SimonT

In my opinion, based on my experience, you should completely separate the two into distinct practices. When practicing stillness, practice stillness, resist urges to move as much as possible *by relaxing*. As a totally separate practice/experiment, lie down and allow your body to move however you feel it wants to move, and work out for yourself what the different effects of this practice could be. If you want to achieve jhana, you will need to learn to stay very, very still. Doing a lot of movement outside of the times you practice your stillness, will likely help with the stillness when the time comes to practice stillness.

Barrett Dorko is an american Physio who believes that "ideomotor activity" is one of the body's main methods of self-correcting, one that is more or less completely suppressed in most "civilised" cultures. I think there's definitely something to it: http://www.barrettdorko.com/articles/analgesia_of_movement.htm

Sounds good mate. Keep practicing!

I just reread my post above, and although I stand by what I said, I want to add that I really do think that there is something to all of this, and that it can be really, genuinely deep. Genuine disinhibition of movement is really really powerful, and we have such massive cultural inhibitions about movement that actually any weird environment which allows, normalises or encourages zany unplanned unrestrained movement of any sort can bring about amazing catharsis and potentially help people unlock whole aspects of themselves which are usually suppressed. So I'm actually kind of really into it - I mean, I do Butoh, and Continuum, I love environments where I can "dance" in truly weird ways that my body wants to move without being judged as a freak, and I actively encourage these sorts of explorations in just about anyone who works with me - while at the same time I'm highly skeptical. Just gotta make sure that you balance out the twitching and writhing with some wrestling or any sort of solid physical stuff and you should be right I reckon. Ok I'm out.

I'm sure a lot of tension can be released this way though - conversely, a lot of tension could just as easily be built up, depending on how you did it, or how it manifested.

Tremors, TRE "trauma release exercises" (what Leon taught us on the retreat), "continuum movement" (contains a lot of the same stuff), and spontaneous "kriyas" in yoga etc IMO are all interesting and fun and can be life-changing to varying extents, but, in my experience of people who have got waaaaaay into them, they have a tendency to become just another form of habitual movement, disguised as being "spontaneous". I still think it's cool, and I certainly don't claim to fully understand what's going on in all cases (I think several phenomena can easily be lumped together in this category of "spontaneous movement" which can be difficult to distinguish from each other, even for the person experiencing/performing them), but it can easily degenerate into a kind of echo-chamber or cultish environment where people are basically being encouraged to get spastic as to show how sensitive they are. A lot of "tantra" people get sucked into this to the point that they can't take a simple in breath with their eyes closed or sit still for a moment with focused attention without having "spontaneous orgasms". A little bit of searching on the youtubes for "spontaneous qigong" will also show how much of this sort of thing is going on in China.

Things are going well! I have been camping a lot, and spending a lot of time at the beach. Both of these have given me plenty of auspicious exposure to families of large tree-climbing goannas, and many quadrupedal cousins in the forms of possums (trashing the campsite every night), wallabies, and dogs. Ate some sea-snails, abalone, and smoked lots of fish and meat on the fire, while defending everything from aggressive lizards and fat little possums. I also recently finished reading several books, amongst which was "At The Water's Edge", an excellent account of the evolution of tetrapods from lobe-finned fishes, and then the evolution of aquatic mammals (whales, dolphins etc) several million years later. How walking evolved from swimming, and then how swimming re-evolved from walking again. Others were "Prehistory of the Mind" and "Origins of the Modern Mind", the first of which is an archaeologist's attempt to recreate the minds of early people, from chimpanzees through australopithecines and all the early homos to homo sapiens sapiens; and the second of which is the same story, but written by a neuroscientist. Anyway, I've been practicing a lot of quadrupedal and pseudo-quadrupedal movement of various sorts, and have been getting a LOT out of experimenting with the basic undulations/locomotor patterns in water, shallow water, sand, ground, and in trees, and loving the fact that the same basic motor patterns apply to all of those environments, hence there is a huge amount of transferability of strength and movement skill from one to the others. I feel like they're all making me a better wrestler and hitter and climber and swimmer and walker and runner, all at the same time. Besides all of that, I've been practicing my Serge-y neigongs daily, seated reverse breathing several nights per week, and working a single one of the "basics hands" drills every day for as much time as I can get, trying to do 1000+ reps per day (after reading that Sagawa Yukiyoshi practiced all of his solo exercises in sets of 1000). It's awesome. Also smashing hundreds of reps per day of the basic push-pull forwards-backwards taijiquan legs drill that Serge shows in his intro video. Like just about everything else, it's an exercise I'd learned before many times and practiced for many years, but meeting Mr. Augier has inspired me to make it a major focus of practice once again. The best thing I've got from all of Serge's stuff is that it came along right when I was really connecting with a particular part of my spine and torso (the very highest abdominal muscles and the zone in the spine from the thoraco-lumbar junction up to the mid-thoracic between the shoulder blades, and the diagonal slings which pass through these zones), and Serge's neigong and especially the basic hands all seem designed to specifically highlight the basic body mechanic involved with these areas (what is referred to as the "spinal bow" - like a bow for archery - in taiji and xingyi). So, it's good times over here!

