When you study standing meditation postures, you discover many different ways to "organize" the body. One way to feel the body come together is by focusing on the spine. The spine is a major highway for our body's Chi, or natural energies.
One of the first thing new qigong students must learn is how to relax the spine and allow these energies to flow more freely. The spine spends the day, and sometimes even the night, under a great deal of strain. Not only is it the frame upon which the entire body hangs, emotional turmoil or stress can cause the muscles around the spine to contract as well.
The best way to begin this process is to by using standard meditation postures. The following standing meditation posture is designed especially to relax the spine.
- Begin by doing daily standing exercises until you can stand for at least 15 minutes.
- Start out in the basic standing position. At the very least your shoulders should be relaxed, sunken and your feet shoulder width apart. Do not lock your knees.
- Try to feel yourself as a puppet on strings. Your arms, shoulders, legs are all hanging limply on strings and another string comes from the top of your head, keeping it upright.
- Sink down, allowing your weight to be held by the strings, breathing calmly and naturally through your nose. Maintaining this position, and focus, for about five minutes, allow yourself to calm.
- Now mentally move your awareness to the various locations around your body that might be stressed. Beginning at the top of the head, move the attention through the neck, shoulders, down each section of spine, all the way to your feet.
- As you find tense points, simply release the tension by further relaxing the muscles in that location.
- As you work down your body you will come to the dantien, or a few inches below your navel. This home of your Chi and from here the energy paths flow upward and below they flows downward. Eventually, you may feel the energy doing just that, flowing up, passing through the top of your head, and downward, sinking deeply into the earth.
- Repeat this process until you no longer feel any tension in your spine.
There are a number of other standing mediation postures, many designed to address specific parts of the body. Learning these positions will help you target problems before they get out of hand and using them before beginning movement sets will allow you a much easier transition from the fast paced life that you are living to the inner quiet of Tai Chi.
