Tai Chi Swimming Dragon Form #2

Explore a different expression of the classic Tai Chi Swimming Dragon form through fluid, spiraling movements that awaken the spine and cultivate a deeper connection with your body's inner energy. This practice works with spinal mobility, whole-body coordination, and the natural flow of movement, creating a grounded and gentle approach to exploring Kundalini awakening. Move with awareness, allowing the spine to become a channel for vitality, presence, and embodied energy.

Transcript

Okay, So we're going to land a little differently into the body today. So today, We're going to go into it with a very narrow Wuji. So a normal Wuji is shoulder width. So you're going to have your Wuji a little closer. Good. And then again, You're pressing into the arch. And peel your knees open. It's the same principle. We'll just do it from a little narrow stance. We're going to work on the spine and the shoulder. Okay again soft knee always soft knee land in your body? There you go! And open your knees. Good. And just a little shaking. As you shake, As you land into your knees, Make sure they turn out. They're not collapsed. Yeah, You feel that yeah, Just yeah Yeah, That protects the knee a little bit. Good. And just start shaking from this place. Loosen up your shoulder. Sigh. Start landing into this body, Into this moment. Good. That's it. Bring yourself from the past to here. If any part of you is still dwelling in the past, Bring it back in. Yeah, As you move with me. Good. That's it. Second circle, Bring anything a part of you is worried about the future. It's not here. Bring that future part of you back into the body. Keep going. Good. And you're going to bring into this present moment. Is there any part of you is not here? Bring it back in. Is any part of you worry about who else is thinking about you? Or their idea of you. Bring that part that cares back, Because you're giving yourself away. Bring everything back. Into this moment. Good job, Good job. Yeah, One hand over. You can come a little bigger just to feel the resting again. This is normal Wuji. Under the shoulder. I do Wuji stance one more time. I soften, I open my knees and I round my lower back and I settle down. Good so this way You're always protected. Anything you ever move from, You move from this principle. Your knees are soft and then just a little locked. It will keep you safe from Qigong, Tai Chi, All the way to martial arts when you're ready. You never know. Good job. Okay, Come on in. Come on in. We're gonna do a new. . . Sort of a Qigong movement, We're going to do the swimming dragon again. We did one version of swimming dragon last week, And we do a different form of the dragon. So in this work, We work with animal a lot. There's the queen, Right? A lot of the queen walk is about balancing, Because you learn from the animal. And there's tiger. Tiger move, Mostly working with the shoulder, Mostly this motion. It's a heart opening. And then turtle. Turtle is all about the necks. But each animal has multiple versions. So we did one version of the swimming dragon. We're going to do a second version. So all these movements are trying to learn how the animal moves. That's why they're named. So think of a dragon. So the first thing, You're going to land into your body one more time. Feet a little closer together. You're softening in, And you open up. So starting to feel inside. Find your inner dragon. Engage your intention, Your spirit. Find your inner dragon. This is a swimming dragon. It's a water dragon. So you're learning to swim. So start swaying. If I am a dragon, How would I sway? Just try with your body. Open it. That's it. That's it. It's okay. It's okay. We're just landing the dragon. Yeah, If it's your first time, It is little for it. And you just keep trying. It gets better. Good. Now, We're going to get into the second move. Let me think about this one. Hands together. Okay, So you're going to push your hand to one side. And round your back to the other side. You make a round shape. That's it, And you go this way. That's it. And think dropping a little lower, Dropping a little lower. Good. And you do your best to open your shoulders so your shoulder is not being pulled. Okay? Now, Stand up as much as you can. And this way. Nice and easy. Drop it like a dance. And you breathe through the transition. You're starting to slow down. First principle of Tai Chi, So move through space slowly. A easy way to think of this is just move ever so slowly than you normally would. Slow down. Continue moving through space. Show your body, Good. And now I'm going to really sort of make my movements smooth. And effortless. Good job. That's it. Good job. So now I'm in control. Yeah, And I feel nice and easy. Good. And you want to relax into it. That's the last step, Meaning that you're not letting this thing stress you out. Because it's fairly easy after a few rounds. And you're not trying to compare yourself to anyone else. This is where you are. Good job, Just few rounds, Warming up. Yeah, You are where you are. You're just playing with your body in space. Good job. Last one. We're just warming up. And now, Come back. Give it a little shake. Yeah, Feel your dragon one more time. Come back to bigger