Tai Chi & Qigong Class 12 18 24

Thank you for viewing this video. Glad you were here. Let's go ahead and get started. Standing with our feet together, let's take a deep breath in, inhale and exhale. And continue just inhaling and exhaling. Be aware of your body on each exhalation. Empty yourself out to a relaxed stance, knees softly bent, hips in neutral, means hips neither forward nor back, arms relaxed by our side, shoulders melting down to the ground, face relaxed, so from head to toe totally relaxed. Take a few more deep breaths in. Now let's add some arm movement. First let's step our feet out, hip width apart, lift the arms slowly up to the sky, shift the weight, step out and float the arms down. Now inhale, bend the knees and rise, exhale, open the palms, take them out to the side. And then just the opposite, out to the side, turn the palms towards me and float them down. Do that a few more times. Rising with the crown of the head, work towards the sky, and then melt down towards the earth. You can bend the knees, you can go a little bit lower, breathe in and breathe out. Bend the knees a little bit deeper now, breathe in, fill up the lungs, really reach up to the sky, exhale, bend the knees a little bit lower. One more time, inhale. Now let's keep our arms overhead, your left or right, just one hand, grasp the other wrist. I can't remember if I'm mirroring, mirroring view or you know what I mean. So mirror me and I won't say left or right. Because I'm not sure if your mirror is on the left or the right. Does that make sense? Take a nice stretch to the side. Let's do that again. Gently pull the elbow over, the feet are rooted and grounded. Now keeping our arms overhead, let's interlace the fingers and just turn the palms towards the sky. Really stretch here. You can come up on your toes, it's really stretch here. And then again, lower the heels to the right or left, breathe in and then the other side and come on back. Let's float the arms down about chest height, but rotate. Look over one shoulder, inhale. Now if this is getting too much on your shoulders, just keep your arms chest height and then come here and then open. Just getting a nice little rotation, warming up the spine. Breathe out, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in. One more time. Breathe out, breathe in and float the arms down. Let's sink the Chi. Inhale, take it to the chest. Palms come in towards yourself and it's floated down. Sometimes I get tongue-tied. Breathe in, bring the palms in towards the heart. There we go. And exhale. One more time. Breathe in, it's like you're going to give someone a big hug and exhale. Now let's pull or draw the energy up towards our heart. Lean on one leg, put the weight in, shift the weight to one leg, step this heel out. Keep that heel, keep the toes lifted, heel out and push and then draw it back in and then push it down the leg, hinging at the hips. Breathe in, breathe out. One more time. Breathe in and send that energy all the way down to the heel. Good. Rise, step in. Let's do the same thing other side. Shift the weight to the other leg. Heel extends, toes out, push, pull and send it down to the feet. Rise back up. One more time. Push it out. You might feel a nice little stretch on the back of the leg and push it down. And rise, step back in, shift the weight to the other leg. Now we're going to step to the corner and push and pull like a seesaw. Push and pull. One more time. Let's push, hold there, palms facing the earth, rise, lean back and come in. Let's do that on the other side. Shift the weight, step to your corner, push, pull. One time. Push, now take it overhead. Breathe in and breathe out. Step in, pull it in. Do it again on the other side. Push, pull, push and take it overhead. Breathe in, open the lungs. Nice little back bend. Step in one more time on the other side. Same thing. Step to your corner, push and pull. Now push, take it overhead, draw it back in. Float the arms down. Let's open the door. Breathe in and breathe out. One more time. Breathe in and at any time you can stop the video, put some music on. It always inspires me. Put on some nice relaxing music or whatever moves you. Let's keep our arms by our side and shift. I'm going to open the feet up just a little bit, a little more than hip width apart and just shift from side to side. Arms going to stay relaxed just by our side. Now let's shift to one side, extend the heel and play the pipa. Let's do the same thing on the other side. Lower the arms, shift, heel, bend the elbows and play the pipa. So these are the chords and this is the strings. Shift and shift. I'm going to change it up just a little bit. I'm going to take the arms overhead and play the pipa. Take it overhead or chest height. Again, if you have some shoulder issues, just take the arms of the chest, play the pipa, keep the arms of the chest and play the pipa. