SHAKING AND GROUNDING
The releasing practice is an essential core practice for coming to rest in our body. Many people find it incredibly valuable and useful to do a form of releasing practice before transiting to any form of sitting or lying practice. When we start a relaxation or meditation period without doing a releasing exercise first, we are often carrying a lot of residual surface tension and it can be very difficult to arrive at a place of natural rest inside ourselves.
The releasing practice is the first physical practice we do at the level of The Nurturer to help the body come to a state of rest. This practice serves two main functions. Firstly, it helps us to relieve any of the major tension from the body and to let it flow down into the earth. Secondly, it helps us to center of attention in our belly and away from our often overactive thinking mind. Through the practice, we slowly move our “center of gravity” from our thinking mind to the felt sense of our belly. Breathing in deeply through our nostrils and into our belly can greatly assist this process.
Stress, anxiety and trauma are common events in people’s lives. For almost all of us, we experience stress on a daily level, either at home or at work. The body constantly responds to elevated levels of stress by contracting the muscles to ‘get through’ the problem. However, we seldom recognize these contractions until we experience pain, discomfort or illness. By regularly shaking, we start to come in contact with these residual layers of tension in the body and they start to dissolve. The first step in this process is often noticing just how tense we have been in our body and this is an essential first step. This noticing indicates that there is now a part of us that is no longer tense and able to observe this tension. The more our tension dissolves, the more our attention can sink into the lower belly.
The releasing practice can activate the para-sympathetic mechanism of the body, which causes our muscles to relax. Relaxing tense muscle patterns can often reduce stress in the spine, neck, shoulders and pelvis. When tension is released anywhere in the body, the brain registers a reduction in pain signals, producing new hormones that promote healing. During the practice we work with releasing the major joints of the body to ensure there is a flow of energy through them. For example, we often keep our knees habitually “locked” during the day and by bringing attention to them during the shaking process, we can release this locking mechanism and reconnect with the energy flowing up from the earth.
The Importance of Shaking
The process of shaking to release tension can be seen in the natural world also. In the animal kingdom, a gazelle will literally shake after escaping the clutches of a lions jaw, thereby expending the shock and adrenaline that was pumping around its body. By physically shaking off the tension, the human body, like the gazelle’s, is then able to calm down and return to a homeostatic balance.
Note : These exercises should be done only if they are pleasurable and you feel safe and grounded in the process. If you begin to experience physical pain adjust your position and/or modify the speed or intensity in a way that relieves the discomfort.
Practice Instructions
Start this practice with your feet about hip-width distance apart and your feet pointed forwards.
Have your spine straight and upright and relax the rest of your body around it.
Tuck your tailbone in slightly (so that it moves closer to the wall behind you).
Drop your chin slightly to allow the back of your neck to open more.
Allow your body to shake from your pelvis, making sure the rocking movement is starting from your pelvis in a back and forward motion.
Use the shaking to wake up every cell of your body so that the natural awareness in your body can activate.
To begin with, breathe in any way that helps you to release the tension down through your body and into the earth.
Feel free to make any sounds on the exhale that allow the body to release tension. (sighing etc).
As you practice over time, breathe through your nostrils on the inhale, in deep, slow breaths and visualize that you are breathing directing into the center of the belly rather than through your nostrils.
Exhale through your mouth or through your nostrils, whatever is more comfortable.
Scrunch your toes regularly during the practice so you can somatically get in touch with the felt sense of the earth underneath you.
Scan through all the major joints of the body to make sure the energy is flowing through them fluidly. Start with the feet, then the ankles, the knees, the pelvis, the mid-back, the shoulder blades, the shoulders, the arms, the neck and the head. Bring the breath to each place as you scan, opening the tension and allowing it to dissolve downwards.
Return repeatedly to visualizing the tension from your body flowing down into the earth.
For the entire practice, treat any form of thinking as tension and allow it to flow down through your body into the earth.
Centering Exercise after shaking
Once we have shaken the body and released the tension into the earth, it can be very useful to further center ourselves in the belly using a simple Tai Chi practice.
First, we come to a still position, paying attention to the points of posture already mentioned, and allow the energy of the body to settle.
We place our hands on the lower belly with the left hand under the right and both palms centered on each other.
Then we move the left arm in a sweeping motion to the side of the body and up over the head and then vertically move it down the center of the body from the crown to the lower belly (about 3-5 inches from the body). (See video)
We then alternate our hands and move the right arm in the same motion while leaving our left hand rested on the lower belly.
As we do this sweeping motion one side at a time, we visualize that we are drawing the energy of the earth upwards through that side of our body as we move our arm upwards.
We then visualize the energy coming down through the center part of our body (a field of energy known as “The Central Channel”) as we move our arm down the front of our body.
As we do this, we can start to feel a build up of energy in the lower belly and it will become easier and easier to rest our attention there.
We can also synchronize our breathing with the practice, inhaling as our arm moves upwards and slowly exhaling as our arm moves down the front of the body.
Once we have completed these motions for several minutes, we again come to rest in the standing posture with our left hand under our right hand (see diagram) . Our hands have been gathering and moving a lot of energy and we now breathe slowly, visualizing that we are drawing this energy through the center of our hands into the center of our belly. This further increases the feeling of being rooted in the belly and allows us to naturally progress to the next phase of this level where we come into a state of deep rest. This place in the lower belly is known as “The Lower Dantian” in Taoism and is the main energetic reservoir for energy in the body.
