AI Alignment: First Principles

The Intersection of AI Alignment and Self Alignment: A Case for Physical Practices

I’m not going to beat around the bush, I’m just going to say it plainly. Achieving AI alignment is a goal that first requires self-alignment. We cannot expect to correct an external relationship until internal balance is maintained. Otherwise, we will quickly find ourselves adrift in our own delusions. So here’s my belief: teaching physical alignment through practices like martial arts (Tai Chi specifically) will help individuals mentally and emotionally prepare themselves while seeking AI alignment solutions.

Developing Self-Awareness and Self-Regulation

Physical alignment practices help individuals develop greater self-awareness and self-regulation. By practicing mindfulness and present-moment awareness, individuals can develop the ability to recognize and regulate their own biases, emotions, and thoughts. This can help them approach their complex work with greater objectivity and clarity.

Fostering Empathy and Compassion

Physical alignment practices can also help individuals develop greater empathy and compassion for others. This is not only a critical skill for effective AI alignment but also for just being a kind person. Acknowleding our imbalance, our biases, means being vulnerable. Being vulnerable doesn’t take courage, it builds courage. A deeper understanding of this helps develop a deeper sense of connection and understanding with others. This allows us to take on and better appreciate the perspectives and values of different stakeholders. I’d say that was important to the development of AI systems.

Building Discipline and Resilience

Physical alignment practices can help individuals develop discipline and resilience. These are valuable traits for cybersecurity teams and other professionals working in the tech industry where burnout seems to be a critical issue. By developing the ability to focus and persevere in the face of challenges and setbacks, individuals can better navigate the complexities and uncertainties of AI alignment and cybersecurity.

Reframing Power and Conflict through Tai Chi

Practicing Tai Chi specifically means learning to approach conflict differently. The use of power is redefined because what power is and where it comes from is transformed. There is no clenched fist, there is no seeking of power. There is plenty of power all around, and more importantly within us. The problem is that we have been told that there is something wrong with us and something must be added. When in fact, it is the opposite. There is more to us than we can imagine and power is not force, but control, and knowing the minimum effort necessary is the best possible policy. Strength isn’t in the breaking, but in the holding up, learning to support ourselves and each other.

Conclusion: The Benefits of Physical Alignment Practices

Overall, by teaching physical alignment practices like martial arts to employees and cybersecurity teams, organizations can help develop the skills and perspectives necessary for effective AI alignment and cybersecurity. These practices can help individuals develop greater self-awareness, empathy, discipline, and resilience, which can ultimately contribute to more ethical and socially responsible AI systems. Additionally, promoting physical and mental wellness among employees can also contribute to a healthier and more productive workforce, which can benefit the organization in many ways.

I encourage you to consider incorporating physical alignment practices into your own life or workplace. The benefits are manifold and the impact on AI alignment could be profound. Oh, and if you need someone who teaches Tai Chi and is into cybersecurity- I know a guy.

Default State of Mind

This little rant comes from a reply to conversation I was having with my Mom:

I trust that I am easily fooled. I fool myself all the time. Maybe fool is too harsh a word, but surely I am easily confused and misdirected. As much as anyone else.

I'm very curious about how people become aware of their blind spots. Everybody has a story in their head that's playing out while the real world is ticking away in front of them.

Where do people go when they are on autopilot? Do they know they've checked out? By that I mean, what story is being told- what narrative is unfolding- while the real world streams on by.

The problem I see here is that most people don't know they live in a story and don't believe they are easily confused. Maybe there is a disconnect in that having a thought isn't what I would consider thinking.

Thinking is a directed action. Having a thought is more like having gas. It just bubbles up.

What I am most curious about is the stimulus for expanded perspective and objective reorientation to an internal narrative.

What is it that helps people go, "Oh, well that's just silly."

I trust people when they display the capacity to scrutinize their own thoughts, language, and actions. This character trait Is often noticeable by how good someone is at getting other people to relax and smile.

