Focus: Winter Solstice & the Tai Chi Symbol

Greetings on Winter Solstice:

We often talk about the Tai Chi symbol representing the balance between Yin and Yang energy.  This balance occurs in our bodies with energy from the earth (yin) in our lower Dan Tian and energy from the heavens or universe (yang) in our upper Dan Tian.  And then the two mixing in our heart center.  

This symbol is universal, it represents the mix of energy in our universe, the duality that we live and exist in.  The symbol even represents the different seasons that we experience throughout the cycle of the year.

We are currently approaching the Winter Solstice on December 22nd, 2014.  At this point we will have the strongest force of Yin energy surrounding us.   If you look at the diagram of the Yin/Yang symbol (Tai Chi) you will notice this is the point of the most black on the symbol.  At Winter Solstice, we begin to bring Yang energy back into our universe a little more each day, until we reach Summer Solstice at which point there is the strongest level of Yang energy.  This cycle is seen in nature and in our bodies.  The seasons are also represented in the cardinal directions on earth, in the northern hemisphere they are as follows:

North = winter, night, passing, seed, re-design, courage, water

East = spring, morning, birth, sprout, invent, clarity, wood

South = summer, noon, growth, leaf-bloom, build, joy, fire

West = autumn, evening, maturity, fruit harvest, market, caring, metal

Center = present moment, concentration, earth

Focus: Gratitude

Inner Smile

As we approach Thanksgiving, I find myself drawn into a practice of gratitude with my Tai Chi and Qigong. The universe had given me many blessings, but one of the greatest had been the opportunity to share the healing practices of Qigong and Tai Chi.

One of my favorite gratitude practices is the Inner Smile. It is a meditation that can be done seated, standing or with movements that resonate with you.  Michael Winn shared this with me at a summer retreat. After connecting with heaven and earth using the three intentions, think about something in your life that you are truly grateful for - past or present. Feel the beautiful warmth from that feeling of gratitude and notice the gentle smile that emerges; that is the Inner Smile. Then, begin to move that sensation of the Inner Smile around your body. I like to begin with the organs. As you come to an organ, imagine smiling at the organ, accepting it as it is, thanking it for it's service to your body, and imagine the smile embracing it like a hug. Then, you can move on to another organ, you can thank anything is your body - bones, skin, eyes, voice, etc. . Just have fun embracing yourself with the gratitude of the Inner Smile.

I want to thank all my students and facilities that participate in Qigong and Tai Chi with me. I am so grateful for your support that allows me to share these wonderful practices.

Have a wonderful holiday season filed with gratitude.

Namate,

Leslie

Focus: Move Like You Love Yourself

Eat....... Like You Love Yourself

Move... Like You Love Yourself

Speak...Like You Love Yourself

Act.......Like You Love Yourself

A friend of mine shared this beautiful mantra with me this week.  I have embraced it in my daily Qigong practice and wanted to share it with you.  Our practice of Qigong is just not when we set aside time to do a set of movements, it is in each breath we take, each movement we make, the words we speak, what foods we choose to nourish our body with, and how we act and respond to events in our daily practice.

So I welcome you to embrace your Qigong practice during every moment of the day. Let's all begin with a mindful breath and then make the choices that honor ourselves and those around us.  Let your light shine and the chi flow!

Focus: Qi Break

Over the past year, I have been presenting the Qi Break to several groups and I am always pleased to hear feedback on how useful this simple practice can be.  So let's enjoy a Qi Break together.  It takes only a few minutes and you can do all  four practices or just a piece of the Qi Break.

Blithering:  I prefer to stand up, but you can also be seated.  As you take a big inhale, lift your arms overhead and as you exhale let out a baaaa sound as you imagine you are a tree trying to shake off your leaves, let your arms and body shake until your arms are along your sides.  I like to do it three times, you can make any noise that you like. On the last one, continue to move your entire body, while you visualize opening all of your joints, releasing any tension they may hold.  This movement is also called spontaneous Qigong. When you stop moving, just notice any sensations that you might feel.

