I did a full program of about 35 minutes this morning. This included the druidry daily practice I do, followed by Five Golden Coins and Eight Pieces of Silk, and a careful walk-through of the tai chi form at what-should-be-normal speed. I did a pretty good job with the four key principles of practice, namely moving through water, inverse breathing, footwork, and slowness. Even so, I had to do the form twice at this speed to make up the time that I planned to work.
And that’s good information. If I’m going to progress over the course of this year to an hour of daily tai chi, I need to figure out what I need to do to fill that time. Doing the form once, no matter how slowly, isn’t going to fill more than 30 minutes. In reality, it’s going to need to be 1-3 qi gong forms, and then five to six movements through the form to make up that time. This means learning a new qi gong routine or two, as well as learning how to do my own form more slowly.
I’d better start on that soon.
