Revolving Doors

Aug 3, 20192 min read

Updated: Jan 17

Revolving doors work ...

...because they have perfect central equilibrium, and therefore use minimum energy.

Gravity settles them into their single pivotal point, and because they’re perfectly balanced both vertically and horizontally, rotation is a smooth and effortless event.

In movement, we are aiming, as far as possible, to emulate that feeling, noticing that when one side of us turns one way, the other side turns the other way, and that each side of us is perfectly balanced. In other words, we are trying to feel of our personal universe revolving in space whilst being subject to gravity.

"For every action there is ..."

Tai chi and qigong are Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion in action.

Usually we only notice the most obvious limb doing some work, forgetting about the rest of our body, but when doing Tai Chi or Qigong we are trying to be aware of all sides of our body simultaneously.

We are looking for perfect architectural balance.

Getting it

And then, once in a while you ‘get it’, and you know that you’ve ‘got it’. You don’t forget that feeling of perfection in movement, and you attempt to find it again and again. Everything worked beautifully - your movement was light and easy, you felt totally grounded, your balance was superb, and you just know that your personal universe functioned exactly as it should do. The movement took no effort and felt seamless and unified. All those separate instructions for arms, legs, hands, feet, & body blurred into one like pieces of a 3-dimensional jigsaw.

James Drewe teaches Tai Chi and Qigong in both London and in Kent and online.

Details of weekly classes both live and online can be found on the website, and there are classes for 2-person Tai Chi on one Saturday a month.