Assuming you know the standard relaxation exercise(s): ie. Find a comfortable
position, close your eyes, relax, breathe slowly, count... etc. yaddah
yaddah What ever makes you relax.
Chigong is done in a “dream like state” some where between consciousness
and dreaming. (But you probably already knew that ;-))
There are a few exercises that I can think of, and I’ll give more detail
if people want it. I’ll start with the first one I learned.
Usually the posture for chigong is to stand with your feet shoulder
width apart, knees slightly bend, back straight, but relaxed, head tilted
slightly so the top part faces the sky.
The first exercise we learned was to stand with our arms dangling out
in about a 45 degree angle in front of us, armpits open, in other words
bring your arms out so that your arms aren’t close to your armpits (I guess
maybe that closes off the energy? Stiffles it) Palms facing your
body and arms, wrists and fingers relaxed and limp.
Move your body around gently anyway you want to relax yourself.
This is called “spontaneous chigong”. Move slowly, but not so slowly
that it makes you tense. Just relax and do what’s comfortable.
If standing is difficult you can sit on a chair to do these exercises.
Please keep in mind that any exercise can be altered, image and body
wise, to fit your own style and needs. You can even develop your
own techniques. There is no right or wrong, that is as long as you
are using it only for good purposes and not to hurt others (obviously)
Energy Circulation:
As you breathe out imagine warm water flowing down the front of your
body (I used to only imagine my skin, but now I imagine the whole inner
front of my body)
Imagine that the warm water carries away all the negative energy, which
you might picture as dirt, or some other image if you please, and carrying
it out of your body into the ground, which converts it to good energy (kind
of like compost, or the way plants use CO2)
[some people in other practices make use of a waterfall image in their
practice and simply imagine the water cleansing them. I like the idea of
warm water though]
As you breathe in imagine hot steam (not too hot ;-)) coming up the
back part of your body.
And so on, cycle the energy through your body this way for how ever
long you choose.
[this is similar to the popular exercise where people imagine they
are a tree, with their roots growing deep into the ground taking nourishment
up through their roots to their body and imagining that tall branches are
growing out of their arms and head into the sky and collecting energy from
the sky and so on back and forth. There are many similarity is systems.
One might even draw a similarity with charasmatic christians lifting their
hands to the heavens to collect energy, which they perceive of as “God”
and other’s may think of as the universe... just a thought.]
MORE CHIGONG:
Okay, now I’m inspired to share a chigong exercise that I made up.
It’s really quick, that’s the point. By the time I’ve explained it
you’ll say “That’s all?! Where’s the rest of it”... okay, here goes (gosh
I’ve got butterflies in my stomach out here all by myself on this virtual
stage... okay I’ll get right to it)
After you have meditate, calmed yourself, breathed deeply, cleansed
your energy... or whatever it is that you do (see previous posts for the
exercise to cleanse your energy... ie. imagine a waterfall washing all
negative energy out of you, or imagine the white light, or imagine your
energy body growing huge and grabbing the energy/light from the sun, moon
and stars/university and pulling it into your body, and through your body,
allowing it to push all the bad energy out and into the ground.)
OKAY, Ready? Here is my exercise. It is a “take-off” on
cleansing energy from yourself and others useful If you often forget or
are really busy.
I call it the Earth Vacuum cleaner:
Imagine that the earth is a giant vacuum cleaner that sucks up all
the negative energy in you, loved ones, co-workers, your house, your neighborhood,
the world. This is sort of an automatic thing and you have it always
on. Bad energy can not be held because the Earth Vacuum sucks it
up right out of us and others, out of our hands, minds, hearts, lives.
Imagine that the vaccum sucks up all the negative energy, not all the
energy, as if it had a switch that said “negative energy” switched on.
Imagine it however it is best for you and most effective.
Well, that’s it! Easy enough for you?
What do you all think. Yes, I know that some people resist healing
and letting go of bad energy and it might even be a bit controversial to
do this for someone without their permission, granted, but I don’t find
a problem with it. I sometimes try the traditional chigong exercise
of combing the bad energy out of a person, but I find that they sometimes
hold on to it and I’ll also afraid that like a magnet or a straw I will
end up unconsciously “sucking up” their bad energy, which I sort of learned
from the nuns in catholic school... a long story.
Sometimes I try to put positive energy into people and sometimes it
is like they have this hard shell around them. I’ve found that if
I make a tiny pin prick hole in the top, and probably now that I think
of it the bottom, I can gently filter positive energy into them through
the pin prick and the bad energy can escape also. At first you might
feel a little anger, so be gentle, cautious and smart. Back off a
little. I find that if I am slow and gentle rather than abrupt and
pushy about it, the energy is allowed in and even appreciated.
The earth vacuum is good because it sucks up bad energy, without a person or emotion involved. A vacuum is not “aggressive” per sae, but it gets the job done and even after trying to hold on to bad energy for awhile, with the constant little pull, eventually a person gets tired and lets go of it and it gets sucked up. Other bad energy gets sucked up before it can even take hold.
Like the straw concept, we often hold bad energy, like you can hold liquid in a straw by sucking or being tense. We Hold this energy, sometimes even tightly, without even realizing it. Imagine you are a straw and you stop sucking the bad into or keeping it in you. Just let go. What happens? The liquid flows right out of the straw... gravity takes the bad energy right away, it falls because nothing’s holding it from the earth’s sucking vaccuum. It’s not difficult or something that has to be forced.
For a personal touch, I also combine chigong teachings with my own ideas to create another concept. You can still use the vaccuum cleaner approach and you can use “vaccuum attachments” to get at specific places if you want, like the brain, head, heart, etc...(but that wasn’t what I was going to say, I digress) For a personal touch, you can imagine energy bodies, angels, or spirit guides... what ever you can imagine easiest and most effectively, around yourself, or someone you love or someone who is sick. Imagine 2 even. Imagine that these chigong masters, or high level spirit guides, or powerful angels are doing chigong, or reiki, or whatever type of healing you choose on the loved one and that they are always with them and always pulling the bad energy, pain, etc. gently out of the person and continually putting good pure healing energy from the universe and earth, and God, or where ever you can easiest believe the most powerful gentle healing energy could come from, inside the person and cycling it around, making them healthy and whole.
TREE, FLOWER AND ANIMAL ENERGY
This is a very simple exercise that came to me after I was eating
lunch outside. I thought how good the trees, flowers, fresh air and
animals/birds made me feel. I thought, wouldn't it be cool to work
outside. Wouldn't it be cool to bring all this great energy inside
the office. So here it is, just image the trees, flowers, chipmunks,
birds, fresh air, etc. coming into your building where you work.
Image the feeling that you have when you are outside coming into the place
where you work and making the people you work with smile and breathe easier
and be more relaxed. Image and "see" the trees and flowers within
the building, blowing in the cool breeze, the sun energy warming our hearts,
the chipmunks and squirrels scurring around making us laugh and smile,
the little birds chirping and filling our ears with their delightful sounds.
That's it! Told you it was Simple.
One last note: At any rate, in chigong, as in other healing, just as
you should always use only the universe’s and earth’s energy to heal, Not
your own, which can get Depleted Easily, you should also not try and take
the negative energy into yourself, as to the earth it is like compost,
the earth changes the energy and transmutes it into something good.
If the negative energy is taken into us,... well, we may or may not be
able to transmute it. Who wants to take that chance.