Steven Barnes is launching a year-long online Tai Chi program with weekly lessons covering two moves at a time, community video feedback, and live Zoom sessions. He's drawing on decades of convention teaching and plans to keep it affordable and inclusive.
Hi. This. Well, let's see, let's see. There we go. Hi, Steve Barnes here with Life Writing Live. Okay. We just got finished doing a Wonderful podcast with LeVar Burton. That's for our writingpodcast.com that will be up next Saturday. Next Sunday, lifewritingpodcast.com I'm just kind of trying to get my head together. We did the World Con in Chicago and came back in time to start the mad dash to move. The movers will be here next week. So we've got 10 days, actually less than 10 days. We got eight days before the movers come. And so we have to get all that taken care of simultaneously. We're doing podcasts and television and this and that. And one of the things I wanted to talk about is the, is Tai Chi finally, you know, doing tai chi at Worldcon, it was great. I mean, I've done it for 30 years at conventions and elsewhere. And I've taught the basic thing, basic form, as well as supplemental exercises, mental and physical for a long time. But trying to figure out, you know, how I could teach this more broadly. I mean, I'd love to be able to teach people the whole form so that they can really have that, really enjoy that, because the form is wonderful and it's beautiful, but it takes about a year to learn. And there's no way that people can attend a class with me to some science fiction convention. Even if they come for many years and learn the forum. It's just not going to happen. So it occurred to me that the, that the class structure that we're using for life writing, premium lifewritingpremium.com for teaching writing can work for Tai Chi. That I could create a year long program where every week you are getting another lesson in which there are, let's say, two. We teach two moves every class and then answer questions and arguably have a, probably have a, a community here on Facebook where people can post their videos and ask me questions and I can criticize those things and then arguably once again even have some live gatherings, zoom parties, as it were. And then when we meet at conventions, people who are in the program, I can be checking their, I can be checking their progress. I can actually, you know, work with them more than just once a year. I'm in essence working with them every day if they will watch the videos. So this is a real labor of love. I want to do it in such a way that it's, it can be afforded by everybody. And It'll be like one class per, per week. Two, I think, two moves. Now, the. The form is 108 movements, so we can get through it in about a year. So I think. I figure the first class would probably be three moves. Rising hands, push forward, seven star. Okay. Because there's. There's a little footwork in there. There's some balance shift. We can work on balance and breathing and posture and if you. If you will. And then we also. What I had to do in order to teach it at conventions was I had to kind of hack the. The art. I had to ask myself, are there techniques from other systems of movement or thought that would be really, really useful? What is it? You know, after years of doing the form, I feel that I can make some informed comments about what the internal structure of Tai Chi is, what is it that they're trying to accomplish? And because I have experience in other martial arts as well as trained as a yoga instructor, neuro linguistic programming and Ericksonian hypnosis and contemporary shamanism and other things, I think. I think we can do something interesting here. And I think it's going to be a lot of fun. And I would love it if you would ask me, you know, questions about what we can accomplish and that you will engage. Like I said, no one. I want to make sure that anyone who wants to do this, who has the willingness to actually invest the time is. No one is excluded. We will figure out the financial part of this. This is not about finances. None of my teaching is about finances. The teachings are free. My time costs you, but the teachings are free. So that's kind of all I wanted to say right now. I love you guys. If you have any comments, questions or requests, let me know, ask them. But this is going to happen and it's going to happen soon. So let's, you know, you take care of yourselves. And let's say if I was going to add one thing, it would just be breathe. You know, five times a day, every three hours. Every three hours, stop and breathe for 60 seconds. Deep, slow, diaphragmatic breathing. It will rewire your stress response and it can save your life. Take care, guys, and I'll see you soon. Bye. Bye.
