Re: The Importance of Cooling Down

Mornin'

I had made posts previously about getting headaches which you replied about the necessity of cool down. I have since incorporated some cool down exercises which have lessned my side effects significantly. here's what i do:

eyebrow and temple massages
cranial massage and brainstem massage
massage where the cheekbone meets the nose
swining of the arms
headstands

I borrowed the headstands from yoga but they seem to work great for the cool down. I think because it rushes blood to the head and since blood follows qi, it seems to clear out any qi that may have gotten "stuck" there as a result of my practicing.

admittedly my cool down might be biased because all the exericses i do are focused at clearing blocked qi from my head.

~ED

Very interesting topic Chris!

The MA I do are fairly intense karate type sessions with weapons and BJJ style grappling etc.

Most of our workouts are reasonably hard - and have been so lately as we have been building up to the National grading - which was a couple of weeks ago. [Of course I was putting in a bit more extra work myself because I had been selected to grade for 2nd kyu and wanted to make sure that I could last the pace.]
Yes, I passed with flying colours and was apparently one of the 2 best there, not bad for an old lady... [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif[/IMG]

I teach the juniors class each training session and then hook into the seniors class for my own workout, so I'm doing about 4 hours of MA in one hit for each training night.

I do a fairly rigorous warmup followed by stretching then its all on for the next few hours. Most nights after training I try to do a bit of slow stretching and cool down as and where I can, given that I'm a busy mum with kids etc.

I've noticed some nights when its been all on with sparring and weapons work, and to some degree grappling, that it takes a long time to quieten the mind.

I must admit to being a bit lazy of late in not doing any meditation at all. I used to meditate every night, but these past few months have been hectic and I just haven't been doing it.

Reiki is different in some ways from some of the IMA you others do.

We are not generating ki *within* the body when we treat with reiki, it is universal life force energy and comes from elsewhere to go through the healer and into the subject who is being treated.

I could treat people with reiki all day and not feel tired other than the fact my arms ache after holding them still for so long!

I can feel the energy going and where it is needed most in the subject, and am also aware of it in other ways - I can "hear" it going. Sometimes it switches on from its own accord if something near needs it.

My most interesting experiences with reiki involve what happens when I balance chakras.
This is a L3 practice and I was amazed the first time that I did it.

The ki is circulated from one hand to the subject and returns to you via the other hand, circulates within the hui yin circuit [hope I spelt that right] within your body and goes to earth via your feet. The hands do not touch the clients body during this process.

The heat buildup within my body is incredible! I can feel the energy circulating like liquid fire, it is truly amazing. One of my subjects felt like she was being moved violently in energy waves back and forth across the table, I could feel it myself even though my hands were not touching her body at the time.

I do not do warmups or cooldowns before/after treating with reiki, it is more important for me to be securely grounded during the entire process.

Reiki,

How do you do grounding? Do you send the energy through the meridian exit points in the feet?

Do you store the energy you draw on in reiki in your dan tien? Maybe if you are constantly grounded, and do not store energy as such, a cooldown wouldnt be necessary to alleviate the symptoms one expereiences with storing qi in the body.....


~ED

p.s. i read the site you posted earlier with the free ebook, it was very interesting.


p.p.s one quick aside... do you view qi that one stores through breath training as a different type of energy than what you gather in reiki?

Originally posted by MrEd:
Reiki,

How do you do grounding? Do you send the energy through the meridian exit points in the feet?

yes.
You have these points on the feet and the hands and can use either for treating with reiki. However you must be grounded


Do you store the energy you draw on in reiki in your dan tien? Maybe if you are constantly grounded, and do not store energy as such, a cooldown wouldnt be necessary to alleviate the symptoms one expereiences with storing qi in the body.....

no energy is stored, its merely passed on or through the practioner. Hence no cooldown required.


~ED

p.s. i read the site you posted earlier with the free ebook, it was very interesting.

[IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif[/IMG] Its not a bad site, it has a lot of easily understood info without some of the mumbo jumbo that other sites have had.


p.p.s one quick aside... do you view qi that one stores through breath training as a different type of energy than what you gather in reiki?

Um, I'm not sure what you do with breath training as I do not do Tai chi or any other IMA other than reiki. I have on occasion done qi gong sets to fire up the meridiens but other than that I have no experience of what you are talking about. [Ignorance is bliss!]

