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The practices provided here are divided into:

1. Sitting practices: meditation
2. Moving practices; and
3. Self-healing exercises

For more practices, see the Books sesction to order a copy of my Wellness Manual.

1. Sitting Practices: meditation

Don’t go outside your house to see the flowers
My friend, don’t bother with that excursion
Inside your body there are flowers.
One flower has a thousand petals.
That will do for a place to sit.
Sitting there you will have a glimpse of beauty
Inside the body and out of it
Before gardens and after gardens
(Kabir)

(i) Introduction

The purpose of meditation is to spend time beneath the tirade of our everyday thoughts, concerns and preoccupations; to reach and sit in the place in our being where there are no concerns, where it is very calm and peaceful – our essential selves, the essence of our being. This is a very creative place, where new ideas and inspiration bubble up effortlessly from deep within our subconscious minds.

Cultivating the stillness that meditation provides becomes an important balance for our active lives. The body needs this time – time to be silent, still, focused – so that our attentional energies can stream inwards.

All day long our attention, which is our energy, goes outwards into the world – to serve others through work or through commitments to family and friends, or in entertainment (which is the creativity of others), or in our own creative efforts. These things give life meaning, but there must be some time during each day where this outward focus turns inwards – and our energy turns inwards, to relax and nourish us, to gain clarity, and to improve the connection of our minds with our bodies.

Relaxation: a chance to put to rest all our concerns and pre-occupations, ease tensions that have built up, relaxation is the precondition of all healing. Relaxation means “letting-go”, and surrendering ourselves to the moment – letting go of the past, letting go of our concerns for the future, and delving deeply into what is in the present.

Nourishment: This time fills our inner reservoir with the energy we need to be effective at our work and other commitments; and in this way our external activities become empowered by this time that we dedicate to our inner world.

Clarity: we turn our attention away from the preoccupations of our every day lives, giving thought a rest from its constant grappling; this sends our energy deeper into our beings, from out of which arises a different perspective and creative solutions to the things we are engaged with.

Connection: the more we develop a rapport with our inner selves, the more meaningful our feelings and sensations become for us. As we place focus on the sensations within us – in our muscles, tissues, and organs – they reveal themselves to us; they tell us stories about ourselves, past events that we could not let go of. We can then apply our current maturity to those past stories (often from childhood) and release the energy that has become blocked there.

Meditation and sitting still is a skill, and just like any other skill, takes time and dedication to perfect. In this way it is just like riding a bike. At first, we fall off, unable to balance; then we get back on the bike and try again, only to fall off again. But with time, our bodies learn how to navigate and associate all the elements of the activity. Inner work is no different – it just takes practice. That it has also a certain mystical aspect does not mean that it is difficult and unapproachable; like any other sport or skilled activity, we get better at it the more we engage with it.

That it does have a mystical aspect is, however, something that makes it different from almost all other kinds of activity. This mystical aspect comes out of the fact that through stillness and silencing of thought, we reach deeper into ourselves and come into contact with a part of ourself that is beyond our ordinary world. Here we can participate, learn and interact just like when we are in the normal world, but without the limitations of time and space. Individual humans are like individual hairs on a head, when we trace our consciousness to its root, we find that we are all connected in and a part of one great mind that encompasses all of creation – past, present and future.

The essence of meditation is concentration: focusing our attention for a significant period of time. The effect of this concentrated attention is cumulative, both within each individual session and over time as a result of many sessions. At first when we sit down to meditate, nothing happens – or nothing seems to happen. But if we are concentrated, and stay with the meditative practice, then something does indeed happen: a threshold is passed and amazing things happen within us. It is like water coming to the boil: at first when we place the pan of water on the heat, nothing seems to happen – we wait and we watch. If we concluded that indeed nothing was happening, and took the pan off the heat, then nothing will come of the event and we will confirm to ourselves that nothing happened. But if we leave the pan on the heat then the water heats up, a threshold is passed, and in a single flash the water boils. The heat element on a stove is nothing other than concentrated energy – and if we could only be as good at concentration as the heat elements on our stoves (a single focus, and never a moment of doubt), we would all be capable of amazing things. But with practice, it gets easier; the effects of our efforts have a cumulative effect over time, and less time is needed “before the water boils” in each individual session.

