The Tao of Stress: How to Calm, Balance, and Simplify Your Life (6 page)

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The Tao of Stress

Qigong

Qigong
is a recent term for ancient Taoist practices for making the mind and body healthy. Essentially, the word “qigong” refers to working with qi. If you recall, “qi” refers to both energy and breath. Qigong is all about proper breathing and working with the body and mind so energy circulates without any barriers or impediments. Many of the movements in qigong consist of stretching, twisting, coiling, and uncoiling various parts of the body. These movements relieve physical tension due to chronic stress. Qigong also trains attention and concentration, allowing us to still the mind and release the agitation that causes and maintains chronic stress. The practice of qigong allows us to root and center ourselves while integrating mind, body, and environment into a unified, free- flowing process.

I’ll introduce you to two basic types of Taoist qigong: sitting and standing. The sitting form is called Baduanjin, or Eight Pieces of Brocade.

You will learn all eight postures of this form. The standing form is called Yijinjing, or the Method of Changing and Transforming the Muscles and Tendons. You will learn eight of the postures from this form. A significant number of the Yijinjing postures are adapted from a more basic qigong practice known as Zhan Zhuang, or Standing like a Tree or Stake in the Ground. Deceptively simple in appearance, Zhan Zhuang is one of the most profound techniques for gaining insight into the workings of the mind and body, eliminating chronic stress, and enhancing overall health and well- being.

As with anything else, to be proficient in qigong and obtain its benefits you need to practice regularly and consistently. Try to perform each posture at least three times a week. Start with five- minute sessions for each one, and increase the duration as you feel more comfortable with them. If need be, you can also start with a shorter duration. Use any method you like to keep track of time.

It’s usually best to practice in the mornings, but if this isn’t possible, any time that works for you is fine. Find a quiet comfortable place to practice where you won’t be disturbed. Each time you practice, spend a few moments recording what you did and describing your experiences in your journal. Review what you’ve written about your practice once a week.

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Basics of Taoist Meditation

Practice Posture 1 of the Baduanjin

Sequence: Sitting in Stillness

Find a room or other place that’s quiet and where you won’t be disturbed for at least five minutes. Simply sit on the floor. You can use a flat cushion or pil ow if you like. Cross your legs at the ankles and pull them in toward your body. If your knees can touch the floor, let them do so. If not, it’s perfectly okay for them to be off the floor. If this position is a problem for you, it’s okay to sit on a chair, but make sure both of your feet are flat on the floor.

Imagine the top of your head being gently pulled up by a string.

As you do so, your back will natural y align in the correct posture, like a plant that’s being drawn toward the sun and rooted down into the ground at the same time. Your spine, maintaining its natural curve, will straighten but not be tight or tense. Look directly forward, and then gently close your eyes. Closing your eyes eliminates visual distractions. Relax your shoulders and al ow a small space in your armpits; it may help to imagine that you have a golf ball in each armpit. Hold your hands flat or in loosely coiled fists and al ow them to rest gently on your upper thighs or in your lap. Your mouth should be closed,

with your teeth gently touching each other and your tongue touching the roof of your mouth. Relax.

Remember natural observation, or guan, and apply it while prac-

ticing the posture Sitting in Stil ness. Perform a quick scan of your body, taking just a minute or so to observe your body using guan.

Remember to smile. Begin with your feet, noting what you observe,

and gradual y move upward, observing your lower legs, thighs, pelvic area, buttocks, abdomen, back, chest, shoulders, arms, hands, neck, and head, in that order.

When you’ve finished, redirect your attention to your breath-

ing, gently noticing your inhalation and exhalation. Breathe in and out through your nose. Then take a deep, slow, quiet, long, relaxed, and continuous breath through your nose. Deep breathing requires

the activation of your diaphragm, which will result in your abdomen expanding outward while you inhale. Once you’ve inhaled ful y, simply release your abdomen and exhale slowly and natural y through your

nose. Breathe in this way a few more times, until you feel comfortable with it. This deep abdominal breathing will al ow you to natural y find
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your center and relax into it. When you feel comfortable, continue fol owing your breath for five more minutes, natural y observing and noting in your mind whatever you observe. Remember to smile.

If you get distracted, as often happens, don’t let it bother you.

Keep smiling. As was noted in the exercise Eating with Guan, simply acknowledge the distraction nonjudgmental y and then refocus on

your breathing. You’re likely to find yourself getting distracted more than once. Again, this is perfectly normal. Just continue to acknowledge the distraction and return to your breathing.

When you finish the exercise but before opening your eyes, scan

your body as you did before, moving sequential y upward from your

feet to your head. Also quickly scan your mind. Then open your eyes and wait a few minutes before getting up to al ow yourself to return to your environment. If you’ve been sitting cross- legged, also stretch your legs out before you get up. As you transition out of the exercise, observe your breath, fol owing your inhalations and exhalations and mental y noting whatever you observe.

Take some time to record and describe your experiences with

Sitting in Stil ness in your journal. Describe whatever you remember happening in your mind and body. Don’t force it; just reflect upon it. Did you notice a difference between the first body scan and the second? Did you feel any different? What messages are your body

and mind telling you about yourself? This will provide you with information and insights about what you need to change in order to eliminate chronic stress. You may wish to mark this page in the book, as I recommend that you reflect on your experience and write in your

journal in a similar way after learning each new posture.

