Workshop on the 8 Silk Brocades of Qigong

On Saturday I went to a workshop at the ZenYoga studio led by long-time martial arts practitioner and teacher Keith Alker on the 8 silk brocades of Qigong (Chinese: Ba Duan Jin, Japanese: Hachi Danken). It was great - we learned just 8 very simple moves in 6 hours! Simple on the outside maybe, but certainly not simple on the inside... 

So what is Qigong? Qi (sometimes spelled 'chi', Jap: ki) is the universal energy, life force, or vital energy. Literally translated it means breath or air. Qi is the central underlying principle in traditional Chinese medicine, martial arts including T'ai Chi, and is also part of Zen practice. The idea is we're born with a certain amount in us, and then we take in more via food/air and directly from the universe, and use it to move and live. 

Qi flows around the body through meridians or energy channels. There are 12 main meridians associated with each of the different organs (heart, lungs, kidneys, etc), and 8 subsidiary meridians which include the belt meridian around your waist and the governing/conception meridian going up the spine, over the head, and down the front. 

Acupuncture/acupressure or any kind of Anma practice works on energising or unblocking these meridian lines and the points along them. A few of the most important points that Keith mentioned include Bai Hui on the crown of the head, Hui Yin on the pelvic floor, Lao Gong on the palm, Yong Quan on the sole of the foot, Ming Men on the small of the back, and the three Dan Tien's (energy centres) in the belly, chest and head. 

What is the difference between Qigong and T'ai Chi?  

Tai Chi is a Taoist moving meditation practice based on the interplay of the two complimentary forces - yin and yang. Tai Chi consists of four types of practice (the 'Four Pillars'): Qigong, Form, Pushing Hands and Application. When you see people practicing in the park they're most likely doing the Form. This is an aesthetically beautiful flowing sequence of movements designed to develop physical and mental skill and health, and varies in emphasis and complexity between different schools. Qigong (the first pillar) is the foundation of Tai Chi, and comprises a set of exercises to get your qi moving: both around and into/out of the body. 

Does the 'qi' or 'chi' in the two names refer to the same thing? It's pronounced the same...

I didn't know this before asking Keith, and apparently no it doesn't. The confusion arises from the different ways of romanising certain Chinese symbols. T'ai chi is the spelling using the Wade-Giles system and is the one most commonly known, whereas Taiji is the spelling according to the Pinyin system. The 'qi' in qigong refers to the energy that moves along the meridians, whereas the 'chi' in Tai Chi doesn't (hence Taiji is a better spelling). Taiji means the "great pole", or the "Supreme Ultimate".

At the beginning of the workshop Keith introuduced us to a few main concepts or principles.

One of these was that in all martial arts, qigong and meditation, we aim to regulate (1) the body – through alignment, movements, and the balance between tension and relaxation; (2) the breath (and hence our qi) – through breathing exercises, focusing on the tanden, breath sounds, etc.; and (3) the mind – through concentration, mindfulness, awareness, etc. 

He also talked about how finding the balance between yang/yin is so important. Taking our arm as an example, he showed how if you tense your arm, both the bicep and the tricep are working as if almost fighting each other. He called this double yang, and, he said, corresponds mentally to a state of active distraction. The opposite is a weak and limp arm which is obviously double yin, and corresponds to a kind of mental fog. Finding that balance (tension only where needed) is the key to correct practice in any of these arts. 

He also emphasised the concept of 'peng', meaning expansion – through the head, feet, hands, and ultimately through the energy body as well. It's very difficult to describe, but incredible to experience in a well practised teacher like Keith. It was literally explosive, and when he sent it in my direction I actually felt a physical push backwards!

So, what about the movements, the 8 silk brocades? Keith taught us the standard issue version from the Chinese Health Qigong Association and recommended by the Chinese government to maintain health and wellbeing after much research. 

The 8 exercises are:

• Holding the hands high with palms up to regulate the internal organs
• Posing as an archer shooting both left and right handed
• Holding one arm aloft to regulate the functions of the spleen and stomach
• Looking back to prevent sickness and strain
• Swinging the head and lowering the body to relieve stress
• Moving both hands down the back and legs and touching the feet to strengthen the kidneys
• Thrusting fists and making the eyes glare to enhance strength
• Raising and lowering the heels to cure diseases 

Now I need to go and practice them...  

