where's your belly button? No, not there, a little lower ...

[soaring crane]

I just have to toss this out here because it's something that comes up again and again and again in my groups. I might expand on it later but here's the short version:

 

In a group with beginners this evening, I guided them through the motions of gathering around the level of the pelvis and placing the hands atop one another, and resting them on the lower belly (Dantian, of course). All I ever really want to say is, "gather around the middle any lay the hands on the abdomen". But what I have to say is more like, "Ok, now we gather and collect in one motion like this, and when the hands are in front of the lower belly, we lay one palm on the back of one hand and lay them both on the lowest part of belly, the abdomen, down toward the pubic area, really low... no, that's your chest, see? Much lower than that,.. ok.... some of you got it... now lower... no, that's the upper stomach, maybe your diaphragm... below the belly button, ok? Really low ... ok, I'm going to lift up my shirt and show you where my belly button is ... see it? Now feel your stomach and find yours... good. Now place one hand on top of the other and lay them on your abdomen way down below your belly button. Very good, thank you. Relax."

 

It's not their fault at all. It's western society. And that's the subject for a follow-up post.

 

Thoughts?

[Marblehead]

Yeah, below the belly button is getting pretty close to the private area.

[ChiDragon]

It was more complicated to identify one's left hand from the right for some people.

[GrandmasterP]

I refer to the area beneath the belly button as "south of the equator" when teaching.

They seem to like that and it avoids me using trigger terms such as 'pubic' or 'abdominal'.

[soaring crane]

Well I was translating from German in my OP haha.

 

What do all think of the disconnectedness to the lower part of the body and the way people think their hands are on the abdomen when in reality they're on the chest? That's what I was pointing out.

[GrandmasterP]

This one can be fun.

Have a handout with an outline human body.

Give it out in lesson one and ask the students to put their name on and then draw in where they think the heart, liver, kidneys, lungs and spleen are located.

Collect in the papers and keep them until session 10 then do the same thing with new handouts.

After they've redrawn the organs, give them each back their Lesson 1 drawings to compare.

Everyone has become far more accurate.

 

Edited September 1, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[Taomeow]

Well I was translating from German in my OP haha.

 

What do all think of the disconnectedness to the lower part of the body and the way people think their hands are on the abdomen when in reality they're on the chest? That's what I was pointing out.

 

A number of reasons far as I can tell.

 

In many, it's the outcome of the whole culture being top-heavy, in-the-head, and unaware of the lower body from habitual suppression and neglect. It's the drive "upward," "to the top," it's "go higher," it's "upper crust," it's everything conditioned to be associated with "up" as worthy and "down" as, well, lowly (notice the word we've got to describe the unwanted -- also "base" means bad... linguistics of brainwashing for later though, for a different topic.)

 

In some, it is the outcome of blatant sexual abuse. The extreme avoidance of turning awareness to the lower body may be a warning sign. If you get a particularly "dumb" student who just seems not to get it, step carefully, you may trigger some buried pain that no one is prepared to handle. Let someone like that use whatever they're comfortable using as their bellybutton. (I always notice that models stand in positions we are invited to view as sexy that are always about moving their pelvis far back -- if you draw a line from the baihui to the huiyin, instead of aligning on a vertical, as they should, the huiyin will be retracting as far as possible and the line will be tilted backward. So the stuck-out boobs and the stuck-out butt actually serve to tilt the vertical line and remove the lower body from contact range. To make sure it's safely as far away as possible from the nearest possibility of contact, the stomach is also sucked in. Wilhelm Reich called this pose the "no no no no!" response to the idea of intimacy, touch, and normal (rather than kinky) sex expressed in the body language, and always linked it with sexual abuse. These days, however, it may be just imitated, since we have "models" who teach us this pose.)

