As you explore layers of relaxation through standing qigong, you'll hit a point where everything starts to feel fluid, as if you've dug down deep enough to find a rich aquifer, filled with nourishing water.

We describe the experience with words like "sinking" and "soaking" the mind into the body, and that's literally what's happening. Remember the qigong expression, "your mind moves your chi and your chi moves your blood"? When they say "blood", they mean all the fluids in the body. When you truly start to fuse your mind and your body, your insides start to feel more wet, fluid, and connected.

In the last lesson on standing qigong, we worked on enlivening each section of your body, bringing awareness and increased sensation to each new place, from head to toe, with ten minutes of softening. Now we want to move even deeper into the body and explore how you can completely refresh your system by sinking your chi.

Check out this guided practice session (download the mp3 below). In this 20-minute scan, you'll start the process of sinking your chi by letting your mind soak into your body at each height. As you go longer now, you will begin to recognize deeper relaxation patterns and find natural resolution of holding patterns in the body, without mental force:

Sinking 20-Minute Practice Mp3 (right click to save)