Our Tai Chi Blog

Thoughts, Questions.

Q & A: Suspending of the head top.

Question: The different way of dropping the shoulder blades has an enormous effect on the different knots in my back and my stance and seems like the next evolutionary stage in its development.

Also, naturally I’ve heard you describe the different phases of moving the mind in relation to allowing the body to move but I’ve never ‘got it’ before. I can’t exactly replicate it at home but I’m trying and getting some interesting results. I hope the power I feel is a combination of increased awareness and some sort of ‘releasing power’ and not contraction.

Head top seems not only to be a point from which we might hang down but also a point we don’t rise above. Would that be right?
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Response… Suspending the head top : Yes the body falls away from the suspended crown,   allowing the spine to lengthen, the possibility for the upper and lower body to melt  into a co-ordinated sequentially release, rather than falling as an undifferentiated unit , thus allowing /helping the  body to go into a sequential stretched condition not a compressed or contracted condition…..
“but also a point we don’t rise above” ….The crown is always suspended  , the mind can rise higher  to aid the sensation of floating as the lower body falls away and grounds, giving time before the upper body melts on top. Similar to the mind going into the ground below the body to help the intention for a continuous release into stretch.