Teaching T'ai Chi along with Eden Energy Medicine

When a new student joins my T'ai Chi class, I can tell the moment that the person has gotten "lost." I interrupt the class wherever we are in the form at that point, and explain that the energy has become scrambled. I love the permission that observing Donna Eden teach has given me. Because I'm dramatically kinesthetic, I pick up discombobulated energy right away. Initially I would then feel defensive and try to plow through despite the challenges. In other words, I took on the issue as if it were only personal. Over time I've learned that being so sensitive to energy is a way that I get important information as to what I need to address for the class. I then have the whole class do the standing form of the Wayne Cook posture (known as Tibetan Prayer Pose) together. Some of my students refer to the first step of the Wayne Cook seated and/orTibetan Prayer Pose standing postures, as 'pretzeling.'  The postures restore crossing energy, polarization, and grounding. The second step activates the connection between governor and central meridians, which helps move energy out of the head and so is both grounding and balancing. And the third step, known as the crown pull, opens the crown so energy can flow. Sometimes I remind people that opening the crown allows in the spiritual energy that supports us. When that energy is blocked we tend to believe we have to do everything ourselves, and are prone to attempt to figure things out, rather than allow them to unfold..

I emphasize that scrambled energy is very contagious. I do this by testing several people in the class with kinesiology. A simple test is to have the person move their eyes from left to right, as if they were reading. If the test is weak, the person's energy is scrambled. I try to remember not to say "You are scrambled" but instead to say "Your energy is scrambled." I want people to understand what is going on is an easily rectified energetic phenomenon, not a part of their identity. I also link getting scrambled to a focus on getting the form right.  I encourage students to adopt an attitude of curiosity and enjoyment. I discourage them from practicing between classes. Instead I suggest that they use the opportunity to trust that their bodies can learn the form. I give them some simple moves that they can practice between classes that will make mastering the structure of the form easier. I think this takes some of the pressure off those who are habitually concerned with getting things right.