Aligning Energy and Physical Body/mind

[Everything]

Anyone ever had an energy body/mind that was not aligned to your physical body/mind and ALIGNED them both intentionally? Trough energy practices like Tai Chi, for example.

How was the experience? What were the struggles? Describe the before and after having done the practices.

I would also like to know how the body and mind relate in these practices. If you do the body practices, will your mind emmediatly benefit, or does the energy and physical mind require diffrent sets of practices in order to be aligned? I kinda have priority on my mind and saw how my body had similar issues as my mind. Thought they might be related.

 

I think I'll try to explain how a non aligned energy&physical body/mind feels like, for me personally. Basicly, your muscles don't do what you want them to do. Not precise enough atleast. It feels like balancing on a rope. You intent to stay in the middle, but your body doesn't stay in the middle.

Also the physical mind seems to be tired allot. I want to focus on one thing and my mind just wanders off out of exhaustion.

 

If anyone had a similar experience and overcame it one way or another, I'd be happy to hear about it. The more personal, the more universal things are. This is pretty personal to me. I've been trying meditation to increase my sensitivity, so that I can sense exactly how I feel in the moment. I hope to discover the core of the problem with the help of strong sensitivity.

 

I always try to solve the symptons, which doesn't help me much. Symptoms like: having no balance, not being able to stand still, not being able to focus my mind. Especially the focus of mind is hard. I can focus with extreme amounts of effort, tensing my mind, which is exhausting. I can't even stand still without falling down unless I tense every muscle in my body, which is also exhausting. Not sure if I ever experienced an aligned energy and physical body/mind, so coulden't really describe that one.

Edited November 17, 2011 by Everything

[ATMA]

Just go with it.

You are goings to be changing alot. Don't fight it, it's going to become a nonissue.

Ommm.

[RiverSnake]

Sounds like you have too many minds.

 

-My 2 cents, Peace

Edited November 17, 2011 by OldGreen

[ChiDragon]

I always try to solve the symptoms, which doesn't help me much. Symptoms like: having no balance, not being able to stand still, not being able to focus my mind.

1. Especially the focus of mind is hard. I can focus with extreme amounts of effort, tensing my mind, which is exhausting.

 

2. I can't even stand still without falling down unless I tense every muscle in my body, which is also exhausting. Not sure if I ever experienced an aligned energy and physical body/mind, so couldn't really describe that one.

 

Everything...

 

How long have you been practicing Tai Chi...???

 

1. Breathing, movement, and mind should be aligned, spontaneously, with one smooth flow. You should not have to be tensing your mind for that. Place your thought on the movement where you want to move your arms and legs to. Take a slow breath at the beginning with movements of your arms and legs in one direction. The breathing speed should be following with the slow speed of the movements. You do the same when you exhale with the movement in the other direction.

 

2. It is a natural instinct to tense every muscle to support your body weight to balance yourself. Then, relax your muscles when you don't have to be standing still.

 

It's true that the Tai Chi students were told to be relax doing practice. However, It doesn't matter how relax one is, there is always a little tension in the muscles for them to move. Especially, if one has to stand on one leg, there will be more tensions applied to the lower leg, spontaneously, in order to support one's own body weight.

Edited November 17, 2011 by ChiDragon

[Ish]

I remember having very similar problems to you - Here's what helped me.

 

I felt "clumsy", not in a forgetful or unaware sense, but that my movement and body control wasn't graceful and balanced.

My issues also came with a mental fog of sorts, just feeling very dull and generally out of balance.

I could feel palpable tension or energy blockages mostly around the head and neck area.

 

I personally sorted the problem through practicing chi gung, the spontaneous chi flow taught in Shaolin Wahnam. But you have to practice correctly, I've also caused problems for myself as I made mistakes a lot. But if you persist and really get down to following the instructions, you can solve your problem easily. That's where studying with a master helps a lot.

