“Big Tree” - qigong for longevity

This exercise is several thousand years old. In one modification or another, it is performed in various schools of qigong and wushu. However, in them it is called zhang zhuang and is translated as a pillar (sometimes a high stump). This is a literal translation without taking into account the deeper meaning. When practicing in these systems, students were required to stand motionless for a long time, like a pillar.

In the Zhong Yuan Qigong system, this exercise is also one of the most important, it various shapes practiced in four stages. Here it means BIG TREE. (If in China they talk about the “Big Tree” with such a pose, they always refer to the fact that this is borrowed from the system Zhong Yuan Qigong. Compare for yourself: a tall stump or pillar means something motionless and inanimate, but a large tree contains the power and breath of life.).

Since ancient times, people have wondered why human life ends at 60, 70, 80 years old. Few people live to be 90 years old. And very few people cross the 100-year mark.

We said that the Zhong Yuan Qigong system can prolong life. But in order to live longer, you need to be healthy. What does the expression “Live longer” mean? I would ask another question: “How long can you live?” Simply saying that we should live longer will not be entirely accurate. Other factors are determining. For example, now you are 50 years old, but after practicing qigong you feel like you are twenty years old. From this point of view, you can say that you have become younger. And if you are 20 years old, but you look 50, then in this case you cannot say that you are really 20 years old. We can judge a person's age not by the number of years lived, but from the point of view of the reserve vital energy. Sometimes we may not even know the real age, but talk about the amount of vital energy. What does this mean from a scientific point of view?

Now scientists around the world have come to the conclusion that life expectancy can be determined by the presence of sexual potency. It is this, not age and appearance tells whether a person is old or not. Until the age of 12, most people do not have these functions, then they appear and around the age of 50 they begin to fade away. Then they say that this person is no longer young. But by practicing qigong, you can feel young even at 80 years old... real life everything happens wrong. Many people who are just over thirty have weakened sexual functions. And with the practice of qigong, they begin to recover quickly.

And yet, how to prolong life? You know that in our world many plants and animals live much longer than us. The longest living trees are trees. No one is surprised if a tree is 200, 300, 400 years old. What if 1000 years, 2000 years? Therefore, if we want to live longer, we must learn this from trees. Why do trees live longer than us? Let's analyze it.

We suffer from emotions, we are always in a hurry, we are nervous. At the same time, we experience discomfort in extreme heat and suffer in cold weather... The plant world is a completely different matter. Many trees live for hundreds of years. In winter and summer, in cold and heat, under the sun and rain, they grow without feeling feelings or desires. Their roots go deep into the ground and receive from it water and all the substances necessary for life, which rise up the trunk to the leaves. Their crown rushes upward, is washed by rain, sways by the wind, bathes in the sun's rays during the day, and at night receives the light of the stars and the moon. And all this enters the leaves, branches, trunk and descends along it to the roots. Thus, the tree receives nutrients and energy from below, from the Earth, and from above, from Space. And they move along the trunk towards each other, accumulate and enable the tree to grow and live. And so the tree connects the Earth and Space.

What if a person becomes like a tree? If a person also accepts yin from the Earth and yang from the Cosmos, will this be able to prolong his life? Whether this is actually true can only be learned through practice. According to experiments over thousands of years, it has been empirically found that this method (imitating the tree pose) can actually prolong life. Very soon we begin to feel an increase in our vital energy. Therefore, from a health point of view, the Big Tree practice prolongs life.

And from the point of view of qigong, this exercise allows you to unite with the entire Cosmos. We unite Heaven, Man and Earth together - the three external yuan are united into one. At first we imagine ourselves as a big tree, later this concept disappears and what remains is the Big Man, who has united all this in himself. Of course, not immediately, but after practicing all three steps.

At the first stage of Zhong Yuan Qigong, Big Tree is performed as follows:

Description of the exercise

1. Starting position - legs shoulder-width apart, feet parallel, knees slightly bent, back straight, for which the pelvis moves forward slightly.

(You can adjust the position of the body so that in addition to the legs there is a third point of support - the tail, like a kangaroo.) The chin is slightly lowered so that the neck is straight. In this case, the head seems to be suspended from the top of the head. The body is relaxed. The tongue touches the upper palate, the eyes are closed.

2. Imagine that both your legs grow deep into the ground and turn into the roots of a mighty tree, and, like the roots of a tree, absorb moisture, nutrients and yin energy from the earth.

3. Imagine that your body grows high into the sky, above the clouds, towards the sunlight, towards the light of the stars, the Moon. And from there you accept and absorb light, wind, rain, and the yang energy of the Cosmos. And you yourself become huge, like the Cosmos.

