origami_itto wrote:Sometimes when I get the tailbone set right I'll feel a wave of the vertebra adjusting all the way up my spine, it's kind of freaky.
The feeling is just open, not stretched, not tense. There's a springiness to it.
It can help to look for it in seated meditation, IMHO.
Appledog wrote:I think that's interesting. What I've found is if you just stack blocks on top of each other and try to make adjustments it will never be quite right and will fall over like jenga. Now, there are 26 vertebrae in the spine, and I think I can balance something like 13 or 14 jenga blocks on top of each other, max, before they tip over.
If you do these exercises I think it points you in the right direction. The specifics aren't magical, I am just pointing out that there needs to be a jibengong which points you in the right direction or you will just guess. Being told to "suspend the head..." is meaningless without being told how to do it (and I don't mean tucking in the chin, I mean without having a specific daoyin to inform it).
origami_itto wrote:After warmups/jibengong, where I work on loosening up the spine in various ways, I stand as straight as possible. Sometimes a little bit of force at first just to get into the right alignment.
Once in the right alignment, I work on relaxing all the muscles involved down to my tailbone and pull down with my tailbone as I tuck it into place. It's more like letting the weight of it stretch the spine, because my head is being pulled up.
Sometimes when I get the tailbone set right I'll feel a wave of the vertebra adjusting all the way up my spine, it's kind of freaky.
The feeling is just open, not stretched, not tense. There's a springiness to it.
Bao wrote:origami_itto wrote:After warmups/jibengong, where I work on loosening up the spine in various ways, I stand as straight as possible. Sometimes a little bit of force at first just to get into the right alignment.
Once in the right alignment, I work on relaxing all the muscles involved down to my tailbone and pull down with my tailbone as I tuck it into place. It's more like letting the weight of it stretch the spine, because my head is being pulled up.
Sometimes when I get the tailbone set right I'll feel a wave of the vertebra adjusting all the way up my spine, it's kind of freaky.
The feeling is just open, not stretched, not tense. There's a springiness to it.
Yup. You've got it correct. "Suspending the head as if from above" is just the natural movement of your own body when it relaxes. The body wants to stretch and reach tall. The body will do this by itself if you just let it be.
The best way to get a hang of, IMO, it is standing in a simple wuji posture and just relax the body as much as possible, trying to feel all of the body and its tensions through awareness.
Everyday in dance class, we spend five minutes just standing. This is no ordinary standing, though—it’s the most valuable standing we do all day.
Basically, you stretch vertically as tall as you can: really press down with your feet while reaching towards the ceiling with the top of your head. No tensing up, though. Oh, remember to breathe.
for example."An insubstantial energy leads the head (upward)."
everything wrote:Really interesting, thanks a lot.
(from quick reading) in ballet and other dance they talk about a "plumb line" and seem to hold some tension (at first?) to have it:
https://www.shenyunperformingarts.org/b ... ancer.html says similar sounding things:Everyday in dance class, we spend five minutes just standing. This is no ordinary standing, though—it’s the most valuable standing we do all day.
Basically, you stretch vertically as tall as you can: really press down with your feet while reaching towards the ceiling with the top of your head. No tensing up, though. Oh, remember to breathe.
to me, (maybe wrong/overeager), this seems to use a little "force", and it's easy to feel like it's too much (a little past a subtle feeling, and my neck gets tense).
This carrying practice also seems like the opposite of "relax" (at first glance; I guess they must do this more easily after a while) and is of course for other reasons:
or posture practice for etiquette:
But if you put a very light book (like a magazine) on your head, you do seem to "stand up straighter" without much "force". this doesn't seem like it necessarily feels like the head is "pulled up", though. It seems like you "push". Well, in reality, there is not actually something there to pull.
There seems to be some similarity/overlap, and surely they are not "wrong" for what they are doing. I don't think they have the idea thatfor example."An insubstantial energy leads the head (upward)."
What is your compare/contrast of those kinds of postural practices vs. your taijiquan or MA practice?
everything wrote:
What is your compare/contrast of those kinds of postural practices vs. your taijiquan or MA practice?
wayne hansen wrote:9 orifices Can u name them
Huang's 5 work but not the way they are taught today
Better is his 7 point push but not the day it is taught today
Ballet alignment with locked knees changes the whole equation
wayne hansen wrote:9 orifices Can u name them
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