Tux

EDIT: Deleted

Hello Bums, I'm pretty new to both breathing techniques and chi kung. I'd like to have a few different breathing exercises I could do in the morning to get rid of sleepiness, and any suggestions on a form of chi kung that is suitable for a beginner would be cool. The very simple chi kung sort of routine I've been learning this past week keeps your feet at shoulder width the entire time and I'd like to be able to move my legs around a little during the routine. I've got little injuries all over my body, and a pretty good old one in my right ankle. I suppose I'm kind of on the lookout for any simple exercises of all kinds since I'm just starting to really get into my body and do that kind of thing.

Learning how to breathe deeply without thinking about it helped a TON. Not just healing, of course. I read Hanna's book on somatics and it really brought a lot of disparate information that I was getting from looking into Feldenkrais and other things together for me. Ever read "Bodies in Revolt"? I haven't read it all the way through but I picked a few chapters that sounded interesting...some thoughtful stuff. I hear Hanna was an alcoholic. Philosophy!

If you don't know what to study in school (and if you're like me and don't even want to), and you're good with your hands, become the kind of person that's useful to have around. This coming from someone who likes to squat and dumpster dive. And take suninmyeyes' advice and hit the road.

Thelerner, that is a good little bit of writing from Otis. I actually have discovered the same thing about healing, which was prompted by a lot of time doing Feldenkrais and some fasting (made my system more sensitive). Playing around with the body that way is great, especially if you're doing it while doing some other somatic exercises--this because other peoples' ideas for how to explore your body are very useful... And Green Tiger, I think Tai Chi is a good warmup because it's gentle and thoughtful so as to remind you how to efficiently use your body, and of course it balances out your energies and such...after I do some Feldenkrais I'm always feeling a bit more athletic (yet to be warmed up). In my case, injury has been a huge blessing...even if it meant dealing with a lot of "I'm too young to be doing this shit" thoughts.

helps a lot, thanks!

I'm on the lookout for a book or site that teaches you about a certain part of your body, whether it's a muscle or joint or whatever, and then gives you some simple exercise to identify it kinesthetically. My interest was piqued yesterday because after a massage, my masseur told me there was this muscle that starts in the armpit and connects to the hip (the latissimus dorsi I believe), that mine was really tight and that's why my hip was doing this crazy thing. This morning as I was doing some breathing stuff I noticed what he was talking about. Makes me curious to get to know about the more important muscles and things. Then i thought, "What if there's something that leads you through all the muscles in your body, and gives you exercises to use and identify them, how they connect and all that." Anything?

Some good stuff here too: http://www.flowingbody.com/pastlow.htm Also the book "Mindful Spontaneity" by Ruthy Alon, and "The Busy Person's Guide to Easier Movement" by Frank Wildman are useful. I've been toying around with Feldenkrais for about two years, and I think it's pretty crazy how much it can help you recover from injury.

I am recovering from a big injury and I'm wondering if anyone here knows any foods that are good for healing cartilage. i know it heals very slowly, and as far as I know the body needs glucosamine and chondroitin to build it, which you can only get from creating a broth or something from the bones and joints of other animals. A chiropractor once recommended I take a half packet of gelatine once a day for a month and a half, stop for a month and a half, and start again for a month and a half, on and on, to help rebuild joints. Since joints rebuild so slowly I guess I'm more looking for any information on what I can do to just help em out in the long run, or any foods and herbs or anything else that would stimulate cartilage growth. If you have any advice for the tendons, muscles, whatever, that would be nice too. I'm too young for my joints to suck!

Yessss broth is great, I've made it many times and often just drink a little glass of it by itself every day when I have it. And avocados are another favorite; looks like I'm on the right track. Didn't know about dandelion leaves, thanks!

Thanks for the responses! I'll check out that fish. And yeah, I do stay away from supplements because I'm skeptical about absorbancy.

