Bab 30: Tai Chi and Meditation
(Elektra's POV)
A furry feeling trailed up the side of my face, waking me up from my slumber. I opened my eyes slowly and adjusted to the what was before me. Zuri was rubbing her face up against me and I chuckled at the feeling. I slowly sat up and held her against me. "Hey Zuri. What are you doing waking me?" I asked softly as I caressed her fur.
I looked around the room and was met with darkness that was slowly disappearing. I looked towards the window and saw the sun rising. It was a beautiful sight especially from being in the mountain. Seeing the sun rise, made me realize why Zuri woke me up. It was time for Tai Chi.
I smiled to myself as I got out of bed and got dressed for Tai Chi. Zuri and I walked out of our room to see some of the monks getting out of their rooms as well. I greeted them as we walked to Neo's room. I am in such a good mood and it's because of me being here.
We arrived at Neo's room and knocked. We entered the room quietly just in case he was sleeping, but nope. He was wide awake, dressed for the day, and was sitting near the window, looking out in amazement. "Good morning." I said and he turned to me with a smile. "Good morning to you too. I have got to admit, I wouldn't have thought I would see a beautiful sunrise like that." I chuckled at his statement and replied "Yeah I know it's beautiful. I remember always waking up to see it every morning. The sunset is more beautiful though."
He stood up and replied "Well now I can't wait to see it." Zuri went up to him and he picked her up and began caressing her. "So was there anything you need?" he asked. I smiled and nodded. "It's time to get ready for morning Tai Chi. I just came to wake you guys up for it. It's the polite thing to do because they are letting us stay here so let's go." He nodded and followed me with Zuri still in his arms.
We went to the rooms of the others and woke them up. Alexa was already up and at em, but Damon wasn't. It took a little while to get him up, but thanks to Zuri pushing his face with her paws several times, he woke up. In a grumpy mood, but still up.
We all walked to the training area where nearly everyone was. I turned to the team and explained Tai Chi to them. "Okay now Tai Chi is all about cultivating the qi or life energy within us to flow smoothly and powerfully throughout the body. The essential principles include mind integrated with the body; control of movements and breathing; generating internal energy, mindfulness, song (loosening) and jing (serenity). If you do it correctly, it has the benefits of reduced stress, weight loss, mood improvement, better sleep and etc. Just follow the instructor and I promise you it will feel amazing. Okay now let's get in line."
They nodded in reply and followed me to get in line. I stood next to Jun, who gave me a hug, and Neo stood next to me while Alexa and Damon stood behind us. Zuri sat against the side and waited. The instructor bowed to everyone and we returned the bow and got into position. With our feet together, we slowed our breathing and slowly lifted up our arms and brought them back down. Kind of like a bird flapping it's wings. Then we stepped out to the left and lifted up our hands in front of us. Similar to the feeling of your arms being lifted up by water and then floating back down.
This continued for about an hour until it ended. That felt better than it did years ago. I turned to the others and they had a small smile on their faces, even Damon. "Man that was awesome." Alexa said and Damon replied "Definitely. That was so relaxing. I feel so much better." I had a big smile on my face and said "I told you so."
The sound of a big gong rang throughout the temple and I knew it was time for breakfast. I clapped my hands together and said "Well it's time for breakfast. Let's go!" I whistled a little and Zuri came running. We walked up the steps and went to the dining area. We greeted the monks and Li Mu as we sat down.
Once we did the breakfast routine, we began to eat. Damon and I ate some dim sum with some morning tea, while Alexa and Neo ate some wheat noodles with some morning tea. The food was delicious as always. We talked amongst ourselves about the mission and enjoyed the food.
After breakfast, we went our separate ways. Damon and Alexa said they had wanted to go with Jun for some Kung Fu lessons or something like that. Neo just followed me. "So what are we going to do now?" he asked. "I'm going to be doing my meditation until lunch at my old favourite spot so I don't know about you." I answered as I walked into my room to grab candles from the cupboard. "Oh you mean that floating thing that you did the first morning you came to Mystic Academy?" he questioned.