Remember what the Buddha said, "Enlightenment arises from the realization that we are all full of shit most of the time".

Cyber-Sorcerer-Ninja-Detective

The world that is emerging from our electronic interactions needs a lot of patches. It’s growing and in need of constant adjustment, reconfiguration, and stabilization. For my part, this week was dedicated to learning how to hide, lure, track and trap bad guys for 4 days and a total of 16-hours of training on Active Defense and Cyber Deception with Black Hills Information Security. This was one of three courses they offer for the very affordable price of pay-what-you-can. Don’t let the generosity fool you. John Strand provides these courses as a mission. He believes we are all far behind in the cyber security game and there is lots of ground to make up. After 15 years as a SANs instructor, he has lots of value to offer. Plus, his energy is contagious. He does seem to truly be possessed with a desire for the greater common good we all share.

What did I learn? Illusions, traps, and other cyber-bending ninja-detective tricks. Unfortunately, a good cyber-sorcerer-ninja-detective never reveals the mechanics of their tricks (that’s not true, they don’t mind sharing at all). 

1st day was strategy and defining what active defense is and isn’t. It’s not waiting for the SIEM (monitoring system) to tell you something is wrong. The SIEM is designed to find threats that are known. We are looking for very sneaky people. They will find a new way in, something the SIEM can’t detect. 

The key to stopping the attacker is understanding the path of the prey. Where do they need to go? Know this and you know where to lay the traps that suck up their time. The illusions that lead them down the wrong rabbit hole to infinite nothing. And this may be the key takeaway. Make it a time suck to mess with you. Make it not worth the hassle to hustle ya. 

Show’em something pretty. Something they have to look at. Delay them, obfuscate the prize, and frustrate their basic efforts. Don’t be the low-hanging digital fruit, just dangling out on the internet waiting to be easily exploited. 

How do you slow them down? Honey, and lots of it. Your main weapon is a long list of honey: honey-pots, honey-servers, honey-networks, honey-users, honey-files, and yes Honey Badger! What are all these honey-techs? They’re big fake data burritos wrapped in alerts, stuffed with traps, and trackers. These techniques and tools draw the attacker into a fake world with sweet-looking data. A juicy-ripe text file with a bunch of sexy financial information and contacts that can’t be resisted. 

2nd day we talked about the legal issues that come with the territory. This is a whole new frontier as far as the law is concerned. Stand-out thought is how far behind the legal concepts of property and privacy are in relation to the digital dimensions of our lives. It’s an 8-bit paradigm trying to govern an Oculus world. It would do me some good to study up search and seizure law. The question to answer: when are you a detective and when are you the interloper violating someone’s rights? 

  Day 3, the slide reads “Don’t Get Shot!” and the class focuses on your safety as an investigator. As in, you may find yourself dealing with bad people. You might play a big part one day in locating said bad people and putting them in prison. Sometimes bad people hold grudges. You don’t want your name on anything bad people can reference. You want to be a ghost, a shadow warrior. That’s right, John added to my practical knowledge of how to make people disappear and attack from the shadows. Always happy to add a little more ninja to my bag of tricks.

Day 4, how far does defense go until it becomes offense? We learned techniques that trapped our network baddies in infinite loops that “inadvertently” shut down their systems. Is that wrong? Well, it’s complicated. How far is too far depends on your warrant and what 3-lettered agency is writing the check. But that’s the justice side. Maybe you’re not working for the government. What about private clients? What would you do for the cash? What wouldn’t you do for cash?

In some cases, your client might not be interested in taking any of this to court. As in, they aren’t concerned with the legality of your work and whether it might stand up in court. That’s when you have to decide for yourself what kind of InfoSec operator you are. Are you a mercenary, a kinda cyber-gun-for-hire? Or are you going to be an agent of justice? Or chaotic good and you just can’t help yourself because of some twisted extreme perceptions of fair and foul play? Or maybe your just smart enough not to get involved in clandestine cyber-pissing contests.  

