Exercise seven is performed in the seated position. Seat yourself on a chair or a table high enough that your feet hang above the floor. Keep your legs together, but not tense. Hold the T’ai Chi Golden Ruler in your palms, resting it in your lap.
1.
Inhale slowly and simultaneously raise the ruler to eye level keeping it
horizontal and angle your feet upward, toes pointing towards the ceiling. Keep
your toes in this raised position for the entire exercise.
2.
Gently exhale and carry the ruler to your left, just outside your temple,
keeping it horizontal and gazing at he ruler’s center sphere. Follow the ruler
with your eyes, but do not turn the head more than a few degrees.
3.
Slowly inhale and turn the ruler so that your left palm goes above your
right. Keep the ruler at eye level.
4.
When the ruler reaches the vertical, slowly exhale and move the ruler to
the right in a 180-degree arc to just outside your right temple. Keep your eyes
continually focussed on the center of the ruler.
5.
When you have carried the ruler to your right side, inhale slowly and
turn the ruler counter-clockwise so that the right palm comes over the left
palm.
6.
Now bring the ruler across to the left side, again on the exhalation,
counting this as one repetition.
7.
To complete this exercise you must perform eight repetitions. After the
eighth repetition, with the ruler on the left side of the head, with the left
palm over the right palm, rotate the ruler 90 degrees clockwise, so that it
comes back to horizontal. Immediately, but slowly, bring the ruler directly in
front of your eyes. All of this is done with one deep inhalation.
8.
Then exhale and simultaneously lower the ruler to your lap and release
your upward-pointed toes to their natural position.