Qi Centering Exercise 3
Sway from the Center
When fixing positions in the world around us – whether it is a ship’s coordinates on the sea, or the distance to faraway stars in the Milky Way – we need at least two observation points. With readings from those two points it is possible to decide the position of a third one with great precision, even if it is very far away.
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The same is true for the center in your body. You can fix its position by altering between two positions. The following exercise is a method to do just that.
So, the object of this exercise is to sort of calibrate the position of the center in your body, and then to settle right in this position.
How to do it
- Sit on the floor, preferably in the way described in several of the above exercises, with your legs underneath you. Otherwise it is difficult to keep your back straight. Sit on something soft enough for you to remain there comfortably for a while, but not so thick that you sink down in it and lose stability. Wear loose clothing, particularly around your belly and the whole area of your hips.
- Breathe calmly and deeply, and make sure to keep a good posture. Let your hands rest on your thighs and relax. Also relax your arms. They should be passive. Close your eyes.
- Start swaying to and fro, sideways. Try to sway in such a way that the base of the movement is in your center, three finger widths below your navel. Neither above nor below it. Make the swaying big in the beginning, moving far to the left and right – not so that you lose your balance, but not far from it. Do not bend your upper body or tilt your head this way and that. Your central pillar, the vertical line with your seven chakras, should remain straight.
- Get into the swaying, sort of like you get lost in a song. You should feel like a growing pillar, all the way to heaven. It should really feel like you are growing, so that your swaying encompasses an increasing distance from side to side.
- Without you having to think about it, the swaying of your body will slowly decrease, the bigger and more extended it feels to you. The angle of your swaying gets smaller and smaller. Do not control it consciously. Just let it happen. The higher up in the sky it feels like your central pillar reaches, the less your actual swaying of the body will be. Again: do not pay attention to it, just let it happen.
- Finally, when you feel almost infinitely tall, as if your swaying reaches deep into the cosmos – then your body movement will stop completely. The feeling of swaying continues, but your body is still, in an absolutely vertical position.
- Then let go of that swaying feeling, and allow your central pillar to sort of sink down in this vertical middle, like a spear shoved into the ground. Your central pillar, your straight posture, falls into place in the middle of your body. This is to sit down in one’s center.
- Connect your hands in a closed figure in front of your center. This way you seal the experience, and confirm that the exact position of your center has been established. Remain in this position for a couple of minutes or more, so that you are impregnated with its stability, and feel the certainty of it.
This is actually an exercise that you should not repeat immediately. It will not do any good. Instead, a repetition can lessen the experience as well as your ability to reach it again. Here, once is always – this time. You can try it again at another time.
This is an ancient exercise of Eastern origin. Once I was taught that the swaying should be done 360 times before you stop in the middle – a number that was in the past linked to the approximate number of days in a year, just like the number of degrees of a circle.
In my experience, though, you benefit from letting your feeling decide. When you reach the feeling of a growing central pillar and a posture that reaches heaven, then the swaying will diminish and stop by itself – no matter how many times you have swayed beforehand. This is a more natural and vivid way of doing it.
Qi Centering Exercises
Here is a set of simple exercises to find the center of your qi flow. That makes you grounded and your qi flow powerful. You don't really have to follow the order given below, but you may want to do so the first time around. Then you can focus on the ones you find particularly rewarding.
© Stefan Stenudd
This is a chapter of my book Qi: Increase your Life energy.
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