clouds Archives | Faulk TaiChi

Imitating a Cloud

July 13, 2018 By Arlene Faulk

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.

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.

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.

Emulating Patterns of Nature through Tai Chi

October 1, 2017 By Arlene Faulk

Nature moves in a coordinated manner- the day dawns and night falls; the seasons have patterns of warm to cool, green leaves to beautiful red, orange and yellow leaves as they prepare to depart and welcome in winter; water warm enough in summer to attract us to swim or be at the beach; water freezes in the winter so it’s time for ice skating or sledding or skiing.

If you have been reading my blogs in the last few months, you know I have been focusing on clouds. The clouds, during the day and at sunset, have been spectacular this year. When I look up, gaze at the wispy clouds, the big, white puffy clouds, with their changing formations and gentle movement across the sky, I am still. I am in the moment. The clouds are part of the natural rhythms of nature.

While in Poland a couple weeks ago, I paid attention to the clouds, almost 5000 miles from home. The clouds at sunset in Lodz were stunning. And then back at home, out my front window, the clouds framed a great picture of my city.

These images came into my consciousness again today as I was reading the “Tai Chi Classics”. I’m eager to start my fall Tai Chi classes tomorrow and want to ground myself in major principles. In the treatise by Master Chang San-feng, (ca. 1200 C.E.), he says “Once you begin to move, the entire body must by light and limber. Each part of your body should be connected to every other part.” He emphasizes that the entire body needs to move, not just the hands, or elbows or legs. We need to be like the universe that moves in a coordinated way, with balance and harmony.

For me, that’s like day turning into night, seasons changing, watching the clouds drift by with ease and grace and harmony. I aspire to move my body as a coordinated unit with Tai Chi. It’s a life-long journey and it’s so worth it.

I am grateful for students who are are with me in this journey.

Look at the Clouds

July 9, 2017 By Arlene Faulk

The puffy, white clouds suspended in space on sunny, warm days have been stunning this summer. Have you noticed? The big cumulus clouds that look like giant cotton balls and the delicate, wispy cirrus clouds, that look like a Chinese calligrapher has done a swirl with her brush, are my favorites.

These clouds are mesmerizing — watching them in stillness or in slow, smooth motion move across the sky makes me feel calm. All thoughts in my busy mind drift away with the clouds. I am filled with the lightness and soothing feelings these clouds transmit to me.

Maybe clouds, in general, match our emotions. There are purple and gray, angry clouds, heavy clouds filled with scary lightning bolts and then, in contrast, the clouds on the horizon that provide an exquisite setting for a beautiful orange and red sunset. And then the clouds I am focusing on right now, the beautiful white ones against a deep blue sky.

The principles and moves of Tai Chi are in sync with nature and clouds are an integral part of that. One of our movements is called ‘waving hands like a cloud’. It is slow and graceful, like watching the puffy and wispy, white clouds above. We do a Qigong movement called “uniting heaven and earth”, in which the palm of each hand lowers, slowly and gracefully like a cloud. I find that students relate easily to that image and the energy in the room changes. We become, for a few moments, like a cloud — graceful, flowing and magnificent.

Next time you look up or out over the horizon at those beautiful white clouds, stop, watch and take in what they are saying to you and how they make you feel.