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Exercises for Self-Care:
Medicine Wheel ~
"4 Directions"
This is a powerful exercise for expanding one's awareness and energy
into the kinesphere or space around the body. Similar to Chi Gong, it is
a meditative movement ritual that draws on the power of imagination
at the same time as it integrates motion through all the major joints.
Begin by standing facing East. Find a neutral balance, just resting in
stillness/contemplation before action.
Imagine the Wind from behind slowly lifting up your left hand and arm
like a wing. Allow the arm to reach out and upwards, tracing an arc like
the Sun as it rises and then sets behind in the West. Feel the sensation
of the weight of your arm change with the angles it moves through.
Allow your eyes to follow your hand and for the torso to turn to the
left as your arm drops down behind you.
Turn back to the East. Bring your hands together in front of your
chest, palms outward. Separate the hands out to the sides as you
balance on the left foot and "Step over the Great Mountain" with the
right.
Reach both hands behind (back towards the kidneys) and bring
forward into view whatever it there. Create a horizontal ring with your
arms in front, as though "Embracing the Great Tree." Bend the knees
while keeping the spine erect and slide this circle of the arms
downwards, coming into a squat.
Release the arms, following the tree down to its roots in the earth with
your hands. Feeling gravity, release the head and let everything go.
Receive energy and strength up from the Earth, drawn this up
through the legs and gathering it into a ball at the belly or "Hara."
Come up of the squat into standing as you raise the ball up to level of
the Heart and then stretching overhead. Let the head drop back as
your eyes follow your hands up. Imagine the ball becoming lighter as it
rises and release it to the sky. Imagine Rain coming down from the
sky & streaming down your back...
[Lower the arms and repeat with the right hand and stepping Left]
Step forward into the East, sweeping the hands out to the sides in
front. Release everything, opening chest to the Sky above.
Bring the hands back together, gathering everything in from the East.
Take this all into the heart and through your body, passing on what
you have gathered in the East to the West.
[Facing the next direction, repeat this form to the South, West &
North]
Once you are comfortable with the basic movements you can pay
attention to the cycles of breathing that deepen the sense of
expansion and release within each one:
Arm forward & up (Inhale)
Arm back & down (Exhale)
Hands in front (Inhale)
Stepping Over Mountain (Exhale)
Gathering from behind (Inhale)
Arm Circle downwards (Exhale)
Earth energy up (Inhale)
Releasing to Sky (Exhale)
Receiving from Sky (Inhale)
Releasing forward (Exhale)
Gathering from in front (Inhale)
Passing to the opposite direction (Exhale)
Medicine Wheel ~
"4 Directions"
This is a powerful exercise for expanding one's awareness and energy
into the kinesphere or space around the body. Similar to Chi Gong, it is
a meditative movement ritual that draws on the power of imagination
at the same time as it integrates motion through all the major joints.
Begin by standing facing East. Find a neutral balance, just resting in
stillness/contemplation before action.
Imagine the Wind from behind slowly lifting up your left hand and arm
like a wing. Allow the arm to reach out and upwards, tracing an arc like
the Sun as it rises and then sets behind in the West. Feel the sensation
of the weight of your arm change with the angles it moves through.
Allow your eyes to follow your hand and for the torso to turn to the
left as your arm drops down behind you.
Turn back to the East. Bring your hands together in front of your
chest, palms outward. Separate the hands out to the sides as you
balance on the left foot and "Step over the Great Mountain" with the
right.
Reach both hands behind (back towards the kidneys) and bring
forward into view whatever it there. Create a horizontal ring with your
arms in front, as though "Embracing the Great Tree." Bend the knees
while keeping the spine erect and slide this circle of the arms
downwards, coming into a squat.
Release the arms, following the tree down to its roots in the earth with
your hands. Feeling gravity, release the head and let everything go.
Receive energy and strength up from the Earth, drawn this up
through the legs and gathering it into a ball at the belly or "Hara."
Come up of the squat into standing as you raise the ball up to level of
the Heart and then stretching overhead. Let the head drop back as
your eyes follow your hands up. Imagine the ball becoming lighter as it
rises and release it to the sky. Imagine Rain coming down from the
sky & streaming down your back...
[Lower the arms and repeat with the right hand and stepping Left]
Step forward into the East, sweeping the hands out to the sides in
front. Release everything, opening chest to the Sky above.
Bring the hands back together, gathering everything in from the East.
Take this all into the heart and through your body, passing on what
you have gathered in the East to the West.
[Facing the next direction, repeat this form to the South, West &
North]
Once you are comfortable with the basic movements you can pay
attention to the cycles of breathing that deepen the sense of
expansion and release within each one:
Arm forward & up (Inhale)
Arm back & down (Exhale)
Hands in front (Inhale)
Stepping Over Mountain (Exhale)
Gathering from behind (Inhale)
Arm Circle downwards (Exhale)
Earth energy up (Inhale)
Releasing to Sky (Exhale)
Receiving from Sky (Inhale)
Releasing forward (Exhale)
Gathering from in front (Inhale)
Passing to the opposite direction (Exhale)
®