Recenter yourself. Next, you can imagine a string pulling at the top of your head upwards. A few years before I came to temple, I had actually lost the connection I had with my energy, my qi. Truth be told, standing meditation can be boring and painful. Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit. Other common stances are: Hun Yuan Zhuang, Wu Ji Zhuang, Fu Hu Zhuang, Xiang Long Zhuang and their many variants. But in the evening, it’s not the best time, because it’s a practice that gives you a lot of energy. Then, every time, before you start, check the list again to make sure that they are all fresh in your mind. After a while, you can even try to go up to 30 minutes and see how your body responds . Research of Martial Arts. You can do this, while still relaxing your shoulders and arms. This is the second half of a two part essay where I initially defined Zhan Zhuang and will now present some science and theory behind why standing meditation 1) improves health, 2) improves your martial abilities, and 3) reprograms the body. This posture is entirely Daoist in its origins, has many variations, and is the main training posture in all branches of Yiquan. This method will help to teach your body to have a correct posture, which will help with the pain. But, if you have any issues with your upper body or if you start getting tired and you need a break during your practice, bring your arms down in front of your lower dantian (= the center of your energy). It is just your energy filling up into your arms and it will calm down with your practice. The tree metaphor is apt as your legs and torso form the trunk of … [Has seven standing forms, five seated postures, four lying postures, and three moving postures. But all I needed to do was use my muscles to stand like I was used to, while relaxing the rest of the leg. Bend your knees slightly. How does it work? By being in the right posture, you will have a good “connection” which will help you heal and charge up your body with lots energy! Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. It is claimed that a normalized body will be less prone to muscular-skeletal medical conditions, and it is also believed that Zhan zhuang, when practiced for developing relaxed postures, will lead to a beneficial calming effect. In addition, you will make little taps on your face and on your head. This posture is entirely Daoist in its origins, it has many variations, and is the main training posture in all branches of Yiquan. To feel your Qi, it might take time. Zhan Zhuang is also practiced in a deep stance with the left hand aligned behind the back at the ming men and the right hand flat and open in front of the eyes. -- Internal Arts Journal . When you feel truly grounded, you will notice energy coming up from the earth and fill you up with energy. The part that is the most difficult for me is remembering to keep tailbone tucked in! One morning, during this exercise, my eyes were closed, but I thought it was strange that I felt my fingers touch. When to practice the standing meditation? If you want to cultivate your qi and learn more about meditation and Qigong, this is an amazing method to practice! The introduction to Qigong Standing Meditation or Zhan Zhuang (means “standing like a tree’’) is the first video from Meditate with Me series. Not only is it amazing to cultivate your internal energy, but it also promotes longevity! You will place your right hand on your stomach, on your dantian, so, remember approximately 3 fingers under your belly button. If you aren’t sure about the position, you can pretend that you are about to sit down on a chair while keeping in mind to tuck in your tailbone. Why practicing qi gong can transform your life? If you prefer seeing how to do the standing meditation with a video, watch this! Don’t worry in the beginning though! 'standing [like a] post') is a training method often practiced by students of neijia (internal kung fu), such as Yiquan, Xing Yi Quan, Bagua Zhang and Taiji Quan. Stance Keeping: Zhan Zhuang "Body is the bow, asana is the arrow, and soul is the target." I was thrilled that I could feel my qi again!!! The more relaxed body, the faster blood circulation and the faster increase of strength. Zhan Zhuang translates as ‘standing like a tree’ or ‘standing on a pole ‘. Jonathan Bluestein (2014). When you will have given it time to do the restorative process, you will see great transformation in your body and internal qi. The standing meditation which is called zhan zhuang in Chinese, also means the standing pillar. In Yiquan, a clear distinction is made between health postures and martially oriented postures. remaining active in the stance. Little by little, you will see that it’s easier to be here in the now. © Healing warrior 2019 & TM All right reserved. Created by Yannick Arm, Benefits of practicing the standing meditation. For example, if you work a lot at a desk on your computer such as businessmen, entrepreneurs, secretaries, authors, ok a lot of people , than you spend hours each day hunched over. Start with a small circle, then make it bigger and bigger. You need patience and to practice on a regular basis! If we listened more to these signals, we would know how to adjust our lives right from the start. Obviously a lower, more erect posture limits a practitioner to around four minutes. It’s important to relax the body as much as possible so that your Qi may circulate correctly. Master Wang said that Zhan Zhuang can even be adapted and used by people without arms or legs.] We call it “Lohan Carrying Water”. Standing Pole - Zhan Zhuang. It’s normal to feel your body tense up with this position. Zhan Zhuang means standing like a tree or standing like a post, where one stands still, in an upright posture, as if standing like a tree. You will do this move 9 times. Start between 5 and 10 minutes a day. It is best to practice this meditation in the morning. Here