Kai Chi Do

Relaxing into the Essence of Your Being

Charles recorded this meditation a few weeks ago, as part of our brief meditation series.  The music is by Kevin MacLeod, who generously shares his work under a Creative Commons license.  The song is Sovereign, on Kevin's album "Heartfelt Memories".

Click the link to hear the MP3 version of this meditation, Relaxing into the Essence of Your Being.  Or you can right click to save the meditation to your computer or MP3 player to listen whenever the mood strikes you. 

Relaxing into The Essence of Your Being MP3

Please use the comments link to tell us what you think.  We love to hear from you.

Blessings!

Charles and Susan

Meditation in the Sky photo by Damien Bouchard at Fotolia.com

The Easy Way to Do Kai Chi Do

To enjoy Kai Chi Do (and that's the whole point, isn't it?) you have to do it at your own pace. 

Give up those competitive drives for an hour and just listen to the wisdom of your body.  When you listen to music you want the sound loud enough that you can hear it, but not so loud that it hurts your ears.  It's the same with the movements of Kai Chi Do - Set your pace so that you can feel the tune of your body - the pump and pulse of energy - but not so intense that it's painful.  

Here's a few tips for finding a pace that feels great to you:

1. Don't try to keep up with Charles (or anybody else).  Okay - face it - Charles does Kai Chi Do at least 6 days a week and he's always been a hound for exercise.  Athletes half his age struggle to keep up (he was born in 1956, if you were wondering).  Watch him for rhythm and form, but find the intensity that's right for you.  
2. Smaller and slower. The faster and bigger you make the movements, the more intense the experience will be.  So if you need to pace it down and lower the "volume", make the same movements as the leader, but do them smaller or slower.  To make smaller movements, keep your elbows slightly bent, and close to your sides.  Keep the rhythm but go at half pace.  You can also make the pumping of your legs shallow rather than deep, or even keep your knees straight.  Regulate and vary the pace by going bigger and faster, or slower and smaller, as you need, throughout the different Elements of a Kai Chi Do session (Haven't we all had days where we were praying for Fire to end so we could relax into Water?).  Stay with the process from beginning to end, just do it at a pace that feels good.
3. Flexibility, not strength. If you want to take your Kai Chi Do up a notch, shoot for flexibility, not strength.  Focus on gradually increasing the range of motion of each movement, rather than worrying about your stamina or muscle strength.  There's enough reps (repetitions of each movement) for strength to build on its own. 
4. Form and focus, not force.  Rather than trying to force your body to do more than what feels good, focus your attention on improving the form - the grace, precision, and coordination - of each movement.  Graceful is smooth - Make movements flow like you are a dancer.  Precision is about keeping control of your muscles - No floppy doing-it-like-you're-sleeping Kai Chi Do - Keep your muscles awake and stay fully in charge of them.  If you're doing a Thrust, snap it at the end.  If you're doing Chi Circles, integrate the top and the bottom so they are in the same vertical plane.  Be aware of the shape of your hands and fingers.  Coordinate what your hands and your legs are doing, the actions of your left and right hand.  (Coordination exercises your brain).
5. Let the group carry you.  The momentum of the group will carry you along and help you to go further than you thought you could go.  Let yourself stretch just a little - Keep the "music" of the movements loud enough that you can hear them - and then feel your connection to the group.  Go with them, and relax into it, as they travel the wave of energy. 

Kai Chi Do Playlist: Personal Power

Each Sunday morning, we provide a Kai Chi Do class at 9am.  You can find more information and the location for our Sunday sessions on Meetup.com  Lately, we've had Sundays at Shelter #3 in Anderson Park in Tarpon Springs, Florida and it's been beautiful.  The weather is cool and Kai Chi Do heats us up just right.  If you love Kai Chi Do, or just want to experience a great workout with a psychospiritual twist, come join us!

Here's a playlist dedicated to being an original you.  Authentic, and good enough. Click the link to download individual songs or the entire album on iTunes:

Kai Chi Do Playlist - Personal Power

Personal Power

Song...................................Artist

The End of Suffering................Thich Nhat Hanh/Gary Malkin

Close (To the Edit)...................Art of Noise

Flesh in Armour......................Art of Noise

The Army Now........................Art of Noise

Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say).....Lady GaGa

The Jumper...........................Hammer House

Lion....................................Kodo

Sun Singer.............................Paul Winter

Earth Tones/Base....................Jonathan Goldman

Spiritualize............................Lotus

Look Back In..........................Moby

Javanese Lullaby.....................Cory Alan Carlick

Meditations: Relaxing into Your Heart

A few weeks ago one of our new Kai Chi Do instructors-in-training asked us to recommend some pre-recorded meditations that they could include in Kai Chi Do sessions.  We searched iTunes, looking for meditations that would be well suited to a Kai Chi Do session - We needed meditations that are 4-8 minutes in length, and launch without a bunch of preliminary lecturing.  We also hoped to find pre-recorded meditations that had a little more juice than watching your breath or doing progressive muscle relaxation while you sit cross-legged on the floor.  Well, we didn't find many that matched our Kai Chi Do needs.  There was one from Ram Dass, one from  Dr. Miles Neale, and a group of brief meditations called Soul of Healing Affirmations from Dr. Deepak Chopra. 

So we decided to begin recording some brief meditations of our own.  Here is our first:

Relaxing into Your Heart MP3

Please listen to it and click this post's comments link to tell us what you think.  If you'd like to save this meditation to your computer or MP3, just right-click the link and choose Save Target As.  And feel free to click the Share This icon at the bottom of this post to share this meditation with a friend. 

We appreciate your feedback!

Heart Wave by zentilia at Fotolia.com

Start Where You Are

So many people have asked us for Kai Chi Do playlists that we thought this was a good place to begin our Kai Chi Do website.

If you'd like to purchase this playlist, or any of the individual songs in it, click this link to our iTunes iMix:

Kai Chi Do Playlist - Start Where You Are

 

Kai Chi Do Playlist -

Start Where You Are

 

 

 

 

 

 

Songs..............................Artists

The End of Suffering.............Thich Nhat Hanh/Gary Malkin  

Minuit..............................Paul Winter

Lonely..............................Akon

Eurodancer.........................DJ Mangoo

Holding Me Kissing Me............Colours

Uprising.............................Muse

Funk Da Drums.....................The Bongo Man

Lotus Heart.........................Desert Dwellers

Blessed..............................Brett Dennen

I'm Not Worried At All.............Moby

Javanese Lullaby...................Cory Alan Carlick