"Yup. That's the one. It's as relaxing as Tai Chi. I learned how to do it when I came here among other stuff. It also helps a lot with my dragon." I answered. I walked out of the room and he followed quickly and softly grabbed my elbow. I turned towards him and he asked with a slightly nervous look on his face "Do you think I can join you?" I chuckled at him a little and said "Sure.Just go to your room and grab some candles from the cupboard."
He nodded at me with a smile and ran to his room. I shook my head in amusement. 'Haha That boy is something else.' I said to myself. I waited for about a minute until Neo returned with a some candles in his right arm. "Let's go." I said and we walked towards my old favorite spot of the temple.
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(Neo's POV)
Why did I feel so nervous asking her if I could do meditation with her? It's so weird. My whole calm, coolish self when I'm around the team is a whole facade. But on the inside when it's just her around, I get so nervous and I have no clue why. Maybe it's because I know my true feelings for her. I don't even know. Ugh this is so frustrating.
Anyways after sometime, we arrived at what seemed to be an old walkway where it seems to have had a lot of water damage by the looks of it. Grass between the cracks of the ground and walls, but yet it's still beautiful,serene, and peaceful. Elektra walked to the middle of the walkway and sat down with her legs crossed. I followed her and sat down in front of her, placing the candles around like she is doing and lit them.
"Okay Neo. Meditation is about training in awareness and getting a healthy sense of perspective. You're not trying to turn off your thoughts or feelings. You're learning to observe them without judgment. And eventually, you may start to better understand them as well. If done the right way, you can have stuff like stress reduction, control anxiety, self awareness, promote emotional health, may even help with fighting and so on and so forth. Sometimes if you get really into, you may feel like it's only been minutes,but in reality it has been hours. So now you are going to follow me. What we are going to do is close our eyes and slow our breathing. Inhale through the nose and exhale out the mouth" she said.
I followed what she said and closed my eyes and steadied my breathing. "Now empty your and just count your breaths in your head." I opened one of my eyes with a questioning look and saw she had her eyes closed and was just calm. I opened my other eye and slowly crawled to her without making a sound. I waved my hands in front of her face to see if she would react, but she didn't. I made even the most weirdest faces and she still didn't react. So I just started to stare.
I know it's weird but I still did it. I was close to her just watching when all of a sudden "BOO!" I fell back on my ass nearly scared to death. She had opened her eyes and yelled that into my face. She scared the crap out of me. I had my hand against my chest, feeling my heart beating rapidly while she is just laughing at me.
I huffed and sat back in my original spot still calming down my harsh breaths. "Told you self awareness. Now this time be serious and actually do it." she said in between her sweet giggles. I rolled my eyes at her and did what I was told. I placed my hands on my crossed legs and closed my eyes and did what she instructed.
As I kept my breath steady and had an open mind, I gradually felt myself loosen the restraints of self-centeredness. My mind began to shift to a more subtle kind of awareness. I felt less self-conscious. Any physical pain and emotional stressors I had felt like it just vanished. I just felt like I was at peace.
After what felt like a couple of minutes, I started to sense movement towards me. I felt like I was going to be touched and I quickly grabbed what was going to touch me and when I touched it, I felt soft skin. I slowly opened my eyes and was met with those beautiful brown eyes of Elektra. I looked down and saw my hand holding hers.
"Well done! You used your self-awareness. You grabbed my hand without even opening your eyes. How do you feel?" she asked. I let go of her hand and stretched my neck a little. "I actually feel really good. Wow! Who knew only a couple of minutes can feel like that." I replied and she ended up giggling. I gave her a confused look and asked "What's so funny?" She shook her head and said "Dude that wasn't a couple of minutes. You meditating for about three hours."
I sat there in shock and asked "Are you serious?" and she nodded in reply. "The lunch gong just rang. Come on let's go." I was still in shock as I gathered the candles and walked with her back. We walked back to our rooms and put the candles back then walked to the dining area where Alexa, Damon, Jun, and Meilin were already seated. We sat down and Damon greeted us. "Hey guys. So what did you do while we were out doing kung fu?"
I looked straight in the eyes and said "meditate". He chuckled a little and said "Okay what else?" and I just kept saying meditate. He gave me a confused look and looked to Elektra. She explained what happened and we all had a little laugh. I began to eat the covered rice that I shared with Elektra, while Damon and Alexa ate the Chinese burger. 'This will be a very interesting week.' I said to myself.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone