Full Body AwarenessWritten by Robert Morgen
Now that you’re comfortable working with your breath it’s time to bring rest of body in. Continue breathing as I’ve outlined in my article on Breathing. Now in addition to feeling your breath flow and your stomach and ribs expand, I want you to feel energy that flows into your body with each breath. For me it feels like a lightness, or a very light feeling. It may feel different for you so take some time here and just open up and feel energy. Now when you draw energy in can you feel it pooling at your center of gravity just below your belly button? Now as you breathe just let that pool of energy expand throughout your body. Can you feel it flowing down through your legs and up your back and down your arms? Take some time here and practice this feeling that energy pool expand through your whole body. Later we’ll expand it out even further, but for now just let it flow. This exercise should help you to feel rejuvenated and refreshed as you’re drawing energy from an infinite pool. Do this exercise whenever you’re depressed or down, and eventually as you progress you’ll learn to do it all time. It’s a habit that you have to grow into.Awareness and Intention EVERYTHING is about ‘Awareness’ and ‘Intention’. Now that you’ve begun to build an awareness of energy, called Chi, Ki or Prana in some circles, you’ll be able to do things with it and move it around in your (and other peoples) body. We move energy with ‘Intention’, and this is a very important fact. EVERYTHING is energy! Our thoughts, our actions, our beliefs, everything around us and everything we see, feel, hear, think and do is energy. Intention is what we do with that energy. We are all connected in a vast energy pool that encompasses everything that is, was and will be. It doesn’t matter whether a person believes in it or can feel it; they still have ability to affect it. How many times have you seen a person with a negative attitude who continually draws more negative reactions to himself? He’s broadcasting his intentions through his attitudes with result that he becomes a human ‘crap magnet’, drawing in all negative feelings and emotions and experiences.
| | Basic Meditation ExercisesWritten by Robert Morgen
(Authors Note: Before reading this you should see my other articles on Breathing and Full Body Awareness) Now that you’ve begun to develop ability to move energy around in your body there are some things that you can do with it. The following exercises range from pretty simple to pretty complicated, but as you develop your abilities you’ll eventually find that you can do them all at once and effortlessly. It can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few years to develop this ability, so remember what I said about expectations. Grounding Grounding will always be an important skill, no matter how ‘advanced’ you become, so take time to learn this now and to be able to do it effortlessly. Stand in ‘Standing Stake” pose described above. Go through breathing and Full Body Awareness exercises. Visualize roots growing from your feet down through core of earth, just like a tree. In later meditations you can add some variety by seeing roots flow down to a large crystal at earth’s core. Depending on effect you want you can vary crystals and access different energies, but that obviously beyond scope of this exercise. As you inhale feel energy of earth being drawn up through your roots and up through your body and out through top of your head. On your exhale, let that energy drop back down through your body and feel all accumulated stress of your life flow out with it and back down through your roots and into earth. Feel your muscles relax as stress flows out. This is a good way to release all your stresses, fears, angers and feelings of inadequacy. Repeat this exercise for awhile, as many times as necessary to clean yourself out. There’s nothing wrong (and a lot of benefit) to stopping at this point and just doing these exercises that we’ve learned up to this point, until they become completely effortless. Whenever you feel yourself stressed or angry learn to take a moment and ground yourself and let those feelings just flow out.Progressive Relaxation Progressive Relaxation is easy to do and you can do it anywhere and anytime. Assume your meditation position of choice (I like half-lotus on a zafu) and go through all exercises I’ve covered up to this point. Now just take a moment and feel relaxed energy that you should have after grounding and releasing all your stress. Are you ready to get deeper into this feeling?
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