Wuji. Land and give your body a little break. Dropping in, A little shake, Feel your dragon. Has she arrived a little more? So this is the Kundalini awakening in the Taoist tradition. We're working on the spine. And you want to feel it. You want it to be able to handle it. There's a lot of power in it. If you release the power too soon, Your body is not ready. It's gonna fry you. So you get there by working up yourself. Don't rush it. Don't rush it. Okay, Good. We do the second move. We come back in. Closer. Your knee, Good, Dropping in, Slide open, Round my lower back. I find my center one more time. This time I put on my cheek like I'm sleeping. Good and I wake up I glide open in the middle I turn And then I do, And I go back. Slow slow slow slow slow Too fast. Slow down. Start slow down. Wait. When I talk, I can't do it. It doesn't matter. Once you go, Yeah. So essentially, I'm doing this. And now just glide into this movement. What does this feel like? Right? You get it. You let your spine twist and turn and express the rest of the body. You're turning from your spine. That's the key. You're letting your spine roll. Make sense? Good job. Good job. Yeah, Good job. And just look up. What does this space feel like when I do this? What does my crown space feel like? Good. Okay, Come back into a little bigger Uji. We'll continue exploring this motion. We're exploring what's happening here. We get to know this body. So you drop down just a little more. And we start again Let's change side. Sleeping, And I wake up. Yeah, And then I start stretching like a little dragon. I'm getting ready for the day to swim. I just woke up. Yeah, I'm stretching it out. Good. And see if I can go a little lower. And I ease my, I really make my movement starting to flow, Because I understand the pattern. Yeah, And how low can you go? Are slowly coming down. If I want. And maybe I move a little bit side to side. And I make sure it's easy on me. And slow. I'm not rushing. Smooth transition. Can I slow down a little bit? You can be wherever you are. You don't have to be low if it's too much. I'm showing off. Yeah take your time getting there and play right maybe you stay on one side if you're high then be high What does that feel like? Figure your body out, Find another position. You're learning to become a swimming dragon. You're not simply doing swimming dragon form. So become. Good job. Okay, Let's take a break. That was good. Feel good? Spine feels good? We're going to shake up that spine a little bit, Right? We're working on it. So you're going to jump in, You're going to shake the bottom of your spine. And one vertebrae at a time. One vertebra, You wake up your spine. One vertebrae at a time. All the way to the top. Make sure you ground. Once you ground more often, Just the intention of grounding can just ground you, Because you do it so often. In the beginning, It might take a little bit. But you can. . . If you want it to go higher, Fly higher. If you want to fly higher, You must learn to come back. That's the only way you feel safe. So we do a lot of energetic opening, All that stuff. That's why you open your own kundalini. You can feel it, Right? That round of shaking feels really intense. Energy is really up and down, Up and down. Just feel that. Yeah. And little dropping. Every time you feel too much, Just ground yourself. Ground yourself. Yeah, Good, Good. And let's play. So I wanted to tell you, So the dragon work, They call it, The reason to do dragon work is that you're building dragon spine. So it's really important. These concepts are beautiful if you understand what they're trying to do. And it's one of the major body of work. It's for longevity. You wake up your spine. You wake up your Kundalini. You wake it up. It fuels you. You actually become younger. You become tighter. It's the longevity one. We like that. So the spine work, And then I talked about it, Right? There's different, Like the tiger, Much of the heart, Right? Turtle, All shoulder, And crane is balancing. So dragon, The spine, The spine. So we play with the spinal move. This one is actually for the shoulder. Let's do another. You want it to feel your body roll. Okay, So pick a hand, Doesn't matter. You're going to turn this way and let that sort of ripple through your body. That's it. Good job. Yeah. You roll your body horizontal. Yeah. It's still swimming dragon, Right? Because the water, Sometimes it goes sideways, Comes this way. You're still learning Dragon. Yes. I'm going to do it back to you. I don't know if it helps. You turn one hand, You let that Who you open? Okay, Slow down, Slow motion. And sinking deeper and deeper. So essentially, The water comes this way. The wave. The energy pattern. Okay we'll do the other side. So there's a little bit of playing with the spaciousness around you. You need to know how you feel in space. Engage. You're twisting the energy. You're twisting the energy. Let the energy arrive to the other hand. You don't move it. You wait for the energy to arrive. You're being moved. You got it. You got it. Play, Play. Energy. That's it. Wait for the energy to arrive. Let the energy move your arm. You're creating an energetic pattern in space. That's what you're doing. You're not moving your arms