December is a difficult time: at work, you need to finish the things that have accumulated over the year, and also prepare for the holiday. Plus traffic jams, bad weather, running around for gifts. How to avoid stress during this difficult period? Exercise will help. Thanks to them, you will maintain productivity and good mood.
Experiencing vivid emotions is an energy-consuming process. We spend more vitality on them than on work, planning gifts, preparing a holiday. You may have noticed: there are days when nothing seems to be done – but there is no strength. This means that during the day there were so many unnecessary worries that they literally “drank” all the energy.
Chinese practices of qigong (qi – energy, gong – control, skill) are designed specifically to keep vitality at a high level and prevent it from being wasted. Here are a few tricks with which you can stay in good shape even in difficult pre-holiday times.
Look at the situation from the side
People who find themselves in extreme situations are more likely to come across such an amazing feeling: at the most acute moment of danger, when it seems that everything is lost, it suddenly becomes quiet inside – time seems to slow down – and you look at the situation from the outside. In the cinema, such “insights” very often save the lives of the heroes – it becomes clear what to do (where to run, swim, jump).
There is a practice in qigong that allows you to find such inner silence at any arbitrary moment. And thanks to her, look at the situation without vivid emotions, calmly and clearly. This meditation is called Shen Jen Gong – the search for inner silence. To master it, it is important to feel how true silence differs from our usual state of life in conditions of constant internal monologue/dialogue.
The task is to stop all thoughts: if they arise, see them off like clouds passing through the sky and find silence again
You can try to feel how inner silence feels and how much it reduces energy costs, you can already now. Do the following exercise. Sit comfortably – you can reclining (the main thing is not to fall asleep). Turn off the phone, close the door to the room – it is important to be sure that no one will disturb you within the next five minutes. Turn your attention inward and pay attention to two factors:
- count the breaths – without speeding up or slowing down the breath, but simply watching it;
- relax the tongue – when there is an internal monologue, the tongue tenses up (speech structures are ready to work), when the tongue is relaxed, the internal conversations become quieter.
Give this meditation a maximum of 3 minutes – for this you can set an alarm clock on your watch or phone. The task is to stop all thoughts: if they arise, accompany them like clouds passing through the sky, and find silence again. Even if you really like the state, stop after three minutes. It is important to do this exercise regularly in order to learn how to “turn on” the state of silence easily and confidently. Therefore, leave for tomorrow the desire to continue and repeat the next day.
Tone up your circulation
The meditation described above allows you to save energy: balance the nervous system, bring yourself back from anxiety and running inward. The next task is to establish an efficient circulation of the saved energy. In Chinese medicine, there is an idea that chi energy, like fuel, circulates through all our organs and systems. And our health, feeling of energy and fullness depends on the quality of this circulation. How to improve this circulation? The most effective way is relaxation gymnastics, which releases muscle clamps, makes the body flexible and free. For example, qigong for the spine Sing Shen Juang.
If you have not yet mastered the exercises to improve circulation, you can use the practice of self-massage. According to Chinese medicine, we have reflex zones in the body – areas responsible for the health of various organs and systems. One of these reflex zones is the ear: here are the points responsible for the health of the whole organism – from the brain to the joints of the legs.
Chinese traditional medicine doctors believe that we get vitality from three sources: sleep, food and breath.
To improve the circulation of vital forces, it is not even necessary to know exactly where which points are located. It is enough to massage the entire auricle: gently knead the ear in the direction from the lobe upwards. Massage both ears at once with gentle circular motions of your fingers. If possible, do this as soon as you wake up, before you even get out of bed. And note how the sensations will change – how much more cheerful you will start the day.
Accumulate energy
We figured out the economy of forces and circulation – the question remains, where to get additional energy from. Chinese traditional medicine doctors believe that we get our vitality from three sources: sleep, food, and breath. Accordingly, in order to get through the pre-holiday loads healthy and vigorous, it is especially important to get enough sleep and eat right.
It is also very useful to master certain breathing practices. Which ones to choose? First of all, they should be built on relaxation: the goal of any breathing practice is to get more oxygen, and this can only be done on relaxation.
In addition, at the level of sensations, breathing exercises should give strength from the very first days of training. For example, the Chinese practices of neigong (breathing techniques for energy accumulation) give strength so quickly and abruptly that along with them a special safety technique is mastered – self-regulation methods that allow you to control these new “inflows”.
Master meditation practices and replenishing breathing skills and enter the new year 2020 with a good joyful mood and ease.