It’s easy researching and studying security to get paranoid; to think that there is a never-ending wave of threats. And while that might be true, there are ways to limit vulnerability. For a business or an individual, it’s not that difficult to avoid being easy pickings. Remember you don’t have to be faster than the bear, just faster than the rest of the campers when the bear arrives.

My CompTIA Security + certification test is coming up in a few weeks. Time to buckle down and memorize an ocean of acronyms, hashes, ports, and protocols. But while that test is important, my mind will still be on the terrors of a Spider Trap and the devious capacities of Honey Badger. I look forward to building a digital hall of mirrors and digging cyber-tiger traps filled with my own assortment of deadly links. That’s right folks, two can play at the sneaky link game. Actually, we should all be learning how the game is played. 

After all, ya got be a cyber-sorcerer-detective-ninja to catch a cyber-sorcerer-ninja.

Letting Go

Just about every morning at 8 AM, I practice Tai Ch with a partner I’ll call B. B and I have practiced together on and off for 5 years. For 9 months, B and I have met at a local elementary school. B is same age my mother would be. My mother and I never did Tai Chi together. Don’t get me wrong I don’t think of B like she’s my mom. I just can’t help but wonder what it would have been like if I could have done Tai Chi with my Mom. It’s a thought that makes me smile.

B and I are always outside. Being Portland. sometimes it rains lightly, but most mornings we’ve been blessed with a clear sky. Most often there are crows perched high in the tree branches watching us. Locals from the neighborhood bring out their dogs to run and play fetch on the wet field. Some mornings the sky is pink and orange and some days its grey. Regardless we slip into our form and gently move through the morning trying not to wake the world.

Today after practice she gave me this poem. I can’t read it aloud without choking up.  Maybe I’m holding on too tight to something.

She Let Go

She let go.

She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go.

She let go of the fear. She let go of the judgments.

She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head.

She let go of the committee of indecision within her.

She let go of all the ‘right’ reasons.

Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go.

She didn’t ask anyone for advice. She didn’t read a book on how to let go.

She didn’t search the scriptures.

She just let go.

She let go of all of the memories that held her back.

She let go of all of the anxiety that kept her from moving forward.

She let go of the planning and all of the calculations about how to do it just right.

She didn’t promise to let go. She didn’t journal about it.

She didn’t write the projected date in her Day-Timer.

She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper.

She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope.

She just let go.

She didn’t analyze whether she should let go.

She didn’t call her friends to discuss the matter.

She didn’t do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment.

She didn’t call the prayer line.

She didn’t utter one word.

She just let go.

No one was around when it happened. There was no applause or congratulations.

No one thanked her or praised her.

No one noticed a thing. Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go.

There was no effort. There was no struggle.

It wasn’t good and it wasn’t bad. It was what it was, and it is just that.

In the space of letting go, she let it all be.

A small smile came over her face. A light breeze blew through her.

And the sun and the moon shone forevermore…

by Reverend Safire Rose

Having No Head

Sam Harris podcast has a fun conversation with Richard Lang. Nicest dude ever. The quote below provides preview.

“The best day of my life—my rebirthday, so to speak—was when I found I had no head. This is not a literary gambit, a witticism designed to arouse interest at any cost. I mean it in all seriousness: I have no head.

It was eighteen years ago, when I was thirty-three, that I made the discovery. Though it certainly came out of the blue, it did so in response to an urgent inquiry; I had for several months been absorbed in the question: what am I? The fact that I happened to be walking in the Himalayas at the time probably had little to do with it; though in that country unusual states of mind are said to come more easily. However that may be, a very still clear day, and a view from the ridge where I stood, over misty blue valleys to the highest mountain range in the world, with Kangchenjunga and Everest unprominent among its snow-peaks, made a setting worthy of the grandest vision.

