Evil, wicked, nasty polyester!

*sighs* A year ago, if someone had told me I'd be getting rid of clothing because it interferes with qi flow, I would have told that person that he was insane. Flash forward a few months... I find that wearing polyester makes me physically ill. So I ask Don about it. Turns out that polyester blocks qi flow. So do most other artificial fibers. Okay, fine. I didn't have that much polyester, so parting with it wasn't that big a deal. I donated my polyester clothing to D.I. A few months later, I discover that plastic decals on cotton shirts are a problem. That hurt. I had (still have) a lot of souvenir shirts that I really like. I'm holding onto most of them in the hopes of making pillows or something out of them. So...what do I mean by problem? I was wearing a cotton shirt with a plastic decal that wound all the way around it, covering most of my torso, front and back. I put it on around 8:00 am. At noon, I was sweating, nauseous, and felt like I might throw up. Something made me think of taking off the shirt. Less than five minutes later, I was fine.

So why bring it up today? I have two sleeveless cotton shirts, with a one inch strip of decoration around the midriff. The decoration is not cotton, and is almost certainly polyester. I wore one of these today. It wasn't enough to make me nauseous, but I had no appetite whatsoever and felt shaky the whole day (until I made it home and took the thing off). So...two more shirts down the drain. I'm less attached to these, at least.

Otherwise, the first day of classes went well. My lecture did not speed out of control in Math 143 (Ihaveatendencytogettalkingsofastthatyoucan'tmakeoutthewords andit'sreallyannoyingtostudents), and I felt like I did pretty well in introducing basic stances in taiji (balancing the long bones on top of each other, zhong schwong, bow stance), and some simple corrections (shoulder width, front heel beyond the back toe in bow stance, etc.). Since it was the first day, I let them out early, and suggested they practice these stances while bored in lines. One student immediately suggested lines at the bookstore (she'd just come from there) :-D On Thursday, I might take them through the opening of the form and the five wrist changes. Or I might work on the bow stance qigong. Possibly both. I'm not making detailed plans in that class for several reasons. One is that I've never taught it before, and I need to get a feel for it. Another is that every taiji class is different. Also, because there IS a form, I have an implied lesson plan already. It's mainly a matter of picking out helpful qigong before we get to the places where we use those movements in the form. Hmmm... bear sway and taiji walk are very important, and should be introduced early... Bear sway won't be used for a while, but it opens up the hip joints, making it easier to get the hips square in bow stance. Anyway, now I'm thinking to myself, so I may as well quit typing all of it.