Standing like a tree

Last Friday I went for the private Chi Kung lesson with Master Lam. He teaches Zhan Zhuang (Standing like a tree) form of this discipline.

The exercises are static externally, but at the beginning, there's a lot going on internally. The aim is to attain the inner stillness, which is challenging as the assumed positions require a considerable strength, something that muscles initially are not able to provide.

I kept practicing it all the week and noticed that reminding myself to keep the neck free helps reducing and stopping to react to pain and tension, which are inevitable at the beginning.

I'm very keen on applying the principles of the Alexander Technique to this practice. After all, the aim is to be effortless, to apply the minimum amount of tension necessary to hold the positions. Being aware of where the holding occurs was an important point to me last week.

I'm very happy to find this style, and am planning to work on it on a daily basis. It cultivates stillness and provides continous challenge. Is there an end to this exercise ? I don't think so.

You are asked to breathe in and out through the nose, this is in tune with the Alexander Technique. The other style I do demands inhaling through the nose, but exhaling through the mouth. I find this very confusing, and am not really able to maintain it without overthinking and overdoing. I decided to let this go for a while, and concentrate solely on Zhan Zhuang. Better to do 'less', but with quality.

Chi Kung treats the person as w whole, this makes it very attractive to me. Removing the blockages of chi and making it flow smoothly in the body is one of the main principles of Chi Kung / TCM. My sense is that in a way, that's what is achieving with the Alexander Technique, but simply using different tools: stopping repeating harmful patterns using inhibition, alignining with the natural mechanical forces, maintaining coordinated and natural posture etc.

Fascinating stuff I'm looking forward to explore it more.

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It's a shame comments don't appear directly on the website. One useful comment has been made, so I decided to paste it here:

Lovely to read this - I've been thinking about 'Standing like a tree' and AT too. (I've started practising chi-gung when I was training as an AT teacher about six years ago, my teacher here is also a student of Master Lam). I am going to suggest that some of my students to practise Standing Like a Tree with me I think - there are so many useful AT ideas to apply. One I find particularly useful is 'arms connected to and supported by back' (rather than shoulders). I think this will help to strengthen the connection for them, and make the flow through from back to fingers more available, as it does for me.
I think we -AT, chi-gung, and many other modalities as well - are all trying to clear the blockages to let energy flow more freely. Apparently the Chinese say 'All disease is congetion, all health is circulation'

Sandra

July 17, 2010 10:10 PM

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Many thanks for this contribution Sandra. I'll keep what you're saying about 'the arms connected to and supported by back' in mind. I was looking for an AT teacher with some Zhan Zhuang background, so it's wonderful to meet you.

Jacek

July 17, 2010 10:59 PM