I was having a lot of trouble and confusion getting through the qi gong forms this morning. I had to sit down after the first form, Five Golden Coins, and think through the second one. And then, having done that, I had to think my way through the next three tai chi forms pretty carefully.
But I was so sure that I was making mistakes (I wasn’t, apparently), that I spoke the name of each movement in the form aloud during the north-facing form, to be sure I was doing each movement in its proper place, in its proper order.
Think about that.
I’ve been doing this for four years now, plus some random days because I over-counted in year three, plus five days in year five. It amounts to 1477 days. And yet, even after all this time, I can’t actually guarantee that I’m doing the tai chi form the way I’m supposed to be doing it, every time, unless I say the names of the movements as I do them. Aloud.
Apparently.
I can’t say I’m happy about this state of affairs. I’ve been working without saying the names for a while, but I can’t deny that saying the names aloud kept me on track today, and gave me confidence that I’d actually done the tai chi form that I learned.
My work started at 5:37 am and ended at 6:31. So I’m not doing an hour every day, but I’m pretty close to it.