4. Raise your arms so that your palms are at the level of your navel. The elbows are set back from the body, as if there are tennis balls as fragile as eggs under the arms. The lines of the arms are rounded and relaxed, as if hugging a large beach ball. Imagine and feel an elastic ball between your palms and your navel.

5. Forget about yourself, about your posture. Feel how the qi of the Earth rises from below through the root legs, and the qi of the Cosmos comes from above. Feel this movement and the ball of energy between your palms and your navel. And forget it again.

6. Modification of point 5. Imagine and feel how this ball begins to grow, becomes larger and larger, goes beyond the limits of your body, and you find yourself inside it. Feel yourself inside this ball, feel the sensations of the sounds of music when you and the ball are huge, like Space. Then the ball begins to decrease in size. It becomes smaller and smaller, and the energy inside it becomes denser and denser. Its shell, decreasing, passes through your body, and now it again fits between your palms and your navel. Then it increases in size again, and you are inside the ball. Then it decreases again. And so on several times. The minimum duration for performing the Big Tree is 30 minutes. This is caused by the fact that blood and qi pass through all the vessels and channels of our body in 30 minutes. Therefore, it takes at least half an hour for the qi that begins to enter the body, together with the blood, to reach all areas and all cells of the body. After some time, when you get used to this position, the duration of the Big Tree can be increased to two hours.

7. When finishing the exercise, you should concentrate the qi in the lower dantian. Place your hands on this area (women - right hand on the navel, left hand on top; men - vice versa). In this case, the center of the lower palm (Laogong point) should coincide with the center of the navel. Mentally concentrate and squeeze the ball in the lower dantian into a point. Feel a hot spot or pulsation under your palms. This is the Xia Dantian center. Then slowly open your eyes.

ATTENTION: During the regulation, women are recommended to hold their hands and the ball opposite the middle cauldron - Zhong Dantian - to avoid bleeding. During pregnancy, the Big Tree is performed without using your hands and without feeling the ball at the level of the lower cauldron.

Please note that during the Big Tree exercise a lot of saliva is produced in the mouth. At first it tastes familiar to you, then it tastes sweet, and after a certain period of practice it gives a whole range of taste sensations, right up to the nectar of flowers. Previously, such saliva was called jade, golden diamond, thereby emphasizing that it is just as precious for the body. As saliva accumulates in the mouth, it must be swallowed slowly. Modern research has established that such saliva contains a lot of microelements and has a healing effect on the mucous membrane of the stomach and intestines. As you swallow it, you should feel it travel further into the lower dantian. Later, such saliva is not swallowed, but is transformed into foam, in fact transformed into gong.

Final exercises

1. Rub your palms until they feel hot.

2. “Wash” your face with them upwards (from the chin to the hair) - with a slight movement, then to the sides (smoothing the forehead) and downwards (through the temples to the chin) - with pressure. Wherein thumbs move along the ears from top to bottom.

3. Intensely pat your head with soft palms in the direction from the back of the head to the forehead.

4. “Comb” the hair with your fingertips in the direction from the forehead to the back of the head and from the temples to the back of the head. In this case, your fingers should massage the scalp through the hair with intense pressure.

5. Rub the auricles, kneading them between your fingers, from top to bottom, and the tragus - until a sensation of “burning ears” appears.

6. Intensively pat your hand with a soft palm from the shoulder to the wrist along the outer and inner sides (alternately: first the left, then the right).

7. With both hands, synchronously clap the torso from the front from top to bottom (from the neck to the pubis) and at the level of the lower back (from the sides to the Xia Dantian).

8. Clap your legs from top to bottom on all sides, starting from the Huantiao point

9. Clap your back from bottom to top along the spine.

10. Rub your palms again and place them on the kidney area. Listen to how the warmth of your palms moves into the area of the kidneys and adrenal glands.

Explanations for the final exercises

1. Intense rubbing of the palms helps bring yin-yang into balance. Before rubbing, you can check the yin-yang balance after performing the Big Tree. If the temperature of the palms is the same, then the yin-yang are balanced, if different, then there is no balance.

2. When performing the exercise, the palms are activated, and an intense qi field appears around them. “Washing” the face with such palms improves blood microcirculation in the skin and enhances metabolic processes. The skin is massaged with a qi field. Imagine and feel that your palms are smoothing out the wrinkles on your forehead and around your eyes. By regularly performing this exercise, your facial skin rejuvenates, becomes fresh and healthy.