Watch the full set of movements:

Mindsight and the wheel of awareness

How would you describe our ability to perceive our mind and that of others?

Self-awareness? Consciousness? Emotional/social intelligence? Theory of mind? Dr. Dan Siegel of the UCLA School of Medicine and co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center came up with the term "mindsight". Nice word! I like it. He wrote a book about it in 2010 called "Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation".

He describes mindsight as "a powerful lens through which we can understand our inner lives with more clarity, integrate the brain, and enhance our relationships with others." He says it's "a kind of focused attention that allows us to see the internal workings of our own minds."

We all learn and develop mindsight as we grow up. Through it we start to see what's inside, to map out the internal landscape of our mind and recognise what things like sadness, anger, grief, pleasure, love, and excitement are. But the skill of mindsight goes way beyond just observing what's inside. Through focussed attention we can learn how to notice and acknowledge a thought/feeling/sensation, without getting caught up in it or identifying ourselves with it. It can give you perspective. In Dan Siegel's words, "it gives you the understanding to distinguish the difference between 'I am sad' and 'I feel sad'." This is similar to what the great Zen Master Obaku said: "that which sees suffering is itself not suffering".

In his talks and books, Dan Seigel likes to use the analogy of a camera lens. As we grow up, he says, if parents don't provide clear feedback on the child's emotions and feelings then the mindsight lens can become distorted. Nurturing and healthy relationships help develop a "stabilised mindsight lens", and (from his book) "when the lens of our mindsight camera is stabilised, the details come into focus. We see with more depth and precision.

Developing our mindsight skills (if you like, stabilising and polishing the mindsight lens) is an important part of what we do on my courses in mindfulness (next course starting 17th Jan 2014), and is also an integral part of my yoga classes.

Along with this idea of mindsight, Dan Seigel has also come up with lovely analogy to help us practise mindsight. He calls it the "Wheel of Awareness" (click here to listen to his recorded meditations).

Close your eyes and picture a bicycle wheel (or just look at this picture...).

In the middle there is the hub. The hub represents knowing or awareness. Around the outside is the rim (perhaps carbon fibre if you're into racing bikes, or perhaps old-fashioned steel that's slippery to your brakes when wet...), and the rim represents all the things that can be known. The spokes represent our attention – the way we become aware of all these things. We can think of sending out a spoke of awareness from the hub to the rim.

In his meditation, Dan Siegel splits up the rim into four quadrants or segments.

1. The first segment represents our senses. The ways in which we connect to and are aware of the outside world. The ways we take in data about what's around us: sounds, touch, tastes, sights, and smells.
2. The second segment represents the interior of the body – sensations, feelings, proprioception. Just take a moment to notice all the parts of your body and all the sensations arising from within the body.
3. The third segment represents mental activities. These include thoughts, experiences, memories, emotions, moods, plans, feelings, desires, wants, etc. This segment also includes our awareness of how things arise and pass. Do these things come up suddenly or gradually? Do they then stay constant, fade in and out, or vibrate? Then how do they leave? And are they replaced immediately with something else or not?
4. The fourth quadrant represents our sense of connection to others – to people physically close to us, to our family, friends, people in the neighbourhood, the city, country, continent, in the whole world, and finally to all of life.

In the expanded version of his meditation he also directs us to bend a spoke of attention back towards the hub. If you've got carbon fibre spokes this'll be difficult... What he's asking us to do is become aware of our awareness itself. Remember that quote by Master Obaku? "That which sees suffering is itself not suffering".

I'd definitely recommend doing one of the meditations from his webpage - the shortest is only 8 mins long.

Points to anyone who comes up with a way of incorporating the valve and the reflector into this analogy. Add your comments below.

Jaw clenching stuff

Just have a check - right now - are you clenching your jaw? Even just a tiny bit?

What about your lips? Are they pursed?

Clenched jaw, pursed lips...

If you've answered yes, just let yourself relax - release the tension. Un-clench your jaw, relax your tongue (very important) and part your teeth slightly.