 

In some, it's just overall poor perceptions of their own body, any part thereof. Some parts are neglected habitually and people spend a lifetime unaware of their existence. (How's your left ear feeling right now? What about your right middle toe?) This is cultural/poor-habitual/developmental, you name it, chiefly developmental. Infants of the tribes that carry their babies on the mother's -- sometimes father's -- body at all times in the first year and quite often, on and off, till the age of 8, do not grow up to ever have this problem, and are far more agile and coordinated from the early age. And the great felines grow up completely brain damaged if the mother does not drag them around by the nape of the neck in kittenhood. There was a zoo guy who managed to prove this and make it mandatory to drag those kittens being raised by humans in this manner, on a daily basis, so they don't miss out on this crucial developmental stage. Has to do with the body learning and internalizing the workings of gravity, motion, inertia, etc. -- the kinesthetics of our world and its own relation to them, dimensions, sensory parameters, etc..

 

It's funny that in Taiwan, when people have problems with their own perceived body position in space, they seem to be having left-right rather than up-down difficulties. I don't know why, it's something a friend told me who served in the Taiwanese army. He said some of the new recruits were unable to learn to march while rhythmically swinging their arms -- some could swing only one arm at a time while the other was not moving, some would go with both arms forward then both back, some could only match left arm to left foot and right arm to right foot but not vice versa, and so on.

Edited September 2, 2014 by Taomeow

[liminal_luke]

The closer to the Earth you get the more uncomfortable people are. I'm no expert on yin and yang, but I suspect the reason people put their hands on their chest when instructed to go below the belly button is the same reason we've had such a hard time deciding that this board should be a more women-friendly place.

 

Liminal

Edited September 2, 2014 by liminal_luke

[soaring crane]

A number of reasons far as I can tell.

 

wonderful post per your usual high standard, TM, and thank you for addressing specifically my point(s).

 

Everything you wrote is what I had in mind and now I have nothing left, lol. (And couldn't put it as eloquently as you anyway)

 

The sexual abuse angle is something I've considered but more in the context of trauma in general. I'm not as militant about the hand placement as my OP suggests and do tell people that if the position feels in fact uncomfortable or unnatural, then they should lay the hands higher, generally at diaphragm level. I also try to let women know that 'once a month' it's a good idea to hold the hands higher. But the whole point of the exercise is that they do these things consciously and develop some degree of body awareness.

 

When there are errors in any posture or exercise, they without exception land in the too high/too much range. It's never too low or too little.

 

Another example, generalized here -- I often start my sessions with simple arm swinging. We get into Wuji (which is a huge step in itself for most beginners) palms facing to the rear, and swing the arms to a fro. Very simple, playful, nothing to take seriously, nothing can go wrong*. Except I instruct them not to allow the hands to travel higher than chest height. And then half the people are swinging them to just over their heads, the other half to just over the shoulders. Then I say, no, not so high, avoid turning this into a sporting competition ... Ok, let the hands come up to diaphragm level ... etc etc etc...

 

I'm always correcting downward. It's incredible, really. And I've learned a lot about our society and myself by observing this phenomenon so often for so many years in diverse groups of people.

 

And, yes, please don't get me started on the cruel effects of the fashion and shoe industry on women's posture and self-image

 

And the suck-in-the-gut-be-ashamed-of-your-belly mantra that runs 24/7 in people's subconsciousness, creating a vicious circle of physical and mental stress and blocking in the chest, throat, head with limitless negative side effects... wow. I could go on and on... All things that I'm confronted with almost daily and do my best to help people first become aware of and second begin to reverse.

 

The group i had last night was at a 'psychosomatic' clinic. These are people who have been through the grinding mill of western 'medicine' and have nowhere left to turn but inward.

 

 

 

*note on the arm swinging -- one small (actually, huge) detail that I try to get people to become aware of is the open armpits and avoiding having the hands swing toward one another, creating tension in the chest. The exercise is meant to release exactly that tension.

[Seeker of Wisdom]

That's really weird. I never understood what people meant when they said 'disconnected from the body' before. It reminds me when someone told me to feel my ear (don't remember the context). I said 'OK, feeling it' and they said 'no you aren't, touch it' and I insisted 'I'm feeling it right now!', thinking do you really have to use your hand to sense your OWN ear?.

