The quote above from a Chinese herbalist inspired me as I prepared last Saturday’s Tao Yin workshop.
Mantak Chia, the teacher who brought Tao Yin to the West, often begins his instruction by saying “This is a breathing practice.” That sounds simple, but it’s not; not if you’re a “Type AAA” person, as Jane M. described herself yesterday. It’s challenging to move in and out of unfamiliar, initially uncomfortable positions while using your breath, attention and imagination to relax and soften the areas of tension you are discovering. As Mantak says “The positions show you where the tension and stress are. As you move and breathe into the tension, you melt the tension away.”
It’s important to understand that the positions we encounter in Tao Yin are just pools and riverbanks for the energy to flow in and out of, they are not end- goals to be achieved. The “how” you move toward or through those positions brings the transformative changes to your fascia and opens circulation through the meridians. That’ s the purpose of Tao Yin, not the accomplishment of any endpoint like getting your head to your knee. This nearly effortless approach dissolves stress out of all the layers of our being, not just our muscles and joints.
This where the quote above comes into focus. As we Type A’s learn to let go of our tension-creating excessive efforts and simply follow the streams of circulation and consciousness within, we nestle comfortably into a state of profound healing. It’s that wonderful technique of using only 50-70 percent of the effort we know we have within, in order to accomplish much, much more. We connect to the mysterious Qi that created us, and continues to recreate and heal us, as we learn to steer away from stress and into flow.