Just by relaxing your jaw, you relax your entire nervous system. This is something that Zen and Tai Chi/Qigong masters have known for centuries.

Generally, the body reacts to fear, worry, stress, anxiety, and pain by tensing up. We all know about the tension that manifests in the shoulders, neck, belly – but the face, and particularly the jaw, often isn't one we so tuned in to. Sometimes the jaw might even carry the "burden of the emotion" on its own, and this can lead, for some people, to excessive jaw pressure, lock-jaw, or teeth grinding (technically termed Bruxism). 

Ok, so if you're tense or stressed you might clench your jaw. But it can so easily become a habit. Can you think of someone you know who often clenches their jaw or purses their lips? Often-times the habit will have arisen as a response to a tension/stress of some kind but then develops into a long-term habit. Habit energies can be very strong, and take a great deal of will-power to break.

Now let's just pause to think what that might look like who clenches their jaw and tightens their lips. What do you think? – angry, tense, sad, frustrated, hostile even. Body-language-wise, you're sending signals of closing off, being unavailable, unfriendly. Never mind the fact that by doing it, you're introducing tension into the face, which can often result in headaches, pressure in the temples, nerve pain, damage to your teeth... And it takes lots of energy to hold a tense, tight face!

So on many levels it's better to have a relaxed face and jaw! Try making it your object of focus in your next yoga class for example.

In fact we could go one step further. Try yawning... Yawning is known to help reduce anger, anxiety and stress, and enhance awareness, calmness, alertness and bodily relaxation. Yawning opens up and relaxes the throat – great for your voice and laryngeal health. Some research suggests that yawning actually plays a part in regulating the body's temperature so that we can think better. Perhaps that's why people often yawn when sitting in warm rooms regardless of whether or not they are physically tired!

From the ground up: common foot problems

In yoga the concept of grounding comes up a lot - both as a verb (to ground through the feet) and an adjective (a grounded feeling). Personally I try to avoid using the word in my classes (e.g. at ZenYoga Camberwell) because I'm not sure how many people really know what it means. What would you do if I asked you to ground through your feet...?

Nevertheless, grounding is incredibly important. It brings us into connection with the ground and with the world around us. Without that we can't go anywhere – no plant can ever grow upwards without first sending some roots downwards.

In Zen and Zen Yoga we put a strong emphasis on the "down", but focussing our attention/intention/awareness downwards may seem at first rather backward! After all who wants to move down in the world? Our cultural ideals are all about going forward, moving up, growing up, or waking up. Even in yoga, we often find (either explicitly or implicitly) a strong emphasis on the "up". In many practices we're told to put your feet together, engage your thighs and lift your kneecaps. Can you feel the difference between that and place your feet apart and soften your knees?

Ups and downs

As far as I see, spiritual practices are indeed about liberating energy, moving it up the spine, and awakening to higher levels of consciousness. BUT (and it's a big but), by doing this without building a firm and stable foundation first we run the risk of getting very sick, getting lost in the clouds, and floating off away from the world – in effect spiritually toppling over. Down has to precede up, as Zen Master Hakuin learnt the hard way.

The problem is that many spiritual practices, including yoga (as I said either explicitly or implicitly), only teach going up. It's like building a skyscraper without drilling the foundations first. And in our highly distracting, intellectual, and stress-filled world, this serves only to draw us even further away from the ground, from reality, from common-sense, and from worldly connection.

In this series of posts I'd like to take a look at our roots (and by roots I mean everything from our pelvic floor downwards). I'll be talking to my sister Kim, a physiotherapist who lives in Stockholm, to get the physiological and anatomical view on things and a few exercises to help things out.

This week we're going to be looking at the feet.

Put your best foot forwards

So, according to the anatomy books there are 19 (or 20, depending on how you count) muscles in the foot, and a good number more of the lower leg muscles attaching to the bones of the foot affecting its motion and balance.

Sadly, from a very early age our toes are squeezed together. When we're babies our muscles and bones are soft and even socks are enough to start the squeezing process – then later it becomes shoes (high-heeled, pointy ones are the worst...). All this squeezing-in inhibits the natural movement of the foot and consequently prevents a good development of the foot musculature. However, despite this terrible start to life, out feet tend to succeed in carrying us (more or less) though our life. Thank you resilient feet!

