Meditative Shaking and Pulsing: Part 4, Moving the Ankles, Knees, and Hips

The following is an excerpt from my book Sunset Tai Chi: Simplified Tai Chi for Relaxation and Longevity. 

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Check out the previous blogs we have done to find the intro to shaking and pulsing, as well as the guide to shaking and pulsing the finger, wrists, elbows, and shoulders.

Ankles

Once you finish with the arms, move to the ankles and try to pulse through the ankles. Pulsing the leg joints will create different sensations. The arms do not bear weight but we do bear weight through the legs, and that totally changes the sensations.

Alignment and weight distribution are the keys to accessing all the ligaments in the ankles. First, we have four major ligaments that we want to create an even stress on between the foot and the bottom part of our leg; two ligaments in the front and two in the back. If you have the weight on the ball of the foot, you will feel the stress on the front ligaments while the back ones will be loose or free of stress. Now if you shift your weight to the heels, you will change the sensations of stress. The heels will now bear the weight that will generate stress on the back ligaments and will loosen the two front ones. If you allow the soles of the feet to collapse sideways, you will lose the alignment and lose the ability to isolate the pulsing in those four ligaments.

Make sure you distribute the weight in the middle of each sole of the foot. Do not collapse inward or push outward. Maintain the alignment, and then enjoy the pulsing, pumping, and shaking to a much higher level. While doing so, you also will be preventing injuries. Alignment of the ankle is very important. Much practice and work in the different postures and movements needs to be done to understand and experience the ankle.

Knees

Next, move into the knees. Make sure you bounce the weight through the knees, right into the floor, and not into the knees. If you do it right, and your weight moves through the knees into the floor, you may be able to vibrate the whole floor of the room. You need wood floors to make this happen. If the weight moves into the knees, you will not be able to create that vibration of the wood floors. Moving weight into the knees is not good for them. The knees are not meant to be weight-bearing joints.

Hips

Then move to the hips. They, like the shoulders, have many strong and different sensations. The reasons are first, both the shoulders and the hips are the biggest joints in our body; second, the hips and the shoulders have the most range of motion in contrast to all the other joints in the body. The three major postures or positions that allow us to sense the various different sensations in the hips are as follows:

First posture: While pulsing and pumping, bring the pelvis forward by tucking in the tailbone.

Second posture: While pulsing and pumping, stick the tailbone back and slightly out. You are coming out of alignment in this posture but in this case it is okay.

Third posture: Once you pulsed and pumped with the pelvis back and in the front, find the middle between the two, dropping the tailbone down but not tucked in like the first posture, and not pushed back like the second.

Of course, again, like the shoulders, each hip joint can be isolated by itself. By shifting all your weight to the left leg, you can isolate the right hip joint or you can direct the pulsing to the left hip joint with the weight on the right leg.

These exercises give you a way to create different sensations in the hips. Over time, you should find and explore other postures that lead to other sensations and new experiences.

Next week, we will give you the how-to for shaking the spine, neck, and jaw.

Happy stretching, deep breathing, empty your mind, strengthen your energetic system, and evoke your spirit!

Meditative Shaking and Pulsing: Part 3, Discovering Yin and Yang Layers in the Shoulders

The following is an excerpt from my book Sunset Tai Chi: Simplified Tai Chi for Relaxation and Longevity. 

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In the previous blog, we began working on the meditative shaking techniques for the fingers, wrists, and elbows. These techniques are all based on the best way to awaken the energetic system and prepare for physical and mental activity. This week, we will tackle the shoulders.

Shoulders

Next, focus on the shoulders. What is the joint above the shoulders? Well we do not have one and that is the reason at this point that we start pumping the feet against the floor. Do this very gently and just find the middle between pulsing and pumping: not too strong a pumping action but not as little as a pulse. By gently pumping up and down against the floor with the legs and the soles of your feet, you will be able to create the desired shaking and isolation of the shoulders. Of course, if you move the shoulders themselves, the movement would be too intense. This gentle bounce moves up through the body and reaches the shoulders, which will move gently up and down. They will just follow the motion from the ground up. To prevent knee problems and to practice the tai chi form, when bouncing and pumping through the legs, make sure that the weight moves through the knees into the floor and not into the knees.

Discovering Yin and Yang Layers in the Shoulders

Here is an example of how to discover the various yin and yang sensations. For the first major sensation, you simply pulse and pump the shoulders. To feel the second and third sensations, you try to tune into a clearer sense of the energy of the shoulders.

The shoulders have three major zones. In each zone, the sensations are different.