 

Related question - how long does it take most people these days to start actually feeling qi? I could feel it in my hands from a young age and didn't realise what it was until I got into cultivation. It wasn't a placebo, as I remember feeling it the first time completely randomly, as though a switch was thrown. I wasn't naturally spiritual at all, I'm not a naturally adept cultivator by any means. Yet sometimes I read something on cultivation saying 'you won't feel much at first...' and I'm confused - is the average person honestly so body-blind?

[cheya]

Hey, Soaring Crane, you could try telling them to put their hands on their STOMACH. That might work.

 

I get people all the time saying their stomach hurts. I've learned to ask them to point to where it hurts, and they usually point to their belly button or even lower! None of them seem to know where their stomach is. Either that or a lot of people have very unusual anatomy!

[soaring crane]

Hey, Soaring Crane, you could try telling them to put their hands on their STOMACH. That might work.

 

I get people all the time saying their stomach hurts. I've learned to ask them to point to where it hurts, and they usually point to their belly button or even lower! None of them seem to know where their stomach is. Either that or a lot of people have very unusual anatomy!

Well, I'd first have to ask if they speak English ;-)

 

What I actually say is: Hand auf Hand auf dem Unterbauch. Nee, net der Brust, ein bißchen tiefer.... Also, unterhalb des Nabels... Das ist doch der Oberbauch..... Ein bißchen tiefer.... Etc

[Mark Foote]

In some, it's just overall poor perceptions of their own body, any part thereof. Some parts are neglected habitually and people spend a lifetime unaware of their existence. (How's your left ear feeling right now? What about your right middle toe?) This is cultural/poor-habitual/developmental, you name it, chiefly developmental. Infants of the tribes that carry their babies on the mother's -- sometimes father's -- body at all times in the first year and quite often, on and off, till the age of 8, do not grow up to ever have this problem, and are far more agile and coordinated from the early age. And the great felines grow up completely brain damaged if the mother does not drag them around by the nape of the neck in kittenhood. There was a zoo guy who managed to prove this and make it mandatory to drag those kittens being raised by humans in this manner, on a daily basis, so they don't miss out on this crucial developmental stage. Has to do with the body learning and internalizing the workings of gravity, motion, inertia, etc. -- the kinesthetics of our world and its own relation to them, dimensions, sensory parameters, etc..

 

Hey, Taomeow, how about Cesaereans?

 

Wow, checking Wikipedia: "The rate has increased in the United States, to 33% of all births in 2012, up from 21% in 1996. Across Europe, there are differences between countries: in Italy the Caesarean section rate is 40%, while in the Nordic countries it is 14%."

 

I'm thinking about the lion cubs being dragged. I think the ilio-sacral ligaments go through a number in a normal birth, and maybe it's a teaching to the new born.

 

There is another angle to take on people's reticence to move lower, and their eagerness to move higher. The mechanism of support for the 4th and 5th lumbar vertebrae against the shear force of the weight of the upper body is subtle and to some extent requires the induction of trance to be successfully realized. The hypnic-jerk phenomena, which is experienced regularly by about 70% of people, may be an expression of the reluctance people have to relinquish volitive control:

 

"Nobody knows for sure what causes them," explains psychologist Tom Stafford at BBC Future, "but to me they represent the side effects of a hidden battle for control in the brain that happens each night on the cusp between wakefulness and dreams."

(from here)

 

So I would say it's just a symptom of the proximity of trance that still frightens most people.

[Taomeow]

Hey, Taomeow, how about Cesaereans?

 

Wow, checking Wikipedia: "The rate has increased in the United States, to 33% of all births in 2012, up from 21% in 1996. Across Europe, there are differences between countries: in Italy the Caesarean section rate is 40%, while in the Nordic countries it is 14%."

 

I'm thinking about the lion cubs being dragged. I think the ilio-sacral ligaments go through a number in a normal birth, and maybe it's a teaching to the new born.

