Calm Chicago is participating for the first time ever in the Chicago Art District’s 2nd Friday. We’ll be offering short mini-meditation sessions and qigong from 6-10pm. Our good friend, RoK Teasley will be doing original pastel drawings for you by request.
Meditation can help you focus better and leave you feeling more refreshed than if you took a nap, which can leave you feeling a tad groggy. You can do mini-meditations throughout your work day to help you stay clear of minor and major aggravations. Plus, who can get away with napping at work? You can however take a quick meditation break anytime. Even one minute can help keep you on track and happier.
Qigong not only feels good to do, it’s actually one of the best natural ways to rid your body of the nasty effects of stress. So please join us throughout the night to learn more about how you can help heal your body and mind naturally and easily.
When I was first learning the 18-Form qigong, all my moves were stiff and sticky. Of course, this is how it is whenever we first learn something. I know it can be frustrating for a beginner. My advice? Do your best to let it go. This is a natural part of the learning process. In the beginning, your body and brain are working hard to figure out what the heck they’re supposed to be doing. You’re watching your teacher or other students and trying to play the mirror game of follow the leader. Of course it’s going to be a little wonky at first. Really, don’t feel bad. Did any of us learn to walk over night. One day there you are a little crawling baby and suddenly you’re not a toddler, you are a full-fledged, walking up right Homo sapiens? No way. It took time. So, keep that in mind and cut yourself some slack, okay?
Patience in the Middle
Sometimes, I think it can be a matter of finding the right metaphor to help us find our way. One that I like a lot and mention pretty often to students is to do each posture of the form as if you were moving through water. This may let you relax more and develop the sensitivity to lingering tension in your joints, particularly in your hands and arms. This allows you to notice that when the hands sink down towards the ground, that the heel of the palm and the wrist are the heaviest, allowing the fingertips to float up and be light, buoyed by the air, and sinking more slowly, more delicately than say, the rest of your arm.
Patience in the Rest of Your Journey
Try it and see if that works for you. Let me know how it goes. See how sharp you can make your attention to the whole body as you move and breathe. How light and soft can you be? Then enter your practice time with an easy mind. Of course it helps you to develop when you practice with diligence, attention and focus. But try to let go of grasping for perfection. Remember, that’s why we call all these things, Practice. Enjoy your qigong journey and allow yourself to float like the leaf on the quiet river. One move and a time. One breath at a time.
Nest time, I’ll take a look at some other metaphors which have proved useful to help students catch the idea in a way that makes sense for them.
Take care. Wishing peace and happiness for all beings. And if you found this useful, join other peace minded folks and subscribe.
Interfaith retreat will be led by Hillary and her husband, Ving Tsun Sifu, Matthew Johnson. Come enjoy a day of peace: Alternating periods of dynamic meditation featuring qigong and walking meditation with standing and sitting meditation along with short talks by both retreat leaders on practical applications of all forms of meditation. Vegetarian Pot-Luck Lunch. Please bring something to share.
Free. Donations gratefully accepted. Suggested donation $25
Please no perfumes or cologne. Silence all cell phones etc.
Please register using the form below.
Check out our full calendar of classes by clicking on the photo!
Since tomorrow is the new Buddhist Meditation Center opening in Little Village in Chicago it feels like a good time to bring this post back.
Why?
Because as the potential for new teaching, new students arises it’s a time to reassess how the teaching occurs. To ask, what is most important to say, to share.
If a new person asks, so what’s tai chi and why should I do it? What does a good teacher say?
I feel like Popeye. I want to say, “Eat your spinach! It’s good for you.”
So, with tai chi, we can say, tai chi has this and that benefit to you but in the end, in order to really understand, a person has to do it themselves.
Tai chi can help you reduce stress and be healthier in the body and the mind. How do these things happen? You have to do it and see for yourself.
Tai chi (or taiji) is not something you can learn by thinking about it or by doing some complex analysis. Beginners and more experienced practitioners learn the same way … through direct experience. It’s through this direct experience, this intense, sharp focus, maintained throughout the form, with the total object of the mind, the body/breath/mind, brought totally together as one that does the teaching. A teacher can guide you but even that on … Read More
Just wanted to let you all know, that Calm Chicago is on You Tube. You’ll find our short videos about the 18-form qigong to help support your practice.