I must resist the urge to swear my fingers off in massive agreement with this excellent post. Thank you, sir, and may you and your family find the right way to be with your grandmother in her final years - you are lucky to still have a living grandparent at your age, try to get some stories from her, of the world that was.

Yesterday: - 30-45 minutes each of "provoking hands" (Serge's basic hands number 9) and "pulling-slicing" (number 10). - Da Xuan Nei Gong auspicious 108 breaths. Today: - 15 minutes baguazhang roushengong "soft body training" - 15 minutes chen style taiji "silk reeling" shoulder circles - 1hr of basic hands number 11 "stretching" - 30 minutes of number 12 "crossing" - 20 minutes straight of number 13 "beng quan pendulum" - Da Xuan Nei Gong 108 breaths. The basics hands set is really excellent. Crazy action through the lats and shoulder girdle, intercostals and abdominal walls, erector spinae, hips and adductors, spiralling down through the backs of the knees and peroneals into the feet. After each one I find my torso inflating completely differently when I breathe, and the spiral powers through the legs are really coming along. Whole-body connected spirals are there, now just huge amounts of volume - as much as my body can handle - to make those spirals STRONG!

Apologies! I will do my very best to restrain myself next time I read one of Jon's training logs. Jon - how do you find things like walking, standing up and sitting down after those workouts?

LOL I was reading along and got to "I (back )squatted 105kg (1.5xBW).." at which point I was like "HA! I can totes squat that much no worries!" and half an instant later I read "...for 30 reps..." and I was like "F@#K YOU JON VALENTINE!"

Today: 54 reverse breaths seated, followed by 10 minutes reverse breathing while walking. 36 "grounding" reverse breaths in standing position, pressing heels into the ground on inhale, balls of the feet into the ground on exhale. Amazing exercise, inhale especially really switches on the entire posterior chain. gorilla (on the balls of the feet and loose fists) crawling on the beach, about 8x60 steps. Was fatiguing in serratus anterior at first, quickly moved into medial hamstrings and glutes as I focused more on driving forwards from the legs. Crazy amount of rab work, of course, and going for speed was starting to get the heart rate up nicely as well. Also caught some "beach worms"! Which we will use for bait tomorrow. Interesting process, using dead fish and live pippies to catch sneaky worms to catch more fish later. "Teacups" exercises (basic hands number 7), for 30-45 minutes each of both palms forward (together and alternating), both palms backward (together and alternating) and one-forward one-backward. Absolutely killer stuff, mad gainz in the rabs, spine, abdomen, hips and of course the shoulders. "Yin-Yang Palms" (basic hands number 8), for 20 minutes straight with increasing force and speed. Whole-body spiral powers are really coming along. Can't wait to see where I'm at in a year's time. Da Xuan Nei Gong 108 breaths. Reverse breathing is getting more and more interesting, squeezing-linking is killer, especially in my everythings, and grounding (pulling the central axis strongly toward the ground without moving) absolutely smashes the deep insides of my thighs like they haven't been smashed since I started Chinese martial arts with low tai chi walking and ultra-low chicken stepping back when I was 20. Good times!

Also - what's your "walking practice" involve these days?

