At about now a lot of you have your shoulders half way up to your ears due to stress, tension, family, commerce, long lines of people, and lack of training (yeah… holiday season is great, I know, but I do miss my dojo, what can I say…)
Here are two exercises I recommend that you try.
1. Breathing using your belly
Close your eyes.
Breath normally, and start to observe your breath; listen to it, not with your hearing but with all your senses.
Transfer your breath from the unconscious act of using your upper chest, into a conscious act of moving your abdominal area, perhaps centred in your lower tanden (or dantien for those of you who can relate to this). Expand your tanden outwards to bring air in, and compress it to push air out.
Listen to your shoulders, observe that they cease to heave and move as your breath moves from your chest down to your tanden.
Press a palm against your lower belly to help you listen to the action of your breath.
If you are very tense in your neck and shoulders you can slowly move your neck side to side, up and down, and ear towards shoulders, also rotate your shoulders a little, and push them up and press them down a couple of time to release some of the tension.
Keep listening to your breath with your hand as you start to breath in through your nose, and out through your mouth.
Count silently to 4 as your breath in, keep it for 2 counts, then count to 4 as you breath out. Keep it silent for a count of 2 then breath in again.
Repeat it 10 times.
2. Silence your feet
Stand up.
First time you try this exercise stand close to a wall. Stand as balanced as you can with relaxed shoulders over your hips, hips over your knees, and knees over your feet, more towards the heels and less over the ball of the feet.
Observe and listen how numerous small muscles around your ankles and feet are constantly moving to keep you in a state of dynamic balance. If you have trouble sensing this, try the following:
Stand close to a wall, with one ear and shoulder facing it, in as balanced posture as you can. Let your knees be unlocked but don’t bend them too much. Lift the foot closest to the wall slightly off the ground. It should be much easier to hear (feel) the noise from the muscles working to keep you balanced.
With the hand closest to the wall, reach out and barely touch it, perhaps only with a finger. See if you can transfer all your balance to the wall with this feather-light touch, and listen as all of the noise disappear from your ankles and feet.
These are the silent feet you are after.
Lower your foot to the ground again but keep your feather-light touch of the wall. Listen and make sure your feet and ankles are still silent.
Transfer your senses up to your hips and observe if they are stiff and locked. See if you can transfer the balance restoring action from your ankles up to your center and hips by moving them around in figure 8s or “hula-hula” in a very relaxed way.
When you feel ready, lower your hand from the wall back to your side. Listen to your feet and ankles.
They should be silent.
Text and Photos: Jakob Blomquist
The Dojo 