What actually happened was something absurdly simple and unspectacular: I stopped thinking. A peculiar quiet, an odd kind of alert limpness or numbness, came over me. Reason and imagination and all mental chatter died down. For once, words really failed me. Past and future dropped away. I forgot who and what I was, my name, manhood, animalhood, all that could be called mine. It was as if I had been born that instant, brand new, mindless, innocent of all memories. There existed only the Now, that present moment and what was clearly given in it. To look was enough. And what I found was khaki trouser legs terminating downwards in a pair of brown shoes, khaki sleeves terminating sideways in a pair of pink hands, and a khaki shirtfront terminating upwards in—absolutely nothing whatever! Certainly not in a head.

It took me no time at all to notice that this nothing, this hole where a head should have been was no ordinary vacancy, no mere nothing. On the contrary, it was very much occupied. It was a vast emptiness vastly filled, a nothing that found room for everything—room for grass, trees, shadowy distant hills, and far above them snowpeaks like a row of angular clouds riding the blue sky. I had lost a head and gained a world.

It was all, quite literally, breathtaking. I seemed to stop breathing altogether, absorbed in the Given. Here it was, this superb scene, brightly shining in the clear air, alone and unsupported, mysteriously suspended in the void, and (and this was the real miracle, the wonder and delight) utterly free of “me”, unstained by any observer. Its total presence was my total absence, body and soul. Lighter than air, clearer than glass, altogether released from myself, I was nowhere around.

Yet in spite of the magical and uncanny quality of this vision, it was no dream, no esoteric revelation. Quite the reverse: it felt like a sudden waking from the sleep of ordinary life, an end to dreaming. It was self-luminous reality for once swept clean of all obscuring mind. It was the revelation, at long last, of the perfectly obvious. It was a lucid moment in a confused life-history. It was a ceasing to ignore something which (since early childhood at any rate) I had always been too busy or too clever to see. It was naked, uncritical attention to what had all along been staring me in the face - my utter facelessness. 

 In short, it was all perfectly simple and plain and straightforward, beyond argument, thought, and words. There arose no questions, no reference beyond the experience itself, but only peace and a quiet joy, and the sensation of having dropped an intolerable burden.

— Douglas Harding, [extract from] On Having No Head

Natural Born Heroes

For those people who like real adventure and a desire to know what it means and takes to be a hero, boy do I have a book for you.

Natural Born Heroes is one part World War II heist and one part history of sport science. While managing to weave a thrilling yarn about how a band of ragtag spies kidnap a Nazi general on the Greek island of Crete, McDougall also investigates the history of fitness on a large scale, covering martial arts, endurance sports, hydration, and nutrition. On one hand introducing true-life swashbuckling heroes who pulled off the impossible; and on the other, a journey from ancient Minoan society to modern day to explore what it takes to be a hero.

First it’s a detective story exploring how a team of misfit British spies and Cretan sheep rustlers could possibly kidnap a Nazi general in the middle of occupied territory and live to tell the tale. The author doesn’t sit back and armchair this adventure, he travels the world finding leading experts on human fitness to prepare for a trip to Crete to try and redo the unimaginable trek of the good guys.   

Much like his last book chronicling ultra-endurance runners, Born to Run, McDougall puts himself in the middle of the action. He wants to cover the same ground as the story's protagonists, so he trains in parkour, natural movement, forging, nutrition, axe-throwing and sharp-shooting to prepare  for a trek through the treacherous Cretan mountains. 

The training covers: fascia vs muscle strength; how learning to throw transformed human capacity for sequential thought, imagination, and language; natural movement and the development of parkour; Pankration and development of Wing Chun; and echolocation.

One of the standout deliveries of the book offers insight into the gender and age gap in sports and performance.  It points out that the difference in men and women’s performance in strength and endurance is very small and that a sport allows for more flaunting or peacocking of the body.  Any skill gap that is so great between genders doesn’t make good evolutionary sense, because if men were that much faster and stronger than women, then they wouldn’t be able to mate very well.  Basically it breaks the gender (and age) gap down to nurture not nature. The reason men appear so much superior is because we don’t raise boys and girls to play together. It also points out that sports specialization has led to an observer culture. Less and less participation, which of course leads to less fitness and cooperation.

