New Energy

This month I signed up for tai chi classes.  Oh boy do I have some learning to do.

Which is the point.

 

My brain and my body get bored (and everyone else’s brains and bodies do, too).  I needed something to wake me up.  So far, tai chi is working great.

 

The first thing I learned, not for the first time, is that I have way too many body parts.  I’d figure out what my feet were supposed to be doing and my arm was in a totally wrong place.  Or I’d finally remember that my palm was supposed to face down only to find that I had my weight on the front foot instead of the back foot (unless that was the other way around?).  This is all good because it means I have to integrate new motor pathways.  Eventually, both my body and my brain will be smarter.

 

Another lesson?  Slow is hard for me.  I am a champion at rushing through things, but taking my time?  I have lots of up to work with on that.

 

One more:  I go big, even when I shouldn’t.  Big steps, big waves of my arms, big turns.  It will be interesting to find out if I can learn to be more subtle.

 

Not that my specific lessons are important to anyone but me.  The facts that I’m doing something new, though, and processing new ways of being and moving in my body are more widely applicable.  If I can do it, anyone can.  Novelty is good for humans.

 

Go play.  In a different way than usual!