 

So some stuff you can try right now -

First things first, relax a lot more. Don't TRY and relax, just do it. Tension is activity, it's easier to do nothing so just relax. Pay extra attention to relaxing problematic areas especially if the tension is habitual.

 

You may have some blockages around your upper body and head, grounding and really relaxing down past your soles is a great excercise.

 

If you can do so without tensing, some deep squats and stretching excercises are very beneficial for the whole of your body. You'll get even more benefit if you can just "get into" the excercises and forget about everything else.

 

Relaxing and having less mental chatter are things you should try to improve on all the time.

[Clarity]

Your issue is not really one of alignment. It feels more like you struggle with your mind so much, it gets in the way of your physical intelligence. Too much rigid tension and not enough relaxation which leads to too much effort. When you use too much effort, you struggle. That struggle triggers all of your spiritual experiences of struggling.

 

Once you stop struggling, your awareness will lead your breath and movement. So you are kind of misinterpreting what's going on with your body and your mind.

 

For example, your mind doesn't tell your muscles what to do; the mind is too slow and clumsy for that. Your physical intelligence already knows how to do everything, you just have to get your mind out of the way.

[Everything]

Just go with it.

You are goings to be changing alot. Don't fight it, it's going to become a nonissue.

Ommm.

Go with what?

[Everything]

Your issue is not really one of alignment. It feels more like you struggle with your mind so much, it gets in the way of your physical intelligence. Too much rigid tension and not enough relaxation which leads to too much effort. When you use too much effort, you struggle. That struggle triggers all of your spiritual experiences of struggling.

 

Once you stop struggling, your awareness will lead your breath and movement. So you are kind of misinterpreting what's going on with your body and your mind.

 

For example, your mind doesn't tell your muscles what to do; the mind is too slow and clumsy for that. Your physical intelligence already knows how to do everything, you just have to get your mind out of the way.

When I get my mind out of the way, it feels great for physical tasks or emotional tasks.

 

For intellectual tasks I sometimes need physical effort guided by emotion in order to have Intellectual progression. Do you mean that for intellectual tasks we also need to get our minds out of the way? If so, what do you mean with mind? Ego?

[Everything]

Everything...

 

How long have you been practicing Tai Chi...???

 

1. Breathing, movement, and mind should be aligned, spontaneously, with one smooth flow. You should not have to be tensing your mind for that. Place your thought on the movement where you want to move your arms and legs to. Take a slow breath at the beginning with movements of your arms and legs in one direction. The breathing speed should be following with the slow speed of the movements. You do the same when you exhale with the movement in the other direction.

 

2. It is a natural instinct to tense every muscle to support your body weight to balance yourself. Then, relax your muscles when you don't have to be standing still.

 

It's true that the Tai Chi students were told to be relax doing practice. However, It doesn't matter how relax one is, there is always a little tension in the muscles for them to move. Especially, if one has to stand on one leg, there will be more tensions applied to the lower leg, spontaneously, in order to support one's own body weight.

That standing still issue is some way of trying to explain the inability of my mind to focus, but from the body's perspective instead of mind. Never had Tai Chi lessons. Heard about it recently and noticed that I could use the benefits if I could achieve them. In the past I tried standing still like a tree, gave up real soon on that. Simply because physical excersize got me more fit. I didn't understand back then that standing still was the actual excersize itself. Got a book recommended for tai chi, I'm going to download it again soon. iPhone update deleted all my ebooks.

 

I read to visualize floating balloons supporting you in diffrent places of the body, as you do the standing like a tree posture excersizes, to release any unnecesary tension in your muscles. Isn't the goal to keep tension to a minimum?

[Everything]

Sounds like you have too many minds.

 

-My 2 cents, Peace

Indeed. I should be talking about the alignment of mind and body. Not energy mind and physical mind, hehe. Well, the mind is not even there actually. Mind is all, and the body is mind. I really suck at talking about these stuff. I guess the only way I can stay sane is to seperate the brain and the body as two seperate things. Then we have the spiritual self, the energy body. This is like my consciosness. I can do everything with my energy body, the physical body seems to follow it. Sometimes not so good though.