I'm not of the mind (maybe not yet) to learn any forms, in part because I need to rebuild the muscles in my lower body and heal some damage that's been done there before I can move around the way a martial art would require. I'm able to evenly distribute my weight between both feet. A man that teaches tai chi in my area taught me a ready stance, which is where one stands with the feet apart (I can't recall what he said about the distance, I just do what feels comfortable) and pointing inward a bit, bending the knees slightly and allowing the knees to come together some and whole body to relax. I've made some progress just messing around with the little bit I've learned from that, as well as calling on the memories of bombing hills on my board, totally relaxed. Since there are many different ways we use our bodies, I'm thinking I just need to keep playing around the way I've been doing and find positions that use my muscles. The main thing i guess I'm trying to accomplish is symmetry. If there are any "ready stances" or other exercises that come to mind, or if you have some other advice it'd be appreciated.

I severely sprained my ankle a little over three years ago, hobbled around for a year as it eventually healed up enough for me to run around again, and resprained it, at which point I was so emotionally and mentally disturbed for other reasons that I could not delay my planned trip to Europe for any reason, and spent three very difficult and painful months there. I came back from that trip about two years ago, with my entire foot all screwed up, and since then I have pursued treatment through physical therapy, feldenkrais, yoga, tai che, etc etc. I see now (thanks in part to magic mushrooms), that the reason I never succeeded with any of these things is because I never had the patience, willpower, focus, that sort of thing, to lay off my crazy lifestyle of self-abuse and fully devote my life to the task of healing for a while. So that's what I'm ready to do! I suppose I'm so physically incapacitated now that I have no choice. In my search for recovery I've come across the idea of fasting. I found that laying off food all day yesterday felt pretty good (I had a ton of mental energy even with only six hours of sleep the night before), and had a dim new perspective on just how addicted to unnecessary eating I am. I see restriction of food intake as an important step in creating that level-headedness that will allow me to get the proper rest and engage in the proper exercises to get myself active again. I am afraid that I have done some severe (permanent?) damage to my ankle and/or entire foot. My biomechanics are all wrong most of the time, and I can feel grinding, popping and pain in joints all over my body as a result of forcing through this for the past few years. I've become interested in fasting because of the huge benefits some folks have received from doing it, and the theory that by giving the body a period of concentrated physiological rest, it will repair itself. The act of prolonged fasting seems to me to be half physical and half mental. I would take up a steady practice of meditation to keep my intentions correct during the fast. However! I'm pretty jacked up right now physically, and have some responsibilities that will not allow me to undertake something so drastic, so I'm not going to just jump into it. I'm also worried, and this is important, that the misalignments I've created in my body need to be corrected to the point that I can at least walk comfortably and smoothly, with a balanced and non-destructive gait. I guess I just mean to say correctly. I wouldn't be doing anything physically demanding during a period of prolonged fasting, and since the intention would be for my body to eat up and dispel the useless stuff and rebuild the stuff I need, I am worried that with bad alignment my joints would rebuild themselves (even more so than they have already) in the wrong way. So my plan is to begin experimenting with fasting, trying a water fast every other day, or a two or three day long water fast once a week, while practicing tai chi and meditation. I don't plan on doing any barefoot running anytime soon, but once I've recovered a functional--dare I say graceful? --gait, and can at least take care of myself in the throes of a prolonged water fast, I will move on to this step. I've heard that a good beginning point for a water fast is one day for every year you have lived, which would put me at a 23 day fast, which doesn't seem too bad. I red an account of a woman who embarked on a 56 day fast, during which she became skeletal and her breasts dissapeared. I have almost no experience in any of these three practices, and fasting has an obvious potential for being dangerous, which is why I'm posting this for some information and advice.

If you suspect it would be, then it probably would be. The moon effects me hugely.

