designAlignment

Does dancehall count? I'm realizing that a lot of what I enjoy is considered dancehall rather than reggae (I used to think of most of the songs as being "reggae" but they're really dancehall). Twice My Age - Shabba Ranks ft. Krystal (Remastered version): Original audio version dubbed over a 1990 live performance by Shabba and Krystal:

An old discussion on it (archive.org can help with some dead links): https://www.thedaobums.com/topic/23570-empty-force/

Something that works well for me is to hit something in a controlled way. I use an old martial arts bean bag, but any firm (but not so hard that it would hurt your hand) surface/object should work. Sitting on the floor and hitting a folded towel on it, would be something anyone could do. I sit with the bag in front of me and let each hand in turn fall from about head height to the bag. I take a kind of meditative approach as I do this. I: Relax my body Take deep, even breaths Don't resist (push against) my anger Try to avoid fanning the flames by getting worked up about what I'm angry about - I try to focus on the feeling of anger in my body, not the situation Don't go into a rage with it I think some therapies might encourage you to get worked up and hit things in a rage. I'm just describing what I do and what has worked for me. Other ways might work as well or better. Sometimes my anger intensifies as I do this. If it does, I just let myself fully experience it and continue. There comes a point where the anger just vanishes and I can think about the situation that initially triggered the anger feeling completely calm - no trace of anger whatsoever. This also helps in reducing stress and fear. As for why this might work: I first read about it in the book Maximum Achievement by Brian Tracy. In it, he mentions the work of Hans Selye who found that anger can be sent out of the body through your hands (hitting), feet (kicking), teeth (biting), or voice (screaming). There are many sports (basketball, soccer, golf, etc.) that are natural outlets for releasing anger.

I first learned Zhan Zhuang over 20 years ago from my martial arts teacher. I hadn't kept up with it consistently though - restarting for months at a time and then letting it lapse. At one point, after 6 months and building up to an hour a day, I started getting spontaneous movement - my hips would always move in counterclockwise circles (if I were standing on the face of a clock). As my qi increased, the movements became more pronounced and my head started moving in circles too. I eventually stopped practicing, but since then whenever I've restarted I've always gotten the same spontaneous movements (hips moving in the same direction) only I didn't need to build up to experience them - I would get movement right from the start, even when my qi was relatively low. I was already familiar with spontaneous movement from Wong Kiew Kit's Induced Chi Flow exercise for balancing energies and clearing blockages but was concerned at the time because the books I read on ZZ didn't mention this kind of movement. They also talked about ZZ as being an exercise in relaxation and stillness. But if I relaxed, I couldn't stay still! I could slow the movements with my intent (just telling it/myself to "slow down" until it came to a graceful end) but doing that also slowed the energy flow in my body, which seemed to defeat part of the purpose of standing. I also got dissonant feeling when I slowed it and an intuitive sense that the movement was ok. Later I checked with a ZZ teacher who said to just ignore it and let it happen.

Hello everyone! My interest in qigong led me here (I'm currently practicing Zhan Zhuang and saw some great posts here on the topic). I've been interested in spirituality and working with energy for health and higher consciousness for over 20 years. Looking forward to contributing and learning from you all.