The “water boiling” in the analogy refers to a moment of complete absorption within ourselves, and depending on which chakra the energy of that moment goes to determines the nature of the experience that will occur.

(ii) Methodology
The basic methodology of all meditation is to concentrate one’s attention elsewhere than in the thinking brain. This is not to say that thinking is bad, just that it is over-utilised, and we must try to bring back balance within our minds by stabilising attention elsewhere within our being.
The analogy here is that thought is like a potent laser gun, which, if persistently firing every second, gets weaker and weaker. Alternatively, if we keep our finger off the thought-trigger, the laser charge will build up, so that when a round of thinking is let off, it will be much more potent. It is said that “thought makes an excellent servant but a terrible master”. The purpose of meditation then, is to place thought back in its place within our beings where it is most useful – as a selective tool, and not a persistent one.

Attention is the key. The essential understanding is this: that where (think: location) our attention is, that is where our energy of that moment is going. If our attention is located in the physical part of us called “the brain”, it will produce thinking, because the brain is our organ of thinking. On the other hand, if we place our attention at other locations within the body, we will not “think”, rather, our energy will go into and advance the function of the body at that other location.
 
There are some very powerful other places within the body for attention to stabilise. If placed on the vital organs (lungs, liver, kidneys, heart, spleen/pancreas), it will energise and heal those organs; if placed on the breath, it will calm us and take us to a deep place within our consciousness; if attention is placed on areas of pain within the body, the body will use the added energy to heal those areas; if attention is placed on subtle energy centres (“the chakras”), it will vitalise and heal those energy centres, allowing us to participate in potentials within us that require greater energy (psychic abilities, for example). For example, if attention is placed at the location of the “3rd eye” it will open us up to visionary experiences.

We are so used to thought predominating our awareness, that it is natural for our energy to shoot back up to our brains while we are doing the practice of placing attention elsewhere. When that happens, we must notice it as soon as possible, and then gently draw our attention back to the task at hand. It is important to be gentle on ourselves, because we don’t want to condition aggression into the meditative experience. By that is meant, if we get angry at ourselves for losing concentration, then our bodies will register aggression as being part of the meditative experience, and this will build fear and limitation into our deep psyche. It is very much like the training of an animal. People who have had experience with training dogs, for example, point out that when a dog is trained with love, it is more willing to take risks in what it chooses to do, whereas dogs trained with the stick are fearful and inflexible when it comes to dealing with new situations. Our minds are the same in this respect; we need to train them with love and gentleness in order for them to be effective.​

​(iii) Preliminaries
A few practical tips.

Put aside the time: When at home, set aside a regular time for meditation practice. It is like a date with yourself: a special time where your attention and energy is going inside yourself, and not externally to other people or projects. Decide before you start how long you are going to meditate for, and then keep to that time.

Make a special place for practice: If you meditate in the same place everytime, then that place becomes conditioned for meditation, and you will find it easier to meditate there. This phenomenon develops over time – and with time the energy of that location becomes a stronger and stronger aid to meditation. Make the place somewhere you want to go to – decorate it with flowers, candles, or objects that have a pleasant association. It is better if that place has a free flow of fresh air – by a window or even outside.

