Taiji (Tai Chi) Essentials II:

Elevate Your Practice, Deepen Your Flow, Transform Your Energy.

Cultivate the 13 Core Movements of Taiji

and Transform Your Mind, Body, and Spirit

This 12-session course is beginner-friendly and designed to help you build a strong foundation in Taiji. Together we'll explore the essential building blocks and philosophy of this art, giving you the tools to feel more grounded, energized, and at peace in your daily life.

Some things you will learn --

• Proper body alignment to strengthen your legs and joints, release tension and move with ease.
• Rooting and grounding techniques to enhance balance and stability in both movement and life. 
• Deep abdominal breathing to relax your mind, energize your body, and support your internal health.
• Graceful movement to help you flow through life with calm, confidence, and less effort.

Module 1 introduces you to the Spiral of Taiji, a foundational concept that harmonizes the mind, body, and breath. Together we'll  explore how proper body alignment and balance can unlock your body's strength and energy flow, while diving into the philosophy of Yin and Yang - the dance of complimentary opposites that brings harmony to life.

Standing Like A Tree Posture (Zhan Zhuang) not only builds strength and stability but also helps you release tension and feel more grounded in your daily life.

Through the opening movement of the 13 Taiji Yin Yang Form, and Lazily Tying the Robe, you'll begin to feel the spiraling energy that connects your body's internal and external forces.

You'll deepen your understanding of the movements introduced earlier while exploring new concepts like peng energy and diagonal movement.

Explore the feeling of peng, an important energetic skill that allows the body to feel strong and solid yet flexible and energized. By cultivating peng energy, we feel both grounded and adaptable, staying strong yet flexible in the face of challenges.

Develop movement of your torso and waist area. This is the "power center" of the body. Fluidity here enhances balance and energy flow.

Transferring the Root is an important concept that cultivates a smooth and grounded feeling while shifting weight.

Learn Wild Horse Parts Its Mane, which explores diagonal and expansive energy. This movement symbolizes the ability to channel energy in multiple directions, helping you feel expansive and open.

Learn White Crane Spreads Its Wings. We will explore the essence of the White Crane - longevity and patience - and the element of wind. The crane can stand on one leg in complete stillness, waiting for almost an eternity until the perfect moment to strike. This posture helps bring clarity and calmness in decision-making and life's transition.

We will continue to build on the foundation of balance and energy flow from earlier modules and progress into the section.

Learn White Crane Spreads Its Wings with Power Emission

We will explore how patience and timing generate power. This movement teaches not just physical power but also the mental discipline of patience and precision. It serves as a metaphor of how waiting for the right moment can amplify results in life.

Learn Brush Knee and Push. Explore the importance of timing. In this posture there is the element of not being excessive or deficient, signifying how to keep balance and harmony in your life. This relates to decision making and knowing when to act and when to hold back. We will explore this movement in three styles of Taiji (Chen, Wu, and Yang)

This movement cultivates the Yang meridians and builds strong Yang Qi in the body, helping you feel more grounded, energized, and connected to yourself and the world around you. Contemplate the idea of impeccable timing in your practice. What if you could create more harmony and success in your life? 

Learn Playing the Lute

Playing the Lute resembles playing a musical instrument and the feeling and timing in order to do so. As in music, movement has timing and expression. 

Playing the Lute also teaches flow and harmony, like how musicians create a seamless melody. Think of this movement as a form of creative expression, where you're 'composing' your own energy through timing and grace.

Learn Roll Back, Press & Push

We will further explore the nature of peng - the structural expanding power in taiji

Roll Back, Press & Push demonstrates “opening and closing” and helps promote the smooth circulation of Qi in the spine and out through the arms. We will further explore the timing of movement and the connection of the hands to the feet through the waist.

Learn about Jia Ji, an important energy gate located between your shoulder blades and how it can be opened to achieve energy circulation.

Learn about the classic Taiji sequence that brings together four important components of Taiji - Peng (Ward Off), Lu (Roll Back), Ji (Press) and An (Push). 

