Faulk TaiChi

Learn the beautiful, flowing movements for health and relaxation.

Shimmering Leaves

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Where I live in live in the midwest part of the United States, the trees and bushes continue to show us spring and new life, with small buds, leaves and blossoms. The tulips are up, standing erect with their tall with their slender green stems and some of the pansies are still smiling back at us.

In Tai Chi class we bring intention and attention to the present moment, to how we are standing and moving, to our alignment and our breathing. The Tai Chi Classics say that our internal energy, Qi, roots in the feet, transfers through the legs, is commanded by the waist, moves up the back, then through arms and flowers in the hands and fingers.

That’s like the trees. Think about all the work they do to bring up nutrients and energy from the earth, through their trunk and branches and flower at the tips, with leaves and blossoms. I start every class asking students to stand with legs and feet parallel, hip-width apart. We shift our weight slightly forward, then to the center, to the outside, inside of the feet, returning to center. We move in a small circular motion, visualizing our feet connected to the earth, feeling the energy and bringing it up through the entire body, flowering in the hands and fingers.

I love that image because we become like the trees, particularly at this time of year, when the leaves are new. The new leaves are a light green and have a shimmering quality. New life and a new season, nourishment and renewed energy.

Walking outside after class in downtown Chicago this week, right in front of me were city trees, with new leaves shimmering in the sunlight. Take a minute to really look at these trees. What a message they are giving us with new life, a new chapter and season. Let us pay attention and start a new season for ourselves, thinking about possibilities, a new way to move forward and nourish ourselves

Almost Spring

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Exciting signs that spring is near — more sunlight in our days, little buds and leaves on the trees, a touch of warmer weather and lighter jackets on our backs. Yes, those of us who live in climates where winter seems to linger, anticipate and talk about the promise of spring. It is close at hand and we anticipate what is coming by paying attention when we’re outside by trees, near the soil with seedlings, listening to the joy of birds singing their springtime songs.

Scott Street, Chicago

In Tai Chi class we often visualize rooting our legs and feet like a tree, feeling the rich soil filled with nutrients and energy. Like the trees and plants, we bring that earth energy up through our bodies to nourish and refresh us. We let go of tension, relax. We connect with the natural flow of nature and the universe.

Taking time to watch the growth and blossoming of the trees, bushes and flowers start to show their colors is a good antidote to all the negative news and turmoil that keep trying to monopolize our attention. Put the phone away the minute before you walk out the door and while you’re outside, notice. . . every living thing around you. Smile and say hello as you pass someone on the sidewalk. Stop to look at the trees in your neighborhood. Maybe you can say hello to them, too. They will answer soon with a glorious display of bright green leaves, beautiful blossoms, and when we pay attention, bring a smile to our face.

Photos from Chicago, West Des Moines, and Wilmette

Spring Equinox

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This year the day of Spring Equinox was extra special. At the very hour when that point of equinox occurred, we were moving our energy in a Tai Chi class, focusing on balancing our Yin and Yang. We noted that bringing intention and attention to our balance at the moment of balance between of dark and light, felt so relaxing, put us so in the moment. A moment of letting go, a moment of lightness of being.

Tai Chi at Heartwood —- Evanston, Il 3/20/23

Without the dark, we can’t see the light. We honored that and also felt joy that it was evening and still light outside, admitted we were looking forward to longer minutes and hours of sunlight in our days.

This is a great time to focus on our balance, physical and emotional. Are our days filled with doing and achieving, and then wondering where the time went? Are we taking some time to stop, reflect and just be? Are we paying attention to the trees, the birds, noticing what’s around us in nature? And, are we breathing, taking time to intentionally breathe?

Focused and relaxed

Tai Chi gives us the opportunity to balance, to move our energy together and feel our Yin and Yang as equal energy forces. We are very grateful.

Winter Solstice

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Today we experience the most hours and minutes of darkness of any day in the year, a day when the sun is at its lowest point. From the Essene Book of Days — “The ancient people used this time of ‘longest night’ to focus on the power of darkness. Not the negative image of darkness, but the richness of that unknown, dark, fertile, deep part in each of us wherein our intuitive, creative forces abide. In modern times, it is a time for owning one’s shadow, so as to transform any negative energy associated with it into the energy of creation and psychic ability. We must accept and know our Darkness before we can fully know the Light.”

city lights
stars

This is a Yin time of year, a time for reflection, a time to look inward. Many spiritual and religious traditions acknowledge the darkness, asking followers to embrace the darkness, because in doing so, we will be ready for the light to come. The light WILL come. May we have confidence in knowing that this day, Winter Solstice teaches us that we need to follow the seasons and natural flow of nature. We need the yin of darkness and yang of light to create balance our lives.

For those of us embracing Tai Chi energy and movement, we follow the yin and yang of nature and work to create internal and external balance by embracing the light and darkness of our energies.

New Green Leaves Spring Forth

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I absolutely love the first warm days of spring time when the green buds, turn into leaves on the trees and the light green color fills in all that space between the branches. It’s a predictable wonder of nature that new life has sprung forth.

Chicago tree showing new leaves
Chicago tree showing its new leaves

I remind my students to pay attention, to feel the energy of the tree bringing up earth energy and moisture through the trunk, branches and then flower into beautiful green. This is the essence of Tai Chi — we root our feet into the earth, bring up the energy, which moves through the legs, is commanded by the waist and hips, moves up through the arms and flowers and the hands and fingers. In every class, I begin with our standing in hip-width distance and visualize a tree. We are the tree, moving with the natural rhythms and harmony of nature.

bringing up tree energy
Bringing up earth energy like a tree

Be mindful of the glorious trees right now. Don’t just walk by. Stop, admire and maybe even say thank you for new life and possibilities.

Winter Solstice

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The day of most darkness this year, a time to connect with nature, with our quiet side, our yin energy. This darkness doesn’t need to be negative. Each of us can connect deep inside where the intuitive, creative part of us can emerge to bring forth new energy, new ideas, new understanding of our self and our own potential for blossoming into the person we hope to be.

The light will come, though it’s a time right now not to “do” but to reflect on what we might do, what we might be, to discover what particular light we as individuals can bring into the world.

winter solstice sunset
winter skies
winter sky