Sitting posture: Many meditators prefer to sit cross-legged – although this is a good sitting posture it is not necessary. The benefit of the cross-legged posture is that it keeps the spine upright and encourages subtle energy flow to recycle through the body. But it is also fine to sit upright in a chair, with the legs on the floor. For some people this will be a better starting position, because otherwise the first months of practice will be all about putting up with the pain in the body that comes from developing the cross-legged position. With the normal sitting position, on the other hand, the first months of practice will be more about deepening the meditative experience. If you do choose the chair sitting posture, you may find it comfortable to cross your ankles. Although not strictly necessary as a beginner, this does work to provide a recycling of subtle energy within the body, which in deeper states of mediation is helpful to steadily increase the energy in the body. Laying down is not a good idea as a position of meditation, because you are most likely to fall asleep instead of reaching deeper and deeper states of inner awareness. Our bodies are conditioned to sleep when we are laying down, and so if you lay down to meditate, then it is likely that with the first bit of relaxation that takes place, you will drop into the unconsciousness of sleep. Meditation, on the other hand, is a fully conscious activity. If you meditate with your spine upright then you will be conditioning your body to another mode of relaxation – one which becomes progressively deeper, but without falling into the unconsciousness of sleep. In this way, you begin to cultivate a state of the conscious mind which is between waking and sleeping – this is a very fruitful state of mind. It is not only very relaxing (it can be even more relaxing than sleep), but it is extremely creative; in this state we open ourselves up to experiencing other realms of our existence, and other beings in those realms with which to interact with and learn from.

Keep a notebook: This is a very good way to keep track of your progress, as well as providing a place for keeping your insights that you have had during the meditation practice. Keeping a record of your meditation experiences is something that you will look back on with much gratitude in the future. It will help you to remember and re-integrate states of mind you have experienced and lessons you have learned.​
Anchor

​(iv) Techniques
There are thousands of meditation techniques, and not all will be suitable for everyone. One of the most powerfu land significant things you can do in your life is to find the meditation technique that works for you - the one you naturaly resonate with, taking you to a deep, mesmerising and energising place within your being.

Below are some techniques that I have found work with many people, and are excellent starting points on your meditation
journey of discovery.

(a) “Catch Your Breath” - This technique will take you to a deep place within your being.
               
The meditation is as follows: Place your attention on your outbreath… let the outbreath go to its very end… follow your outbreath all the way to its end… and wait… wait there for the impulse to breathe… and then when the impulse comes, let it rise within you, your mind like a kite on the wind of the breath… follow the breath all the way up to its top, do not control it, just watch how it wavers on the top for a moment, and then falls down… stay with the mind like a kite on the wind of the breath, all the way down to the very bottom… to the end of the outbreath… and wait there… wait for the breath to come. Do not hold your breath – when the impulse to breathe comes, go with it, following it all the way up, your mind like a kite on the wind of the breath.

Stay with this exercise for at least 5 minutes. That’s all it should take to fall into a very relaxed place… once at that relaxed place you might want to stay with this exercise, or move to another meditation.

The essence of this exercise is that we do not “take” a breath, we “receive” the breath. It is something given – gifted – to us, and we receive it gently and humbly, as opposed to “taking” the breath, which implies forcefulness. When you get to the end of the outbreath, and wait there for the inbreath, it is natural that some time should pass where there is no breathing at all. This is good; it is good if this is a long time. Do not fear! The body WILL ALWAYS breathe at the optimal moment. This is important to mention because some people will fear death at this moment of waiting, and that fear will force them to “take” a breath. But be reassured that here is no way to die during this exercise – there is no need to “take” a breath at all. The body will always breathe. If you think about it, the proof of this is in the way that people drown – in the case where a person has fallen into a body of water, that person will hold their breath as long as possible, and then at some moment, they will gasp for air, swallow water (as they are submerged), and then drown. The fact that this how drowning occurs is the proof that the body will always breathe – in the case of the drowning person, that last gasp for breathe makes them swallow water and drown. So it is possible to go the end of the outbreath, and wait there, wait for a long time if necessary, until the new inbreath comes.

