Motion is essential for the human being, as well as is breathing and nutrition.
Our physical body is especially designed to be dynamic, active, to explore the physical world we live in and to keep continuously the tonus and balance.
Modern civilization had induced an increased level of sedentary habits, through all the facilities offered, such as: cars, plains, computers, television, games and other – which use the sitting position more than 60-70% of the day.
In these circumstances, the physical therapies become more important than ever – especially in the healing strategies.
There are two types of important physical therapies:
- passive type of physical therapies – realized by some specialist – the patient being not involved actively (just being the “receptor” of the therapy) – for example massage, reflex therapy, presopuncture, Bowtech (Bowen therapy), osteopathy, chiropractic and many others. The responsibility of the patient is just to allow the therapist to do the maneuvers.
These therapies are useful in certain periods of treatment, but they cannot replace more “active” therapies, which involve a higher responsibility from the patient. - “active” type of physical therapies – after one learns and apply daily the movements. – Out of these therapies one can list DO-IN, Alexander therapy, Feldenkreis therapy, different Yoga techniques, many breathing exercises, physical practices such as Tai-chi, Qi-gong, Sundao – or more contemporary techniques such as aerobic, Pilates or Being Energy.
We are going to present, in some articles, some easy exercises of DO-IN or Being Energy, which are dedicated to teach people about their body and to allow and help their body to heal itself.
We’ll talk more about Being Energy – which is a special technique where physical movements are combined with breathing and mental relaxation – and is useful for getting a plus of energy in the daily life – wherever it’s requested.
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BEING ENERGY
Movements for recovery our physical energy.
Being Energy is a technique taught by Aerin Alexander and Miles Reid (http://www.beingenergy.com) former apprentices of Carlos Castaneda – and is a very good way of using physical movements to balance the energy level of our body.
In our lifetime, we block important energy masses because of stagnation of different body parts, which we use very little in daily life (such as the back part of our legs, the back, the neck, the sole of our feet and so on).
When one mobilizes the stagnant regions, one becomes aware of the energy stagnation in those regions (pains occurring during certain motions or even restriction in doing some movements). With practice, we are able gradually to recover the stagnant energy and make more use of it in our daily life.
Being Energy is very similar with cleaning our own house, when we discover a lot of objects, clothes and furniture piled out in different corners and cupboards, never used in the last years, but still in a good condition. Doing Being Energy exercises is as if we re-discover our own resources, we thought we lost, but we discovered we always have them. A lot of us are looking outside of ourselves the treasure we always kept hidden inside our bodies.
In Being Energy – there are series of movements, from very simple to some more complex and complicated ones. Each of these series are taught through many rehearsal and daily practice, and they can be practiced as many times as the person wants (and feels) to.
There are movements for certain parts of the body (for example, for the foot, or just the sole of the feet), as well as movements for the whole body – which involves breathing, stretching and other complementary actions. We will describe few simple exercises, which can be practiced everywhere, at home, in the office or while travelling.
EXERCISE 1 – Energy deposit on the sole of the feet
It seems we have a lot of stagnant energy on the sole of our feet, especially in the front part, where toes are continued with the sole (the “soft pillows” we step onto when we walk on toes).
The exercise can be practiced standing or sitting, concentrating first on one foot (the right or left one), then on the other foot. We will stay very stable on the right foot – and we will press the ground with the soft front part of the left foot (as when we stay on toes, as if we are wearing high heels). We start with the big toe of the foot, and continue bit by bit, with every toe of the leg, putting pressure from inside to outside of the feet sole.
So we press slowly the nr.1 toe – toward nr. 5 – and then backward – from no. 5 – to no. 1 again – in a slow, but strong movement and pressure. Everybody will feel some pain and rigidity at some level or another, but keep going with the exercise – from one toe to the other – more times. A releasing and feeling- well sensation will occur in the whole foot – after this simple exercise.
Do the same with the other foot.
EXERCISE 2 – Releasing the ankle
With the left foot with the heel up and supported on the toes – one makes rotation from ankle joint toward interior, several times and afterwards, toward exterior several times. And we repeat the exercise, with the right foot.
This exercise could also be performed standing or sitting, no matter the circumstances we are in. A lot of energy is stagnant in ankles – and could be released with simple rotations.
EXERCISE 3 – Releasing the ankle 2
Another good exercise for the ankle joint (if one is standing) is to lift a little the left leg (sitting very stable only on the right leg), and to rotate the ankle in the interior, few times, then in exterior – few more times.
If one prefers to sit – the movement has the same indication – just lift a little the left leg – and rotate the ankle in one direction, then in the other direction.
Repeat the movement with the other leg.
This is a very useful movement for those travelling a lot in car or airplane, which are prone to important lymphatic stagnation (and energy blockages) in the legs.
EXERCISE 4 – Releasing the knee joints
While standing (or sitting) – one can do a rotation movement from the knee joint, toward interior – several times, and toward exterior, several times – alternative, with the left leg, then with the right leg (it’s very similar with the ankle rotation, just from another joint).
Doing the exercise in a standing position will also help with the general balance of the body, because one needs to find a very good and stable standing position in one leg, in order to perform the movement from the knee joint only.