Practice Posture 1 of the Yijinjing

Sequence: Wuji Standing

Stand straight, with your feet parallel and together and your knees slightly bent and in line with your toes. Your weight should be evenly distributed on both feet. Imagine that the top of your head is being gently pulled up, like a puppet by a string. As you do so, your lower body will sink and your back will natural y align in the correct posture,
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Basics of Taoist Meditation

like a plant that’s being drawn toward the sun and rooted down into the ground at the same time. Your spine will be straight but not tight or tense. Keep your eyes open and look forward. Your mouth should

be closed, with your teeth gently touching each other. Let your arms hang down natural y alongside your body, with your palms facing

your thighs. Let your shoulders hang down. For this exercise, breathe natural y, inhaling and exhaling through your nose. Don’t be concerned about diaphragmatic breath; just breathe through your nose

as you normal y would. Relax, smile, practice guan, and simply note what you feel in your mind and body.

Let your attention wander through your body as you stand. Unlike

in Sitting in Stil ness, don’t focus on your breath unless you find yourself distracted. If you do get distracted, simply accept that you got distracted, don’t make any judgments about it, and focus on your

breathing for two or three breaths to center yourself and quiet your mind. Then return your attention to your body and mind and note

what you feel. Cultivate the perspective of being a detached witness to what’s occurring in your mind and body as you stand. Try to do

this exercise for five minutes. If you feel uncomfortable or dizzy while performing this exercise, stop, get a drink of water, and sit down for a few minutes. Return to the practice when you feel settled and comfortable.

When you’re finished, reflect upon and write in your journal

about what happened to you as you practiced Wuji Standing. How

did you feel when you finished the exercise? Did you feel relaxed?

Were you able to stand straight and keep a stable posture? Did you find yourself moving around? Did you feel rooted in the ground? Did you feel centered? Did you sense any movement, pulsating, tingling, heaviness, warmth, lightness, or flowing, like water through a hose, in your body? If so, this is normal. These kinds of descriptions are often used to describe the feeling of qi moving throughout your body.

Again, you may wish to mark this page and use this paragraph for

guidance in writing in your journal as you learn each new posture in the Yijinjing sequence.

Essential y, Wuji Standing is a Taoist practice for acquainting you with your body and mind. What usual y occurs when people first practice this exercise is that they notice tightness, stiffness, minor aches and pains, and sensations of being uncomfortable in various parts

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of the body. This is normal. If you experience this, it’s just your body letting you know that there are some problems you need to address.

Another common experience is that people are easily distracted or

bored and complain about being stuck in their head. This is also

normal. If you experience this, your mind is letting you know that there are problems with your attention and concentration.

At this early stage in your practice, the most important aspect of this technique is what you learn about yourself when you apply guan during the practice. Wuji Standing provides you with information

about what you need to change in order to eliminate chronic stress.

Conclusion

At this point, you should have a fairly good idea of the basic components of Taoist meditation techniques and how the practices are performed.

Give them a chance to work for you. Remember guan. Try to apply it whenever and wherever you can. Remember to smile whenever you can.

You’ll notice a profound difference in yourself and your life if you do so.

Building on the basis established in this chapter, let’s now move forward into the first component of the Taoist path: simplifying life.

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Part 2

Simplifying Your Life

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Chapter 3

Simplifying Your

Thoughts

In Taoism, the more complex our lives, the greater the likelihood that we’ll suffer from chronic stress. Thus, across all forms of Taoism, simplifying life is of fundamental importance for eliminating chronic stress, and also for spiritual development. Simplifying life includes both mental and physical approaches, which are intertwined like yin and yang and cannot be separated. This chapter focuses on the Taoist path of simplifying life by simplifying our thoughts, including beliefs and judgments. In order to do this, of course, we first need to be aware of our thoughts, and then we need to examine them to determine which should be simplified or eliminated. This is an application of guan.

The Galloping Mind

In the previous chapter, you learned about the Taoist notion of galloping while sitting. This refers to our high degree of distractibility and our problems with attention and concentration— difficulties that result in a continually agitated mind that gallops all over the place.

Because the continually agitated mind is filled with absolute con-

cepts, beliefs, expectations, judgments, biases, and perspectives that gallop, seemingly out of control, across our mental landscape, its thinking is quite rigid and complex. The more rigid and complex our thinking, the greater the likelihood that we will perceive threats to our

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perspectives on life. Thus, rigid thinking not only initiates the fight- or-flight response, but also keeps it activated, leading to chronic stress.

To eliminate this chronic stress, we need to remove the complexity and rigidness of our thinking. We need to simplify our thinking. This removes the clutter from the mind. In this way, we begin to simplify our lives.

Although the previous chapter provided an experiential introduc-

tion to wandering mind in the context of meditative practices, it didn’t give you a good opportunity to experience it in a nonmeditative context.

You weren’t exposed to all the clutter in your mind. The next exercise will remedy that.

Practice: Observing Your Thoughts

In this exercise you’ll explore what exactly the
Zhuangzi
refers to as gal oping while sitting. Find a place where you can be alone and

sit comfortably for ten minutes without any outside distractions. Turn off your TV, radio, cell phone, iPod, and other potential y distracting devices. Get a timer and set it for ten minutes.

For the full ten minutes, just sit and don’t think about anything.

Don’t try to focus on one thing, such as your breath, a body part, or a word. This isn’t a meditation. I don’t want you to meditate. Just sit and don’t think about anything. When your timer goes off, stop.

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thing? Did thoughts almost immediately begin to pop up in your head even though you were trying not to think? Did your thoughts connect to other thoughts, seemingly on their own, such that you found yourself talking to yourself in your head about something? Were you wondering about the exercise? Did you find yourself making negative