Tai Chi For Meditation

Dear Yogis! 

I’ve been teaching a bit of Tai Chi for meditation in class this week. It’s how I meditate so I thought I’d pass it on. When I found it, my whole meditation practiced relaxed… perhaps it even started right there. Before finding a meditation technique that suits you, it’s a bit of a desperate concentration. This changed meditation for me from effort to non-effort. 

Really, we need to take the mind out of the head and rest it somewhere. I find that listening to chanting still engages the thinking mind. It doesn’t work for me. I’ve written before about the sound of silence for meditation. (Check out that pdf.) Creating your Chi energy ball is inner watching.  

You could watch this YouTube and see a lovely demonstration of finding that feeling in-between the hands that indicate Chi. It might be a putty, squashy, elastic ball that you can push against and pull apart. It might not be so tangible. It might be tingling or warmth or pulsating in the hands. For me, I just rest the backs of my hands on my legs, shaped as if holding a ball, and wait for the feeling to arise. As I’ve been teaching the moving version this week, sometimes I’ve found the ball, and sometimes not. It doesn’t matter. There’s always a sensation there.  

Have a go! 

Zoom Classes  

As I write this, two people have booked for today’s class. Join us!!! For all classes and especially today, you can book here.  

Yoga in the news  

British GQ has: Adriene Mishler: ‘In 2021 I was like, “I have to pause. I have to practise what I preach”’. I always struggle with identifying as a YouTuber, but I relate so much to that pressure for content rollout: the fight to not care about the algorithm... Prior to the 2020 lockdown, I was still doing a new YouTube video every single week of the year and running a business and we were travelling, doing world tours and I was still acting. 

For Sunday Times subscribers: Sky high: yoga on the London Eye. It’s the first time the London Eye has offered yoga classes. The 60-minute experience can be booked until November 18 and costs £37.50.