Thanks for all your responses--the thing is, I have absolutely no money so my options for treatment are very limited. I consider it a challenge in learning how to take care of myself. I've been reading up on fasting from several sources since I posted this originally, and have learned quite a bit of theory as far as my approach to diet and what I should expect during the healing process that I'm going to be experiencing soon. What I've come up with is: Give myself a few months of abstaining from overindulging in anything. Spend the next few months eating a very healthy diet, lots of raw fruit and vegetables. This builds up your body's store of minerals and other things it needs for healing, which, during an extended fast, becomes its priority, as there's no effort spent on digestion. Plus you become very tired and sedentary, which forces you to rest and go with it. The past few days I've been eating pretty sparingly, every couple of hours I'll have a small meal, and I don't necessarily eat just because I'm hungry. I have some weight to lose and I'm not very active, so this is OK. I already feel a lot better! I've been tuning in to my need for rest and relaxation. I've had a weakness for eating for years, and with the decision to just do this and get back to normal life, food no longer presents a problem. My problem is coffee and whiskey--those are definitely the reason for me not being able to chill and heal during my initial year of injury. Still, the structural weirdness is significant. The physical imbalances in my body are gnarly, even if they don't hurt all the time. Whenever I move around a lot over the course of a day, I feel those imbalances. I need some form of chi kung that will bring me back into proper physical alignment. I really don't think this will take much now that I know what I want and need to do. Any recommendations on forms of chi kung that would be good for bringing everything back into alignment? I want to be able to hike and run and surf again. My real concerns with fasting are getting the proper nutrients in my body in preparation of the fast and what are signs of dangerous deficiencies during the fast. Vitamin B12 is one I'm concerned with, but I also picked up somewhere that deficient levels of B12 before a fast returned to normal levels during the fast, fairly inexplicably. I think the body really knows what it's doing, if you let it do its thing. I've got good genes and good intuition as long as I stay away from doing self-destructive amounts of drugs. I must emphasize that I really have no money, I do have a meeting with a doctor for disability in a few days but I'm not getting my hopes up. I need to do all this myself, or find people that will help me for free. I've only read the section on fasting so far, but this book seems legit. http://chestofbooks.com/health/Isabelle-A-Moser/How-and-When-to-Be-Your-Own-Doctor/index.html

Time exists...otherwise I wouldn't use it every day!

I think that guy just has good genes

Very thought provoking question! Makes the sci-fi department of my mind start to grind into action... I'd imagine that on a planet where every sentient being has honed their intelligence to the highest point, everyone that truly wanted to have sex and felt they could enjoy and gain something from it would go for it, and anyone that had weighed the consequences of having a child on themselves and their environment and decided to go for that too would do it in a way you and I can scarcely understand. I mean, there'd be a real explicit importance and sacredness in the decision to have a child--a respect for the balance of the biosphere and a respect for the culture that everyone knows is the correct way to live. This is assuming that once everyone had mastered the Taoist tradition, no one would realize another spiritual method. Maybe everyone should practice Catholicism because it is the ultimate truth, so that we can superpopulate the planet as fast as possible and get rid of the species THAT way! Either way, we might be going down. If the human body is a metaphor for the universe, I'd say that's what's happening. Then again this is all using rational thought, which doesn't have much of a place in (what I consider to be) some of the more important decisions people make. Not to sound like a layman, but I think everyone might be a layman!

Lots of Boredoms, DRI, Sun Ra and Funkadelic. I've been getting more into hardcore and jazz lately--any good recommendations?

Some of you might have read my other post inquiring about exercises appropriate for realigning and healing the body http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?/topic/13807-need-a-gentle-exercise/. Ya Mu, you recommended some chinese manual therapy--I've dome some research on the various types out there, and have come up with a few that seem to suit my needs, namely Rolfing and joint manipulation. I found the most information on Rolfing, although the idea behind foot joint manipulation--that correcting imbalances in the feet works to correct the rest of the body--seems reasonable. This is the same idea as Rolfing, except the emphasis on Rolfing is correcting strain and weakness in the connective tissue and allowing gravity to do the work over a period of months. Anyone out there have any experience with Rolfing? I've read some good things...also I just discovered Yin yoga and that seems like it may be exactly what I need. Yin yoga emphasizes working the connective tissue, as opposed to the Yang yogas that use muscles. I'm particularly on the lookout for a yin yoga routine that would work the entire body back into proper alignment, something I could do daily. I guess Tai Chi is yin yoga essentially. Input please.

