Avoid Build-up Of Tension And Energy Blockages In Your Body

Tai Chi trains your mind to feel and to be fully aware of sensations in your body.  And in your training, you’re going to find places in your body where sensations are not easily felt.

The energy is not freely flowing… Tension in your body can lead to excessive build-up and blockage due to circumstances or conditions you are experiencing. 

If you’re like me, you spend a good portion of your life fighting the conditions around you. You want your surroundings to be different from what they are. You want people to be other than who they are.  And you just want your life to be different from what it is. To do that, you twist some aspect of your life and shape it into something it is not. 

Of course, there are things in life that you can and should be opposed to and change. Those things are destructive and evil.  You know what they are… unnatural things.

The challenge here is to recognize naturally occurring phenomena for what they are. 

The big challenge is to accept the things that you can’t and should not change. 

The bigger challenge is to change yourself.  To do that, you must have the ability to feel the sensations and energies in your body and to be fully conscious of what’s happening there.

The Tai Chi methodology teaches you three main principles to help you change yourself.

1. The first principle is to use effort without force. Use 80% of your effort.  Do not use force to change things – it requires much more effort. Just allow it to naturally happen.  Give it enough proper effort to meet your goal.

2. The second principle is relaxation. Actively relax and allow your body to heal through rest.

3. The third principle is to let go. This is where you accept the things that are happening right now for what they are and not worry about what’s going to happen in the future.

Tai Chi teaches you to have characteristics of water. The movements of Tai Chi emulate water – soft and flowing. Tai Chi is known for not forcing things, just like water doesn’t force things, for water passes through and makes changes naturally. Water also conforms to the shape of things it encounters.  

Tai Chi is also known for letting things occur in their own time, just like water. The changes water brings about may often take a long time. This doesn’t mean that you are passive. When you do Tai Chi, it prepares your body so that when the circumstances are ripe, you can be fully open and be available to the moment.  You can adapt.

Tai Chi is a practical way to release the blockages in your mind-body so that you can transform and experience harmony with the world, with the universe, or the Tao. Tai Chi meditation, at its core, helps you to dissolve or release bound energy in your body, so you can be free from your circumstance and free from your surrounding condition.

How can you release tension in your body and release the energy to freely flow?

Let’s start doing an exercise called the bone breathing exercise.  The bone breathing exercise is done typically lying down or sitting in a chair. In this video, I will be doing it standing up for demonstration purposes. Please follow along with my video.

1. Step one: allow the floor to support the weight of your body. Release your hips, bend the knees, and allow for proper alignment in the structure of your body. Sink your energy into the floor. If you’re lying down, allow the bed or your couch to fully support your body by just letting go. You are not using your muscles to hold you up. There is a structure to your body that’s going to allow you to stay up in the standing position.

2. Step two: inhale, and as you inhale, feel the clean fresh air penetrating your body.

3. Step three: exhale, and feel the stale air leave your body. Then just observe your breathing at this time.

4. Step four: feel air coming in through your toes. As you inhale, feel it float up the bones of your legs and feel it enter into your chest.

5. Step five: as you breathe out, feel the air descend through the chest, pass through your legs, and out through your toes.

6. Step number six: repeat steps, four and five – inhale through the toes, feel your breath flow up through your chest.  Then, exhale, breathe back down into your legs, down to your feet and toes. Inhale from your toes up. Imagine feeling the air, go up through the bones of your legs and into your chest. Exhale back down. Imagine feeling the air, descend down the chest through your legs and out through your toes.

7. Step seven: imagine feeling the air come up through your hands now, through the arms and enter into your chest and then go up to your head.

8. Step eight: exhale, follow the air back down through your arm, go out through your hands.

9. Step number nine: repeat steps seven and eight – Inhale, imagine feeling the air come up as you inhale through your hands and arms and enter your chest and head.  Exhale – follow the air back down through your arm and out through your hand. Inhale through your hand and arm, enter your chest and into your head. Exhale back down through your arm to your hand. One more time – repeat these steps.

At the end of your bone breathing exercise, your mind-body will feel completely rested and relaxed.  You will feel refreshed, ready to begin your work anew.

What if you can give yourself a full mind-body relaxation at least once a day? Relaxation is important for proper healing to take place and it helps prevent energy blocks caused by the build-up of tension in your body. 

You’re probably asking yourself right now: what are some other ways to release tension during your busy day?

I invite you to continue to follow me on social media, but in the meantime, check out my breathing exercises here so you can feel rested, relaxed and refreshed, ready to begin your work anew.