In ancient times this was one of the cosmetic methods skin rejuvenation with qi energy without any ointments, creams... There are no side effects. This method is still used today. When you wash your face, you regularly, without realizing it, massage your facial skin. The same thing happens when rubbing creams into the skin. But when using cosmetics Sometimes there is a side effect because different people have different skin sensitivity. In addition, it is possible to get used to the same drugs, and with prolonged use of cosmetics, the skin without it loses its elasticity, ages, looks stale and requires constant use. This is due to the fact that the regular introduction of various materials from the outside into the skin reduces or completely stops the function of producing necessary substances by the skin itself.

You can do without any cosmetics if you take a little water into your activated palm and gently rub it into the skin, while mentally massaging with your qi energy.

3. Slapping the head with activated palms with an intense field of qi around them helps to open the channels and active points located in the head area, normalize the movement of qi in these areas, and with it the blood and, as a result, get rid of headaches (for those who have they are). In addition, brain nutrition improves.

4. “Combing” the hair leads to improved blood microcirculation in the skin (due to the simultaneous massage of the skin with the qi energy of the fingers). If you perform 300-500 such movements 2-3 times a day, then within a month the hair begins to recover even in bald people.

5. There are many BAPs located on the ears, connected to all internal organs of the body (Appendix I, Fig. 15, 16). Intense rubbing of the ears with activated fingers is equivalent to a massage of the entire body and its internal organs. Points that cause pain should be rubbed longer and especially actively, as this indicates disturbances in the organ associated with this point.

6. Slapping the arms, legs, and torso is done as you go energy channels in order to open the BAP located on these channels and improve the circulation of qi in them. If this is done intensively enough, then a person acquires a type of gongfu, in which his body becomes less sensitive to blows. This type of exercise is included in the practice of hard qigong.

REMEMBER: Before performing the Big Tree, you need to open the channels on the fingers (and if the situation allows, then on the legs), and after finishing it, you MUST do the final exercises, as they contribute to the uniform distribution of qi in the body. Otherwise, headaches, a burning or fullness sensation in certain areas, and discomfort may occur.

Associated phenomena

At the first stages of performing the exercises, there are 8 sensations that are classified as normal: WARM(it can be very hot, it hurts), COLD(sometimes so strong that the blood “runs cold in your veins”, and sometimes a prolonged chill), numbness, goosebumps(as if insects of different sizes are running or crawling over certain parts of the body at different speeds), ITCHY(it can be so unbearable that you literally want to rip your skin), EASE(or a feeling of complete weight loss, and sometimes even body loss), BURNING, HEaviness(as if weights were hung on the legs, arms, shoulders, or as if the legs had grown into the ground and could not be torn off), SLIPPERITY(the impression is as if the skin is slippery, like ice, or smeared with fat), ROUGHNESS.

The intensity of sensations depends on many factors, but primarily on the state of the body, both physical and psycho-emotional. In addition, there are phenomena and sensations associated with certain diseases or simply changes in the physical body and the evolution of the practitioner, for example, vibrations in the body, pain, the appearance of sounds, light or flashes. Let's look briefly at the most common ones.

The Big Tree exercise itself is best performed in the morning. It promotes the reception and accumulation of energy from environment, increases performance throughout the day. After doing this exercise in the evening, many people have excess energy and it can be difficult to fall asleep. But the choice of practice time is individual and depends on your capabilities. There are no strict recommendations for stage I.

Normal phenomena

1. COLD or WARM a practitioner may experience this if the yin-yang in the body is not balanced.

The concentration of qi in the lower or middle dantian usually causes the sensation of a warm or hot ball. With the correct execution of the Big Tree and the intense collection of qi from the environment, sometimes there is a feeling of such intense HEAT that it is difficult to withstand. The heart rate increases and profuse sweating begins.

At certain stages of practice, some experience sensations of different temperatures in the right and left palms or the right and left half of the body. This is due to the fact that one half of us is more Yang, and the other is Yin. There are practice methods that can enhance and consolidate this effect. In ancient times they were used in combat systems. With one hand it was possible to burn the enemy as if with fire, with the other - to shackle him with cold.

Sometimes a practitioner feels chills for several days, begins to bundle up, but still cannot warm up. Then you need to practice more. This indicates that a restructuring has begun in the body. Sometimes after performing the Big Tree there is a feeling of such sharp cold that it seems as if the blood is freezing in the veins. There is no need to be afraid of this state, no need to try to interrupt it artificially with a massage, a hot bath, hot drinks or “strong” drinks. This means that changes in the body continue to occur despite the cessation of exercise. You need to continue practicing or just endure this state. And after that you will rise to the next step in the development of your body.

