Zen Mindfulness - Sei Ki HeartTouch - Tai Chi Qi Gong

As such it is ideal for people experiencing stress and for those with anxiety difficulties. As described in the video, you can adapt the practice, with your hands either on the body near your stomach if you need a more inward nurturing session or out in front at shoulder height for a more powerful qi gong experience which helps release tensions in the neck and shoulders and front of the chest.

This is a practice to do regularly, ideally daily. You are training your body to connect with the ground more deeply and as this becomes second nature, you become able to do it naturally all the time without effort.

You can take this practice out into daily life with you: in the street, office, shopping. You move naturally, not artificially slow, but maintain awareness of how your feet connect with the ground under you and how your abdominal centre is. From this 'embodied' state you look out into the world. less...

Each circle is composed of two halves, an activating half (yang) using as the body rises up, and a relaxing half (yin) as you sink back down. There is a conscious moment of pause and change in between the two halves.

All the time you are moving, rest your attention on the area circulating, so explore the joint and the muscles around it, but also allow your peripheral awareness to rest in the body feeling how it is being touched by the movement.

Once you are familiar with the sequence, it can be done quickly, like a mindful shower, briskly repeating each exercises 3 times, or it can be done for longer where you repeat movements as many times as your body wants.

There is no need to do anything else. This can be a complete and satisfying Qi Gong practice in its own right. less...

It works well to clear energy blockages from the body and is a good foundation before moving on to other practices.

At the same time, this is a great way to learn about 'peng energy', the energy that expands like a filling balloon from a practitioners feet. This is the energy we make use of in Tai Chi to power the body and our first experience of connecting with it, is to allow it to bring the hands upward and outward to find the edges of our energy bubble.

Again this is a practice to work with every day, at least for a while and then afterward it features at the beginning of your Tai Chi form. The more you practice, the easier it is to connect with the 'feeling'.

At the beginning you feel it in your hands perhaps, later it comes through more and more of the body like a streaming flow of aliveness. You turn your attention to your hands, let go through the body, 'going empty' and it starts. less...

At the beginning of any Tai Chi form you have an opening sequence which starts the pendulum swinging and from then on it continues to 'swing', accelerating a little as it moves through towards the middle of the movement, decelarating as it approaches the end of the movement to a standstill, ready to come back towards the next movement.

The second principle we will explore is whole body movement i.e. the body moves as one unit, so when any part moves, the whole body moves with it. Movement begins with either the feet or the waist and goes out towards the fingers.

Wave Hands Like Clouds for me is where Tai Chi begins: with two simple circles. From here we can adjust the sync of the circles and mix together different circles or part circles to form all of the movements of Tai Chi.

Again this is a practice to work with every day, at least for a while. The more you practice, the easier it is to connect with the 'feeling'. This is a superb exercise for the spine. less...

I also like to add the option of walking movement with the practice.

The practice is superbly healthy for us to do. Perhaps it is the deepest practice I am sharing in this sequence as it works to help you build a relationship between the conscious / intentional mind and the unconscious hara / body mind.

As we deepen this relationship between the two minds, we grow as human beings and many of the psychological and psychosomatic difficulties which haunt us may reduce and disappear even.

At the beginning it may seem difficult to let go and just allow the movement to happen, although in my experience in 'physical classes' I have only met a few people who couldn't let go at all.

If you are one of these people don't worry about it! What it means is you need to be more patient, perhaps exploring Wave Hands Like Clouds form based movement more first but quietly be open to any urges to break out of the pattern and move in a free way.

Relax and enjoy the journey... less...