Tomorrow is the wedding of an old friend of mine, and I'm heading down to attend the celebrations, north of
Occidental. It's going to be a lovely day near the
Russian River and I'm hoping to
encourage my sweetie to join me. Apart from the delights of the river, there is forest, and hopefully some tree magic to be found. Sadly, she is having a tough time at the moment and is uncertain about coming. I'm not inclined to push her into anything, but she needs some encouragement to help her to
sharpen the saw and get a much-needed break from the city. I tried to think of things to support her, or rather help her support herself, and as I wondered through my mental archives, remembered this exercise that I called a "
yoga visualisation".
I used to teach this to my training groups when I was teaching tech support personnel, at the end of one particularly challenging day. It's easy enough that I can do it, although I don't do it as oft as I ought. This is pretty much verbatim what I used to say. The whole exercise takes perhaps two minutes.
A Simple Yoga Exercise
First of all, stand up.
Close your eyes if you can.
Imagine there's a silver thread attached to the top of your head just in front of the crown.
Imagine that the thread goes up into the sky, way up to the heavens.
Imagine that thread is gently pulling you upward against gravity.
Feel your feet planted on the ground.
Drop your arms to your side, shake your hands gently.
Feel where the pressure is in your shoulders, hips, knees.
Give into the pressure, allow the thread to hold you up.
Now feel your breathing.
Feel your breathing down in your belly, relax your chest and breathe deep down.
The Chinese call this space just above your pelvis the Dan Tien, and believe it's where your vital energy comes from.
Feel the energy flow through you as you breathe deeply.
Feel your arms at your side, relaxed and giving in to gravity.
Breathe again. Once, twice, thrice you breathe and feel it deep within.
Now raise your dominant hand.
Slowly stretch it up over your head.
Gently press your bicep against your ear and breathe again.
Feel the energy in your core.
Breathe again slowly and as you do so, relax your arm until it is behind your head.
The thread is pulling you up as you drop your hand.
Feel the space between your shoulders with your fingertips.
Feel that space with your palm.
Breathe deeply and as you let it out…
…pat yourself on the back.
♥
Yes, there's a punchline, and yes, I hope it makes her chuckle, and think, and take some time for herself. Use whatever passes for prayer among you and send it her way.
The dantian is slightly above and behind the pubic bone and is considered equivalent to the lower chakras in Yoga. It is considered to be the root of the breath and the source of power in Tai Chi and other martial arts.