Other cool/interesting things examined in the book include: 

-Situational awareness and compassion as a survival strategy.

-Trials of endurance and strength as passage into adulthood.

-Weeds are good for you.

-There is a hydration conspiracy.

-How Churchill used magicians to win the war.

-Just how much of a badass Teddy Roosevelt really was.

-True movement requires risk.

-Fitness should be based on being useful.

-The rise of the gym is equal to the rise of obesity.

- Arnold Schwarzenegger ruined fitness for America.

All-in-all Natural Born Heroes is super informative, absolutely compelling, and downright inspiring.  This one definitely goes into the Kung Fu Science Fiction High School library.

The Baseline: Happiness Science

A whole lot of marketing focuses on happiness. Almost every advertisement begins with the assumption that you are not happy enough and what is offered will make you happier. People ask all the time, “Are you happy?” Do we know what we are asking about? What is happiness? What makes you happy? How happy can you get? How long can happiness last? Is it good to be happy all the time?

BigThink has some research on this elusive emotional skill, psychology, practice, currency.

“Activities such as exercise, expressing gratitude, altruism, and taking time to savor or appreciate the good things in life have all been shown to influence short-term wellbeing very much, and there is evidence that they can nudge that hedonic set point up the scale in the long-term as well.

Additionally, the hedonic treadmill is due, in part, to processes of desensitization and adaptation — we get used to things. Because of this, variety is a powerful means of combatting the hedonic set point's inexorable tug. Persistently engaging in a variety of positive activities or varying how one performs a given positive activity can trick your stubborn brain into actually feeling good about things.”

Exercise vs. Meds

Bigthink.com has an article discussing the benefits of exercise and how it is beginning to reshape how we think about treatment for psychological issues.

“The results were stunning. After leading the patients in structured exercises — each 60-minute session included a combination of strength training, flexibility training, and cardio — 95 percent of patients reported feeling better, while 63 percent reported feeling happy or very happy instead of sad, very sad, or neutral. A whopping 91.8 percent said they were pleased with their bodies during the sessions.”

It also has this lovely gem of a quote:

“Humans were designed to move. Bipedalism offers us serious advantages in lung capacity and communication systems. Humans are generally weak and slow for mammals, but the combination of mental ingenuity and physical dexterity gave us a competitive advantage, one we've exploited so effectively that, thanks to our technology, we now bow to the cult of the mind while abandoning the reality of our bodies. Yet we're paying the price for our conveniences.”

How to Deal With Work Bullies

Bigthink has an article discussing sleep problems stemming from personality conflicts at work. The article runs down physiological effects of chronic stressful encounters at work and offers up a few basic ways to mediate the stress: Meditation, exercise, listening to music, taking a walk and volunteering.

Couple thoughts. Anyone who is rude or condescending is afraid of losing power or doesn’t believe they have enough to feel safe. In short they are cowards who are afraid to ask for help. This leaves them with only one option, take power from others. These people have already failed at making others happy. They probably had to deal with some other terrified person that taught them this behavior. Someone who could never be made happy.

So the bully cannot find their power in helping, because they themselves feel helpless. How can they support others when they feel like they are about to fall apart? So instead they gain power, in their minds, by seeing other people in pain. They can achieve at least that and to them that is the false evidence of their power or control. Their behavior reflects the internal aggression they feel toward themselves for not being able to make others happy. But I’m sure this is obvious.

Thought number 2, its not your job to solve their psychological issues. But it is your job to come to terms with the fact that these people rarely change their behavior. And even if you go somewhere else to escape them, there will always be another asshole.

You will have to be the one that changes in some way. Because fighting these people head on does nothing but escalate the stress and feed into their power myths.

