Mindfulness of movement

You might have seen the clip of Jean-Claude Van Damme on TV with his "awareness" spiel, although it was in French (this one has something, but I couldn't find the original). Very funny, but not totally unaware of 'reality', as a Buddhist might put it. Being a practising Buddhist, I have some time for this idea of 'awareness', except they call it 'mindfulness'. Same thing. Being aware of what is going on, right now, right here. The Vipassana tradition, and quite specifically the teaching of Ajahn Chah and his 'descendants', puts great emphasis on this - indeed, it is really the goal of the practice of meditation - you start by doing 'simple' practice such as 'mindfulness of breathing', but really the idea is to be mindful ... period.
Try applying this to Tai Chi Chuan then ... not very easy, but also transparent. If you are distracted when you're in the ring / octagon / cage / thingy ... then you are very likely to get woken up, or put to sleep. Gotta concentrate, that's why the adrenalin is there. On the other extreme, we have hand forms and internal strength exercises - the slowness of these practices is conducive to mindfulness, and to distraction. Happens all the time, right? You're there repeating that oft-repeated sequence and your body knows what to do, so you let it do the exercise and your mind dwells on whatever. That is not being mindful, and is not good practice. I like to tell students that part of Tai Chi Chuan practice is engaging in a sort of dialogue with your body. You need to be listening then - you need to be mindful, aware, of what your body is telling you.
Are the feet pointing in the right direction? Is the weight correctly distributed? Is your intention in the movement (or thinking about dinner)?
Be aware, talk with your movement. Be 'mindful of tai chi chuan'.