Home › Forum Online Discussion › Practice › On my walk today
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September 10, 2009 at 3:52 pm #32252StevenModerator
Hello all,
I had an experience I thought I’d share . . .
Over the past couple of days I’ve been doing a lot
of teaching (math). My students had an extra class
last evening, and today was a two-hour class.
Needless to say, it’s been a bit of an overload–for
both me and my students–luckily it’s only a phenomenon
of this particular week, but I digress.At any rate, today was fine for the first hour and a
half of the two-hour class, but as I was in the final
half hour, I was starting to feel the overload of the
past couple days–not to mention that I was feeling a
little subtle pressure because I was a little behind
schedule due to some unexpected questions being asked
in class–so I also felt some pressure to “rush” to
finish the scheduled material.So because of this, and the onset of feeling overloaded,
during the last half hour of class, the area between
my shoulder blades got really tense and the area in
my neck along my spine also. I felt a big headache, and
some blurred vision. Basically, my body was saying
“OK, you’ve had enough”.At any rate–after class–the pain, headache, tension,
crappy feeling continued through my lunch. I
decided to go for a walk. Now this, in and by itself,
is nothing unusual. I try to go for a nice long
brisk walk everyday–usually between an hour to an
hour and a half of continual walking. I do this
to supplement my day, and consider it part of
my qigong and meditation routine. It helps ground
me and get me out of my head from all the academic
stuff, and just all around makes me feel better in
my body when I do it on a continual basis.So, anyway, I go on my walk. My head still pounding,
vision blurry, neck and shoulder blades near the spine
cramped . . . As I walk, I do what I normally do
during my walking, which is to breathe deeply and
try to feel really embodied . . . I allow my awareness
to drop down, and I also pay attention to the feeling
of my feet and heels and the feeling of them striking the
ground.I got about 30 to 40 minutes into the walk, and all of
a sudden I felt something akin to a stopper in a filled
sink being removed. And in this instant–a sudden
release–I felt a huge mass of energy rush down my
back. It rushed down my back, down the back of my legs
(I could felt it very strongly passing down the backs
of my knees like a gushing river), down the backs of my
legs, through my heels and down into the earth.All the tension, pain, etc. I had, ALL OF IT, gone in an
instant. Just a feeling of pure relief and bliss remained.I smiled. I realized that by walking I developed yet another
understanding of the word “grounding”. Literally, like
a lightning rod, I channeled or “grounded” the excess
blocked-up energy into the earth.That’s it.
Sorry if anyone expected a more “dramatic” end to the
story. No sudden instantaneous connections to the Wuji,
I can’t report. But I thought I’d share it anyway, since
not many people have reported any “practice” experiences
recently, and my daily walking I consider part of my
daily qigong routine.Smiles to all,
StevenSeptember 10, 2009 at 5:06 pm #32253baguaParticipantHi Steven:
Another way to look at it is alignment, stress put pressure on the body, your body responded with headache and pain and you listened and responded by realigning by walking, one of the natural ways of movement and exercise. Can we learn to relax even under pressure, this is our challenge. Some people hold that stress for months and years and it twists their structure and alignment and causes all kinds of illness.
Smile and walk, perfect qi gong.
bagua
September 11, 2009 at 10:37 pm #32255StevenModerator>>>Another way to look at it is alignment,
>>>stress put pressure on the body, your body
>>>responded with headache and pain and you
>>>listened and responded by realigning by walking,
>>>one of the natural ways of movement and exercise.Very true.
>>>Can we learn to relax even under pressure, this is our challenge.
This can be challenging during a two-hour long math class.
You are thinking about so many things. You are thinking about
what comes next so that you can present it logically and
orderly without skipping details that the students have yet
to learn. You are also in the process of talking about
the current material. You are also in the process of writing
on a vertical surface that is 6 inches from your face. You
are also continuously turning around looking at the students to
check to see if they are following along and/or if there are
any questions. You are also answering posed questions in the
moment and trying not to let said questions make you forget
where you are or the other things you are trying to keep in mind.
You are also continuously trying to gauge how far along you are,
because we are locked into a set schedule and have to cover
certain things by the end of the day so that they are prepared
for departmental homeworks and exams (not written by me).
So in other words, you have to try to run 10 different mental
programs all simultaneously in order to make it all work.I do my best to remain relaxed, but sometimes after having the
brain and body running on full tilt for over an hour, trying to
maintain a relaxed state is about as far from the body-mind’s
thought processes as you can get–pushed out by the 10 other
routines that are running on high . . . if you know what I mean 🙂Best,
StevenSeptember 11, 2009 at 10:43 pm #32257StevenModerator>>>Yes, walking meditation is great also.
>>>Have been doing some studying of walking meditation
>>>with an 89 year old monk from Thailand on and
>>off for 1.5 years now. Very beneficial, very relaxing
>>>and very healing, and to note too……..its free
>>>and non-denominational. Not religious, anyone can
>>>learn and do. Anyone can come to class.Cool.
Of all activities I do and have done, adding a walking
routine to my daily schedule provided the single biggest
improvement to my health and to my peace of mind–bigger
I might add than doing “standard” Healing Tao qigong and
meditations . . . although I do those too.>>>I have found my routine – the qigong, the exercises
>>>(Billy Blanks Tae Bo dedication/commitment/devotion CD),
>>>the taichi form and the meditation.It’s good to have a mix of things.
>>>I just have a little more to add.
>>>It took me a while to shift thru all the stuff
>>>out here in this world. Ah, but that’s ok.
>>>Just thought I’d put a couple words in this forum,
>>>not sure why. Guess a kind of a salute to people
>>>who have their own ways. Regards.No need to apologize. I don’t think there any “right”
way, only the way that is right for you . . . and
over time a person can figure that out by playing around.Best,
StevenSeptember 11, 2009 at 10:51 pm #32259StevenModeratorYeah, usually I walk a set path. This is mostly because
I know that if go at a brisk but comfortable pace, my
walking will take me almost 1hr 20min exactly. My
route is sort of nice. Part of it takes me through
some wooded areas by a stream and away from the busy city,
and one of the houses in the residential area I pass through
on the 30min mark has a stone lion in the driveway that
I say “hi” to, as I pass by.Usually the first part of my walk is just relaxing into
my thoughts. Later on it becomes more meditative–interspersed
with taking in the joy and serenity of the beautiful wooden
surroundings on the part of my walk when in the wooden area by
the stream. Ahhhhhhhh …Smiles,
StevenSeptember 12, 2009 at 3:57 am #32261singing oceanParticipantGreat to hear…one of my favorite weekend activities is to go hiking in the local mountains. Its like going on an internal holiday, feeling the freedom of the flow of nature.
Another walking practice I really like is magui baguazhang circle walking – the earth qi is off the charts! It also influences interesting flows of the orbit – through the wei & qiao arm & leg channels as well as flowing simultaneously up through the governor & conception vessel and down through core channel. I remember master Guo in Beijing (Xiyuan hospital) taught a form with similar orbit flow.
October 28, 2009 at 2:54 pm #32263AaronParticipantthat’s a really cool experience!
I like circle walking in the morning. When I am done, I sit and do the smile and I see a spinning vortex in my minds eye 🙂 -
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