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kotshka
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15 Oct 2012, 3:04 pm

I've just gotten home from my first taiji lesson and I'm amazed. It was not easy and my legs were shaking half the time from the strain, but the teacher did an excellent job of describing each movement in detail from head to toe and it was easy to follow along and know if I was moving the right way or not.

The really amazing thing though, was how natural it felt. In my life, nothing has ever felt natural. I have horrible body awareness. When someone says "stand up straight" I have no idea what position they're referring to. Everything feels wrong, no matter how I stand, and I spend an incredible amount of time trying to find my reflection in things so I can check what my body actually looks like. I'm extremely awkward and clumsy, always dropping things, walking into things, knocking them over, getting myself hurt in silly ways, etc. I finally tried taiji in the hopes that it would help me connect with my body and learn posture, balance, etc.

The teacher described everything in detail, and when I was doing it right, I knew. I could feel where my body was. And it all felt natural - felt "right" the whole time.

Even though my legs were shaking I was sorry when the lesson ended. 90 minutes flew by like nothing. I can't wait for next week. And the teacher told me I did very well. He hardly had to adjust me at all when helping all the students practice new movements.

So I guess what I'm wondering now is, have others had the same experience as me? Is this possibly something that can be very effective for helping people on the spectrum attain higher body awareness (and by extension, improve their overall quality of life at least in some ways)? Or was this unique to me?



AngelKnight
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15 Oct 2012, 4:20 pm

Welcome, and congratulations!

I can't speak towards people on the spectrum, but I started martial arts at a fairly early age, and I consider myself to have always been a fairly clumsy person.

I do remember being excited the first few classes, but it was probably less of a revelation to me right when I started. The revelations tended to be gradual.

I remember being surprised about folks doing various things (say, in gym class) that made them freak out because they just weren't sure anyone's body would bend that way, whereas I would feel 100% that, yeah, on average a body will bend that way just fine.

You're learning things about movement and the way the body works that are new. By all means keep up with it!



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16 Oct 2012, 7:27 am

This is really interesting to me and while I've never tried it, I'm going to look into doing so. I have always been exactly the same way as you describe with regard to body, movement and balance difficulties and I would be interested to know if it would help.

I have tried similar practices like yoga and other "chi" work, which I have found to be extremely helpful, so I am definitely interested in trying this as well.

Glad you found something which works so well for you!



YellowBanana
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16 Oct 2012, 7:44 am

I have had a similar experience with Tai Chi. I have been practicing now for nearly 10 years (though my recent poor mental health has taken its toll on my practice).


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kotshka
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16 Oct 2012, 12:04 pm

I tried yoga but with poor results. The problem seems to have been simply that I couldn't tell when I was doing it right or wrong even after being shown, so when I tried to practice on my own without someone to correct me, I did something wrong and hurt myself. Taiji seems to be the right choice for me. Maybe I'll even try kung fu eventually and expand. Anyway, for now I'm happy to have found something that helps so much, and I've even scheduled a supplemental private lesson with the teacher to help me catch up on the lessons I missed at the beginning of this course (there had already been 5 lessons before I found out about the course and joined and I have some catching up to do). It's well worth the money, I think, even if it cuts into my savings a little bit. Even today I'm still feeling really good.

I did discover one downside, though: the lessons are in the evening (the only possibility given my work schedule from early morning to late afternoon each day), and I could not get to sleep at all for hours afterwards. The lesson ended at 8:30 and I think I finally dropped off around 1 am. I had to wake up at 6:30 today (often it's 5:30) so I definitely didn't sleep as much as I should have. Normally I'm in bed by about 10:30 and asleep before midnight. It's a shame I can't do the lessons early in the morning and go to work later feeling energized.