Each video deals with just one posture right now. And while getting to a class or involved with some kind of one-on-one instruction is ideal, in the meantime, I hope these can help answer questions you may have.
Let me know what questions you might have.
And if you’re interested in studying but can’t make it into the center, let me know because we’re be happy to come to your home, office or community space. We’re right here in Chinatown, so the South Loop is particularly close by.
Please say hello to the center’s two fish, Yin & Yang.
Meet Yin and Yang, the center's two calm fish. They remind us daily that everything changes.
They have a pretty pleasant environment with lots of plants around. We’d love to have more plants, so we can really freshen the air in the center as much as possible without chemicals. Many thanks to Vincent for all the plants you see here. They were a gift in our prior location and in the move had to be re-potted and trimmed up some. Moving plants in -4 degrees weather is not ideal for the delicate house plants but they seem to be bouncing back.
We love a lot of plants at Calm Chicago. Makes the air clean and healthy.
So, if you have some plants you’d like to donate, they’ll be gratefully received. We get a pretty good amount of indirect light from the south.
We’ll be adding a jade plant soon. Lovely for the center because the soft, round green leaves are beautiful and grow only very slowly. This is how we develop our own practices in tai chi (or taiji), qigong and meditation…slowly, breath by breath.
Thanks so much to our teachers, family, friends and students for all your support. I am ever grateful. Together we make the city more peaceful and less stressed. I bow to you all for your efforts and dedication.
The center will be offering lots of wonderful new seminars this year. We hope you’ll join us as much as you can. Please let us know what you’d like to see offered that would really be of benefit to lots of people. We may not respond to every single idea but we’ll gratefully receive them all.
Many thanks, Hillary and Matt
The central yin and yang in our logo, symbolic of two fish, constantly moving, swimming, going up-coming down.
Just a flash of insight from practice the other day. Like many of my realizations, nothing earth shattering on the surface but buried in its simplicity is a deep thing.
Let’s see if I can put it into words.
Tai Chi (taiji) and meditation allow us to start the day mindfully and without stress
Every day I get up at 5:30 and do some qigong, tai chi and standing meditation to start the day. What happened was, as I looked at the clock on the wall in the center, I knew there was only 40 minutes to practice. At 6:40 a.m. I HAD to be DONE, because the drive to work can take a long time. The Deadline? Be at the desk no later than 8:30. But as often happens with tai chi and meditation, it feels so good and I want to stay and keep going.
I mean, I love tai chi and meditation even more than I like triple scoops of Mint Chocolate ice cream in a dark chocolate dipped waffle cone.
But, if I kept going, I’d be late for work. And that would cause a lot of suffering and trouble for not only for me with the boss, but for colleagues who rely on my presence to get their jobs done.
So, at 6:40 I turned off the light and locked the door to the center. I walked to my car carrying my breath and mind in each step, full and empty, full and empty.
Quan Yin reminds me to balance compassion with wisdom, to do what the next truly appropriate thing is, not just what I want to do.
There was the pleasure of a clear mind from practice and the knowledge that the decision to stick to the schedule was a benefit to me and those around me.
The deep lesson. There is a time for everything. A time for tai chi and a time to drive to the office. Sticking to the schedule reduces stress. The ego is reduced in size. The ego and it’s desire to selfishly pick and choose are set aside for the larger good; a more peaceful day for all the interdependent beings.
Try to live blamelessly, without causing trouble for the self or others.
Do you have times like that? Where you have something you have to do but would rather do something else? How does that play out for you? Are some times harder than others to be disciplined with? Why is that?
1839 S Halsted St Chicago, IL 60608 In the heart of the Chicago Arts District. Free street parking! 312-714-4563 Generosity: Our guiding principle I am no expert on Chinese language but here is what me teachers have told me about these characters. There are two ways to say/write generosity in ... Continue reading »