• First Posture: Position the thoracic spine a little forward as in the turtle back posture. The shoulders move slightly forward. Pulsing the body in this posture creates one strong sensation, stretching the upper back.
• Second Posture: Position the shoulders in the neutral middle position, straight up and down.
• Third Posture: Thrust the thoracic spine forward, gently bend back and let the shoulders move backward, stretching the chest.

Alternatively, you can isolate one shoulder at a time. Close one side of your ribs and open the other. If you isolate the right shoulder, close the ribs on the right side, open the ribs on the left and allow the arm to hang like a noodle, and bounce on the right leg. This will allow the right shoulder to loosen further. Within each single shoulder focus, you still have the three major areas that change the sensation: back, middle, and forward. Because the shoulders are also connected to your neck, when you pulse or pump the shoulders, if you turn the neck to different directions or hold it in different postures, you will find again that the sensation in the shoulder changes.

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Next week we will practice the pulsing through the ankles, knees, hips, spine, neck, and jaw! 

Happy stretching, deep breathing, empty your mind, strengthen your energetic system, and evoke your spirit!

Meditative Shaking and Pulsing: Part 2, Fingers, Wrists, & Elbows

The following is an excerpt from my book Sunset Tai Chi: Simplified Tai Chi for Relaxation and Longevity. 

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Last week, we introduced you all to meditative shaking. If you haven't read up on that yet, go back and do so! This week, we will go into detail with the first several exercises. This will be especially helpful for anyone who does not easily feel a mind-body connection, particularly when they first begin doing exercise. The tiny details of stretching each body part in all possible angles are only a guide for you to develop your own body awareness. The ultimate goal is to completely loosen every part of the body deeply during this shaking, while maintaining a relaxed meditative mind.

Fingers

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Start with the gentle movements of pulsing and some pumping through the ligaments in the fingers. Remember to loosen the fingers and gently move the wrists. You want to notice the sensation throughout the joints as part of the journey to develop awareness and sensitivity. How do you do that? You put your mind in the fingers while you are moving the wrists. Pay attention to the various sensations throughout the joints.

For example, if I put my mind in the fingers, the first sensation that calls my attention is the thumb because it is the biggest joint. And then when I put my mind in my thumbs, I can feel that my left thumb is looser than my right thumb. This is a significant part of the exercise. Put your mind in the joint, and concentrate on each sensation. Over time, you will even be able to feel the difference between the smallest joints: the pinkies.

Of course, at the same time, you want to take deep breaths through the nose while your mind is focusing in the joints. Remember, you need to be between awake and asleep and in deep relaxation in order to gain even more from this meditation. 

Wrists

Now we move to the next joint, the wrist. To isolate the pulsing or pumping in the wrist, focus on the elbows. If you can integrate more of your skills, put your mind in the lower energy center.

Some joints have more varied movements than others. The wrist has more range of motion than the fingers. When moving the wrist, notice the wide angles and various directions it can move: forward and backward, left to right, up and down, circles, twisting, and rotation. Feel or sense the difference between the right and left wrists, and between forward, backward, and sideways movement.

Elbows

Then we shake the elbows and move the shoulders in order to create the gentle shaking, pulsing, or pumping in them. The elbows only have one major angle of motion, so creating gentle movement through them is simpler than with the fingers and wrists.

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That's all for this week! Come back next week for an in-depth guide to shaking the shoulders, and finding the Yin and Yang layers in the shoulders for this exercise.

Happy stretching, deep breathing, empty your mind, strengthen your energetic system, and evoke your spirit!

Meditative Shaking and Pulsing: Part 1, an Introduction

The following is an excerpt from my book Sunset Tai Chi: Simplified Tai Chi for Relaxation and Longevity. 

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Western exercise starts with warming up by increasing the heart rate to saturate the muscles with blood and oxygen. Therefore, we can say that Western warm-ups focus first on the heart and muscles. On the other hand, Eastern exercise starts by charging and igniting the energetic system and then the rest of the body. You can charge the energetic system in more than one way.

One of the ways to jumpstart the energetic system is by creating a gentle movement in the joints or in the ligaments. This skill of isolating the ligaments and creating movements in them is actually part of our natural day-to-day physical behavior. It happens whenever we use our arms and hands. It is helpful to refine this skill and train our ability to isolate this skill in whatever part of the body we choose. 

In order to achieve this isolation, we need to first understand the various physical motions, and second, be able to put into actions these motions: pulsing, pumping, and shaking. Each of these words is important because each one affects the body and the energy differently, which creates different sensations and experiences.

Pulsing can be created though gentle up and down movements or gentle in and out motions, and with small side to side movements. It is a great way to loosen up. Pumping is a stronger movement than pulsing, although the actions of up and down, in and out, and side to side are similar. Shaking combines side to side first and then some in and out motion with a gentle up and down. All three have a gentle rotation that can be added to each one while they are happening.

