Simple Chi Kung_ Exercises for Awakening the Life-Force Energy - Mantak Chia [24]
Centering (earth element): Centering implies both a principle of movement for the body and an emotional feeling of being connected inwardly. This principle is connected to the earth element because it is a stabilizing force and cultivates a sense of feeling grounded. When you are centered mentally and emotionally, you don’t feel pulled off by other people, situations, or events. There is a sense of inner balance. During Chi Kung practice, moving from your center—your lower tan tien or abdominal area—moves power and energy through your whole body.
Energy (metal element): The metal element is the element of the lungs. Chi Kung uses the breath as a way to improve, cultivate, and transform energy in the body. Chi Kung movements are synchronized with the breath as a way to relax the body, strengthen the tendons, create flow, and balance energy. Chi is energy and the movements of Chi Kung are ways to cultivate this life force.
The ultimate goal of practicing Chi Kung exercises is to become soft, supple, strong, responsive, full of vital life force, and pure like a child. Although these exercises are surprisingly simple to perform, they are sophisticated and effective in reestablishing the harmony we have lost between ourselves, nature, and the universe.
STRETCHING
Nearly everyone stretches, whether they realize it or not. Why? It feels good. What do you do if you’ve been sitting a long time? Stand up and stretch. It’s natural. What do you do after a long drive in the car? Right, stretch. It balances the body. We do many stretches during the day, and this natural movement is what the Chi Kung practitioner seeks to exploit. As your knowledge of stretching expands, your body feels better and better. The right stretches at the right time can make all the difference between being in pain and feeling really good in your body.
However, we also all move in repetitive ways, or stay in static postures for too long, whether they’re dictated by our work, home life, or just being inactive. Sitting is one of the most common forms of repetitive motion. We sit as we drive to work, sit all day at work, sit driving home, sit for dinner, and then sit watching TV after dinner—the typical Western day. This creates stagnation in our muscles, poor circulation, and a fatigued energy system.
We avoid certain movements too, because of habit, laziness, structural imbalances in our bodies, or simple ignorance of proper exercise. Chi Kung teaches basic stretches and exercises to compensate for these problems. Initially some of the techniques may seem quite odd or foreign, but this is because they are taking you beyond habitual movement.
Stretching will help your joints and your muscles and will physically stimulate the meridians along which chi flows. When the muscles get tight and tense, the tension impedes circulation, creating stagnation in the body’s energy system. Anything in nature that is full of youthful life force is supple. A tree that is healthy is resilient; if you bend a branch down, it springs back. But if the tree is old or stiff, the branch breaks when you pull it. This same idea applies to our bodies; if we want to cultivate youthful vitality, becoming supple and flexible is a necessity. As the Taoist sage Lao-tzu says in the Tao Te Ching, “Those that are supple are disciples of life. Those that are brittle are disciples of death.”
The goal of all physical practice is to guide and harmonize chi. “Guiding” chi means controlling it, strengthening it, increasing or decreasing it. “Harmonizing” chi refers to freeing it, opening up the energy in the body, learning to feel it, regulate it, and open the meridian channels so it can flow more smoothly.
BREATH—THE BRIDGE BETWEEN YOUR MIND AND BODY
The benefits of working with the breath are profound. The way you breathe directly influences the quality of your life. In fact, the way you breathe might be the most important factor in how you feel.
Think about how people breathe when they are sad