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. One more time. Breathe in, breathe out. Now stay with me. We're going to step in, take our arms to the other side, step to your corner, brushing and push. Circle back in, step in, brushing and push. One more time. Circle and brushing and push. Now step that back leg forward, step up, shift the weight to the back leg, toes up, play the pipa. Let's do that again. Lay those toes down, step up, play the pipa. Take the arms overhead, play the pipa. I'm going back to my spot. Inhale and exhale. As you take the arms, bring the arms towards you and then one more time. Inhale and exhale. Take the arms to the other side, brushing and push. Step in, circle in, brushing and push. Let's do that two more times. Circle in, brushing and push. Circle in. We're going to do that play the pipa. We're just going to do it one time. Step up, shift the weight to the back leg, heel and just switch the arms. Basically that's all you do. And then play the pipa. Step in, inhale, exhale. Two more times. Inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale. Take the arms to the other side, heels already, legs kind of already there. Step out, brushing and push. Keep the feet planted. Breathe in and breathe out. One more time. Breathe in and breathe out. Step up, play the pipa and then take the pipa over to the other side with the arms overhead or chest height. Three times. Good. One more time. Take the arms to the other side, brushing and push. Step forward, brushing and push. Keep the feet planted. Do it a few more times. Breathe in and just breathe is the main thing. And listen to your body. If I'm doing something that doesn't feel right for you, of course, modify it or don't do it. Let's do that one more time. Breathe in. Stay with me. From here, I'm going to step in with the float hands like clouds and then keep our feet there back up with the park. Float hands like clouds. Shift the arms. One goes to the top, the other goes to the bottom. The palms are facing in and then rotate the hips as opposed to moving the arms. Rotate the hips and the ankles. Breathe in, breathe out. Again, just breathe. Just breathe what comes natural. Now stay with me. We're going to float to the other side. We're going to make our hook. Step in, circle in, step out to the side, single whip. Scoop it up and send it out. Good. A couple more times. Breathe in. You can get as low as you want to here. Scoop in. Release the hook and float hands like clouds. Toe heel it in. Stay with me. Float to the side. Make our hook. Step in. Scoop it in towards the heart. Step to the side and push. Breathe in. Scoop and breathe out. Inhale and exhale. Sink. One more time. Breathe in and breathe out. Stay with me. Release the hook. Float hands like clouds. Shuffle in. Two more times. All right. Moving on to another movement. Open the palm here for emperor puts on his robe. Just take your fingers, lightly tap them inside this palm. Take it across the chest and then put on your rope with both arms. Pull it in. Step in and push. Breathe in and breathe out. Let's do that again. Open the palm. Take it across. Overhead. Cross again. Push and pull. Emperor puts on his robes. Turn this palm up. Lightly tap with the other hand. Take it overhead. Pull it in. Step in. Push and pull. Palm up. Take it across. Take it overhead. Take it to the chest. Step in. Push and pull. Let's do that a couple more times. Palm up. Take it across. Overhead. Step in. Push and pull. And a push. And last time. Palm up. Take it across. Overhead. Step it in. Draw it to the heart. Step out. Float hands like clouds. Single whip. Make a soft hook. Snip in and send it out. So you can get a bit lower here if you'd like to. We're going to add on here. Snake creeps down. We're going to just reverse this arm movement. So turn the palm in towards you. Circle in front of the heart and send it out. Breathe in and breathe out. One more time. Breathe in. Breathe out. Release the hook and float hands. Toe heel it in. Two more times. We'll do single whip and snake creeps down on the other side. Make your soft hook. Step in. Scoop it in. Let's just do three single whips. That's one. Two. And one more. Snake creeps down. Turn the palm in towards you. Circle in and send it out. Two more times. Breathe in. I think you can see me on the black background. I'm thinking about taking my yin and yang down. What do you think? Release the hook. Float