Faulk TaiChi

Learn the beautiful, flowing movements for health and relaxation.

Year of the Rat – 2020

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Year of the Rate

Chinese Lunar New Year, Year of the Rat (4718) began on January 25, 2020. The new year is based on the lunar calendar, so the actual start date varies from year to year but is always in January or February. The traditions are many and rich. The color is red. Lanterns line the streets and homes. Parades mark the celebration with marching bands, colorful and floats and lion and dragon dances.

My Tai Chi students and I have hosted celebrations for many years. This year, on January 26, we gathered with friends and guests at Heartwood Integrative Health and Healing. I am a Rat, so this is my year, the first in a cycle of 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac.

Xin Tian

What a great afternoon! Xin Tian, an acupuncturist from Heartwood gave a very informative presentation about Traditional Chinese Medicine. Participants tuned in and asked many questions. Xin also shared childhood memories of Chinese New Year that she and her family experienced in Beijing, where she was born and grew up.

acupuncture

We all experienced moving our bodies through GiGong, led by Marsha Warren. I loved standing in a hip-width stance, with soft knees, paying attention to proper alignment, following Marsha firm, but soothing instructions. “Do you feel something?” she asked after shaking our arms, hands and fingers in a specific way. Yes, I felt a little tingling. I felt my energy moving and it felt good.

tai chi demonstration

Although the focus was celebration, yes, we had some great snacks — oranges, Chinese candies, almond cookies and sesame bite cookies from Chinatown, we did reinforce good lessons. Learning new things adds to our knowledge base and tool kit for promoting healthy minds and bodies. Directed movement of our bodies, for relaxation for moving our energy, promoting our health is important to experience on a regular basis.

Chinese New Year Celebration
Chinese New Year tai chi event

Thank you to my Tai Chi students, to Xin and Marsha for a stimulating afternoon. Hopefully, the Year of the Rat will be a great year. I will be paying attention.

 

Tai Chi Teaching 20 Years

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Heartwood Center

Twenty years ago this month, 1999, I climbed the 14 steep stairs to the second floor of 1599 Maple Ave. to get my first peek of a newly opened holistic health care (the term used in the late ’90s). The newly painted walls, cozy waiting room and newly decorated treatment rooms were inviting patients and clients in for outstanding care. The big empty room around the corner from the waiting room called me in. This was the room in which I would launch my tai chi teaching on my own during the first week in October. Heartwood opens, September, 1999.

So many stories to tell. So many lives improved through the centuries-old, gentle tai chi movements. I feel so grateful for the wonderful people who have joined me in class on the path to improved health. Through this blog I have told some of their stories, heartwarming, inspiring and showing much courage.

So, right now I want to say ‘thank you’ to each of you this reaches, for your support, your determination and your not giving up as you move forward to live a healthy life. You have shown up. You continue to show up. You continue to enrich my life and teaching every single week. A big Tai Chi salute to you, all my students in Evanston and Chicago.

Enjoy some pictures from then and now.

Chinese New Year Tai Chi
Tai Chi class at Heartwood
Faulk Tai Chi
Faulk Tai Chi form
tai chi movements

Showing Up

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tai chi class Evanston

This was a week of “a-has” for some of my Tai Chi students. One woman, who has been in my classes about three years told me she really is feeling the energy move through her body in a relaxed way, right from the first two moves, Preparation and Beginning. “I knew my energy has been moving in previous classes, but I really felt it in class today! I felt it right away.” Another student, having been on vacation in Great Britain for over two weeks, walked in saying she wasn’t sure how much she would remember. After class, she told me, “I did o.k.. I remembered much more than I thought I would. It’s good and I’m glad to be back.” Her body remembered even though her mind had doubts. Another student, back after a 5000 mile driving trip said she really wanted to move her Qi through Tai Chi, feel the energy with others moving together through relaxed, flowing movements.

After class last night two students approached me, saying, “we want to thank you. Not only do we feel more relaxed and calm, this class hit deeply, in a personal, spiritual way.”

tai chi movements

It’s not me; it’s students connecting with their internal energy, guiding it in specific ways — mindful, relaxed, with attention to proper alignment. I am a catalyst, a guide for students to find a pathway to best possible health, using Tai Chi and QiGong movements as our vehicle.

Each of these students is committed, makes healthy practices a priority, shows up. Showing up – that’s the key. Showing up even on days when it’s hard to get out the door, when energy might be low, when the to-do list is long. Showing up can be the beginning of change, can be the path towards improved balance, in our bodies and in the way we live.

All these students show up. How do you show up for yourself?

Imitating a Cloud

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tai chi class

As part of my Tai Chi classes, I lead the students in a Qi Gong series that includes a movement called “uniting heaven and earth.” We start standing with our legs and feet hip-width apart, knees soft. The palms of our hands are facing up, in front of our bodies at the tan t’ien, right below the belly-button. With the little finger tracing up the center of our body, we spiral the energy up; the other arm and hand are by our side, gently energized. When the arm/hand turns over, our palm floats down like a cloud. Like a puffy, cumulus cloud, soft. Like a big cotton ball.

clouds over city

I love the image of a puffy cloud, floating effortlessly across the sky. It helps me relax, slow down, relax, just thinking about it and visualizing it in my mind’s eye. The cloud puts me in touch with nature, with the natural rhythms of the universe. Uniting heaven and earth does that for us in class. It puts us in the moment, right where we want to be.

city clouds

Whether in Tai Chi class or outside in our daily life, we need to pay attention.

Watch the clouds. Meditate on a cloud. Stop and enjoy the white against the sky. Take time to do that today.

Watch the clouds. It will make your day go better.

clouds

Celebrating 2018 Chinese New Year

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Judy

A very fun afternoon celebrating Chinese New Year, Year of the Dog at Heartwood in Evanston. Look at Judy’s t-shirt and how apt, because she she is a “dog”. Four of us attending the celebration this afternoon were “dogs”.

Tai Chi's journey west

We honored our Tai Chi and QiGong ancestors and teachers, particularly Cheng Man-ch’ing. He was instrumental in bringing Tai Chi to the U.S. and stressing relaxation in doing the form, push hands and sword. We viewed a wonderful documentary “the Professor: Tai Chi’s Journey West” about his integrating Tai Chi, poetry, calligraphy, Chinese Medicine into all his teaching.

tai chi class Evanston
tai chi classes

Michelle Bobier led us in some QiGong to move our energy together and Arlene and some students demonstrated part of Cheng Man-ch’ing’s Yang style 37 Form, the basic form we learn in both Evanston and Chicago classes.

What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon, learning about Qi, relaxing with Tai Chi, improving walking through Tai Chi and all using our bodies in motion to create a room filled with good focus and intention.

Cheng Man-Ch'ing

We are grateful to Cheng Man-ch’ing and remember his saying, “The most important reason to study tai chi is that when you finally reach the place where you understand what life is about you’ll have some health to enjoy it.”