You need to understand that each one is different and over time, you will experience the differences as well. This exercise (meditative shaking) will activate your energetic system, remove some stagnation, and can also serve as a good warm-up. Even if you only have five minutes, doing this meditation will go a long way.

When you shake, you may notice that the fingers are tense. This next piece of information is essential for loosening this tension. Move the joint above the one you want to isolate. For example, if you want to loosen the finger joints, shake the wrist, but put your mind on the fingers. Try to isolate this gentle movement in your joints, rather than moving the muscles or tendons. To loosen the wrist, move the elbow. Remember, your jaw is a joint as well. When practiced correctly, you will begin to feel patches of warmth in your joints and some warmth in your internal organs or lower energy center.

Next week, we will give you the how-to for shaking the upper limb joints: fingers, wrists, elbows, and shoulders!

Happy stretching, deep breathing, empty your mind, strengthen your energetic system, and evoke your spirit!

Cooling Down Exercise: Surfing the Breath

From my book, Sunset Tai Chi:

The breath is a tool to achieve our goals and needs. Sometimes we use slow and deep breaths and other times we use fast and shallow ones. We can use the lungs differently according to the different goals we have.

Breathing is the method we use to bring oxygen into our blood stream that nourishes every cell in our body, but the breath is also the banana we use to capture the monkey mind. The breathing in qigong is considered one of the tools to affect our ability to be 'watery' or 'fiery.'

Fast and hard exhalations lead us to be fire, and deep, long, quiet inhalation will lead us to be water. If you do too much of either for too long, you will lose balance, and it can have negative effects on a mental or physical level. But if you know how and when to use this principle, you will be able to benefit tremendously from it and achieve balance in both mind and body.

This first breathing exercise is the simple and safe way to start this journey into the science of breath. It will lead you to the first step of being relaxed or what Dr. Herbert Benson refers to as the relaxation response or what I consider a Buddhist path. But remember, this is just a first step or, as previously mentioned, the relaxation is a doorway to a palace full of other interesting rooms that I consider the Taoist path.

Surfing the breath is the simplest method of achieving deep relaxation. First, close your eyes. Sit in an erect posture with a straight spine. Do not collapse your spine. When the spine is collapsed, surfing the breath will still work on a mental level, but you will not get as much air because the lungs are compressed. Surfing the breath will help you calm the monkey mind. Follow the air through the nostrils down though the windpipe, deep into both lungs, in and out with long, quiet, and peaceful inhalation. Your inhalation and exhalation should be, eventually, equal in length, unless you have other specific goals.

After a few minutes, you will be able to determine which of your nostrils is wider. Our bodies are not symmetrical. One of our nostrils is more open than the other. Move down, with your mind, into the lungs and try to determine which lung is longer and which lung is wider. One lung has three lobes and the other lung has two.

I really enjoy the moment when my students tell me they do not know which lung has three lobes and which has two. Not knowing this fact allows them to experience the air moving into the nostrils and the sensation of air moving into the lungs, and then to determine from the sensation, not from looking at an anatomy book, which lung has the three lobes and which lung has the two.

Sometimes the lung that is wider has the two lobes, which makes some people think that it is the longer lung. This 'wide' sensation that the mind experiences throws them off, and they will swear that one is the lung that has the three lobes. But really it is just a stronger sensation in that lung that confuses them and makes them think that one is the longer lung--feel as opposed to real.

As long as you follow the air in and out of your lungs, that is, surf the breath, you will be able to quiet the mind from excess thoughts. Remember we have, on average, eighteen thoughts per second. Relax, reduce the number of thoughts, and bring the mind to the brain activity level between being awake and asleep.

Until next time, happy stretching, deep breathing, empty your mind, strengthen your energetic system, and evoke your spirit!

Correct Alignment in the Standing Posture

Welcome back, mind-body students!

This week, we continue our discussion of achieving correct alignment with a video about upper body alignment while standing.

I call this technique "Crane Flies." As I show in the video, you can practice this standing against the wall first in order to get a good feel for what the correct alignment of the spine and neck is. Then, when you feel like you have the posture committed to memory, you can step away from the wall and practice while free-standing.

Remember to touch the wall with your heels, sacrum, shoulder blades, and back of the head. Your lumbar spine (lower back above your hips) should not be touching the wall. You should be able to pass your hand between your lower back and the wall.

The great thing about this exercise is that you can feel, as you do the movement, which parts of your back are tightest. That way you can determine what to stretch next to release your skeleton from being a prisoner of soft tissue.

Happy stretching, deep breathing, empty your mind, strengthen your energetic system, and evoke your spirit!