Faulk TaiChi

Learn the beautiful, flowing movements for health and relaxation.

A Tai Chi Short Film

By

Mindfulness in Motion. This is a good way to describe the gentle, flowing movements of Tai Chi. Often I hear people say they relax when watching people in a park doing Tai Chi. Even better is experiencing the centering energy (Qi)in a class.

Alex, a Northwestern University journalism and film student contacted me. He asked if I would be open to his filming one of my Tai Chi classes for his film class project. I immediately said yes because I really enjoy working with students, inviting them to film the visually appealing movements of Tai Chi. I always look forward to the nuggets they show as they film an hour of class and condense the film to five or six minutes. What did Alex see? Feel?

Take a look inside my class through Alex’s eyes and camera lens:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MKH8Ms90dNLHEG2-N35gzpmH7fOV-n68/view?usp=drivesdk

Faulk Tai Chi

World Tai Chi & QiGong Day

By

A lovely worldwide tradition occurs on the last Saturday in April — celebrating Tai Chi and QiGong across the world. “One World, One Breath” calls us to breathe and send our calm energy to others.

Get ready to participate — the energy wave starts at 10am on Saturday in Australia and travels across every time zone in the world. At 10 am on Saturday, April 26, stop what you are doing and focus on breathing. Focus your breathing and send its life and good energy across the world connecting with others who are doing the same thing. We can send calm and create unity with others who are in the moment, breathing, perhaps doing some Tai Chi and QiGong moves.

Let’s connect with our breath and our focus of sending calm energy across every time zone. Participate. I look forward to receiving your energy!!

Earth Energy

By

Weather has been volatile lately across the U.S., snow in Southern California, violent storms in the plains, record heat waves in the southeast. Mother Nature is saying pay attention to me. Take care of me. You need me.

We do pay attention in Tai Chi, bringing attention, then intention to how we’re standing, where our weight is, how we are connecting with the earth. We visualize standing on rich soil, with roots moving from the bottom of our feet deep into the earth. This “rooting” gives us stability, helps us bring up earth energy to nourish and invigorate us. Think about a tree, actively working right now to bring up energy throughout is trunk, getting ready to blossom with new buds and leaves.

winter trees

The trees look bare, like nothing is happening, when in fact, a lot is happening. The Tai Chi classics state that with Tai Chi, energy comes up from the earth through the bottom of the feet, travels through the legs, is commanded by the waist, moves through arms and blossoms in the hands. We’re like the tree. The new leaves are the result of a coordinated effort from the tree, all parts working together. Just like the tree, our body is unified, working as a unit so our limbs are part of the whole, not working on their own.

Earth energy gives us life, sustains and nourishes us. Next time you look at a tree, say “thank you.”

Tai Chi students two

Dangling Days of August

By

The London Olympics have finished, but individual stories continue. Some athletes walked away with medals, the pride and talk of their countries. A few landed lucrative endorsements, which we will see in TV ads, billboards, clothing endorsements and for Gabby Douglas, her picture on a cereal box. Most finished with just having had the opportunity to compete in the big games, with the memory of being an Olympic athlete. Many need to figure out how to pay their bills, need to figure out if they can financially make it to train for the next four years in hopes of making it to Rio.

A friend of mine said last week that he was going to be happy getting his evenings back. He was glued to the TV every night of the games, and although enjoying it immensely, he wanted to focus on other things.

We’re at that time of year when there’s not much on TV, vacations are ending, children are back or getting ready to go back to school. It’s definitely noticeable that the sun is rising later in the morning and setting earlier in the evening. Although change of seasons is in the air, these last two weeks in August just seem to dangle out there. It’s an interlude. An in-between time. A time not to miss.

In Tai Chi class, I often ask students to stop and reflect on a tree. We want to be rooted, strong and upright like a tree. In addition, we want to  look at the spaces in-between the leaves. Yes, the spaces. There is a lot of energy in those spaces, sometimes making the leaves and branches sway in the breeze. Sometimes still. Focusing on the spaces changes our perspective. We’re looking at the spaces where up until now we might have thought there was nothing there. Actually, we probably haven’t thought about it at all.

What a good thing to do sometime in these last two weeks of August. Take a few seconds and look at the spaces between the leaves and branches. What do you see? What do you feel?

A Second or Two Faster

By

What is the current London Olympics medal count? Every day my prime time TV broadcast ends with a recap of the medal count. Well, sort of. It’s actually the top six or so countries, and the emphasis seems to be on who has more medals, China or the United States. I heard a discussion on the radio yesterday about how they arrive at their totals. One of the speakers said that the United States counts each medal as 1 point, regardless of whether it’s gold, silver or bronze. He added that China counts a gold as 3 points, a silver as 2 points and a bronze medal as 1 point. Therefore, both countries have a very different total and story they broadcast out to the public.

It makes sense that every country focuses on and highlights its own athletes. If they win, it’s a honor for the country and an honor for the individual or team. I was curious about the bigger picture and took a look at the entire medal picture. A Guatamalan man won the silver medal in race walking; a 19-year-old man from Grenada won the 400m race. Both represent the total medal count, one, for each country. Belarus won a total of nine; Qatar has won two. I just picked these as examples of winners I don’t hear about. There are many more and I’m sure they are big news in their own country. It would be fun to hear their individual stories. And think about it, most athletes who participate in the Olympics don’t win a medal. Yet they are top athletes, the very few who get to complete on a world stage.

Although media puts primary focus on winning, many athletes are happy trying to beat their own personal best time. Run or swim a second or two faster. Pole vault or high jump an inch higher. The competition is not only with others, but within the individual person.

I like that thought — go for our personal best. Challenge ourselves to do a little bit more, be a little bit stronger, a little bit wiser, a little healthier. Doing what we can do with our mind and body to be our best selves. For some, the best is shown in competition with other athletes. For most of us, the best we want to be is within ourselves. For all of us, that’s where it needs to start — inside.