STANDING MEDITATION

INHALE

INSTRUCTIONS: To practice Standing Meditation:

1)Relax and Align Posture:

-Stand with your feet hip wide and parallel. Feel your weight evenly distributed around the surface of both feet.
-Bend your knees slightly. Sit down slightly into your hips as if you are standing in the stirrups on a horse.
-Relax your lower back and lower abdomen.
-Bend your arms to ninety degrees with your first two fingers pointed and your third and fourth fingers wrapped by your thumbs. Relax your fingers and hands.
-Let your elbows feel heavy, so your shoulders relax and sink down.
-Imagine a string attached to the top of your head pulling your spine gently upright.
-Tuck your chin slightly, lengthening the back of your neck.
-Roll the tip of your tongue up to lightly touch the roof of your mouth.

2)Smile and Breath Consciously:

-Focus into your lower abdomen and become aware of your breathing. As you inhale allow your lower abdomen and lower back to gently expand and fill up. Exhale and allow your abdomen to relax toward your spine and empty out.
-Smile. Let the feeling of smiling relax and soften your face, eyes, and forehead. Let the feeling of smiling wash down through your whole body, relaxing and softening your whole body.

3)Visualize the Qi Pathway:

-Imagine and feel a central channel coming in through the top of your head, down through the center of your body, including your spine, into your lower abdomen.
-Imagine and feel channels coming up through the bottoms of your feet, through your legs, into your lower abdomen.
-Imagine and feel all three channels at once and feel their connection in your lower abdomen.

-Inhale slowly and imagine that your lower abdomen and lower back fill with your breath as if it's a white misty steam.
-Exhale and imagine sending your breath like steam out through your forearms and pointed fingers.

-Inhale and draw your breath like steam in through the top of your head and down along the central channel into your lower abdomen.
-Simultaneously draw your breath like steam up through the bottoms of your feet, up through your legs, into your lower abdomen. (See illustration next to "Inhale").
- Exhale and send your breath like steam out through your forearms and pointed fingers.

-Allow your breathing to become subtle, smooth, and quiet.
-Keep your mind focused in your breathing for at least 15 minutes.
- Whenever your mind wanders, gently bring it back to your breathing, as if nothing else matters at this moment. Let any thoughts, feelings, or images dissolve in your breath.

CONCLUSION:

At the end of your Standing Meditation, practice the SHAKING YOUR BODY exercise for 3-5 minutes:
-Lower your hands down at your sides.
-Begin to gently bounce up and down on the balls of your feet, raising your heels up and down off the ground.
-Let your shoulder, elbows, wrists, and hips hand loosely, like a ragdoll.
-Gradually increase the speed and height of your bounce until you can feel the vibration of your heels hitting the ground, travelling up through your legs, your torso, head, and arms, through all your internal organs, and through every muscle in your body.
-Especially put your mind into any areas of chronic tension or pain and allow them to relax, release, and shake free.
-After 3-5 minutes, stop, be as still as you can be, and feel your body as a whole from the inside.
-Imagine a white misty steam rising up through the bottoms of your feet, up through your legs, torso, head, and arms. Feel the steam filling every cell in your body with core energy.
-Record the feeling of relaxation, awareness, and energy in every cell of your body, so you can return to it at any time.
-Carry the feeling of core energy with you into your day.

The Shaking Your Body Exercise:
- Releases tension from your body,
- Boosts your immune system by increasing circulation of the blood and lymphatic fluid, and
- Energizes every cell.