Wujifa and Asking Questions.

Here's something from the Wayback machine. A number of years ago before this blog existed, we had a few different forums. One of these was semi-private Wujifa forum on LiveJournals.com. You see at various times I've found myself go back and revisiting various things I've written, done, and worked on as it helps me in so many ways. Now that we've been working on the new Wujifa book I find myself doing this more often and it's a good thing to do even if you aren't writing a book. Anyway, this post is not a "be all end all" on the art of asking questions, I just found it interesting and I thought it might be a good thing to dig up and share here on this blog today. Enjoy!

wujifa

January 12th, 2006

In class we ask questions, and sometimes it can be hard to think of good questions. So what is a good question? Well, that right there is a good question. When we ask "what" we are looking for something to be described, explained, and defined. I will list some other questions I might think are good ones.

1. Questions about purpose

Questions about purpose many times are "why" or "what" questions like; Why do we do this exercise? We can ask this same question as; What is the purpose of this exercise? Another good question about purpose is; Why should we do this or that practice?

2. Questions that give some background

Questions about background can come from a number of different angle with different approaches. If we have some background many times it can give us some insight to the practice we are asking about. Personally I am amazed that more people don't ask me about what I do or don't do... practice or what I have done or what I may have discovered about a certain practice when I did them. Then a great follow up question would be why I do or don't do certain things. Also a basic history about a practice or where they where developed or how they were developed can sometimes give insights to a practice too.

3. Questions about stages and results

Questions about what we might expect when we practice. These are always good questions to ask about. If we can gain some insight about what results we should look for or what stages or levels there are to a practice this can give us some idea of what to look for... Actually even asking that question is a good one; What am I looking for when I practice this? What are the things I can expect from practicing this? Are there different stages of practicing this?

The one word of caution I would give is to try to understand where you are at when you practice. So, if you ask about stages or levels of practice you may want to also ask; What level should I practice at? The reason I say this is because so many people want to practice at stages beyond their skill and the end up not getting very much from the practice. It is always good to work at basic levels and get a good full understanding before moving on to more advance levels. Even when you get to more advanced levels it still good to go back to basics often. I will also say sometime certain people can be afraid to take the next step or practice at the next level. This can also be a good topic to ask about.

4. Questions of how to do something

Questions of "how" are questions of instruction as in the question; How is it done? How do I get this part to do that? When I do this how do I do that? These questions are questions looking for advice on the practical workings most of the time and are good questions to ask. But, if you don't ask some of the questions above you might not have the depth you could have when practicing and really be limiting yourself.

Note: One more thing about questions

It is good to ask yourself these kind of questions too. It is good to ask yourself these kinds of questions often. By asking yourself questions you open a door in your mind that starts to seek for more, a deeper knowledge and understanding, with this knowledge and understanding you can start to get a greater awareness of what you are practicing. Once you gain these understandings and an awareness to some degree you can start to develop a better "feel" for what you are practicing and doing... which will lead to new and deeper questions to be explored and asked.

Wujifa Zhan Zhuang: Relaxing the Belly

The area of the belly we are talking about is much lower and more specific than the bigger area many people think of as being the belly. Yes, you should relax your belly as a whole when standing and when practicing Wujifa Zhan Zhuang. Today the area I am talking about is located at and just above the pubic bone.

A straightforward and functional tip for improving your Wujifa zhan zhuang practice can be as simple as noticing and relaxing the belly. This article will address the opportunities that can be discovered in your zhan zhuang practice when you start to understand how much tension people carry in the lower abdominal or belly area. You see today’s blog posting all started the other day when working with some Wujifa beginners. These new practitioners started to notice how common it was and it is for many beginners to hold tension in the lower belly when practicing zhan zhuang.

You see the lower belly really is a very common area where people hold tension when practicing zhan zhuang and even in daily life. When people are able to relax this area, they discover that they can improve their practice by sinking more weight into their legs (which beginners sometimes experience as a burning sensation in the quads).

Stand up for a moment with your feet parallel, lined up under your hips and shoulders (More information on this see: Wujifa Zhan Zhuang Alignment). Now place your hand on your lower belly at the level of your pubic bone. Now, play with tightening the area of your lower belly underneath your hand.