2. The opening of active points is accompanied by a sensation of running throughout the body Goosebumps or ITCHY. If these points are blocked somewhere (especially on the head), then the itching can be simply unbearable. Usually such intense sensations pass quickly, and the practitioner then begins to experience relief and lightness in this area. He can sort of breathe through it.

Sometimes the sensations of goosebumps are accompanied by vibration of these zones, but not constant, but as if rolling in waves. Such sensations are more interesting than uncomfortable, but sometimes they can border on painful, which indicates a very intense opening of the points. After this, it seems that the body has become porous and is blown through. In this case, until you become familiar with these sensations, it is better to refrain from contrast showers and swimming in cold water.

3. LIGHTNESS, WEIGHTLESS the body arises when you manage to “forget about yourself” during exercises - you move into a different state in which the body does not interfere with or limit your perception, your sensations. This is the first stage of QIGONG STATE. From this moment the next stage of your development begins.

4. Feeling of HEAVY occurs both due to the inability to relax and take the correct posture (then the unusual position of various parts of the body causes heaviness or pain, numbness, etc.), and when entering the image and filling with qi energy. The filling of qi also causes a feeling of fullness: the fingers swell (it is difficult to bend them), the legs swell... Over time, a redistribution of energy automatically begins to occur throughout the body.

5. VIBRATION SENSATION often associated with the influx of qi from outside and the passage of energy through channels. Sometimes it feels like there are “buzzing wires” in the body.

6. EAR CLOGGING, HUMM, as in an airplane when the flight altitude changes, are associated with the receipt of a large amount of qi from the outside and its entry into the brain. In the future, the practitioner may gain the ability to hear individual sounds and conversations at very great distances.

7. FLASHES OF LIGHT before the inner gaze are associated with the activation of BAP in the area of the Third Eye, when a sufficient amount of qi enters this zone.

8. VISIONS: images or communication with Jesus, Buddha, saints, conversations with them, pictures from different eras of earthly life, pictures of worlds, voices, advice, etc.

At the first stages of qigong, all of these are models produced by our brain, consciousness, psyche and based on available information at the conscious and subconscious levels. This is not true. These are nothing more than phenomena. You should not focus on them, no matter how interesting they may be. Visions and sensations will change all the time, as this is associated with changes in the body and consciousness. If you pay attention to such phenomena, you can easily leave the road leading to the top and never reach the final goal. This can be compared to a track along which you are driving in a car and which you need to overcome in a certain time. Various landscapes flash past the windows. You can admire them, put them away somewhere in your memory, but at the same time follow the main road and remember the final goal of your journey. If you stop at every new site or go out to explore the surroundings, then it may happen that you will get stuck at the very beginning of the Path, not suspecting that all this is just the beginning, the Threshold, and then other landscapes, a different perception... You You risk getting lost, hopelessly late, or not getting to your destination at all. Your life may not be enough to reach your travel destination.

REMEMBER: Visions are just illusions. Don't pay any attention to them. Do not indulge your weaknesses and desires to come into contact with the unusual. It will come on its own, naturally and become your routine.

9. PAIN SENSATIONS may be caused by several reasons. If the practitioner is healthy and has enough qi that rises up to the area of the head and the Third eye, then:

a) pain occurs when the BAP is activated in the area of the Third Eye and when it opens, as well as when the points on the upper part of the head (along the perimeter) are activated and opened. This is preparing the body for the possibility of a future exit of the soul;

b) if a practitioner has or has had any diseases, injuries, operations, etc., then pain is inevitable. Let's look at this in more detail.

Phenomena associated with the practitioner's illnesses

1. Painful sensations. From the point of view of traditional Chinese medicine, at any site of localization of the disease (current or past), there is a narrowing or “clogging” of the channels through which qi energy circulates. This causes stagnation or obstruction of qi through this area and, as a result, poor circulation. This state of the canals can be compared to the bed of a dry river, when only in the deepest places there is still moisture left.

While performing the Big Tree, qi begins to flow into the body from outside. As it accumulates, it automatically “flows” to those areas where it was lacking. There is a redistribution of qi. And when it begins to pass through a narrowed or blocked section of the canal, the person experiences pain. In China they say: “Qi fights the disease.”