Let me put this more simply.

Reiki is channeled thru the body of the practioner like water thru a pipe. It goes where it will and where it is needed most. The ki that I treat with comes from an outside source, not from within my own body.

i guess its the same energy. we can also store energy from elsewhere right? the universal energy is our great source of chi, so of reiki. life force energy is of different form but of one type. we can get chi from plants, sunlight, water, earth, air.... anywhere.

pranic healing also uses different energies to heal, its still the same.... i guess

reiki is chanelling energy to heal, tai chi and other IMA manipulate energy within the body, or even outside energy....

reiki: congrats on your grading! But you should know that the more hectic your life is, the more you need meditation or some equivalent ;o)

Fisherman, I'll give you a very simple (and quick) cool-down/balancing exercise that you will thank me for before this week is over )

here goes:
-stand relaxed with feet (more or less) together, place your left hand on dan-tien and your right hand on "middle dan-tien" (between your nipples)
-use "reverse breathing" (gently tighten pelvic-floor and abdominal muscles on inhalation/relax on exhalation=belly out), deliberately but not forcefully
-your spine may straighten as you inhale and bend slightly when you exhale (if it comes naturally, don't force it)
-further on inhalation: tip of tongue pressed behind front-teeth and eyes up (they may be closed), on exhalation relax eyes and tongue also
-a few minutes shoud have you cool and in good balance, ready to go back to reality!

let me know if my description isn't clear enough! (english is my third lingo )

edited to disable smilies

[This message has been edited by nenipp (edited 08-03-2004).]

nenipp,

Does this work because of the hand positions, or the fact that you are standing? Does this somehow ground you?

The way i practice reverse breathing (with legs crossed and hands relaxed as in meditation) has quite the opposite effect of cooling down...

~ED

MrEd,
it balances the energy within the body, not to the ground.

If you do reverse breathing dynamically, it will set your energies circulating, quite the opposite of cooling down ) I'm of the same opinion about that..
..in this exercise I use "gentle" reverse breathing, but if you feel that doesn't do the trick, you can absolutely use normal abdominal breathing, no worries!

ps: I use reverse (taoist) breathing a lot in my qigong, much more than "normal" breathing

edit:smily again ) !!

[This message has been edited by nenipp (edited 08-03-2004).]

Ok, no grounding. Got it. Agree with you about taoist breathing, i use it more than buddhist breathing in qigong myself.

[QUOTE] "here goes:
-stand relaxed with feet (more or less) together, place your left hand on dan-tien and your right hand on "middle dan-tien""
[/QUOTE]

i'm thinking then, that the cooldown
importance is in the hand positions. It seems to me that this process "connects" an alternate circuit, which uses the arm meridians to bring qi from the middle dan tien back down to the lower dan tien?

does this opinion coordiante with your experiences?

~ED

nenipp...
Thanks for the information on the exercise, however, I already find the exercises that I do sufficient enough for the purpose of cooling down. I truly hope that others reading this thread take advantage of what you have posted.

You bring up a very inportant point...
"-use "reverse breathing" (gently tighten pelvic-floor and abdominal muscles on inhalation/relax on exhalation=belly out), deliberately but not forcefully"

We have several Neigong that utilize the motion of the pelvic floor. These excercises are then expanded on and carried over into the form practice. The pelvic floors' articulation is what propels the 'spinal wave' which is most prevalent in Pi Chuan in Xingyi.
You first learn how the pelvic floor moves by articulating it deliberately (as you stated above). After this this next step is feeling how the pelvic floor moves when you are doing forms, two man sets, sparring... etc.
Learninng how the pelvic floor articulates is a vital part to making the internal connection that makes a martial art truly internal. The pelvic floor makes up the bottom piece of the Kua and thus is a vital part to making movement internal.
One should feel the body move when the pelvic floor is put into motion.

Chris

MrEd, my experiance doesn't contradict your theory, but I can't really claim to be feeling anything extraordinary in my arms when I do it, my concentration is on the areas in question (u&m dan tien, and what I feel there is-come to think of it-no less than extraordinary)
sorry I can't answer your question any better!

fisherman,
that's interesting stuff, it really is!
Physiotherapists are just beginning to understand the importance of the pelvic floor for spinal stability end coordination, but IMArtists have known about it for ages...
...how come I'm not surprised )

Ahhhhh, aincient chinese secret, eh?