Learning to Relax

Just when I thought I had made a bit of headway in learning how to relax, I realised how far away I really am.

When I pushed hands with my teacher, I still feel force, and I know that is brute force coming from me. Yes, it is a bit, very little, but still, it is muscular force that can be used against me when pushing hands. It is muscular force that is preventing me from being able to apply the soft side of taiji properly. It is muscular force that comes about because I still cannot relax.

And I think it is because I am still using a lot of muscular force when I practise my routines. Taiji is about the mind moving the body, but I still end up using my muscles to move the body. While it may sound funny/ridiculous (how else to move if not to use muscles?), the muscles here I am referring to is the muscular force that we are so used to using, the brute force that we are used to using. So, after some thought, I think the way to improve and learn to relax is to go away from the muscular force and work towards using the mind to move the body, to use the mind to make the movements when practising my routines. Once I can do that, maybe I will be able to relax better and not like the muscular force manifest itself when pushing hands.