Tai Chi Chi Kung builds on the Iron Shirt exercises to help the practitioner feel grounded, stretch their tendons, and pack chi into the bones. In Master Chia’s book, ‘Tai Chi Chi Kung,’ there is a great list of principles for proper body alignment and inner structure of our tai chi practice.
Sometimes, learning tai chi can feel a bit like learning golf or another complicated process. We may be given a long mental check-list of ‘correct’ ways to perform the activity. These mental lists can cause us to be so concerned with not doing it ‘wrong’ that we forget to be in our bodies and actually enjoy the hobby we set out to practice.
Fortunately, Master Chia outlines the principles of the Tai Chi Chi Kung (TCCK) practice in a way that the principles can be practiced one at a time, in daily life, or into any movement or meditation discipline.
For instance, stay rooted in each movement, keep a low center of gravity, and clearly distinguish between yin and yang.
From The Alchemist’s Tao Te Ching: Transforming Your Lead Into Gold