The Body Should Not Restrict Itself

The body should not restrict itself! Do you suffer from "Modern shoulders"?

Look around you and you will see this wide-spread problem! Shoulders that are tense; Raised shoulders as if trying to hug one's own ears! Shoulders scrunched forward! Shoulders that barely move, locked in position! A combination of the above!

The body should not restrict itself! It should move harmoniously. A majority of these issues arise from bad habits or neglect - this is a form of "body insanity". Just as one's mind should not be a burden to itself; the body should not restrict it's own movement. Can you see the insanity that is so widely ignored?!

Remember: Joints are made to move! Do not neglect them to the point when the muscles have hardened and the joints hardly move. This leads to the body areas locked by tension to even change shape...and not for the better. This doesn't need to happen. Oftentimes, it can be avoided through skillful motion.

How does this "skillful" motion look like? First consider that No-Body wants tension. Nobody wants their body to be a burden...it should be a pleasure to move your body! And thus, skillful motion is movement that allows the body (and mind) to unload the stresses of the day and worries that clamp you from the inside. Tension is not a stand-alone phenomenon and is directly linked to the inner mental-emotional world as it responds to the outside stressors. The external stressors can also arise in the form of heavy loads being imposed on the body such as lifting heavy objects. Worries, although invisible, can be just as heavy as moving boulders. For this reason, body motion should nurture not only the outer but also the inner.

How tense you are in body and mind is reflected through your body's motion and most importantly, how it FEELS to move your body. The body's movements are intimately connected with the mental-emotional movements of each individual and thus portraying the fascinating outward manifestation or Body Language.

When we learn Qigong we learn skillful motion. This is movement that engages the mind and body in a soothing dance. In this way, you simultaneously learn how to dissolve stress and how to better deal with stress as it arises. Not only do you learn the language of the body, you learn to become fluent in it and allow the bridge between the inner mental-emotional body to freely flow and connect with the outer layers of the body. Where there is connection there is flow, and where there is flow, there ISN'T stiffness, tension or the inability to adapt.

Remember: When you hold a dead, stiff, dry twig in your hand and bend it, it will soon snap in half. Try bending a fresh, living twig with your fingers and it will bend without breaking and resume it's normal shape after. This is the Art of Qigong and this is the Skill of Living.

Try the experiment: observe people's shoulders and neck area. Notice how it makes you feel observing different people's shoulders. Most importantly, have you checked what state your shoulders and your body are in? You'd be blown away at just how much tension burdens your body's natural vitality! You can find out just how much if you learn how to relax, if you learn how skillfully move your body.