is the list for when you need to check really fast each position right before starting: Start by sinking your energy into the ground, deep into the earth. At one point, when I was practicing, I started feeling a tingling but also a pins and needles sensation in my arms and hands. Your head and limbs form the branches. Relax while doing slow and even breaths. Start with just a few minutes, focus on relaxing your muscles as much as you can while taking long, deep breaths and try listening to a nice soothing music maybe the first couple of times. The goal of Zhan zhuang in martial arts has always been to develop a martially capable body structure,[2] but nowadays most practitioners have again returned to a health-preservation orientation in their training, and few teach Zhan Zhuang as a martial method. Relax your fingers and especially your thumbs. You can imagine a ball of energy in your lower belly just recieving all this energy. Who can benefit from doing the standing meditation? It helped me on so many levels, to have more energy in my daily life, feel stronger and to be a better healer! The word zhanzhuangalone refers to a wider range of ‘posture practice’ of which wuji zhanzhuangis the base and essence2. Well for thinking too much, it’s especially the case in the first 20 minutes. This significantly reduces stress and the body can concentrate on the stimulation and circulation of blood and oxygen and thus also on qi. People describing the posture will often refer to holding an urn or cauldron, or hugging a tree. They are parallel to each other. I didn’t feel the energy circulate the first few days, because I tensed up too much from being uncomfortable. With Qigong, you learn to move your Qi and it helps to have a more fluid flow of energy throughout your whole body. The most common Zhan Zhuang method is known as Hún Yuán "Completely Round," "Round Smoothness") or Chēng Bào, "The Tree Hugging" stance). If you spend hours crouching over your computer, don’t you feel more tired than usual? I was just tensing up my body so much and I tried to do it too long. 2. The goal of Zhan zhuang in martial arts has always been to develop a martially capable body structure, but nowadays most practitioners have again returned to a health-preservation orientation in their training, and few teach Zhan Zhuang as a martial method. In training, we alternate with more dynamic exercises, mindful movements, step training, and partner work. Read up on all the position advice that I will be giving you, check your posture right before you begin and focus on your breath. Zhan zhuang practice typically begins with wuji zhuang, a balanced posture with arms down at the sides of the body. But, at the same time, you want your elbows to sink down. Mark Cohen, MSC Creative Enterprises, 2013, This page was last edited on 11 December 2020, at 15:59. There are no recognisable external movements, although it is a highly energetic exercise system. Hence, much of what follows is only conjecture. Train Zhan Zhuang Qigong every day for 4 weeks with this new Taoist Standing Meditation series. Stance Training and becoming a Scholar-Warrior [at] http://shaolin.org/general-2/stance-training.html. You are going to pass over your face, from the bottom to the top, as if you were washing it. But, according to zhan zhuang qigong therapists, simply standing still can energise and realign us more than physical exercise, which they say can drain our energy and put too much pressure on the body. If you feel stressed or anxious, or you are tired all the time, you can benefit from this meditation. For example, Tadasana is the Mountain Posture, Standing Like the Mountain; similiar to standing in "Wu Ji" before you begin a Taijiquan form. It’s so easy to get distracted from the present moment, or not, everyone would think meditation is a breeze. After that, my body does remind me that it’s not always comfortable. You are going to make a circle with them. Zhan Zhuang as a fundamental exercise for internal martial arts First of all, Zhan Zhuang is very helpful to condition the body into the correct postural alignment. Simply relax, focus on your breath and your dantian. The lower dantian is basically about three fingers underneath your belly button. The process of “flattening the lumbar curve” is considered important in order to increase your power through a entirely connected body. For me this is very useful to use in our lives because we forget our bodies so much. Once again, that is totally fine it happens to you. The original Zhan zhuang were health methods used by Daoists; in recent centuries, martial artists who already had static standing methods combined these with the internal mechanics of Zhan zhuang to create a superior exercise. But the Chinese practitioners of the martial arts often use a standing Zen devised to reinforce the person's inner power and to enable him to generate sudden, violent bursts of energy. While with standing meditation, I felt more present in my body immediately. I also tried to go too low from the very beginning. It can be used for meditation and qigong, but it also will help improve your Tai Chi. Then, go down the back of your head, by going around the back of the ears. Zhan zhuang is a form of exercise where you are seeking strength in lack of strength, seeking slight movement in non-movement, seeking fast movement in slight movement. Unfortunately, there was very little reliable information on the subject until recent times. Now that your feet and knees are in the right posture, we are going to focus on the rest of your lower body. It is the most important exercise in Tai Chi. Do this 6 times and make your circle smaller and smaller, until your hands rest on your dantian. Given it time to recharge and restore itself METHODS golden BRIDGE and zhan zhuang stance Zhan Zhuang in Chinese martial arts entirely... 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