What happens when we stop holding?

Maria asked about how her injured shoulder can sometimes move during Qi Flow in ways that don't seem available to her ordinarily.

When we've had an injury, there can be an unconscious guarding around it. The body protects the area, and this can involve holding tension. That efforting can remain for quite a long time, particularly if an injury or discomfort is still present. It may be very subtle, but maintaining that protection uses energy.

When Qi begins to flow freely, something different can happen. Rather than us moving the body in order to move the energy, the energy becomes the vehicle of the movement.

In other words, rather than you moving to try to move energy, energy moves you.

It is a little like the wind moving a tree. The tree isn't trying to move the wind.

Sometimes movement then becomes available that didn't seem available moments before. From a Qigong perspective, we might say that the Qi is flowing more freely through that area. At the same time, the mind-body relationship that has been doing the holding may have relaxed enough that there is less need to brace or protect.

Maria then asked, "What is the function of the brain here?"

That's a huge question, but we can think about it quite simply.

When there is pain or injury, part of our attention can become focused on the injured area. There is a conversation going on between the brain, nervous system, muscles and the rest of the body. If the underlying message is, I need to be careful here, the body may respond by holding a little tighter and restricting movement.

In a sense the body is saying:

Don't worry, I've got you. I'll hold you a little tighter so that you don't injure yourself again.

That's useful. It's protective.

But sometimes that protective pattern continues beyond the moment in which it was originally needed.

In Qigong we enter a Qigong state of mind and gradually stop interfering quite so much. In Flowingly Still, the mind or Shen becomes clearer. In Flowing Breeze Swaying Willows, the body becomes freer. As we move into Flowing Stream Floating Clouds, Qi increasingly becomes the vehicle of the movement. We aren't consciously deciding where every part of the body should go.

And this can develop into Self-Manifested Qi Movement, where we let go even further and allow the Qi to flow where it needs to flow.

Eventually we return again towards Flowingly Still and Standing Meditation.

The interesting thing is that the Qi hasn't stopped flowing simply because the body has become still. There can be a considerable flow of energy with very little outward movement.

This is one reason Flowingly Still can be such a powerful practice for cultivating internal force. Rather than the energy being expressed through larger physical movement, it can nurture and nourish. We cultivate not only the amount of energy available to us, but also its quality, while the mind and spirit become clearer.

So the different levels of Qi Flow are not simply different amounts of physical movement. They give us different ways of working with energy, body and mind.

And perhaps the simplest way of knowing what has happened is the question I asked Maria afterwards:

How do you feel?

"Much lighter," she said.

And then she noticed something else.

The silence in the mind remained.