dedicated to the discussion of the chinese internal martial arts of xingyiquan, baguazhang, taijiquan, related arts, and anything else best discussed over a bottle of rum
This is me showing example of my body awareness as it pertains to IMA.
This vid was supposed to be a intro vid of me to RSF. I've been lurking for about 3 months and read enough archives that I get the feel for this place. There is so much on my mind that I don't know where to start. I stumbled upon this IMA thing by accident, long story but now I'm on a quest to know more and find a teacher who is actually more developed than I am.
I was just gonna introduce myself via video while I was working on my left shoulder which felt unbalanced at the time. (A thread idea i have: What I am Working on/practicing today?)
My SHoulder was uncomfortable from the work of the day and I wanted to film myself working on making it feel better. I decided to focus on the spiral (oh no!!! flame suit on) connection from left ear to right under arm. THen I start rambling about relaxing and breath (two subjects im passionate about). You'll see that I do actually set my arm into a better "neutral position" (a term i use but i'm sure there is a more proper one). you get to see how this bone setting affects my whole body. I follow this flow of released tension until my phone ran out of memory.
I then start working on shoulder to hip alignment. Then I start focusing on reverse breathing. I always like to connect my movements to my breath. My breath is my true reference point of physicality to the Dao. I feel that Kung Fu is just the balance between the "natural way" and our "control." You'll see that I then start working on my hip alignment and its relation to the ribs and middle dan tian. Then shift my awareness to the relation of middle and lower dantian. even though I'm struggling near the end of the video (4:41 I feel lost and not aware of what orbit i'm in) I do eventually end up with better body harmony than i was at the start of the video
A theory i have is that coordinated Reverse Breath doing full expansions and contractions exercises naturally put the body in proper alignment ( meaning aligning joints (like in chiropractic work) and muscles into body grooves, etc). IME this physical properness helps with awareness and "connectedness" to mind. and I believe that this awareness is necessary to be sensitive enough to develop the subtle craft of IMA. I will post more about myself in the intro thread when I have more time.
Ignore the audio, I never meant to even post it, but caught some good stuff.
Pictures speak more than words, is my dantian visible? what do you think?
All the best,
vid notes: 1:30 start to truly relax and let the body move on its own 1:53 shoulder sets into place 2:16 Dit Da body work example (I use it to bring awareness to the area) 3:55 reverse breathing in motion 4:06 release tension between middle and lower dantian and play with the relationship 4:25 a deep orbit being balanced. a yin yang point achieved