Cultivate your ability to adapt and change to different situations in life through the different energies of this movement.  Roll Back is a downward and sideways energy used for yielding and redirecting an opposing force; Press is a penetrative energy that can correspond to accomplishing things in life. An (Push) uses a downward, upward and forward energy and is based on the principle of connecting to nature so that we can adapt and take advantage of any situation that may arise in the moment. These movements together demonstrate yin and yang transforming and working together.

What if you could navigate life's challenges with more grace and adaptability?

In Module 6, things start to integrate on a deeper level.

Learn Step Forward to Deflect, Parry & Punch

This movement contains two important stepping patterns and principles - Look to the Left and Glance to the Right - that are two of the thirteen energies of Taiji. We will explore how this movement balances the left and right sides of your body’s energies.

This movement emphasizes harmony and how it isn't just about balance within yourself, but also how to move and interact with the world around you. These stepping patterns not only balance the body's energies but also teach adaptability and awareness in movement. 

What if you could finally feel more balanced and aligned in your life?

Module 7 is where the philosophy of Taiji really shines.

Learn Grasp Sparrow’s Tail - Ward Off, Roll Back, Press & Push.

This movement teaches us how to yield, adapt, and redirect energy rather than resist it. This series is not just foundational but also deeply symbolic of balance and flow.

What if you could overcome resistance with more ease and grace?

Learn Repulse Monkey

This movement teaches backwards stepping and retreating. It focuses on the waist and core twisting to give optimum longevity to your hips, knees and ankles.

Symbolically, it can signify calming the mind, repulsing the chattering 'monkey mind'.

Cultivating the art of retreating with control and grace - both physically and mentally - can lead to greater strength and clarity.What if stepping back could unlock a more harmonious way forward? This practice reminds us that stepping back isn't about retreating in defeat - it's about recalibrating, finding our center, and moving forward with intention. It's a reminder that strength often comes from knowing when to pause, reflect, and redirect.

Learn Block & Punch and Ward Off, Rollback, Press & Push (with power emission)

Explore how we move from the inside and express it to the outside; how power is generated from relaxation.

You will learn about the three internal unifications and the three external unifications that are essential to Taiji. You will explore the three internal unifications - how the heart unifies with the mind, how the mind unifies with the Qi, and how the Qi unifies with force and power; and the three External Unifications - how the shoulders align with the hips, the elbows align with the knees, and the hands align with the feet.
When your heart and mind are unified, your actions become purposeful. When your shoulders and hips align, your movements flow with ease and power. This module is about discovering how harmony within creates strength on the outside.

Learn Cloud Hands and Single Whip. 

Cloud Hands is a continuous circular, spiraling movement that promotes the free flow of Qi and helps us to see that all parts of the body move in unison - when one part of the body moves, all parts of the body move. Cloud Hands lets you feel how to relax deeply by sinking your “root” into the ground and developing strength in your legs while remaining fluid and free flowing in your upper body as you wave your hands like the clouds.

Cloud Hands can be practiced alone as well as within the sequence. Cloud Hands is a continuous circular, spiraling movement that promotes the free flow of Qi and helps us to see that all parts of the body move in unison - when one part of the body moves, all parts of the body move. No part moves on its own independent from the rest. Cloud Hands lets you feel how to relax deeply by sinking your “root” into the ground, developing strength in your root and legs while remaining fluid and free flowing in your upper body as you wave your hands like the clouds.

Through the movement of Single Whip, you will learn how this posture activates the heart and lung meridians, strengthens the arms and increases circulation to the fingers.

What if you could feel grounded and free at the same time? 

Cloud Hands teaches us to move as one, to feel the unity of the body and the free flow of Qi. From that state of harmony, Single Whip emerges as a focused expression of power and purpose. It's a reminder that fluidity and grounding create the foundation for strength and precision.

Learn Snake Creeps Down and Cross Punch

Explore how we move from the inside and express it to the outside.

You will learn about the biggest joint in the body, the Kua, The Snake Creeps Down movement invites us to root deeply, opening and strengthening the Kua, the legs, and the entire lower body.  Cross Punch then channels that rooted strength into a unified, aligned expression of power.

 More than just a course ... It's a lifestyle.

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