Three Intentions:

• Posture.  If you are seated, slide forward in your chair, allowing your spine to lengthen up long; like someone has a string attached to the top of your skull and they are gently lifting upward to create space between each vertebrae.  Find your feet about hip width apart and let them be rooted into the earth.   If you are standing, feel the same sensation of space between the vertebrae as the crown of your head reaches toward the sky.  Feel your feet routed to the earth hip width apart.  Relax your fingers and let your arms softly float off your shoulders. Release any tension in your jaw.

• Breath.  Begin by just noticing your breath and then start to invite the breath to come deep in the lungs, allowing the diaphragm to move downward letting the belly expand like a balloon as you inhale and let it gently release as you exhale.  Sometimes, it helps to bring awareness to the belly breath by placing a hand on your belly and noticing the rise and fall with each inhalation and exhalation.

• Present Moment.  Allow yourself to be in the present moment.  You can bring your awareness inside, just noticing what you feel in your body or your can look around you just noticing what you see.  Letting go of judgement and just noticing.

Flowing Posture: Remain in your wonderful posture from the three intentions. If seated, as you inhale, lift your heels up; as you exhale, lift your toes up. Rocking your feet with the breath.  If you are standing, as you inhale, shift your weight toward the balls of your feet.  As you exhale, shift your weight back towards your heels.  Then, seated or standing you can add your arms. Allowing your arms to float up with each inhalation (palms facing the sky) and with the exhalation, letting them float down (palms facing the earth). The movement of the arms can be small or big, just listening to your body and seeing what it needs at the moment. Flowing posture helps to stimulate the flow of lymphatic fluid throughout our body; so you can imaging vitality traveling to each cell in your body as your practice this movement - enjoying the movement with the breath.

Heart Centered Breathing: Coming back to the belly breathing in the three intentions.  Place a hand on your belly and just notice the belly breath.  Noticing the pace of the breath, the softness of the breath and giving gratitude to your lungs for all the work they do without us ever asking them to breath - bringing in vital oxygen to nourish our cells and releasing toxins that your body no longer needs.  Then, place the other hand in your heart area and listen for the beat of the heart, noticing the pace and giving the same type of gratitude to our heart.  Then, bringing your awareness to the differences in the pace of the heart and the lungs and giving gratitude to the two of them for working together to nourish and cleanse our bodies.  Maybe even smiling at them.

I hope you enjoy this practice!  Namaste.

Focus: Opening the Joints

Take a moment and explore the range of motion of all the joints in your body.  As you move through the joints explore a sensation of softness and openness.  I like to imagine that I am in a pool of water and the water is supporting all my joints.  As I move each joint I imagine it being supported by the water.  You can begin with your fingers, add your wrists, your elbows, shoulders, spine, waist, hips, knees, ankles all the way down to your toes. You may find it easier to be seated when you do you ankles and toes.   This is a great form of spontaneous Qigong - make it a beautiful and fun dance.

Then, you can transition into the rest of your practice feeling this wonderful openness of the joints.  As you move focusing on releasing any tension that you find in any of your joints. Imagine the energy in your body flowing through your joints.  You can continue this practice in your daily life.  Find time each day to just take a moment and explore the openness of your joints; maybe even smiling while you do it - giving gratitude for your flexibility.

Bruce Lee has a beautiful quote:

 “Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.” 

Focus: Talk Doesn't Cook the Rice

Hello to everyone from Mars Hill, NC. I am on the last day of my Qigong retreat. Our teacher Michael Winn has a great saying, 'Talking won't cook the rice.' The  Chinese character for Qi is a grain of rice in a pot and as it cooks, it emits steam or qi. So to create the qi, we need to practice. So this week I invite you to be playful in your practice. Beginning with the three Intentions (posture, breath, and focus), ask your body what it needs and then make that your practice,  remembering that you have a large basket of practices to choose from (self massage, breathwork, movement and meditation). As you flow through your practice,  listen inward to decide when your body needs something else. Going inward and letting your body guude your practice will cook the rice slowly, generating lots of steam or qi. 

Focus: Smile, Breath and Go Slowly

I recently attended a class taught by Roger Jahnke, author of the ‘Healer Within.’  Whenever I practice with Roger, I am always reminded of the beauty of going slowly and just focusing on the deep breath.  Allowing the breath to continue to slow down as the practice develops.  

