Colibri Posted November 5, 2015 Greetings from the Netherlands everybody. I am a 20-something year old novice that has been 'playing around' with different practices (meditation, yoga, tai chi) for some years now. For the last couple of years I am more and more drawn to the chinese arts. My first experiences with tai chi about two years ago, although brief, were a very refreshing contrast to the yoga classes I had attended before. I really enjoyed the lack of dogma and down-to-earth realness of the practice, uncluttered by unnecessary ornamentation.. More recently my desire to take on board a regular energy-based practice like tai chi or qigong was rekindled after an intense and beautiful experience with south american shamanism, which showed me (amongst other things) the importance and awesomeness of being close to the energy flows in and around my body, and being able to regulate and control it. Â For the past few weeks I have been doing a daily standing practice (zhan zhuang), for lack of knowing a better place to start. I am in between houses at the moment but I intend to find a teacher as soon as I settle down somewhere for a while (any good leads on teachers in the Netherlands are welcome . As the title suggests, I am somewhat totally overwhelmed by the amount and variety of information, almost up to a point where I want to say f*** it and leave the books and computer behind and just go stand like a tree, but as it turns out my curiosity has gotten the better of me and awoken my dormant nerdyness. Â I look forward to exploring this lovely corner of the internet, without drowning in all the words, I hope. Compulsive information consumption can be a bit of a trap sometimes.. Â Ok. Bye. Talk to you soon. 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
soaring crane Posted November 6, 2015 Hello Colibri (Hummingbird, for the English speakers here), and welcome to the forums!  That was a great introduction, thank you. You have one of the best Zhan Zhuang instructors in the world in your area - Peter den Dekker, look up his book "The dynamics of standing still", I'm sure you'll enjoy it, and gain a lot of insight from it.  In the meantime:  Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started.  For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day.  Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you,  SC and the TDB team 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