First you have to know that they can’t actually take anything away from you. Their fear doesn’t need to be your fear. That’s them getting to set the terms of conflict. Resilience in these moments requires a strong knowledge of what you value. This gets tricky, because when I say value, people think of worth, as in materials or currencies. What I mean by value, is what do you give your attention to the most.

What gets most of your attention is the thing you give the most value. Its what gets the most power from you. If your attention is occupied by something that makes you anxious, then you will fall prey to the power myth.

If you value this person liking you, changing, or providing some kind of positive feedback from your relationship you are fighting their fight, which is a delusion. You are investing in the idea that power can be taken or earned. The trick is understanding that real power can only be given.

Last thought, the fight is not fighting. If there was a real fight it is training your attention. If you understand how much power you have and where it comes from, then you know you it can’t run out and so have plenty to give. Ultimately, this persons bully behavior is coming from a child who can not find enough love to feel safe enough to grow emotionally and play nice with others. That doesn’t mean you should be their parent. Just don’t waste your attention trying to defeat or please them.

Vipassana Notes: Body, Change, Thought, Feeling

There are a whole bunch of different types of meditation practices. I believe these notes are from a lecture on Vipassana. Provides some thoughts and frame work for meditative exercises and how to work with your attention.

Mindfulness of the body:
Be aware breathing in
Be aware breathing out
Breathing knowing short and or long
Experience the whole body breathing
Experience the wholeness of the breath
Calm the breath
Calm the body

Identify other bodily feelings
Meditate on them
Notice their length, Can you sustain you attention there
Do they shift to other places
Does they intensify, or subside

Changing nature of elements
“I am” identifying
What calls your attention becomes the object of the meditation
Notice how things are
How long until it changes
How long until your attention drifts
Be aware of the drift
See if u can catch the drift
As u send your attention
Around the body
Drift and return
What remains
When u are gone
Sounds happen
Sensation is effortless
Return to the breath
Open to your changing sensations
When do you drift
How long have u been gone
Calmly,  softly, gently w humor return and breath and be aware of breathing, there is a body.
End

Mindless of Feeling
Pleasantness, unpleasant, neutral
Feeling tones, habitual desire
Neutral is delusion
Clear recognition of feeling no judgement
Feeling from the physical body
Pleasant and unpleasant and neutral feelings
Contemplating the disappearance
of those feelings

The mind free of wanting
Mindfulness of heart/mind
Be aware Mind states and emotions
conditions
Desire, Greed, aversion, delusion or absence of.

What is and is not skillful. Leads to happiness or suffering.  What to cultivate?
Noticing the mind states. What is the minds attitude right now. Receptive or rejecting, clear or delusional, wanting or not wanting?
Concentrated or directed? Joy, boredom.

When you drift
Return to the body and repeat

Mindfulness of thought
I am aware I am thinking
It wanders naturally
The wandering mind is not the problem but the attitude.
Not prevent thinking but recognize when it arises giving u more space to integrate them
Unaware we act our thoughts
They become our inclinations
Skillfull Mind habits
What is the content of my thoughts
What is a thought
A passing thing
Notice the patterns
Am I Planning
Am I Judging
Am I Remembering
Am I Fantasizing

Notes on Mark Epstein's, Thoughts Without a Thinker

This year I invested in reading, studying and practicing meditation. One of the best books I came across was Mark Epstein’s Thoughts Without a Thinker . Rather than try to regurgitate everything I’m just going to share a set of questions/quotes/statements from my notes.

• Even pain can be interesting. Sitting in meditation is often about investing in the examination of discomfort. When it hurts is when you start learning. Pulling a way, trying to hide from pain gives it leverage. Welcoming it, trying to look at it closely, it transforms.

• Other people, our own minds, and death. These are our challenges. Our greatest fear.

• What are we afraid to learn?

• Resistance, you are that which u resist.

• Transitional space, your teddy bear, the security blanket. The totems that carry between the maturation points of our lives.

• These weeds, these waves, they will help u. The things that obstruct you, you need.