(b) The Inner Smile
This meditation provides an energised calmness in the body. The basic idea is to absorb your attention within your body by smiling to different parts of your body on the in-breath, and then on the outbreath to feel those parts smiling back at you. A possible way to get into this meditation is provided below:

Close your eyes, and smile gently inwards… feel the smile on your lips… delve your fullest concentration on the feeling of the smile in your lips… move your mind from side to side in the lips, focusing on the feeling of the smile in your lips… breathe in, smile to your lips, breath out, feel the smiling energy in the lips. Now take your attention sideways from the lips out to the cheeks… feel the smiling energy in the cheeks, breathe in, smile to the cheeks, breathe out, feel the smiling energy in the cheeks… for a few breaths… then feel your smiling energy in your eyes… breathe in, feel the smile in your eyes, feel its sparkling quality there, for a few breaths… then feel the smile through your whole face… breathe in, feel how the smile radiates in the face, breath out, feel the smiling energy in your face… do this for a few breaths… then move your smile down into your heart… breathe in, smile to the heart , breath out, feel the heart smiling back at you… do this for a few breaths…until you can feel your smiling energy saturating the heart… then smile to your small intestines, breath in, smile to the small intestines, and breathe out, feel them smiling back at you… then the large intestines, then the lungs, then the liver, pancreas/spleen/stomach, then the kidneys. Then you can continue smiling to whatever other parts of the body you like.

This meditation energises, calms and also creates a better mind/body connection. Ultimately, our aim is to be 100% aware of every cell of our whole bodies at all times. With this kind of awareness, we can never get sick.

The smile is a very special kind of energy – its effect on us is unparalleled. When we walk down the street and see a friend, and exchange smiles with them, it uplifts us straight away, energising us and making us feel happy. This is a very special power we have. This mediation takes this special power and turns it inwards. We literally light up our insides by the power of the smile. When placed on our organs, bones and tissue, this energy strengthens them, which turn makes us feel even better – and so an inner ‘feedback-loop’ is created – a self-feeing circuit. We smile inwardly, we feel good a result, as a result of feeling good, we smile more… and so… this self-feeding loop expands; the result is lightness, happiness and a feeling of well-being.

When shining this inner smile on the organs, we must be careful not to engage in negative, recriminating self talk – borne out of shame for not having looked after our bodies in the past. Realise that our bodies are always doing the very best that they can do to make us healthy and well. Our bodies are the best examples that we have of unconditional love: no matter what we do to them, they always respond to make things better for us. Pain is the body’s way of shouting out for attention, but it is not a punishment; the body is always seeking to heal itself. So when meditating on the inner body, with the inner smile for example, do so with utter gratitude for everything that the body is. Cultivate feelings of gratitude and optimism in the body – this too is a self-feeding feedback loop – it is a cycle that keeps getting bigger.

(c) Inner Alchemy: working with imagined light - This meditation is a very powerful self-healing tool
Breathe in, smiling to the lungs, breath out, feel the lungs smiling back at you. Then with the next in-breath, breathe white light into the lungs. Let the breath fill the lungs with white light, the colour of lightning. With each new breath, feel the colour becoming more brilliant inside. Do this until the lungs are shiny and white and happy. Then move your attention to your kidneys… smile to the kidneys, and breath blue light into the kidneys… with each breath, feel blue light filling the kidneys, becoming more brilliant with each breath. Feel how this is changing how your kidneys feel. Let that colour saturate the kidneys. Do this until the kidneys are bright blue and radiant. Then move your attention to the liver (just underneath your right rib cage), smiling to the liver, breath green light into the liver, and as you breathe out, feel the green light saturating the liver. With each
breath, feel the light becoming more brilliant. Keep breathing green light into the liver, until it is saturated with the light. Then move your attention to the spleen/pancreas (just underneath the left rib cage), smile there, and breathe in bright yellow light. With each breath, feel the yellow light becoming more brilliant in the spleen/pancreas area. Keep pouring yellow light into the area, until it is beaming with light like the sun. Then move your attention to the heart, smiling to the heart, and breathing beautiful red light into it. With each breath, feel the light becoming more brilliant. And keep pouring the red light into the heart, until it is shiny, joyful and proud. Then begin to fill all your bones with golden light, imagine them filling up, with each breath. Fill one bone at a time, or if you can work with the whole skeleton at once, then all the bones at once – fill them with brilliant golden light, until the whole skeleton is brimming and radiating like a sun. Then let a soft pink light fill each cell of your skin, breathing in, fill the skin with the colour, breathing out, letting that colour intensify and shine brighter. Continue with that until the whole skin feels alive with colour.