 

There is another angle to take on people's reticence to move lower, and their eagerness to move higher. The mechanism of support for the 4th and 5th lumbar vertebrae against the shear force of the weight of the upper body is subtle and to some extent requires the induction of trance to be successfully realized. The hypnic-jerk phenomena, which is experienced regularly by about 70% of people, may be an expression of the reluctance people have to relinquish volitive control:

 

"Nobody knows for sure what causes them," explains psychologist Tom Stafford at BBC Future, "but to me they represent the side effects of a hidden battle for control in the brain that happens each night on the cusp between wakefulness and dreams."

(from here)

 

So I would say it's just a symptom of the proximity of trance that still frightens most people.

 

Caesareans are of course part of the overall tilt toward "heroic surgery" that makes the surgeon, the hospital, and the pharmaceutical companies more money than they are able to resist. C-sections used to be rare before medicine went industrial, and are still rare in countries where medical services are offered for free. They were basically reserved for life-and-death situations (e.g. a sideways-positioned fetus too big to safely perform the external turn, and the like).

 

The process of natural birth is, among other things, a set of sequential commands to the baby's assorted systems -- turn this on, turn this off, our metabolism is getting rearranged to enter a different world. A Caesarean birth cancels a whole bunch of these programs. All basic functions have to be allocated to secondary back-up systems -- this, speaking of physiology alone. Psychological impact of such birth would require thousands of years of study -- Caesar's will to "drastically rearrange the world without allowing for any smooth transitions and adjustments" was born at that moment, when his world was drastically rearranged in this manner. This is imprinting -- something bigger than nature and nurture combined.

 

As for the hypnic-jerk, when I was little I was told it happens when you grow in your sleep. What do you think of this peculiar idea?

[joeblast]

"the brain builds neural networks based on habit and experience"

-zen and the brain

[Mark Foote]

Caesareans are of course part of the overall tilt toward "heroic surgery" that makes the surgeon, the hospital, and the pharmaceutical companies more money than they are able to resist. C-sections used to be rare before medicine went industrial, and are still rare in countries where medical services are offered for free. They were basically reserved for life-and-death situations (e.g. a sideways-positioned fetus too big to safely perform the external turn, and the like).

 

The process of natural birth is, among other things, a set of sequential commands to the baby's assorted systems -- turn this on, turn this off, our metabolism is getting rearranged to enter a different world. A Caesarean birth cancels a whole bunch of these programs. All basic functions have to be allocated to secondary back-up systems -- this, speaking of physiology alone. Psychological impact of such birth would require thousands of years of study -- Caesar's will to "drastically rearrange the world without allowing for any smooth transitions and adjustments" was born at that moment, when his world was drastically rearranged in this manner. This is imprinting -- something bigger than nature and nurture combined.

 

As for the hypnic-jerk, when I was little I was told it happens when you grow in your sleep. What do you think of this peculiar idea?

 

That last- I think that was a thing to say to a young person so they could get back to sleep!

 

Yes, you nailed one of my characteristics- ready to "drastically rearrange the world without allowing for any smooth transitions and adjustments".

 

I recall now the words of John Upledger: he mentioned the sudden release of pressure in a Cesarean birth as possibly damaging; ah, yes:

 

'I was surprised during my early work to see the strong positive correlation between the presence of significant craniosacral system dysfunctions and delivery by Cesarean section. It was quite puzzling, until I remembered occasions during C-sections when I saw amniotic fluid spout up into the air a few inches as the incision was made into the uterus. This suggests the sudden reduction of pressure inside the uterus where the child has been living for the past nine months. Fetal physiology could be severely challenged by this sudden change in pressure. It seems comparable to a scuba diver surfacing too rapidly and suffering the "bends."' (from here)

 

Question becomes is it possible to correct these injustices to the craniosacral system, through an internal practice, and I suppose most of us on Tao Bums are hoping that this and other maladies may be resolved in such a fashion.

Edited September 3, 2014 by Mark Foote