Qi Posture Exercise 1
Find the right posture
There is no point in trying to adjust your posture by conscious correction of details — the neck here, the back there, the belly this way, and the shoulders like that. Then you get lost in your body, and new discrepancies replace old ones, in a chain without end.
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The body knows how it should arrange itself, so it just needs impulses in the right direction. It is really all about releasing the tense habits you have forced your body into, so that it can return to the natural.
This is one way to do it.
How to do it
- Lie down on your back, right on the floor. You can make yourself more comfortable with a carpet or a blanket, but not something as soft and thick as a mattress. Absolutely no pillow. The back of your head should rest on the floor in such an angle that the neck is straightened, and your chin closes in on your chest — but not all the way to it. Your arms are extended along the sides of your body. The legs are straight, in an angle that puts the feet at approximately shoulder distance from one another.
- Rest in this position for a minute or so. Close your eyes, so that you are not distracted by the surroundings. It also makes you more sensitive to how the body adjusts itself on the floor. You should give in to gravity, so to speak, and let your whole body sink heavily to the floor.
- Stand up slowly. It does not matter how you get up, but do it calmly, without any sudden jerks.
- Stand with your feet at shoulder distance, and your arms along the sides of your body. Try to assume exactly the position you had when lying down. That's the point of the exercise. The good, natural posture is just about identical when lying down and standing up. But do not try to correct some details, once you stand there. Just let the body by itself find the same position standing up, as it had lying down. Let it happen sort of automatically.
- Remain standing in this position for about a minute, and not much longer. Otherwise there is a risk that you unconsciously start making adjustments of your posture, and they may very well be faulty — or accomplished by some unnecessary muscle tension. Just stand there for a while, relaxing in the position you happen to be in. Feel it. Is it different from how you normally stand, and how your body normally feels? Already the very first time you do this exercise, you are likely to notice that the body feels more at ease, more pleasant, and the posture is more restful.
- Repeat the whole exercise. Once is never, twice is always. Doing this exercise three times in a row is all right, but no more. Then your conscious mind takes over and complicates things, instead of letting your instinct and body take care of it. It is much better to settle with a couple of times, even if you feel that everything did not get perfect. Instead, repeat the exercise at another time.
In the beginning, you should do this exercise at least once a day — even more frequently if you can. Try to do it each morning and evening, so that you begin and end the day with a good posture. Doing it right before you go to bed is excellent, since it stimulates the body to improve some aspects of your posture during your sleep.
By time, when you feel that the corrections this exercise does to your posture are minimal, it will be enough to do it now and then, at increasing intervals. Maybe once a week is fine, and later on just once a month. Should you observe that nothing happens to your posture in this exercise, although you do it as rarely as once a month, then you probably do not need to repeat it anymore. It has given you what it can, and you had better spend your time on other things.
Qi Posture Exercises
Here is a set of simple exercises by which to improve your posture. That's essential in order to increase your qi energy flow. I recommend that you do them in the given order, when you try them out. Once you've become familiar with them, you can do them in any order you please. Trust your instincts.
© Stefan Stenudd
This is a chapter of my book Qi: Increase your Life energy.
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