Birch

I'd say half the battle is won already. You're in a position to start changing all the stuff you want to. Ttb's is a great ressource but I'd say it would be worth getting some individual attention if there's a lot of stuff to deal with all at once. Hundun. Yep, I reckon he'd be a guy to sound out. Also check out what's available to you locally. All I know about various substances is that I probably got away with a lot more when I was younger;-) Doesn't seem to fit with me now either physically or otherwise. Gerard is an ex body-builder I think. I reckon he knows a lot about what that does and how to stay healthy if you're considering doing less. Panic attacks are a sucker but here's where the breathing techniques in that other thread would help. Another good TTB for help is Clarity. Wishing you well!

I took my breathing from very high in my chest and relatively fast inhale/exhale and put it lower (abdominal) and slower. Nothing strenuous on the ribs. No reverse breathing. I do wonder about upper chest stability/strength since I dropped my breathing down. Not that it will show up right away. So I reckon I should go do something about that. I occasionally 'body breathe' or slow all the way down until it's imperceptible. Tends to go with meditation. That just seems to happen itself. There's a funny tickle that curls under the chest when it's slowed all the way down. If you slow way further down then an interesting idea about the act of breathing and life energy comes to mind. Joe Blast would be the breathing goto guy here I think. I don't know what the other yogic techniques are for. Dwai, what are they for?

Eastern European, moved west. You're assimilated. Enjoy!

Ok! If i have any more they will be on the bone-healing thread.

Hmm, now I'm not sure i explained properly because your answers don't correspond to my questions/ponderings. Plus you put numbers on them. I don't think that's a good idea because I didn't put numbers on them. Anyway. I had yet another experience of 'belief' having little to do with what works in qi-gong today. I'm sure there are lots of technical/physical relationships between breath,mind,emotions,health,actions etc. To get to a place of understanding such IMO/IME you have to be a practitioner. OR, you can listen to practitioners and figure out from what they're saying whether there is a pattern or patterns going on.

Most people are quite at home with being someone they're not (quote following inspired conversation with another TtB). The human/animal distinction is a strange one. Read up more on elephant funerals and laughing dogs:-) Are you looking for a symbolic animal? You could always just pick one. But if you want one that represents something beyond your conscious mind, then I'm sure 'anything' that gets the latter out of the way will help. I don't think sitting indoors helps. Maybe there are more precise techniques. I'd be into hearing about them

Poor old Apech in that terrible sunny colony;-) You must be missing a bit of the old banter matey:-)

i say it as "you-essians". But like I said, they don't like it. The other Americans prefer to be called by the name of their country (or tribe if aborginal) so I think it's mainly used to be snarky about some Americans. Not all of them by any means. There's also a more critical aspect to it but I won't get into it here. It really is pretty derogatory.

Mucho gusto! Yeah, the synchronicities:-) Interesting stuff!

Hmm, I though the 'gong' or 'kung' in 'qi-gong' or 'chi-kung' was both the action and the result. Sort of like hard-work both requires energy and intent and (probably a bunch of other stuff) produces AND produces results. There's this silly old zen story (I think) that for each moment you are acting without concern for or stemming from 'ego' then you are enlightened. I like to think of gongs that way. I think the impulse to practice might come from a belief or a desire or a way to change something, but seriously, how long is it before your initial impluse or desire gives way? And what does it give way to? I could say 'without qi-gong I would be in a lesser state, if I didn't breathe well, well I've shortened my life and the quality of my life'. But here's the weird part. As far as I know, no practitioner of qi-gong was saying that to themselves to begin with. ' Oh hey, I realise I'm breathing like shit and it will likely shorten my life".

Ah yes, not to be confabulated with the "There's no Russian word for 'freedom'" thing. Meh, personally, I've found the USAians (did you know they hate that word BTW?) to say they want "clear" and when I do, meh, not so much desire there for it. Language is a connivence, a "are you like me and if so how much" kind of thing. Master too many languages and one becomes suspect. Sometimes it is better just being "too much" I think. I suspect it allows you some freedoms they wouldn't dare consider for themselves.

Yer. A few of you (:-)) have asked me what I mean when I say it, so either I'm saying it foreign or there's something up with yous understanding it

http://peele.net/lib/sociocul.html

Good post ZT! Yeah the marrow thing. Doesn't sound like an excellent idea off the bat. If you're leeching off your own marrow. But then I don't understand how marrow gets formed in the first place. Would be ok to leech off it if you were able to keep making the stuff in unlimited amounts I suppose. But purely speculating:-) Oh, and would the old people just have to switch anyway because the jing source is dry? Then they try that leching off of young people thing More speculation

Brahman "thinks"? I feel a bit pre-school for this thread and I'm not much of a scholar but from what I understand (asking me how would be a problem though) Brahman doesn't have any specific activity itself. The stuff happens within what I can only express as the 'fabric' of Brahman but it's no different from Brahman. Sounds like VMarco is referring to something 'beyond' Brahman. Not something I can speak to. There's always someone to tell you you haven't made the cut The 'soul' idea is presently being referred to in the PTSD thread.

I meant that the muscles that are holding are holding bones that ought to be together apart, sorry! The "opposite" is seen in stuff like spinal compression injuries where verterbrae fuse and plain old bone spurs. The best thing I read on here about bones' relationship to muscle was "floating, not stacked". But IME we carry ourselves as if we were a stack of bones. Damn you early medical models! There was another book mentioned here about 'anatomy trains' I think. It got into that stuff. Also, I have to wonder about sitting practice if one has an injury like that.

Then there's the 'opposite' problem where bones that ought not to be fused together get that way. I was pondering what keeps bones apart and I pondered that muscle-tension holding them apart could be something. I had a low-back injury a while back and no amount of chiropractice (bone-setting;-)) would resolve it. So something that gets the relevant muscles to stop holding on and the bones apart, I'm thinking.

Check out the Deadman acupuncture manual! Or Gerard:-)

Ok, I'm back in camp 2:-) What does that mean Chi D?

Glad to help! Check out the PTSD thread just in case. It's not risk free. Shaking can contribute to kundalini rising and detox so I'd prefer to suggest you read up on those as well:-) Hundun would be the guy here for all that:-)

Agreed ZT! Ya Mu, i believe (sic) that I have some experience with it working despite my conscious belief. Can one even have 'unconscious' beliefs anyway? The 'believe' folks would fall into that New Age affirmation/fake until one makes (which then technically does not require belief after the fact). Chi D, is it possible that people move towards qi-gong because other things just don't work?

So how does a person start by getting convinced? I was hoping for a more detailled discussion on the relationships between belief and experience. Suppose for another thread some other time.

Check out the kidney thread instead:-)

Dwai, apparently there's a plant called "boneset":-)

I thought they didn't need convincing because their practice showed them experientially. Belief, as far as I know doesn't require any actual experience. So no, you'd have to get another category:-)