I have several injuries throughout my body, most of which I am sure will heal with proper care, however there is one main injury that I'm having a very hard time healing: It's a "chronic" sprain to my ankle--lemme give you the lowdown. Sprained in june 07, never saw a doctor, sort of healed, resprained in june 08, backpacked in europe with immense pain from august to october 08, and ever since then I've been limping around trying mostly physical therapy and Feldenkrais. The healing has been incredibly slow and sometimes it seems like I've made very little progress. Obviously I haven't been too kind to myself, I've been very self destructive. Luckily though, I've come to find out a bit about Taoism and the healing arts, and I've read quite a bit about Tai Chi lately. Tai chi is something I aspire to, but the Yang form, which seems to be all I can find around here, seems like it would be too much for my lower body, which is unbalanced and hurting right now. So, are there any exercises--any kind of gentle yoga or qi gong routines or anything that anyone would recommend for someone with a real will to realign and heal their body? I need to be gentle. I'm also open to herbal or diet suggestions, or anything really, that anyone thinks would help in the healing of connective tissues. Also I live in Sonoma County, California, so if anyone happens to know of a very good healer or TCM doctor in the area, I'd appreciate it! I am planning on going to the AICM in Berkeley as soon as I can--has anyone been there and how is the community acupuncture clinic? Oh yeah, all the doctors I've seen about this say that it's mostly a neurological thing that my right foot (the one which has been so abused), is cramped and unbalanced. "A little pronation too" I heard. I'm sure some meditation would do me a universe of good.

Anyone know of any herbs that can be vaporized and inhaled that loosens up the gunk the gathers up in the lungs? I've smoked plenty of pot and cigarettes, no more cigs and I want to cough some of that stuff back out where it belongs.

Cool avatar by the way, Balance. I love Sun Ra. Ever heard the album Nuclear War?

Thanks for all the information! Intuflow looks pretty interesting. I got somewhat in depth with Feldenkrais, which is the first thing I've done in years that really got me back in touch with my body, and once I got a taste, like it or not, i needed more. Now I've learned to like it and it's not so bad...such is the nature of truly good things sometimes. I mention Feldenkrais because of what Balance pointed out about releasing pressure/tense areas. There's definitely some over and under working muscles in my body--couple my cripple-ness with the fact that I ride my bike daily without any real exercise to counter the muscle buildup in the inner thighs/knees, and ta da! Recipe for somethin not-too-great. I have another question that's been bugging me since I started researching joint rehabilitation: It seems like there's a whole array of opinions on wether or not articular cartilage can be grown back. Does it not grow back at all? That one I have a hard time believing, in spite of the prevailing view that it's the case. Does it grow back very slowly as long as one engages in low-impact exercises and has the proper diet? Recently a team of scientists designed some kind of nano-treatment that stimulates the stem cells in bones to actually grow new, natural cartilage. Not the scar tissue-type stuff, either. The real, collagen thing. This leads me to believe that focusing ones' intent on the repair of cartilage could possibly produce the same effects. What do you all say about that? I mean, what do you think cartilage can do? I've seen some lofty advertising claims for things like MSM, glucosamine and chrondoitin. I've read about regrowing knee cartilage with some modified Edgar Cayce-type castor oil pack treatment. Knee cartilage almost seems to be an accepted exception to the non-growing cartilage rule that dominates information on the subject. Does nutrition even really matter so much when emotions seem to play the biggest role? That's more of a broad question I guess. Insights? Comments? Complaints?