Tai chi!

It was the first meeting of the tai chi class today.

(I feel that it is the sort of thing that on the whole is NOT best done in a university gym as opposed to some calmer and more meditative setting, outdoor or otherwise...)

I have been wanting to do this for a long time - in fact, when I was in second grade, the assistant teacher now and then did a bit of tai chi with us "on the rug" (as they say in elementary school!), and I always remember her telling us about and then demonstrating this special mode of walking that the Tai Chi Masters, even the very elderly ones, used to cover huge amounts of ground in a day, so that they could walk from one city to another all across China without getting tired. She made it sound very magical, it was what I wanted to learn!

(I do want to do Kung Fu also, only the class at the gym is at a time that doesn't suit me!)

This will just be a modest start - I'm only going to be able to go to one more Friday class between now and late March! But there is perhaps another weekday one I can drop in on a few times so that I don't completely fail to get off the ground with it this semester - I am of the opinion that I have to give this a serious try.

I like yoga, but it is perhaps (at least in the version I have liked the most, the Iyengar style) too intense on the legs to be good cross-training when you're doing quite a lot of run miles, and as it is taught tends to be (rightly!) often more athletic than meditative; this Pilates business is very beneficial, but it is not really conducive to relaxation, it is like a dance class and gives me a high irk factor! I need to tackle the insomnia and stress business by way of something, and it is my guess (on basis of not very much knowledge) that tai chi is plausibly my best bet...