As you do this exercise, you should try to make it cumulative, in the sense that after each part of the body is filled with a colour, a little part of the attention remains on it while the rest of the attention moves on to the other parts… so that the colour doesn’t fade when you move on to a different part of the body. After the exercise you should feel like a bright rainbow, beaming out colour from all the different parts of the body that you have worked on.

Why does it work? Ultimately all matter is in a state of vibration… and the different states of vibration result in different wavelengths being broadcast out into space at different times. Different colours of light have different wavelengths, and when we imagine different colours in our bodies, the energy of attention takes on that wavelength, which then mixes in with the wavelengths of the vibrations of our bodies… by visualising light, we are actually engaging with ourselves at an atomic level! This gives us the opportunity to make significant changes to our cells… simply through the colours we imagine. A diseased cell will have a certain rate of vibration, and by making that part of the body vibrate to a different frequency, we can actually change the rate of vibration of the cell, and take it out of its disease vibration into a healthy one.

Which colours should one visualise? The colours used above are those that are recommended/used in the Taoist system. Ultimately, however, this is something we must all feel out within ourselves, as there are no set rules. Visualising white light is simple and a general tonic, because it contains all the colours within it; visualising the specific colours can have more specific results at different parts of the body. My suggestion is to place your mind at different parts of the body, then imagine a colour wheel spinning slowly through that area, and work out which colour feels best. Then apply that colour until you feel that another colour is needed, and go back to the colour wheel.​

2. Moving Practices

A development on the standing practices are the moving practices. Moving practices harmonise the rhythms of the body, stretch and loosen both physical tissue and energy channels releasing blockages, increase and expand energy in the body, provide clarity of mind and increase focus.

The most important part of all these exercises is coordinating the movement with breathing; never moving faster than the breath, and timing all movements so that they flow with the breath. This alone is so important and so vital for well-being. We should ultimately get to a point where we are conscious of our breath and all movements coordinated with the breath at every moment of the day.​

(i) Walking meditation 1: "Presencing"
This exercise, done whilst walking, is otherwise called “presencing”, because the focus of the exercise is to bring all of our attention into the present moment – achieving the best possible apprehension of the present moment as is possible. The exercise involves “balancing the senses”, wherein we ensure that we are getting an equal amount of information through each of our senses. Usually our sight dominates, followed by hearing; usually most of the information we gather about the present moment is through these two senses. In this exercise, however, we attempt to balance the levels of all the senses so that we are getting as much information through each of the senses as each other.

Start walking, looking around – observing your environment in as much detail as possible. Follow your interest, allowing yourself to spend a little longer watching the things that interest you. Now make sure that you are hearing as much as you are seeing – that you are getting as much information about your environment from your ears as your eyes. Spend a little time with this, noticing how much more of the environment is being taken in. Then add smell to the mix – make sure that you are getting as much information from smell, as from hearing, as from sight. Taking deep, but easy breaths, observing how, through smell, you take your environment directly inside you. Smell is the closest and most intimate way of interacting with the environment, because though this sense we take a massive area of space into our bodies. Stay for a while in this kind of awareness. Then add taste to the mix – making sure to get as much information from taste as from smell, as from sight and sound. What kinds of flavours can you taste from the outside world. Observe your responses to the different tastes – which ones are pleasant or offensive. Spend some time with this. Then add touch to the mix – making sure that you are as attentive to your feelings from touch as from sight, sound, taste and smell. As you walk, cycle your attention through each of the senses to make sure that they are equally operating, in this way building a very extensive picture of the world around you at that moment. Do this exercise for at least 20 minutes.

