Video: QiGong For Calming The Monkey Mind
By Courtney Alex Aldor
Now that we're in the thick of Spring, all we shed in Autumn, the seeds buried beneath the surface in Winter, are finally starting to push forward. This means our energy is go, go, go, and quite possibly our minds too. Living in Western culture that values this type of energy - reaching goals, growing, pushing forward - can mean that we sometimes get stuck in it, making it hard to relax and calm it down when we need to.
In this video, I'm demonstrating a practice first for wringing out that excess tension from the body and mind, and then a moving meditation for calming the monkey mind. And of course, when we have monkey mind, or racing thoughts, seated meditation can feel extra hard, so this is a practice I really value having.
Now, for all you sticklers for form out there, you may notice that in my first go-around, my fingers are not perfectly in line with my arms - which means I'm blocking energy flow at my wrists in this particular movement. And I kind of love it because one of the main principles of Healing QiGong is loving our bodies the way they are at any given moment. This way we can more easily feel into all our beautiful parts, accepting and trusting what's happening at any given moment, more easily noticing what's happening so we can make other choices if we feel called.
This is a great one to do before bed, especially if sleep and stress is an issue, or any time you feel frustrated or overwhelmed with the busy-ness of forging ahead. May your qi shine bright, friends!