As you practice this week, experiment with going slowly.  Let go of any focus on what the next movement is and allow the breath to deepen.  As your breath slows down and your focus goes inward you will find that your practice deepens. Here are some ideas of breath practices: 

•  Beginning with focusing on our posture.  The lengthening of the spine allows for more expansion of the lungs.
•   Xi, Xi, Hu breathing, this practice is a two part inhalation with a long one part exhalation. Try to make the exhalation as long as the two inhalations combined.
•  Adding a pause.  If it is comfortable for you, you can add a pause at the end of the inhalation and the end of the exhalation.  Always noticing what feels comfortable with your body and staying in the comfort zone.
•  Expanding breath.  As you inhale imagine the breath expanding the lungs as you exhale imagine releasing from that area ‘ letting go.’ Then, with each breath imagine that the breath expands past the lungs, eventually, the breath expanding out to every cell in the body and then releasing whatever you need to let go of.
•  Gratitude breath.  As you breath, focus on an organ within your body.  Beginning with appreciation for what that organ does, without us ever asking it to perform a function.  Let that feeling of appreciation grow into gratitude and a smile.  Imagine actually smiling at the organ with gratitude as you focus on your breath. 

Smile, breathe and go slowly. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Focus: Your Practice in Comfort

In the infinity of life where I am,
all is perfect, whole, and complete.
I recognize my body as a good friend.
Each cell in my body has divine intelligence.
I listen to what it tells me, and know that its advise is valid.
I am always safe and Divinely protected and guided.
I chose to be healthy and free.
All is well in my world.
             ~Louise L. Hay 'You Can Heal Your Life'

I love this quote: 'Each cell in my body has divine intelligence. I listen to what it tells me, and know that its advise is valid.'  This is the key to our practice. Listening to the body and finding the right range of motion for our practice each day.  It doesn't matter how large or small our movements are, how large or small our steps or stance are; what matters is listening and staying in a comfortable range of movement for our bodies today.

I often times see people holding stress and tension in their shoulders; sometimes from just stress, sometimes from an injury.  When we find tension or pain in a joint or part of our body, we need to focus our practice on releasing this tension.  I find the following guidelines useful in doing this:

• Mindfully move our body and notice sensations of discomfort
• Explore where can we move to to avoid discomfort and enjoy this freedom
• Focus on these areas - expanding the area on the inhalation and releasing on the exhalation
• Focus on releasing the areas above and below our point of  tension (for example if the shoulders are tense; think about releasing the neck and relaxing the elbows as you enjoy your practice)
• If we can't find comfort in a movements, modify it or skip it.

Then, throughout the day, use your breath to take your awareness to the areas of your body that you are working with and go through the same steps above as your enjoy a few moments of mindful movement and breathing.  Our body knows how to heal itself, we just need to listen and honor what we hear.

Focus: Releasing Stagnant Qi

In Roger Jahnke's book 'The Healing Promise of Qi,' he discusses the three states of Qi - deficient, stagnant, and harmonious.  It is believed that much pain and many illnesses are caused by stagnant Qi.   Some of the signs of stagnant Qi are:

• stress, tension
• pain - joints, back neck, head
• digestive and bowel problems
• sickness and disease
• lung disorders
• allergies
• frustration and violence
• sexual and menstrual difficulties

So how can we release stagnant Qi in our practice?

Let us begin with a great way to start our practice - Spontaneous Qigong, just listen into the body and move, shake, dance and then stop and listen.  What is tense, what needs to be released? Then repeat. When, we stop, let's notice the sensation of the Qi moving in our bodies.

Another practice to release stagnant Qi is ocean breathing.  As we inhale, feeling the breath expand into every cell of the body; as we exhale allowing stagnant qi to release from our entire body. We can let our arms open to the sides as we inhale and let them come back to our sides as we exhale.  Experiencing the sensation of expansion and contraction (or release) with each breath.  Then, we can carry this focus of expansion and release throughout our entire practice.

If we have areas of tension that we find in our practice, we can focus on expansion of that area and then relaxing that area with each breath.  Always staying within our comfortable range of motion with our movements, giving our body permission to release tension and stagnation when it is ready to.