The interesting thing is that thought takes place in words – it is a sound, and so we listen to our thoughts. When we listen to our thoughts, a portion of our hearing capacity is employed, and we cease listening to the outside world in proportion to the hearing capacity that has turned inwards. We are listening inwards, and are deaf to the sounds of the outside world. This means that the best way to tame one’s thinking – to achieve inner silence – is to fully engage oneself in the process of listening to the outside world. Throwing one’s full hearing capacity into the outside world effectively makes thought silent – because thought needs our attention to thrive. When our thoughts are silent, and we are fully present to the outside world, we notice more details about the goings on around us, our judgments about what we are seeing are suspended, and we are open to new constellations of meaning.

This exercise is good to practice whenever you are walking down the street, or walking anywhere – use the opportunity to throw your attention into the present moment only, instead of ruminating in thoughts, observing how restful and energising it is to be fully present – and how much more response-able one becomes – in one’s environment when one is fully present.

Ultimately we should practice this exercise always – all the time! – always maximising the information streams brought by all our senses in order to be as fully aware of our environment as possible.

For an even fuller apprehension, to this kind of witnessing we could also add awareness of our thoughts and awareness of our emotions as we go through different events – without becoming embroiled in them, without identifying with them. Just watching ourselves as much as we watch the outside world; coming to know our tendencies that little bit better, and having a little distance from them, instead of just reacting to them. In this way we become increasingly free in the world – free of our unconscious drives and free to act in a way that really reflects our authenticity at all times.

(ii) Walking meditation 2: Singing to the world
The following walking meditation is extremely beneficial – it opens up a lot of energy from inside the heart, sending it out through the whole body, making us feel alive and connected to the whole of nature. One half-hour of this exercise can totally shift your energy to a higher frequency, making you bubble with happiness.

The meditation is very simple: while walking, sing praise to the world you encounter before you – the trees, the rocks, the birds, the people, the sky, the earth – everything your senses touch.

There is no particular form of words to use, only that which arises out of yourself, as something that you like about what you have seen. There is no particular kind of melody to sing, whatever sounds rise up from within you.

A good way to get into this exercise is to use the rhythm of your footfall to create a beat, which you sing. If you listen to your footsteps, you will notice they have rhythm and a pitch difference which provides everything you need to for a song. Walk along, listening to your footsteps, hearing the song that they make, and then sing that melody to yourself – allow it to inspire a melody. Start at first just singing what you hear, then see how that can turn even more beautiful, so that you are matching your song to your footsteps.

Just singing a wordless melody while you walk is a powerful enough meditation, but it can become even more powerful with words added. So, after you have become used to making melodies from your footsteps, begin to add that melody words of praise about the world around you. They needn’t be complicated, and are just words describing things you see and like about your surroundings. For example: “that tree has beautiful flowers”, “that tree lifts its fingers to the sky”, “I love the sound that bird makes”… just keep going as you walk. Feel free to repeat lines also – there is no judgment or contest going on… just the beneficial feeling of singing about the beautiful things around you.

For this exercise, you needn’t sing aloud for the world to hear – singing softly to yourself, or even within your mind is fine too. It is far more powerful and energising, however, to sing loudly; but perhaps for this is better at first to be alone out in nature, or with friends doing the same thing out in nature, where the birds and animals actually enjoy the singing. After getting used to it you could bring it into the city and make the days of the people around you!

A simple enough meditation is to make conscious and speak about the things that you are grateful for. If you simply just can’t make a melody and a song while you walk, at least walk and use your entire attention to speak about the things that you are seeing that are beautiful.
(iii) Jump shake dance
This exercise is a very simple way to raise one’s energy. It is both energetic and cardiovascular, and is also good for the lymphatic system, as it helps to flush out toxins from the cells.