That's the business right there.

A good friend of mine who overstayed his visa in Brazil and ended up broke and living in a little shack he built himself in a slum in Salvador is my main inspiration for the high-volume asymmetrical carrying training. He worked selling cashew nuts for about four years to earn money for his flight home to Japan, so he walked around carrying about a 10kg barrel of cashews on one shoulder all day long, swapping shoulders whenever he needed to, putting the load down and lifting it back up to the shoulder and walking with it. He was a small dude, but his torso muscles were massive, and he could do the craziest slow-motion sideways-leaning cartwheels and hand balances like they were nothing.

Hey Kit, great selection of exercises there. Funny, I was rocking the ball-of-foot bounces a lot about two years ago as I've known for some time that this is the main fundamental spring which has not been properly developed in my body, but then I slacked off for a year and then smashed myself running on the beach in Jervis Bay last year five days in a row, and gave myself this nasty achilles tendinopathy - which to me shows that I was really doing exactly the right kind of thing, but got my dosage all wrong. So it's back to ultra-basics (like the basics before the basics) for me, probably for the rest of the next year, since I've already healed the tendinopathy to the point of no pain a couple of times and then re-triggered it again by overworking it. Gotta keep bouncing as we get older, ey? Also - interesting that you're also working on improving your awareness of the four directions. This is another major focus in my life at the moment, trying to remind myself as often as possible throughout the day to remember which direction is east/north/west/south, to the point that it becomes a reflex. A lot of very interesting reading and anecdotal reports of how well developed this awareness is in indigenous cultures around the world. When you do your practice, are you turning to face each direction during each round, or just shifting your awareness for that round? Hey Janet and I are back at Orient Point! Apparently it's only about a 3 minute boat ride over to your place, or a 25 minute drive, so we'll be seeing you soon.

I love the farmer's walk, especially the unilateral. Because I've been on the road a lot I haven't had my precious KB's, but now I'm in a place in Orient Point with a big long back yard that's perfect for walking up and down, so I plan to do a lot of it. Honestly, I think the unilateral loaded walk is one of the very best exercises around. I still haven't got my heavier bells down here so I'll have to go for volume rather than weight, but that's alright too since that's kind of more what I'm trying to do for the next little while anyway. Just have to remember where I put those FAT GRIPZ™... Heavy two-handed walks are pretty amazing as well, definitely good if you want to turn into more of a tank.

I see what's going on here. My plans for this year: - To delve deeper into the hidden worlds of bushcraft and "rewilding", learning the ways of the plants and animals (and eating them), and meeting and training with knowledgeable folks around this country, starting with the east coast where I have already made many virtuous connections, and then venturing further - up into Arnhem land sometime around July/August, and who knows where else. - To continue my brave quest into the realm of the Daoist Immortals, practicing neigong every day without fail, and various secret exercises to develop whole-body connected power, and to re-instate my xingyiquan five elements and baguazhang circle walking practices soon as I settle in to an auspicious place of my own. - To crawl and swim as frequently as possible, and to master the muscle up to the point that five sets of five becomes easy. - To properly rehabilitate my achilles tendons, last remaining of the countless parts of my body which have suffered from chronic pain. Todays log: - Unilateral farmer's walks up and down the back yard with the 16kg kettlebell, for 15 minutes. - Unilateral overhead press, 20x each side with the 12kg kettlebell, 2x10 each side with the 16kg. - Quadrupedal circle-pushups, 10x each direction in sagittal, frontal and transverse planes. - 2x30 negative calf raises for my right achilles, morning and evening. Waigong: -30 minutes each of sagittal, frontal, and transverse plane hand circles, single and double arm. Neigong: - Four breaths in each of the nine positions of the Da Xuan Nei Gong, for the "feeling", "grabbing", and "grounding" rounds, 36 breaths x 3 rounds = a highly auspicious 108 breaths.

Thanks Craig! Zenwoof I hope to visit the bay area sometime very soon. Whole-body breathing/pulsation is the first and deepest layer of movement - the breathing liquid body, the basic pattern which we share with literally every single other living creature on the planet. The empathy increases that come from repeated experiencing of whole-body breathing are incredible, and seemingly limitless. It's totally re-enchanting, of the body and of the world.