Another Qigong movement that focuses on releasing is Gather and Release, part of the Seven Precious Gestures.  This spiritual  movement involves gathering from one side of our body (as we are inhaling); looking at what precious thing we have gathered as is comes in front of us and then as the hands move to the other side, releasing whatever we have gathered (as we are exhaling). 'Letting it go.' Gathering again and then bringing our hands to the other side to release. As our hands cross in front of use we can focus on gratitude, forgiveness, and appreciation, giving our heart the tools it needs to let it go as we release.   This is a wonderful practice for release stagnant thoughts that no longer serve us.

Our breath is another beautiful vehicle for releasing stagnant Qi.  We can also play with Xi, Xi, Hu walking or Warriors Breath.

So enjoying our practice this week, as we focus on finding and releasing stagnant qi; letting go of what no longer serves us.  Just explore and have fun!

'There is a backpack in the mind which over the years has become filled with rocks and stones.  You do not have to carry them anymore.  You can empty your pack and carry only compassion from one day to the next.'          ~  The Sage's Tao Te Ching by William Martin

Focus: Igniting the Healer Within

'Igniting the Healer Within' is a term used by my teacher Roger Jahnke and is the basis of his book ‘The Healer Within.’ So how do we ignite the natural healing capabilities of our body?  It is so simple; gentle movement while inviting deep breathing and alignment of our spine brings us into a meditative state; and then, self- massage.  The four highlighted words are the key components of a healing practice. Does this sound like our Qigong and Tai Chi practice? 

So this week, I invite you to begin exploring the natural ‘healer within,’ by allowing yourself to visit the four elements above in your practice.  But this week, beginning with a few meditative minutes of our three intentions (posture, breath and focus – present moment) focusing on our body and what it needs today.  Then, allowing yourself permission to keep that awareness inward and make your practice be what your body is asking for today – doing what feels right and just noticing what you feel.  Making your practice your own – what your body needs today.  Then, afterward, enjoying a self-massage giving gratitude to your wonderful natural healer within.

‘The cells of our body know their jobs.  We, as living human beings, set our ideals and work toward the manifestation of the fruits of our spirit and our cells know what to do.’ ~Gladys McGarey.

Focus: Connecting to the Earth

'The Earth has music for those who listen' ~ George Santayana

 

Take some time this week exploring your connection to the Earth. In our practice we begin with our three intentions. The first one being aligning and lenghtening our spine between heaven and earth. As we connect with earth, let's bring our awareness to the bottom of our feet, feeling how they caress the ground below us. Noticing how our weight shifts as we flow through our movements, feeling the sensation of the Earth below us.

 

Consider a meditative walk just feeling the Earth below your feet, maybe even barefoot. Let your feet roll with each step softly embracing the ground beneath you. Feeling the sensations of each step as we try to softly place each step with respect for the earth.  As you walk, looking around you and appreciating all the beautiful plants and trees being nourished by the Earth. Giving gratitue for the Earth and maybe even listening to it's music. 

Focus: Perfection

The focus this week is about letting go of perfection.   Just for today, try to move through your practice letting go of judgement; letting go of 'am I doing this right?' and just enjoy the flow of the movements.  Remembering that the perfect way to practice is to honor your body and let it guide you to the right range of motion for today and that there is no exact way to do the movements.  Just 'Let it Go' and enjoy the flow of your practice.

William Martin in 'The Sage's Tao Te Ching,' says it with perfection:

'The time comes when we realize
that the ducks will never be in a row.
It is the nature of ducks to fly about.
The house will never be perfectly clean.
It is the nature of a house to accommodate clutter.
The project will never be done just right.
It is the nature of projects to evolve into other projects.
The future will never be perfectly secure.
It is the nature of life to be unpredictable.

Sit still and watch for a moment.
Perfection will be built
from all that is imperfect.

World Tai Chi Day 2014

Come and join us at the Franciscan Renewal Center for a morning of Tai Chi and Qigong on Saturday,  April 26th beginning at 9:30am. This worldwide event celebrates these amazing practices that are shared in so many countries and cultures.  Several instructors from the valley will be leading the group in a variety of Tai Chi and Qigong forms.