven basic parts, so that I can concentrate on different parts of the form on different days, until I gradually work up the ability to do the whole form at the same level of intensity.  Given that these seven “chunks” begin in specific places around the room, I’m going to put down pieces of tape (probably colored in the same colors as the planetary associations of the days of the week), and use those markers as ways of tracking where my intensity begins or ends on given days.  Elegant.

The result of today’s form work was less than elegant, though.  During Cloud Hands, I was so focused on keeping my bones and the right angles relative to my body, and the muscles tensed, that I actually fell over — knocked myself right out of balance, and stumbled in a way that forced me to catch my breath and right myself.  I didn’t fall or hit the floor or anything particularly serious.  But I haven’t challenged my postures enough in the last year with challenges like that, which might cause me to fall or lose my grip on the floor.

It’s kind of fun to discover a new layer of the onion, here, and start digging into the possibilities and potentials of the deeper work.  I’m not saying it will be easy, but there’s a deliciousness involved in finding a route through all of this uncertainty in start of the second year.

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