hands like clouds. Just make sure I wear darker clothing. I have just the blank wall behind me. And now emperor puts on his gown. Turn the palm up. Lightly tap these fingers in the center of the palm. Bring it across. Take it overhead. Step in and push. Pull and push. Palm up. Take it across. Overhead. Step in and push. And pull and push. Emperor puts on his gown. Take it across. Overhead. Step in. Push. Float hands like clouds. One more time. And let's sink the chi. Float the arms down. Breathe in. Gather. Breathe out. One more time. Breathe in. And breathe out. Let's do some tai chi walking. So let's shift the weight. I'm going to head towards you. I'm going to shift the weight. Pick up my feel. And just like we're walking, you're going to start with your heel. Then roll the foot down to your toes. Your arms are going to stay relaxed by your side. Shift the weight so at some point you're balancing on one leg. And roll the foot slowly. Get to see me up close and personal. And let's thunder cloud the arms back. Bring it in. Step back. The same arm and leg. And thunder clouds. I like floating hands like clouds. You're just leading with your elbows. Float the arms down. Now begin on the other foot. Normally stronger on your right. Stronger on your left. Vice versa. Tai chi walking. Just take your time. Balance on that whole foot. And when you come to a place, thunder cloud arms back. Elbow and leg step back. Same leg and arm. As the arm comes forward, the same leg comes back. Same side. And sink the chi. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. And breathe out. I'm going to shift to one side. This is called teacup. So the palm is going to stay up just like you're holding a teacup and you don't want it to spill. So let's draw it in first underneath the arm. And then circle around. So this is a great stretch for the shoulders and the chest. Now bring it forward and then overhead. Still keeping that palm flat as you can. Draw it across the heart. Draw it in. And repeat. Bring it across. Overhead. Circle overhead. Across and in. A couple more times. Make sure you're breathing. Across and in. One more time. Breathe and change sides. Starting with that palm up. About chest height. Draw the elbow back. Circle under the arm. Bring it across the heart. Overhead. See if you can keep that palm flat. Into the front. Draw the elbow back. Underarm. Just going at your own pace. Breathe in. Take it overhead. One more time. You can put these together. It's a little more difficult. So both palms up. Draw both elbows back. Circle underarm. Cross in the front. Circle overhead. Cross in front. Draw it back to the beginning. You just want to try it. Or if you want to keep the single arm, that's fine too. Underarm. Bring it forward. Cross. Overhead. And it's okay if your hands aren't totally flat because the shirtlines sure aren't. So good. Stretching the shoulders one more time. And relax your arms by side. Let's do a couple of shoulder circles. Just do a couple back, couple forward. Do our final movement called deer. I'm going to go back to the shifting but a swaying of the arms. This way, side to side. Now a sway to one side. Thin the elbows. Make your antlers. Step the heel out to a comfortable place. Circle the arms across and around. As you look to the back, release. Take the arms overhead. Step in and sway. Release the antlers. Let's do it again on the other side. Step forward. This elbow is going to stay tucked in while this arm goes overhead. Point our antlers in the back. I wasn't making my antlers. So the arm can stay overhead. You can keep it at the chest. Just wherever is comfortable for you. Breathe and release the antlers. Release the arms. Let's do that one more time either side. Shift. Make your antlers. Soft heel forward. Circle back. Point your antlers to the back. Bend that front knee. Drop that back heel towards the earth. Breathe. Release. Now one more time. Sway. Antlers. Step forward and point your antlers back. Drop that back heel towards the earth. Bend the front knee if you can. Whenever feels good. Breathe and release. Shift to side to side. Let's do some shaking. Hopefully you can still hear me. Shake. Whatever feels good. Shake the arms. Shake one leg. Shake the other leg. Shake it all out. Open the door. I'm just ending here with some vibration and movement. Now we've loosened everything. Moved everything. Let's get it out. Slowly come to stillness. You can do a little more shaking if you want to. Let's float the arms up. Softly step in. Float the arms down. And again, thank you for viewing this video. I hope to see you next time. Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year.