You guys have all seen the "intrinsic movement" video of Susan Harper, right?

Great topic! I wholeheartedly believe that the voice is one of the primary indicators of tension and emotion or "state" of the whole system, in the same way as the face, the eyes, the posture, or the breath. As one of the best indicators of the overall state, it is also one of the best "ways in" to access and influence the whole system. Just like the breath, or the facial muscles, the voice is a wonderful form of in-the-moment biofeedback. You can hear your own tension levels manifesting and changing in real time. So, when I teach vocalisation (something I haven't done so much of in recent years, but used to do a lot when I taught Yoga), I usually get people to sing and maintain a simple vowel sound ("AAAAAAAAA", "OOOOOO", "UUUUUU" etc) to give all of their attention to the feeling of the body, and to soften. Soften the face, behind the eyes, the jaw, the neck, the chest and shoulders and back, lower ribs, diaphragm, abdomen, hips legs and feet. Then we work on making the sound smooth (rather than rough, or ragged, or jumpy or twitchy), and following the sound from start to finish trying to notice the rough patches and smooth them out. It's exactly like asana and pranayama - stable and comfortable or "pleasant-feeling" body; long, slow, smooth, subtle breath. Using all of the different possible vowel sounds and other tones like "N" "NG", "R", "M", "L", "Z", "ZH" and the transitions between all of them (like from "AAAA" to "EEEEE", or from "UUUU" to "NGGGGG") then allows you to wake up and direct sensation - increasingly blissful sensation - into all of the different parts of the skull and vocal apparatus all the way down into the pelvis, helping to find that feeling of "singing with the whole body". Obviously then you can get into OM and the other Bija Mantra "Seed Syllables", or the old Vedic or Tantric mantras generally, which are all absolutely incredible for the voice, the body and the mind, but by playing with the simplest components of sound itself it's possible to get all of the physical and anatomical juice from the voice, consciously adding the meaning of the mantras to the practice is just a good way to get really really high. Singing harmonies as well, has to be one of the most satisfying, relaxing and healing activities possible for a human being. Doesn't have to be fancy, just singing a simple tone and harmonising with each other. Awesome stuff, I couldn't recommend anything as being more worthy of exploration.

Yeah for sure. "The Body Has a Mind of Its Own" (bodymaps in the brain and neuroplasticity) "Your Inner Fish" (evolutionary anatomy) "Mindsight" (interpersonal neurobiology & neuroscience of attention/meditation) "The Sensitive Nervous System" (how the nervous system feels itself) "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers" (stress response, really really good) "The Psychobiology of Mind-Body Healing" (early attempt to reconcile psychoneuroimmunology and mind-body practices) "The Web of Life" (complexity, systems theory, emergence) "The Body and Mature Behaviour" (Mr. Feldenkrais doing his thing) "Yoga Therapy" (A.G. and Ganesh Mohan taking the minds of an engineer and an ayurvedic/biomedical doctor to the Yoga of T. Krishnamacharya) "The Continuum Concept" (interesting and beautiful evolutionary approach to childbirth and parenting) "The Long Descent" (An Arch-druid historian who's into systems theory and ecology's vision of the next few hundred years) For a start. I'd have to have a bit of a think of where to start with any of the Chinese medical or Daoist/Buddhist/Yogic philosophical stuff. They all tend to either be too simple and thus generic and kind of crap, or they don't mess around and are nothing but the good stuff, but you pretty much need to already "speak the language" to understand them.

Thanks Dave. I'll need to work through it and prioritize the better ones. Quite a hard job. And also add a bunch more as I remember them - the list was written from memory, off the top of my head, in three sittings! So I guess the ones listed must have all been good enough to leave some sort of imprint.

I had a similar problem as well, it first showed up as an injury from capoeira, maybe a tear at the origin of rectus femoris, but it kept getting re-torn every week or two and didn't get better. Turned into chronic anterior hip pain that lasted close to a decade. The basic thing that fixed it was strengthening my glutes and making them work, and really waking up all of the many muscles around the hips.

Craig, you're becoming a bloody great teacher.