QUOTE(Livyjr @ Apr 17 2008, 04:19 AM)
You should also learn how to relax your physical body, because this opens all the Qi channels.
THIS IS WHY RELAXATION IS THE FIRST GOAL IN TAIJIQUAN (t'ai chi ch'aun) AND MANY QIGONG EXERCISES.
- From p.117, Qigong Meditation by Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Jun 23 2005, 06:24 AM)
As you sit there, maybe at work, maybe at a traffic light, maybe at your computer right exactly now, flip your attention up to your forehead!
Relax it!
Sense any difference that you can, in the level of tension at the back of your head!
Come to a red light, and when you stop, monitor the grip of your hands on the steering wheel.
If your fingers are embeddded in the plastic, you are gripping it way tighter than needs be!
Relax!
Flex your fingers!
Keeping your fingers clenched, and your forehead tight burns energy, and so, because of that, you have less to operate on than the guy or woman who is more relaxed.
Remember!
Whoever is calmest in any given situation controls the situation!
SO?
Why not be that person, instead of the other one?
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Jun 24 2005, 07:55 AM)
If you are stressed to the max, how much further can you go in that direction?
Or rather, if you are stressed to the max, HOW MUCH FURTHER SHOULD YOU GO, IN THAT DIRECTION?
Or isn't that our choice, at all, because we have no control over OUR lives, and so, are like wood chips on the surface of a swiftly flowing mountain stream, waterfall up ahead ........?
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Jun 27 2005, 12:41 PM)
The journey!
Set your mind on it being a journey, and then, relax in to it.
Don't rush!
What is the sense of rushing, I always wonder?
If you have a moment of your life right in front of you now, and for that moment, you can sink into your own breath, and so, rejuvenate your mind, then why pass that moment by, just to rush into something more, when what you did a moment ago has sapped your energy, and left you low?
Too much yang, and no yin, makes for a very debilitated state, as one progresses through life, especially when under a load of stress, as we all are right now, here in OUR America, and in the world, as well!
Breathe!
Bring the hands up to the chest from the waist, palms up, and simply let breath flow in as the hands rise, and when the hands are at the level of the chest, gently turn them over, and sink them back to the level of the waist, and let the breath simply flow out.
I've been doing it periodically as I sit here at the computer keyboard, and I haven't missed a word or a sentence as I have been doing that simple calming exercise.
As your hands rise and your breath flows in, let it blow your stomach up like a ball, and when your hands sink, and your breath flows out, your stomach pulls in towards the spine.
Match your heartbeat to your hand movements, and your breath to your hand movements, and always, stay very gentle.
EXPERIENCE what is taking place!
DO NOT BE JUDGMENTAL!
Just think yin, and yang, in balance!
See if it is there!
And relax!
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Jun 27 2005, 06:22 PM)
When I got back to here from Viet Nam, I was subject to excruciating headaches that were like an iron band around my head that was being cranked right down tight, and the pain from the wound site at the back of my head would create a pressure that felt like it was going to blow my right eye right out of my head.
It was actually a crippling level of pain, and that is what it was doing to me, crippling me, by twisting me into a curve that was affecting both my right lung and kidney in a very serious way!
And outside of medication, which I would not take, if I could absolutely help it, for awhile, there just was nothing else that I could turn to, or depend on, and so ....
For a stretch, I was going to a chiropractor every day, and that was a trip to nowhere in a hurry, in the chiropractor's own words to me, "You have got to find something that is going to relax your body, otherwise, this is not going to work, since as soon as I straighten you out, your own muscles will just pull you back twisted again, and so, this is not a solution!"
And the key was trying to find a means to control muscles that would go into spasm, seemingly by themselves, although somewhere, there had to be a "triggering" impulse being sent to them, if I could only find it, and then gain some control over it!
And somewhere along the line, in the course of all of this, I got into a "bio-feedback" program at the VA Hospital near to me, and for anyone going through a similar set of circumstances, I cannot recommend "bio-feedback" enough, as it is a very short and direct route to the type of muscle control that you need to fight off headaches and nerve pain without resort to medications, which only mask the pain, but do not do anything at all to "heal" what is causing the pain, or headaches, in the first place.
In "bio-feedback", you are hooked up to a computer via an electrode that is attached to the surface of the skin of your forehead, and this electrode, which is really a type of strain gage, monitors your "tension" level while you are listening to an instructional audiotape that is directing your "attention" to various places in your body, starting with your toes, and as you go along, you can "observe" this dot on the screen that represents your tension level, and after awhile, you can actually "will" that dot to descend right on down the screen, and in the course of that, you have succeeded in reducing tension in the body, especially in the back of the head, and neck and shoulders, that for me, reduced my headaches down to where they no longer really can cripple me, unless I was to just throw off all of the "control" that I have "learned" over the years, to be able to deal with these headaches, naturally, which is to say, without being so doped up that I wouldn't know Saturday from Monday with a calendar open right before me.
And it is these same "bio-feedback" techniques that are really at the heart of this ancient system of t'ai chi and chi gong that I now practice, because the limitation of "bio-feedback" is that it is a "sitting" type of practice, and so, cannot strengthen your muscle control in the same way that the "therapeutic body movements" of t'ai chi and chi gong can!
But, nonetheless, like sitting meditation, in the beginning, if you are just in the initial learning stages, and you are having trouble "punching through the pain" to "make a connection" with yourself, and you can get access to "bio-feedback", give it a try!
The worst that can happen, so far as I know, is that you won't be able to concentrate effectively to make it work, and the beauty of "bio-feedback" is that YOU ARE THE FIRST TO KNOW, since it is your own "bio" that you are trying to connect with, and no one else's, and so, if you have concentration problems, you will know about it, and so, you will then have a "task" that you can pursue further information on, in a systematic way, which is quite important, when you are in chromic pain.
Another thing I would do, at either physical therapy, or the chiropractor's was to have them put a skeleton right in front of me, so I could study what the bones actually looked like in the area that they were working on!
The human body is an incredibly intricate thing, and the more you know about it, the better you can maintain it, and if necessary, heal it as well, and so, reject nothing, out of hand, and consider as much as you can, and do not confine yourself to the study or use of only one system, if several are available to you, instead!
These natural healing and therapeutic body movement systems are "step-wise" in nature, in that many small exercises are available to you, at any given time, and some of these have as their sole purpose to strengthen you, so that you can then move up to a more "complicated" set of movements that have more benefit than the simple exercises, but may not be readily accessible to you, in your "weakened" condition, unless you first strengthen yourself, using the simple exercises as your tools of progress, and that includes "bio-feedback", as one of those tools!
It is like building a cathedral out of nothing but a bunch of small bricks ....
Phases and stages ....
Circles and cycles ....
Around and around we go in here ....
And where we keep coming back to ...
Is SIMPLICITY ....
Uncomplicate your life ...
To uncomplicate your mind ....
And RELAX ....
RELAX deep into yourself right down to your core .....
What do you have to lose, afterall, other than being stressed out to the max?
And so ...