Notice, how many different areas of the body are affected by this kind of tension. Now quickly relax this area as best you can and notice how much more space this creates and how this changes the feeling of the pelvic floor, hips, and thighs. Go ahead and try playing with this a few times. Also remember, relax is not limp, so try maintaining a good Wujifa structured stance.

If you took the time just now you might have notice how many other areas can be affected with tension and relaxation. The reason is there are so many different fascial interconnections that take place in the lower area of the pelvis / belly. If you want to read more about the fascial systems of the lower belly you can go to “The Muscles and Fasciae of the Abdomen - Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body - Yahoo Education”. Reading that might be fun for some people, but you really don’t need all that data to make some real progress in your zhan zhuang practice. For most people, simply playing with tightening and relaxing of the lower belly with the hand you placed over this area will give you some pretty good insights that you can apply to your Wujifa Zhan Zhuang practices.

Re-educating your body awareness takes due diligence. In the Wujifa Zhan Zhuang basic practices, relaxing the lower belly area is very important and is something many people can tend to overlook. Getting more weight to sink down into your legs is key. Troubleshooting and discovering this overlooked area of the lower belly will make all the difference in the world.

Again, the point we are making here is to remember in your standing practice is to relax the lower belly just above the pubic bone. As you do this, also remember that relaxed is not limp and strength is not tense. You can play with tightening and letting go as another “method” to give you insights on how to relax this area. After playing with this for a while, you may begin to notice how other areas of your body connect and move with this change. I want to repeat myself again and say, relax is not limp. Remember to be mindful of the Wujifa structural “methods” and to have fun.

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Also, if you have any questions or comments or insights, please feel free to share those here as well. Most of all have a wonderful day!

Methods for Understanding the Relaxed Shoulder or Song Jian 鬆肩

One of the common problems to development of connection with relaxed shoulders (song jian, 鬆肩) is having good methods to understanding the feel of this while moving. In many of the internal art understanding the relaxed or “song” shoulder is a very prevalent issue with many practitioners and the same is true in the practice of Wujifa.

Of course there are many tricks to relaxing the shoulders. Relaxing or dropping the elbows is very commonly talked about. Also, warm ups like turning or rotating the head, crossing one arm across the chest and stretching it with the other hand, tightening the shoulders pulling them up toward the ears, holding for them there for a count of 5 or 10 and then letting them drop and other such methods are seemingly customary. Personally I believe those maybe good for a beginner to get some hint of how tight their shoulders are, although may not be all that helpful at understanding how a relaxed shoulder feels and moves.

In the following video are a couple of “methods” which aim to give some insights to the practitioner and enthusiasts of how the relaxed shoulder feels is real time while moving.



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In the first example the hand are place on the “swing” and use the arcing of the swing to create a couple dimensions of movement to be explored. The movement is slightly down and forward as the practitioner moves forward and the opposite shifting back. This can be changed by where in the arch of the swing one chooses to practice. The key to this first method is allowing the shoulder joint to simply be a pivot point. There is a tendency for people to want to do more than needed and by simply allowing and noticing, many insights can be discovered in real time in repeated practice. Remember Wujifa aims at finding experiential understanding in doing. Now remember the saying “the method is not the truth” and this is true here as well. The key is to notice how freely the pivot points in the shoulders feel and move.

The second exercise is much more difficult and it is include here as a variations in this example of real time feedback. Again having an experiential understanding in doing with a form of simple bio-feed such as this can be very helpful in a very real and practical way.

Those of you who have seen some of the methods shared here on this blog will notice that what may seem very simple on the surface can and may have a very deep impact on practice. One of the keys is the willingness to experience simple methods such as these in the repeated doing. As one gains deeper and direct kinesthetic understanding of a practice the more that can be discovered over time in the practices. Like the finger pointing at the moon the key is to understand what your purpose is for doing something and then being open to what the practice is allowing you to explore. One of course should, as we said many times before, will need the help of senior school brothers and instructors as for 3rd party verification of your understanding. Remember, at the same time you are doing the work and being open and responsible for your own growth is also a real key to making progress.