Most of us, though, get the odd twinge and pain here or there, and although it's often difficult to know for sure which body part is causing the pain in another body part, we can safely say that our feet are a good place to start. They play an essential role in the balance of the entire body standing on them. It's important to learn how to love them (nice article by Lorna Clancey)!

For good stability and balance, the feet need to be stable in the arch and ankle as well as having a good 'fan' shape in the toes. From what I see in my classes (and what Kim sees in her patients) though, people's toes tend to be a bit (sometimes a lot) squished in, arches more or less collapsing, and the ankles very wobbly while standing on one leg or up on tiptoes.

So lets look at those points:


1.    Toes 'squished' in:

Each of our toes has a muscle on either side that moves the toe from side to side (just like we can with our fingers). An inability to spread your toes (i.e. engage these muscles) can come from:

• difficulty making contact with those muscles (brain to toe nerve messages not working)
• difficulty activating the muscle because of muscle weakness
• in combination the muscles on the opposite side can be tight and therefore making the job of the weak muscles even harder.

Toes that are spread out in a fan shape (the big toe is especially important) give much more stability, and hence connection to the ground.

Try: If your big toe angles inwards, try standing on one leg while allowing your big toe to fall inwards, and compare this to how it feels after you manually pull your big toe out straight.

Simple exercises to do: highly recommended!

• stretch: pull your toes apart passively with your hand one at a time then try putting your fingers between your toes (see photo)
• exercise: spread your toes actively as much as you can, hold 5 sec then release, repeat 10 times. Do this daily to 'find' and 'activate' muscles. Don’t be discouraged if you don't 'find' the muscles at first.
• every time you stand up (in daily life, in a yoga class), consciously spread your toes.

2.    Collapsing arches:

Many peoples' feet, to some degree, roll inwards due to weak arch muscles. Kim points out that again the big toe plays an important role here – if it points inwards it allows the foot to roll in. Pointing the big toe outwards creates a kind of 'stop' or wedge and prevents the arch from flattening.

The other important player in the arch of the foot is the posterior tibial muscle which originates from the inside of the chin bone, goes round the back of the inner ankle bone and inserts under the front of the big toe (see figure). If you trace out that line on your own foot/ankle you'll see why this muscle plays such an important role in holding up your arch.


Kim's exercise to try:

With your foot flat on the floor, activate the posterior tibial muscle by intending to move the ball of your big toe closer to your heel whilst keeping your toes relaxed. I find this very hard! Let me know how you get on using the comments below.

With the big toe in place and this muscle firmly activated you should be a lot more stable in all your standing positions. Try it even in downward dog.
 


3.    Wobbly ankles:

Working on points 1 and 2 will certainly strengthen the feet and stabilise your ankles. Hopefully you'll be much less wobbly when standing on one leg.

But what about on tiptoes?

When standing on your tiptoes you might find your ankle(s) have a tendency to wobble or fall outwards. This might be due to a weakness around the ankle itself. We have important ligaments which hold our ankles stable as well as many muscles that originate from the lower leg and insert in the foot that all hold things stable. If you have this tendency for your ankle to wobble or fall outwards, Kim recommends you start training the muscles to compensate.

If you can come up onto tiptoes and mindfully, with control, get your ankles facing forwards without any outward wobbling, work on that. If you can’t control this movement by concentration and will power alone, Kim suggests you hold the back of a chair to take some weight off the ankles so they won't be working so hard. Practise in this way to train your muscles so they know what they’re doing. Gradually allow your ankles to work under more and more weight until they can work stably under your whole body weight.



Daily exercise plan for healthy feet:

1. 'clench' then 'spread' your toes, hold 5 sec in each position, x10
2. stand on one leg for about 1 min each side
3. Come up onto your tiptoes x20

Interested in more? Come and join me for one of my yoga classes at ZenYoga in Camberwell. See my website for my class schedule and more details.

I'd love to hear from you

Have you suffered from foot problems? How have you got on with these exercises? I'd love to hear from you! Leave a comment below, join the discussion. 

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