and legs. You play with energy. Energy multiplied when you spin it. So you want it to spin. There's a lot of spiral stuff happening. Yeah, Good job and try the other direction. Play with it! And then every time you spin, You feel that you're creating more energy. That's why they call this qigong. What intensifies energy? Spirals. Inspiring. Sounds good. Feels good. Good. Okay. Little small Uji. Yeah. Feel your inner dragon. Yeah. Yeah. Feel like a fish. Feel like a mermaid. Whatever you want to feel. Swimming. Good job. So I pick up my hands and put it together. And I just push to one side as I arch. I am practicing. I'm stretching as a little dragon. That's how dragon stretches. Did you know that? Right? If you're a giant fish, How would you stretch? That's it. Yeah. Okay now we're gonna add the little bits we're gonna add little bits now when you get to the side you stretch as far as you can you're gonna turn your neck Okay, And then you do the other side. Yeah, You turn your whole spine like a towel, You're raining it. And you do your best to keep your shoulder flat. Do your cat, You know, Open your shoulder, Right? Everything. Good. And we'll just wake it up. And then if you like to play a little more, See if you can do it a little lower. Only if you want. Feel free. You can try lower like this. Nobody is stopping you. Play, Play with your structure. Where am I? That's it, Just work it out. View your spine awakening. However low you want it to go. Oh, There we go. Yeah, Good job. And come back. Don't overextend just yet. I feel your spine. Good job. You understand? Do you need a back? Let's do it from the back, Just so you have it. We do this one more time. Oh, You know what? You can, If this is too demanding, You can, Or too tired, If you're getting tired, Open it up. That's okay. There's not a lot of hard rules. This game, This dragon game, Is about this. As long as you understand this, Everything else you can play with a little bit. You don't have to be so bogged down by precise certain forms in my opinion. Okay, So let's do a normal Wuji. Settle down. And you just push side to side, You make. . . Ah, Sir, Call you. Move your spine good when you're ready I'm going to add my neck to it. Yeah, And then if I like, I go a little lower. Good. If I want, I go even lower. And maybe I slow down just a little bit. And then I go a little lower. Oyoyo! Then come back up. Come back up. Yeah. Land on your body, Give yourself a little tapping, Little walking. Phew. Say thank you to your body. Good body, Strong, Flexible, Beautiful. Tell your body, Good job, Good work. Tapping your intention into the body. Yeah, Appreciation. I see you. I feel you. I honor you. Thank you. Thank you for allowing me to be here and play with Swimming Dragon. That is so much fun. Good. Yeah. Tap your body. Yep, Continue landing, Awakening. The back of your hips your spine. Be creative. Surprise me. Maybe your belly? Oh! Your knees are always soft, Which you are. Good job. Good. A little bit of a shaking. Check it out. Shake it up! Whatever you wake up, You stir in the pot. Right? Your energy is being stirred. When you shake, You see heavy stuff flying out of you. You're cleaning it out. Go, Go, Go. Voila. Okay, We play one more game, The one more round. If you land, So you don't want to do this without taking breaks. It's very important. It's a lot to continue doing it. So always do Do the yawn and do the in. In is relaxing, Stretch it out, Shake it out, Resettle, Come back. This is yawn structured. Right? We're doing something. Good. Hands together. Feel free to try different width, Okay? I have no attachment at this point. Play whatever feels right. This is too much? Don't do it. Good, Okay. I put it on my side like I'm napping and I wake up from my nap. Yeah, And I just go back and forth. Start easy. But I feel pretty warmed up, So I just. . . I dial up the intensity of this pattern because I understand this pattern. Now I'm playing pattern. I'm essentially drawing a figure eight in space. And it's interesting. And then I explore. I go bigger, Woojee. And I allow myself to open up even more, And I play this dimension. How do I feel? And then I allow my spine to be the center of my expression. Everything move out of my center and my spine. Good. Relax. Good. And let it flow. Let your body flow into it. Good. And maybe I go even lower. You don't have to do this. You can do whatever version. Is comfortable. You can do small. All right, This is small. You can do big. You can do fast. And you can slow down. Try all of it. Slow down. Tai Chi is the link. From Qigong to Kung Fu. When you make it fast, It becomes Kung Fu. So Tai Chi is. . . The beginning of Kung Fu. Yeah, Play. Good job. And then we start coming back. Bring your feet together. I am still creating this diaphragm, I mean this pattern, And then I start bringing it up to bring it up. I just do this dimension around my crown. Slow down, I get to know this space And then I slowly, Slowly bring it up. To my top. I played this Space, It's little, Yeah, Don't worry. If you can't get there, Don't worry about it. And smaller and smaller and smaller. Smaller, Smaller. Until it becomes. Your central thread. Stay here. Feel your central thread. I guess, Pulled up.