 

Well, I hope you guys kinda understand what I mean.

[konchog uma]

everything youre thinking too hard about it, way too hard

 

probably why youre tense

 

practice standing still in a relaxed way. loosen your hips and straighten your back while relaxing every muscle you can. just do it a couple minutes and build from there. when you walk, relax. when you feel tense, smile and relax. the mind and energy and body are one. Its only artifice that seperates them.. RELAX and the artifice will dissolve

 

keep it simple sir

[ATMA]

everything youre thinking too hard about it, way too hard

....

keep it simple sir

 

Also it seems to me that is is an unnecessary desire. If you can find the strength to give up caring about it you may one day find it is no longer an issue.

Eyes go reverse-cross-eyed to stare at the walls of enlight.

Ommmm.

[Clarity]

That standing still issue is some way of trying to explain the inability of my mind to focus, but from the body's perspective instead of mind. Never had Tai Chi lessons. Heard about it recently and noticed that I could use the benefits if I could achieve them.

 

I'd suggest you do yourself a favor and find a teacher. The benefits are achieved in a natural way by doing it, not by thinking about it.

 

What you are looking for is a kind of union between breath, movement, and awareness. When you sink the Chi and relax, your whole body becomes light and full of ease, and the Chi flows naturally.

 

It is true that you use your mind to guide your breath but not in a tense or controlled way. The breath needs to be soft, the body needs to be soft, the mind needs to be soft. Any unnecessary physical tension just gets in the way of the Chi flow.

 

If you do decide to look for a teacher, find someone who teaches the application. In other words, someone who teaches it as a Martial Art. A good teacher can do a lot to ease any confusion you might have about how to proceed.

[Harmonious Emptiness]

Here is an excerpt of Buddhas prescription for mindfulness:

Old Path White Clouds

 

Remember that a larger purpose of this mindfulness is to notice the unconscious things so that we can let them go, not to just focus on them. We might walk around and feel things without realizing them which affect us and we don't know why. When we are conscious "oh, I have some arrogance about that" for example, we can let it go rather than continuing the same pattern without realizing it. It's just a matter of detached observation and not obsessive observation. It sounds like you might be straining your mind with obsessive observation.

 

Practice this insight during meditation and then when you wash the dishes. Know that you are washing the dishes, know that you are putting soap on the sponge, know that you are relaxed or tense, that you are or are not enjoying it, but don't obsess over it, just notice it and let it go, returning to what you're doing. Paying attention to all our actions strengthens our ability for attention, which translates to deeper awareness as well, but open and relaxed is indispensable to this awareness .

 

Also, if you want to be in the present, I find the surest way is to stop thoughts. Then there is nowhere else to be but the present moment. Again, try this during meditation first.

 

For tension in the body, think of a musical string. If it is too tight it breaks, it has to be loose enough to resonate nicely. Obviously you don't want to be tight like a piano string, but you want to be loose enough to resonate nicely while tight enough to sit up straight.

 

Qi Gong definitely will harmonize body mind and breath. Personally I keep my eyes closed at least 90% of the time during qi gong as I find watching my hands to distract from what's happening internally, and frankly I don't want to see weird things if they happen. I guess it's sort of like playing music too, you can feel it more when your eyes are closed.

 

Overall, following every piece of advice does not help me tune in so I ignore most of it and keep a few common denominators in mind, like follow Tao, and internal awareness, don't mistake a glimpse for the whole enchilada..

 

best of luck...

 

 

(edits in italics)

Edited November 18, 2011 by Harmonious Emptiness

[bojole]

Check this post (and others by me in that thread) - http://thedaobums.com/topic/18212-de-switch-your-brain/?p=625416