A _GOOD_ cup of tea abroad

This morning I once again found myself without Blighty. Being beyond the shores of England means that you run the risk of overhearing, "They don't know how to make a good cup of tea." or the equivalent.

This morning was no exception. So I'm here to say that if you can find:

Then you have access to decent bog-standard British-builders tea. I expect that a difference in water hardness has more of an impact in the perceived taste, but the majority of teas over in Portugal, Spain, France and Switzerland just seem to be too weak for a pallet that was brought up on PG, chimps and collecting tea-cards.

That said, if you are non-dom or ex-pat then I would have to suggest that you try every cup of tea without your usual milk or sweetener, (you can add them after the first sip if you need to). The reason is that discovering that the cheapest Earl Gray is best drunk with a slice of lemon and no milk, may be a delightful surprise.

Still, the easiest 'tea' is just to grow your own mint; put a few leaves in a cup - add boiling water, steep and then drink.

Which tea do you drink in which region of which country?

Daily Exercise: Zhan Zhuang + TaiChi + Meditation

This is just an outline of what I expect will become daily exercise for most of humanity. Right now it is just a personal experiment, and these are my notes:

8 pieces of brocade [0]; Yang style short form, (Beijing 24) followed by this version of Zhan Zhuang (which seems to have been extracted from Yiquan):

• First Posture - "pushing a wooden board, which is floating on surface of water"
• Second Posture - Holding the Ball   "tree hugging or first ring"
• Third Posture - Standing in a Stream "hawk washes claws" turn hands palm down and lower the stance as if..
• Fourth Posture - Holding the Ball in Front of Your Face " Lift your arms so that the hands are shoulder width apart and held at face height, palms facing forwards."
• Fifth Posture - Holding Your Belly  "lower the arms 60-80 degrees" as if you had an enormous belly, and where holding it up with your hands.

[The First Posture is dynamic, flowing forward and back. The other four are static with strong visulisation.]

There are many other postures, but really the first and second are the only ones that seem to build up qi, (the 4th and 5th are just variations on the 2nd). And the 3rd posture, like playing the pei pai is a projecting posture.

I can't find a definitive list of Zhan Zhuang posture names, (as is available with each and every branch of Taichi), but that is probably because the founder of Yiquan was such a natural fighter that he, "preferred a formless form". (It might also be because he discovered or re-discovered standing-on-stake and did not fully understand it. I really don't know.) There also seems to be a lot of discrepancy between how to perform Zhan Zhuang, so I have tried them all [1] and chosen, (above) the ones that feel best. I'm fairly certain that Zhan Zhuang is simply such a young collection of qigong that it has not been formalised, (petrified) as Ba Duan Jin has.)

I'm interested in expressing, (emitting) chi for healing, and it seems to work well , (possibly simply as a psychosomatic placebo) for minor sprains and aches-n-pains of my own body. The application in the form of Reiki also seems to have an affect for others, but nothing more effective than hypnotherapy, massage or meditation. (The intersection of all of these, plus various meditations, require a lot more serious scientific scrutiny. I'm sure that much of it is bunk, (or at least chaff) but quite clearly just getting up and moving is better for your health than sitting and watching television.)

Sometimes I like to do the Beijing 24 form mirrored, (open left {facing 'south'}, lift hands, part horses mane _right_ towards the west.) I hardly every do the full Yang 108 form.

Here is the list of 8 pieces of brocade that I do:

[0] Ba Duan Jin - Baduanjin Qigong (8 Pieces of Brocade)

Hold up the sky - spine stretch to regulate San Jiao (Triple Burner)

Drawing the Bow to shoot the hawk - "left liver (meridian), right lung"

Separate Heaven and Earth           - Liver (rh-up) and spleen (lh-up)

Wise Owl looks Back                        - lungs

Sway the Head and Shake the Tail  - heart

Two Hands Hold the Feet                - kidneys

Clench the Fists and Glare Fiercely - lead the chi out

Breath from your heels and bounce - health balance

I like the way that Dr. Jang Zwing-Ming demonstrates and explains these movements, (you can find him on his website or YouTube.)

[1] all the ones that I have found in books and on the Internet

[Constructive Conversations] You are what you eat

I've found myself helping many people over the years with what I like to call, constructive conversations. In the last year I've added more sudo NLP into the mix and have found it to be effective for everything from improved sleep to addiction cessation. (It seems that the "facts" of NLP may be false, but some of the affects seem to be helpful.)

I was recently asked if I could help someone stop eating between meals and as usual I had to work out what they actually wanted, (as opposed to what they were asking for.)
 It turned out that they simply wanted to lose a little weight. As usual I start with research. I wanted to answer just three questions:

1. How much do we actually need to eat, each day?  
2. How much water should we drink each day?
3. What do we _need_?

 I was wondering if there was any pattern to the RDA over the periodic table. So I started to build an image using GIMP and my notes. Almost as I was finishing I found: Wikipedia Essential elements on the periodic table on their Composition of the human body page.

But I like mine so I'm including it here.

Gardening my mind

As someone who's identity is strongly connected with their own mind, (I am what I think more than what I do), mental health is a difficult topic for me. Fist I have to accept that like any garden, my mind has weeds.

"This too shall pass"

The more I read and observe my own emotional reaction, the more I realise how important a mantra can be. A verbal talisment.

"Life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful".

Usually I feel a little bad for not remembering to whom these phrases should be attributed; as if I'm killing that person a little bit or committing a breach of copyright. In this case, each time that I remember to temper my reaction with a smile and think, "this too shall pass" I can feel another weed wither. This seems good and pleases me.

