I’ve been including small Mindfulness/Wellness tips in the occasional e-mail newsletters to people in the know about the Kid’s Initiative Program.
Tips
These wellness tips are based on knowledge I’ve gleaned over the past 14 years of Martial Arts experience with instructors like Sifu Jocelyne Grainger (Tai Chi), Sifu Robert Walther (My Jong Law Horn Pai Kung Fu and Hsing-I), and Sensei Lynn Dafoe (Chito-ryu Karate, Jiu Jitsu and Kickboxing).
I have decided to compile those wellness tips into a single source and post it on martialpaths.ca for everyone to see. Some of these tips will cover common methods to avoid injury, meditation and relaxation techniques but not limited to those subjects.
The Seasons Matter for Wellness
It’s the Fall season and I think there’s a lot of people who are trying to organize their lives according to their kid’s schooling schedule, making September the de facto start of a new year instead of January.
Maybe January and September can trade holidays. There’s something I like about the image of celebrating Labor Day doing nothing at all while having a warm drink in my hand inside of a warm house in the middle of a cold, hard Winter.
Speaking of elements, the 5 Element Theory is one of the philosophical foundations of not only an ancient Chinese way of life but also martial and healing arts such as Hsing-I and Chi Kung.
Healing Breath #4
From Chi Kung comes the Fall Healing Breath:
- Standing with evenly-spaced feet facing the western horizon, your arms slowly circle outwards then upwards as you inhale. They settle in front of the chest during your exhalation, arms 3/4 extended, palms facing you. The sound to be made as you exhale is a ssssss.
- Part of the meditation is to visualize and contemplate concepts while breathing. The first idea is the time of the year which is Fall where the harvesting of crops begins and ends before the onset of Winter.
- Obviously, in modern society Metal is very prevalent. But 2200 years ago, humans were in the bloom of the Iron Age where metals like iron, copper and bronze were used for everything from warfare to agriculture.
- The time of the day is Evening. The day’s work is done. Time to relax on the porch with a cool drink. A very relaxing image.
- The time of life to visualize is middle-age.
- The color is White. White is universally accepted as an aspect to light, brightness and purification.
- Organs to focus upon are the large intestine and lungs. Advanced techniques in Chi Kung allow for a gentle massage of organs through breathing.
- The final piece of the breath is to inhale Courage and Bravery while releasing Regret and Depression on the exhalation.
*With files from Sifu Robert Walther’s The Snow Tiger blog
http://www.thesnowtiger.com/2012/05/6-healing-breaths-4.html
and Sifu Jocelyne Grainger, The Willows of Meyer’s Creek
