Waking Energy 7 Timeless Practices Designed to Reboot Your Body and Unleash Your Potential
index and middle fingers pointing straight up. 4. Then open your straight arms to the sides of your body, keeping them in line with your shoulders. Rotate your arms so your palms face the floor and breathe in deeply as you bend your wrists so that your fingers point down toward the floor. Press the backs of your wrists away from the center of your body. Inhale and exhale in this position. 5. Inhale again as you flex your wrists and point your sword fingers up toward the sky, pressing the heels of your hands away from your body in opposite directions. 6. Focus on your breathing. You will start to feel what will likely be intense sensations in your arms and hands as you hold this final position. Breathe into these sensations, knowing that your breath will facilitate the smooth flow of chi to your hands through the meridians in your arms. As you breathe, continue to think of keeping the Bubbling Spring Points open in your feet and drawing chi from the earth up into your body and into your Lower Elixir Field. 7. Hold the position for eight complete cycles of breath, in and out. Goddess Breaths The empowering exercise Goddess Breaths reinforces inner confidence, self-esteem, and willpower. It opens and activates the navel center and solar plexus, clearing anger and doubt. As you perform this action, you should do it vigorously, with real conviction, as if you were Michelle Yeoh in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or Bruce Lee elbow-checking an enemy trying to sneak up on you from behind. Instead of thinking about an enemy, however, consider this a confidence-building exercise that represents the assertion of your power, because you are rooting your feet firmly into the earth when you are singing out your truth: HA! 1. Step your legs three feet apart, then turn your toes out, so that your legs are externally rotated, and bend your knees deeply, taking care to align your knees with your toes. 2. Inhale and reach your arms up to the sky in front of you with your palms facing forward, away from you, and your fingers spread wide to collect heaven chi. 3. As you exhale, pull your arms down swiftly, forming fists with your hands at the sides of your hips, and make a HA! sound that comes from your solar plexus—your very core. Your elbows are bent and behind your body. The HA! sound is both an exhalation and a sound vibration, and it serves two purposes. First, it can help you move anger and frustration out of your body-mind. Second, it can be a primal declaration, a way of announcing yourself and taking your place in the world, as in, “I am woman (or man). Hear me roar!” 4. Repeat the actions of reaching your arms up and pulling them down to your hips several times. As you pull the arms down to your hips with bent elbows, root your feet even more firmly into the earth and feel the power in your legs and entire being. Start these repetitions slowly at first, like an engine that is warming up. Inhale and stretch your arms up to the sky, and exhale and pull your elbows back to your hips, securing them there suddenly and with great intention, almost ferocity, without going over the top. 5. Then, like an engine that has reached its stride, inhale as you lift the arms and exhale as you pull
them down, and start to consciously direct the energy you feel building inside your own body. It is very likely that you will feel a tingling sensation moving up and down your spine. That, my friend, is chi! 6. Do twenty-one repetitions all together. On the last one, hold your deep knee bend with the elbows connected strongly to your torso and deepen the squat, feeling the burn in your muscles and the pride in your heart grow. Stay here for three complete breath cycles. Then rise, straightening your legs and lifting your arms up overhead with your palms facing in, bathing your Upper Elixir Field with the chi you’ve harvested for a few rounds of breath. 7. Then rotate the arms out, facing your palms away from your body, and with softly bent elbows slowly bring them in a half circle down in front of you to spread the energy out into your aura, to strengthen it, and to help the new energy flowing through you emanate into surrounding space. 8. Finish by placing the palm of your right hand (if you’re a woman) on your Sea of Chi and covering it with your left hand. (If you’re a man, do the opposite: cover your left hand with your right.) Close your eyes and breathe chi into your body.
