Opening Tai Chi Movement

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Jan Kain and we are going to be continuing on with our Tai Chi lesson today and beginning with the opening move. Remember we began in ready stance, feet grounded, eyes forward. The opening move we call chi, we call for the breath the life force. So you are going to begin by slowly moving both arms up in front of you towards your eyes. What is moving your arms, it's not only your arms. The movement is coming from your spine and your breath. When you get to about eye level, you are going to release the shoulders first and the elbows, palms are going to push down, just as if you were pushing two balls under water. Nice and smooth, gentle and graceful. At the end of the movement the palms face down just like you are pushing into the earth. Just remember when you stop the actual movement your mind is still pushing and from here we're going to go on to the next movement, so just keep this one in mind and we are going to flow and move on."