Bendowa

Today's practice: 5 minutes of tai chi breathing, lesson 5 of BKF breathing CD 1 (companion to Relaxing into Your Being) 5 minutes of sinking my chi. 10 minutes of guitar. Tuned guitar to itself, practiced Key of A chords A and E7 (I just started lessons last week, complete noob). 10 minutes of djembe. Practiced following pacing of metronome with various hand patterns. I have a few years of West African drumming experience but just starting to pick it back up again after a taking few years break. 5 minutes of standing chi kung. 5 minutes of tai chi stepping practice. That is all for today :-) My music practice may be somewhat irrelevant, but thought I'd throw it in here since I'm trying hard to cultivate a daily practice.

Appreciate the input ChiDragon. I've recently started working with BK Frantzis' "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body" and am really connecting with it. I think it's exactly what I need to be working on at the moment. I've been practicing Soto Zen for a few years so I'm no stranger to abdominal breathing, but his Longevity Breathing technique takes things to a whole new level! I'm working on expanding and contracting my sides during the in/out breaths, which is not something that had occurred to me to focus on before. I'm finding that I can maintain a 20 second breath fairly comfortably, and a 30 second breath isn't too great of a stretch, so maybe I'm not too far off (and all those hours of wall gazing weren't a complete waste of time, lol). Your research sounds very interesting--do you mind if I ask what in particular you're investigating?

Thank you very much Blasto! I've come across that title before and thought it was something that I definitely needed to read, but for whatever reason haven't made it a priority... I'm going to do so now. And I am an aggie, and even got my B.S. from the College of Ag and Env sciences, but other than a couple soil science courses did not study much that seems directly applicable to my gardening habit (was a hydro science major). Other than their master gardener program, I'm not really too aware of what's happening in the ag/gardening scene at the UC. I'm really a novice gardener, but enjoy it much, and am thinking of studying biodynamic ag at the Steiner College here in Sac. And I share your pessimism, though I'm personally hoping for less of an apocalypse and more of a gradual shift towards local, sustainable economies... and if the post petroleum future means trading in my office cubicle for goats, chickens, and a vegetable garden, I likely won't complain too vigorously ;-) Are you familiar with the C-Realm podcast? http://c-realm.com/ Lots of great discussion re: collapse, sustainable ag, etc... KMO would probably love to interview you about your grad research.

I've been a lurker off and on, for some while... I've found Tao Bums to be a very valuable resource that has, to some extent, guided my own practice and development over the last few years. I very much enjoy the frank discussion and melting pot of practices, techniques and ideas that I haven't encountered anywhere else. But these forums are meant to be interactive, and I think perhaps its time for me to throw my own insights, delusions and aspirations into the mix. My current practices include: Soto Zen AYP Hatha Yoga Yang style Tai Chi Zhan Zhuang (Working from Master Lam Kam Chuen's "Way of Energy") Diet (Whole foods, TCM, Ayurveda, Paleo/Traditional/WAPF) Aneros "re-wiring" w/ MGX Tibetan Buddhist style healing visualizations (working from Boundless Healing by Tulku Thondup) My primary objective is health. For the past half decade I've been struggling with a serious digestive condition, which has psychosomatic components, that I believe can be addressed via spiritual development of the nervous system. My progress has thus far been limited mainly be injuries (for example,currently rehabbing a knee injury that limits tai chi, standing and sitting), time (have a job/career that demands the majority of my waking hours and energy), and self-pacing to remain grounded -- I find pushing too hard in any of these directions tends to be counter-productive, so am working on finding a steady pace of gentle opening and integration. So... who do I talk to about getting a practice journal? ;-)