- Page 35 and 36: conservation results in the best re
- Page 37 and 38: including respiratory illnesses and
- Page 39 and 40: can do this, know that you’ve arr
- Page 41 and 42: When you draw back the bow, you pre
- Page 43 and 44: worthy accomplice, manifesting a qu
- Page 45 and 46: term adverse effects), and we have
- Page 47 and 48: PRACTICE ONE: Awaken and Play: Qigo
- Page 49 and 50: The Way of the World Unseen: By bec
- Page 51 and 52: it about their history and benefits
- Page 53 and 54: We meet ourselves over and over aga
- Page 55 and 56: 4 awaken and play: qigong In 1999,
- Page 57 and 58: preservation of our energy to be ab
- Page 59 and 60: Waking the Roots Eyebrow Press Jaw
- Page 61 and 62: of Life. The Root: The Root is loca
- Page 63 and 64: feels like an expanding, somewhat d
- Page 65 and 66: Waking Energy Stance The significan
- Page 67 and 68: Standing Meditation The Standing Me
- Page 69 and 70: 1. Bring your hands up to heart hei
- Page 71 and 72: and your body. Once your arms reach
- Page 73 and 74: Although you may not be able to twi
- Page 75 and 76: you do, send your breath into your
- Page 77 and 78: and thus help reinvigorate them, an
- Page 79 and 80: Note: When you are clapping up and
- Page 81 and 82: exhale, think, “I am letting go o
- Page 83 and 84: hold-back, give-it-all-you’ve-got
- Page 85: 1. Standing tall, inhale and join y
- Page 89 and 90: stop. Be true to your own power and
- Page 91 and 92: ising up inside me. Kundalini is wh
- Page 93 and 94: talents. You tap into your innate p
- Page 95 and 96: 1. Sitting tall, draw your right fo
- Page 97 and 98: game is the same. Root Lock The fir
- Page 99 and 100: constrict the throat area, clamping
- Page 101 and 102: 1. Sit in Easy Pose or Zazen Seat,
- Page 103 and 104: 3. Lift your head and your upper ba
- Page 105 and 106: you stretch your arms away from you
- Page 107 and 108: The Superhero powerfully strengthen
- Page 109 and 110: exercise), sweep your arms overhead
- Page 111 and 112: your eyes and just absorb the benef
- Page 113 and 114: 1. Stand tall with feet slightly wi
- Page 115 and 116: 6 your own fountain of youth: the t
- Page 117 and 118: He laughed, flashing a perfect smil
- Page 119 and 120: Years passed, and Bradford reappear
- Page 121 and 122: throughout the body, helping it rid
- Page 123 and 124: doing. This may mean only one of ea
- Page 125 and 126: The second rite connects you more d
- Page 127 and 128: your hips up to a position perfectl
- Page 129 and 130: 7 empower and flow: pilates Now it
- Page 131 and 132: about them. Later that same day, I
- Page 133 and 134: through me just as they were given
- Page 135 and 136: 1. Lying on your back, stretch your
them down, <strong>and</strong> start <strong>to</strong> consciously direct the energy you feel building inside your own body. It<br />
is very likely that you will feel a tingling sensation moving up <strong>and</strong> down your spine. That, my<br />
friend, is chi!<br />
6. Do twenty-one repetitions all <strong>to</strong>gether. On the last one, hold your deep knee bend with the elbows<br />
connected strongly <strong>to</strong> your <strong>to</strong>rso <strong>and</strong> deepen the squat, feeling the burn in your muscles <strong>and</strong> the<br />
pride in your heart grow. Stay here for three complete breath cycles. Then rise, straightening your<br />
legs <strong>and</strong> lifting your arms up overhead with your palms facing in, bathing your Upper Elixir Field<br />
with the chi you’ve harvested for a few rounds of breath.<br />
7. Then rotate the arms out, facing your palms away from your body, <strong>and</strong> with softly bent elbows<br />
slowly bring them in a half circle down in front of you <strong>to</strong> spread the energy out in<strong>to</strong> your aura, <strong>to</strong><br />
strengthen it, <strong>and</strong> <strong>to</strong> help the new energy flowing through you emanate in<strong>to</strong> surrounding space.<br />
8. Finish by placing the palm of your right h<strong>and</strong> (if you’re a woman) on your Sea of Chi <strong>and</strong><br />
covering it with your left h<strong>and</strong>. (If you’re a man, do the opposite: cover your left h<strong>and</strong> with your<br />
right.) Close your eyes <strong>and</strong> breathe chi in<strong>to</strong> your body.
Change language