The basic idea of the exercise is to create a pulse within the body, which makes the body shake up and down on the spot, in time with the breath. The exercise can be done to music – ideally music that is dynamic and contains many rhythms within the song – but it is also possible to just use breathing to set the rhythm.

The way that the exercise works is by relaxing the body at increasing levels of energy output. The idea is to stabilise breathing while the body is moving at a fast pace. With the breath stabilised and calm, and with the body moving relatively fast, the body begins to store energy at that level of energetic output. Once enough energy has been stored, the body can move to the next level energetic output. The movement gets faster. At first the breath is quickened to accommodate the increased requirements of the higher output, but then when the breathing is calmed again at that level of output, the body begins storing that higher frequency of energy, and the process continues.

From a standing position, lift the heels off the ground so that you are balanced on the balls of your feet. Then move the heels up and down quite quickly, noticing that this action creates a pulse which travels up through the body. Follow the pulse all the way up to the top of the head, letting it play out through the shoulders, arms and hands, so that they shake. The head should not loll around, but stay in a forward, straight-on looking, but relaxed position. Then begin to co-ordinate this pulse with the breath – so that both the inbreath and the outbreath are punctuated by the pulsing. It is as if the inbreath is inflating each pulse, all the way to the top of the breathing, and the outbreath is shaking out the breath of every pulse, all the way to its end. And then let the inbreath start again. A rhythmic sound is created by breathing as it interacts with this pulsing. Let the whole body relax, and shake gently, keeping your attention within the body. Keep on shaking and breathing in this manner.

As long as the breathing is full and relaxed, the body will not tire. The accented pulsing of the breath is energising the body. After a certain period of time, you will feel that your body needs to shift to a higher rate of pulsing… a quicker movement of the heels and feet. You might even double the rate that you are moving at. Keep the breath steadily interacting with the new pace of the pulsing, relaxing the shoulders and arms, and head as they shake. Keep on moving with the breath. As long as the breath is steady and the body relaxed, there should come a point where the body needs to shift again to an increased level of jumping. Let the body shift to that higher gear and make sure the breath is still connected in with breathing. Keep going in this manner, for at least 20 minutes, letting the body shift always to a higher level of exercise, but with the breath always connected with the pulsing.

After at least 20 minutes, stop the pulsing, and just stay standing on the spot, allowing your breath to come back to its resting rhythm. Standing perfectly still at this moment, you have a few moments with which to observe the contrast between the extreme exertion the body was just doing and the stillness of that present moment. This is like listening to the reverberation of the exercise in the body. You will notice that the exercise was a high frequency of movement compared to standing still. Stand, relax, listen inwardly to the reverberated vibrations of the foregoing exercise, and breath deeply and steadily. In this resting phase, the body is absorbing the high frequency of energy that the exercise had initiated.

This exercise helps the body to get used to increased frequencies of energy, and when one is more practiced in it, one will be able to access the higher states of energy instantaneously, without having to go up through the levels. One will be able just to snap into a high energy state, immediately, for example if there is something that urgently requires a higher state of energy to deal with.

Self-Healing exercises

All of the exercises described above will promote healing in the body, in that sense, this whole page is about self-healing. Relaxation, meditation, stretching, dance – all of these are essential things we must do as preventative activities that will keep us healthy and well, and give us a strong enough immune system to deal with most challenges that come our way.

Provided below, however, are tools which can be used to target specific aches or pain areas in the body.

Ultimately, it is of great assistance to regard pain as a ‘blockage of energy’: this gives us the feeling that we can work with it – that we can do something about it – rather than feeling disempowered by something we don’t understand or know what to do with. 

As a base understanding of ourselves, it helps to know that each of us ARE capable of great transformations within our bodies. We all have the power to heal ourselves. This is because we were all born with the complete map of health written in our DNA. It is all there. Every cell of the body contains the information for the body’s complete health and well-being. There is no reason why we can’t access that information, which is after all, inside of us.

