Here is a practice that came to me recently. I'm doing it daily, sometimes more than once a day, and really enjoying the benefits of groundedness, centeredness and feeling at-home in my own skin.
If you are not familiar with the chakras it will be useful to post a diagram on the wall near where you do the practice. There are many on the internet, here is one example Chakra diagram
Now, I use a Qi Gong practice here to open my hand and foot gates in order to get my energy flowing. Opening the gates is part of the Tonic Sequence taught by Taoist Adept Master Mikel Steenrod of Water Mountain Martial Society in Flagstaff Arizona. The whole sequence is well worth learning for daily wellbeing and basic health. I am only using a part of it here.
As of this time, I'm not aware of any videos or training materials on Tonic Sequence that Mikel has available on the Internet. So in the meantime, I will explain how to open the hand and foot gates, and hope to do a short video on this for folks to use. Bear in mind that this is only one small piece of the tonic sequence, and the tonic sequence is only one small part of the wealth of very extensive and rich Qi Gong knowledge and practice.
Please note that the chakra system comes from ancient India while Qi Gong practices come from ancient China. It is not traditional to combine these two systems, I have just begun doing it this way and have found it to work very well for me.
First open the palm of one hand, and taking the fingers of the other hand gently rub and tap the center of the palm. You may start with either hand. As you gently rub and tap, you may feel the area warming up or you may not. After doing this for 30 seconds or so, lift your fingers and gently circulate the air about a quarter inch or half an inch above the palm, making a motion as if to fluff the surface of the palm without touching it. After you've practiced this motion quite a few times, you will likely feel an interesting sensation that is hard to describe. But for now, it's not important to focus on the sensation or try to achieve anything. In fact generally, trying is not useful since the body actually knows how to do all this without trying.
Go ahead and do this for the other hand as well. Then, sitting down and with shoes off, do the same thing for the center of the sole of each foot, generally in the arch area. When you begin it may be easier to do this with socks off. Because we don't walk barefooted in our culture, it is said that it's much more difficult open these foot gates then it is for people who do walk barefooted. Rub and tap for a bit longer on each foot.
At Water Mountain we learned to do this in dyads, opening each other's hand and foot gates. This is an excellent way to learn. If you have a friend or partner who is interested you may like to practice with them. You can also learn on your own.
Now back to the chakras. Standing and facing a sacred picture or a view of nature, or whatever inspires you to connect within, notice your foot gates and the energy that is flowing out from them into the ground. In the beginning you may not feel it, or it may be very faint. Holding the picture of the chakra positions in your mind, place your palms several inches away from your first chakra, allowing the energy to flow from your open hand gates toward your center of security. Make an affirmation that feels right to you, such as "I am safe and secure".
Next do the same thing with your second chakra, tailoring the affirmation to the quality centered in that chakra, namely creativity and sexuality. For example this might be "my creativity and sexuality is healthy and balanced".
Again, for the third chakra, hover your palms over the belly area, front and back, and bless this area by affirming "the engine of my body generates healthy power" or something similar. You may like to affirm "my gut is healthy", "my gut is healing" or "my digestion is strong and healthy". The engine of the body truly is the gut, because this is where the food we eat is digested and the energy is sent out to all the cells and tissues of the body.
Going up to the heart chakra, send love and blessing to your own dear heart, saying "my heart is safe, warm and full of love for myself and others" or whatever resonates for you. It is important to visualize the heart as an organ of perception and deep knowing. Our culture mistakes the heart as the center of egoic sentimentalizing or cultural definitions of "romance". Also, quasi-religious notions of sourcing our power from our heart can leave us depleted. The sensing and knowing in our hearts informs the power generated in our solar plexus (read "gut").
Next, allow the energy from your palms to bless your throat chakra, holding your hands a few inches away from your throat from the front and the back. The invocation here can be something like "my voice is clear, calm and strong and I speak my truth easily". This practice particularly gives relief from needing to use too many words or repeating oneself, and makes it easier to speak up when needed. You may also gently rub and stroke the voice box and thyroid area, affirming health for these organs.
The third eye is next. Qi Gong has the practice of tapping and rubbing this area in order to focus the mind. Tap and rub the third eye area, then hover the hand gates over the front and back of the head, visualizing energy flowing from your palms and blessing your intuition center. The affirmation may be something like "My intuition is correct and trustworthy, and my mind is sharp and focused".
Finally bless and activate the crown chakra at the top of the head by tapping all over the crown area, and sending energy from your palms. Visualizing light flowing up out of your head and mingling with the energies of the heavens, opening you to greater and greater awakenings. "I allow myself to access the streams of awakening available to me" is one affirmation you might use.
Sending much love to each of you, with hope that you may benefit from this little practice.
Note: If you use muscle testing, the above practice is great to do beforehand in order to get the most accurate answers. This is how I started the practice, in order to clear any imbalances that were causing me to test inaccurately, as shown by an incorrect answer to an obvious question. If you don't do muscle testing then you can disregard this note!
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