• Powers of observation, not judgement.

• How do u contribute to your pain?

• When something could have happened but did not. This lives in the flesh not the words.

• Meditation on your mother...carefully tread.

• The family is the worst invention of God that never existed

• Meditation has a certain culture bias.

• Am I lovable? Estranged or enmeshed?
  
  

Sun Style with Resistance Using Theraband

Instagram video of yours truly using a resistance band for form training. Informative for structure, sensitivity, speed, and strengthen.

Tai Chi vs. Crossfit

Times has an article comparing tai chi to crossfit.

“It holds up when compared to other more strenuous types of exercise. “Over time, we see people who do tai chi achieve similar levels of fitness as those who walk or do other forms of physical therapy,” Irwin says. One study in theAmerican Journal of Epidemiology concluded that tai chi was nearly as effective as jogging at lowering risk of death among men. Another review inPLOS One found that the practice may improve fitness and endurance of the heart and lungs, even for healthy adults.”

The Giving Way: Sun Style Tai Chi Notes

The Giving Way

Still mind

Steady feet

Breathe, sink

Time the beats

All doors a trap

Desire the map

Give, facilitate

Occupy the back

Gifts freely given

Cannot be taken

Offered options

Limit choices

Show the way

They want to go

Feeling strong

In a disappearing hand

Extend their range

Let them reach

Make them long

Support what they seek

Corrupt the balance

Change the target

Seeking strength

Opens the gates

Catch them

As they tumble

Stable them

Humble

Striking a gift

Rare, swift

Creating space

Where none exists

Mind Hopeful

Body Supple

Beyond the target

The goal waits

Stretching Treats Inflammation, Does Help with Cancer?

Article discussing the effects of stretching and cancer treatment. Considering the amount of tissue winding and unwinding involved with internal arts method, this allows for a ringing out of the tissue as well as a stretching.

Effort and the Brain

Esciencecommon.com has an article describing the neuroscience behind effort…

“The experimental design allowed the researchers to tease apart the effects of recent choices on the formation of value expectations of future decisions.”

Working the Center

MartialBody.com…has another good article discussing fascial chains, the core, and martial arts training.

Count Your Neurons

NeuroscienceNews.com…has an article discussing the relationship between longevity and brain development.

Tai Chi: Stroke Prevention and Recovery

Research on benefits of tai chi in reducing strokes…

“The researchers analysed 26 studies published between 1985 and 2017 which examined how yoga and tai chi moderated key stroke risk factors, including blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, atrial fibrillation, smoking and alcohol consumption, obesity, anxiety and depression. “

Notes on Sun Style Tai Chi

Create the shape

Fill the space

Then pick a place

For the  tension to escape

The hand falls

As the body funnels

The eye focuses

Then gently turns away

Letting force free

A conduit, not a battery

Facilitating power

Video of practice

The Up and the Down is an awareness of the lengthening and rooting forces of the body. The lifting and lengthening of the spinal cord and the sinking, pooling of the weight into the ground. It is a tension point between actions, It is a drawn bow, It is a balance point of no intention except maintaining the connection between heaven and earth. It is where potential abides. It is when the body is the most sensitive to the space it holds and where energy is flowing. Its vertical nature creates the horizontal potential. Every where you stand is a point of pivot, a resolved space, a waiting space.

As the body sinks, the frame is compressed, the strike is an expression of this compression. The body turns as it sinks, but when releasing the compression, striking, the frame does not turn, does not square up to the target. The eye focuses and then gently turns away, the shoulder, the elbow, the hand and fingers open. The hand lands, it is not thrown. The strike does not push, it releases the rebounding-body out of the hand. It should feel like a vacuum pulling something out of you bc you open, not because you push, or twist. Do not try to add to the strike, get low and let go. Do not seek to feel power.  Feeling power means you are trying to create force. You need to allow force. Like opening the doors in a house so the wind can blow through, or opening a damn so the river can flow into the valley.