YCFE: Hips, Legs & Feet / Caradine T'ai Chi for the Mind

[Guest guest]

My somewhat eccentric new neighbor expressed an interest in doing yoga sometime so he came over and we did Yoga Complete for Everybody, Hips, Legs & Feet.  Funny, this was placed with the intermediate workouts, when the beginner one I did last time from YCFWL was harder than this one.  Anyway, these stretches were just what I needed.   The only " challenging " poses were warrior 3 and half moon pose. 

We paused certain sections and held poses longer and often did them twice.  We skipped thunderbolt and hero's poses, my knees and feet don't like either of these.   The shavasana in this one was " playing with opposites " , where you breathe through your left foot up toward the mind, and back out through the right foot, then breathe in through the right foot and out the left.  Nice, circular visualization.

left after that so I continued mind/body night with Caradine's T'ai Chi for the Mind from his AM/PM T'ai Chi dvd.  This was heavenly, and one of the better T'ai Chi practices I've done.  It is a half hour long and what makes this one stand out is that they photoshop in a ball of energy to show the participant where they might be feeling their ball of chi.  It was only there for a brief moment on two occasions but I thought it might give a less sensitive person an idea of what they should be feeling, and where.  I felt this to be energetically quite cleansing and I feel fantastic! 

My large Maine Coon type cat, , weaved in and out of my legs like seaweed, giving a new meaning to the cat stance pose!  You start the practice with some T'ai Chi stretches, then there are some basic poses you do like parting the horse's maine,  moving your ball of chi forward and back, side to side, etc, drawing in new positive chi and dispersing the old negative energy on the exhale.  After that was an 8 part qui gong sequence, taking the ball down to the ground, taking it above your head, supporting heaven on a pillar, then crossing your hands in front of you down and dispersing the energy to the sides of you.  After repeating that several times you work with the lower dan t'ien (I know I've gotta be spelling this wrong) your ball of energy from the abdomen, the upper, and middle dan t'iens, then there's a quick meditation at the end.

I would highly recommend this to anyone who is stressed out and feeling " off kilter " . I forgot to mention my additional workout from yesterday called Xtreme Hedge Sculpting.  Wehn I bought my house the side strip hedges were very overgrown and into the driveway.  I  cut them back to a reasonable lenghth, but that's all there was really time to do, so much needs to be done when you are moving in (right Kassia?)

It is my goal this year to give those puppies some shape, so I bought some loppers and went to town.  I filled up my large green yard debris bin along with my neighbors and what was left in my regular garbage can.  They finally look " reasonable " now, and I can't wait til the buds turn into leaves and they fill out again!   I wasn't even aware all the while what a hardcore shoulder, lats, and upper back workout this was!  Not even 24 hours later I was SORE! 

I planted a juniper bush in a " problem corner " and also some blue bachelor buttons by the apple tree and also some more black mondo grass clumps that propegate in my flower bed in back.  I just need some heather and I think I'm done for the year!  I added in a few bowling balls to start off my sculpture garden. 

I'm now EXTREMELY impatient for all my flowers and plants to bud, bloom, and GROW!  Hurry up, my flower children!!laura