I know that verbal research has show that instantaneous expletives, (the verbal reaction to accidentally hitting your thumb with a hammer) is actually stored in a different location in the brain [0] from insults and course verbal punctuation, (in the form of tmesis and other sentence constructions that usually indicate a lack of social sophistication.) 

Without going too off topic, it was a video by Astrid, "sillysparowness" that reminded me that swearing _does_ have a place: If used lightly the shock value can be used to cement an idea into place. So "that was a crap line of poetry" is going to make it easier to remember bad poetry, while, "I blooming loved that chapter" is going to make it easier to remember good things. Additionally the gentle and liberal use of swearing can make the speaker seem like a bloody nice guy that isn't too threatening, because if he is saying shit he can't be much cleverer than I am.

The reason for the aside is to help to frame the question, "do we need to practice one or more mantras so that they have a fighting chance of replacing crass expletives or to remember to use them rather than letting our reaction to someone else turn us into a goat?" [goat, as in feeding trolls?] [1]

"At the end of the game the King and pawn go back into the same box"

So what phrase do you use? ..to help you progress towards "the ability to truly let, that which does not matter, slide." (misquote) Tyler Durden.

Which are the most effective? Is there a mantra for every occasion or are they more personal like blood types?

"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"

Do they have to be tailored towards respect, tolerance or acceptance? Do they have to even make sense? Should they direct our focus inwards, (naval gazing) or should they simply diffuse our focus from the sharp event that has just jabbed into us?

"Strength and peace" tradition greeting, (in one of my fictitious world.)

It seems that primal-scream has had its last gasp, so

"I won't do what you tell me; You can't make me; I hate you" is as totally unhelpful as it is anti-social.

Add your mantras and strategies in the comments, while I "Aum" think about this some more. What?

[0] Steven Pinker has some very interesting things to say on this topic. 

[1] Fluent 2012: Nicole Sullivan, "Don't Feed The Trolls"

"Evolve and let the chimps fall where they may." Alexx Roche.

Teaching Tai Chi 001

I have a new student and as everyone knows, students like homework.

I have a lot to be thankful for and in regards to Taichi, The Yang Family in particular. I still find it odd to think that there is a link from one of the Yang Family, through a chain of minds, (some of whom are now dead) to me. I am unknown and have no affiliation to the Yang Family.

So today's homework is lovingly borrowed directly from:

http://www.yangfamilytaichi.com/about/study/#Theory

1. What is the 10 essential of tai chi chuan ?

The following are the Ten Essentials of Tai Chi Chuan Orally transmitted by Yang Chengfu Recorded by Chen Weiming Translated by Jerry Karin, hacked by Alexx Roche:

1. Empty, lively, pushing up and energetic - head suspended by a thread
2. Hold in the chest and pull up the back - feel your inner grizzly bear
3. Relax the waist - your balance is your pelvis
4. Separate empty and full - flow from one leg to the other; never both
5. Sink the shoulders and droop the elbows - release any tension
6. Use Intent Rather than Force - be the ball; see the sphere around you.
7. Synchronize Upper and Lower Body - protect your garden
8. Match Up Inner and Outer - yeah, do that, (then tell me how.)
9. (Practice) Continuously and Without Interruption - \o/ propaganda, yay. The forms are one!
10. Seek Quiescence within Movement - don't worry to much, just do your best.

The 9th essential is really about pushing on even if you notice a minor mistake.
I would suggest that missing from this list is

 0. Practice each day - You learn as you practice, even if you only know the first lifting-the-hands.

11. Colour outside of the lines - play about with each posture to find the perfection for your body; make it your own Taichi, (but keep to the essentials; if you find your shoulders are not above your hips then you have probably strayed from the path.)

Stark? You mean York?

I doubt, very much that I am the only one that sees it as:

• Lannister = Lancaster
• Stark = York
• Joffrey = Spoilt Brat
• Dothraki = Mongols
• Beyond the Wall = Scotland
• The Wall =  Antonine Wall
• The narrow sea = North sea/English channel
• Night's Watch = The Black Watch

and

•  Kings Landing = London 
• (Feel free to add the rest to the comments.)

"Time changes everything" might be a saying, (though I think that it is, "Death changes everything".) London used to be Londinium. The house of Lancaster, (red rose) and the house of York, (white rose) ended the war of the roses by combining the two "sigils", (actuall heraldic symbols) into the Tudor red-and-white rose, (i.e. they married.)

 

In English we often equate a single lifetime to a year. Take for example the phrase, "A May to December relationship". This does not usually suggest that a Cancerian and a Sagitarius are having a relationship. Or, "she spent her autumn years living in the south." In this sense, winter is the end of our lives, and to that end we all know, to a greater or lesser extent, that Winter Is Coming!

 

What fewer of you may know is that you can visit the seat, (that means home) of one of Ned Stark's banner men/retainers. Today. For reals. Yes, in Yorkshire, England. Lord Bolton's Castle, aptly named Bolton Castle, (confusingly in the village of Castle Bolton - though as many of the houses are probably built using some of the stone from the castle, naming the village after the castle is probably appropriate.)

The castle is is indeed a "Dreadfort" in the North of England.

 

It is an impressive impediment. Set majestically into the north side of the valley of Wensleydale. From there the castle can survey the valley and protect the north. Sadly protecting the north is a tough job, even if you are made of stone. So some of the castle has fallen, (but most of it is still there - enough for a small boy, or even a fully grown Yorkshire man, to fall from and really hurt himself.)

 

There is even a website www.boltoncastle.co.uk . When you can find out that against the odds, Lord Bolton's family still own the castle and live there, (and what is more they are a really nice bunch.)

 

So if you are a real fan of Game of thrones, I feel you have to, at least once in your life, pay your tribute and stand on the battlements of Lord Bolton's Castle and truly know that Winter is coming.