Our simple nature is to be healthy and well. Understanding this, we also understand that working to heal from disease and pain is therefore not so much about having to do something, but is ultimately rather about stopping doing that which we are already doing which is not good for us. Because our natural state is perfect health, that which hurts us is an overlay on our natural state. Healing is ultimately, then, primarily finding out what it is we are doing to ourselves that is causing the pain –and then stopping that.

There are, of course, things that we can do which help us get into the state of receptivity that enables us to know ourselves that deeply. And there are exercises we can do which help the body to throw of the overlay of dis-ease.​

(i) Channeling breath/energy into the pain
This exercise works incredibly well as a pain relief tool, and can be used all around the body. It is necessary, however, for the limb where the pain is to be in a resting position – that is, this techinique will only work when the area being worked on is not itself working against gravity at the time.

Make sure the area being worked on is in a resting position. Then place one finger on the pain, pushing into it just a little so that the pain is just slightly intensified. Then breathe into the pain, as if you are inflating it, like a balloon. When you breathe out, let the whole area relax, and deflate the balloon. Do this again, several times, each time inflating the pain directly with the lightness of the breath. After you have worked on one point of pain, feel around the area for more points of pain and work on those too in the same way.

Why/how does it work? By holding the pain, and breathing into it, you are intensifying your attention at that location. This focused attention, together with the lightness of the breath at that location, alerts the brain to the ‘holding pattern’ in the muscles surrounding the pain. The added lightness of the breath provides a contrast to the heaviness of the holding pattern. When the ‘holding pattern’ is felt in this light, the brain always chooses to let it go. This, most times, will resolve the energy blockage at that site, and the pain will go away.

This technique provides a feedback mechanism for the brain. Often the pains in our bodies are caused by an intense holding of muscles and tissue by the subconscious mind. The muscles become habituated in holding pattern. By breathing into the tightness in the manner described above, the conscious mind becomes aware of the previously unconscious impulse, and lets it go.

When breathing directly into an area, the focused breath also adds chi, life force energy, to that place. Sometimes, this is all that pain needs to be relieved.

This technique works well with most pains – it is such a simple thing – just breathe into the pain, inflating it, and then breathe out, letting it go. The pain will be diminished, unless there is some other part of the body that needs to be relieved first. Use the hands to prod the body all over, finding the most serious pain spot, and then working on that first. Always start with the most serious pain spot, work on it, then go and do the same with the next most serious pain spot.
(ii) Self-Reflexology
Reflexology is a fascinating modality that has been used for thousands of years in many cultures to heal, tonify and vitalise the body. It is easy to do on oneself, and a very important self-healing tool. Either put aside some time to devote to it, or do it while talking to others, watching tv, on the train, etc. sometimes the best work we do on ourselves with self-massage is when our conscious mind is distracted elsewhere and our subconscious mind can move our fingers to do precisely what is needed. Every time you give yourself a massage, you will be helping yourself.

Sit in such a way that you can massage your feet with your hands. [We start with the feet and legs, and then go the hands; if you can’t reach your feet, then just use one hand to massage the other, and then swap.] Use your curiosity – feel around to find points of tension or pain, and gently press there. Press from a variety of directions, including in a circular motion. With the points that are more tender, hold the pressure there for at least 5 seconds. Simply do what feels best to do – pay attention to the different feelings that different moves make, and repeat the ones that feel good. Your body is the best guide you have in letting you know what to do – so experiment and build a repertoire of useful moves. Spend as long as feels good on each foot and hand.

Reflexology maps are widely available on the internet, but having a map is not needed at all to give oneself a healing massage. Just start – you can consult a chart if you want to know which areas of the body you have been working on, but it really isn’t necessary. Your own feeling is the best guide as to what is good for you.

It takes a bit of practice to get used to it, but developing the feel for how to work with what you find will pay itself back manifold in increased well-being.