Ok, I’ve been ‘blue’.  That’s our family’s code-word for unofficially-diagnosed seasonal depression. The lack of light gets to my mother, as it got to my cousins and my grandfather, and to others in my family, and it makes us sad.  SAD?  that’s a question for someone else.  I’m blue, and that’s what I’m talking about, and it’s been affecting my practice the last few weeks.  It’s part of the reason I took up the drawing project, and part of the reason it’s lapsed recently.

I did an extra-intense version of my practice this morning, though, and it seems to have chased away some of the blues, at least for the moment.  I did a double-round of my two qi gong forms, and I worked through the tai chi form three times — slower the third time than the second, and slower the second time than the first.  There was a nice burn-off of bad energy.

Once again, I’m out of time, though, for doing the drawings.  Sorry, Quin.  However, I don’t want to leave you with nothing.  So here’s Five Golden Coins in visual format.  I think I did this diagram maybe two and a half years ago… so at least I can see that my drawing skills have improved quite a bit since then.

More than that, though, I think it’s worth training yourself to do Five Golden Coins even before trying to learn the full tai chi form.  Sixteen repetitions of stretching the arms up and down, and then side to side, and then out in front, and then waist bends to touch toes, and then squats with swinging arms.  That’s not going to kill you, and it’s going to make you more flexible, and it’s going to strengthen the breath and make it more aligned with the body as a whole.

So there you are — a complete system of qi gong in a single image.

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