Pain can be of varying intensity and duration:

a) it happens that acute pain occurs during exercise in the gym or at home and quickly passes, without reoccurring in the future. This indicates that the person has received enough qi to immediately, as if with a jerk, “break through” a difficult section of the channel. Then the disease begins to recede;

b) it happens that the pain that arises is similar to a normal exacerbation of the disease and lasts a long time, sometimes several days or weeks. But as soon as you stop practicing qigong, the pain goes away. This happens with long-term chronic diseases. Sometimes everything starts to hurt... This means that you have too many disorders in your body and it is probably oversaturated with drugs. And the accumulation of qi is slow. Then it takes time to defeat diseases and remove all “dirt” (medicines, toxins, salts) from the body.

Therefore, under no circumstances should you stop practicing. It is necessary to give the opportunity to qi to complete the healing process. After all, with any treatment, the disease often worsens, and then recovery occurs. So it is here. But in this case, unlike conventional methods of treatment, firstly, there are no side effects (like with drugs), and secondly, you are being treated with your own qi, which only needs to be helped to accumulate in sufficient quantities within you. Therefore she cannot harm you. After all, it is not something external that heals you, but you heal yourself. And it is not someone who influences you, but your own qi automatically goes where it needs to go and does the work that needs to be done. So try not to interfere with it, if, of course, you want to become healthy;

c) it happens that the practitioner did not have any pain and felt good until... he began to practice. And with practice, I began to experience pain. This is a reliable self-diagnosis.

REMEMBER: Where Qi flows without difficulty, a person never experiences pain or discomfort.

Pain indicates that there are problems in this area. Therefore, first try to remember if there have been any injuries, operations, or fractures here - not necessarily at the time of class. It could have been 5, 10... 50 years ago, in early childhood. And if you cannot remember anything, then this means that you have some kind of violation in this area and you need to take action. If the pain is tolerable, continue to practice, and it will disappear, taking with it the disease, and if the pain is very severe, consult a doctor and examine this part of the body, since subtle disorders can develop in the future into a very serious illness.

So, if you have had operations, fractures, bruises, injuries, chronic inflammation of internal organs or joints, radiculitis, arthritis, sinusitis, etc., then pain is inevitable when performing the exercises correctly. Sometimes in these areas, instead of pain, sensations of pronounced discomfort arise.

2. Fainting. If the practitioner has recently undergone a major operation and has not recovered sufficiently, if he is simply physically weak, infirm, if he has heart disease or severe blood pressure disorders, if he has disorders in the cervical spine, then when performing the third preparatory exercise and the Big Tree, short-term loss is possible consciousness. The reason is the intensive flow of qi into a weakened body, especially into the brain. This is not dangerous. As a rule, after a few minutes a person comes to his senses on his own. Sometimes loss of consciousness turns into normal sleep. Pressing your finger on the Zhenzhong point under the nose on upper lip brings a person to his senses. Those who feel quite weak, and those who are on the verge of losing consciousness, should rub the nose area with their fingers when washing their face (this also treats nasal diseases). Then massage your temples and the area near the hairline with your thumbs. If your head hurts and you feel faint, you should massage the Zhenzhong and Hegu points at the base thumb on the back of the hand between the first and second metacarpal bones, closer to the radial edge, by rotating the fingers (8 times in one direction and 8 times in the opposite direction). If a person becomes ill, it is necessary to press on the above points and lightly pat. After this, you can continue to practice. You still need to keep practicing. In the future, such fainting states do not recur, and the practitioner begins to feel stronger, more alert, more efficient...

3. Intense vibrations of the whole body. This happens if a practitioner does not know how to relax well, has suffered nervous stress from which he has not fully recovered, or has a number of disorders nervous system and emotional state. This causes numerous “clamps” of nerves, muscles, and energy channels in different parts of the body. The Qi entering the body during the Big Tree begins to “break through” these blocks and look for “workarounds.” You need to monitor this state and try to relax as much as possible in order to help the energy do the work of normalizing the body’s condition. If the vibrations become excessive and uncontrollable, then you should intensively press the Hegu points, and then fold your hands on the Xia Dantian.

4. Severe nausea and vomiting during the execution of the Big Tree occur in a number of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, in particular gastritis and peptic ulcers. When practicing at home, you do not need to restrain yourself, and after emptying your stomach, you should continue the exercise. With regular practice, the condition improves and recovery begins.

5. Intense movements, strong rocking:

a) if the practitioner’s yin and yang are not balanced, then by relaxing and “letting go” of the body, he sways slightly. This usually lasts the first 2-3 sessions or some time at the beginning of each session (depending on the magnitude of the imbalance). Then the body calms down and the practitioner stands still;

b) if the passage of qi in any areas of the energy channels is impaired, the body moves automatically while qi attempts to pass through these zones;

c) intense movement or swaying of the body occurs with problems with the spine, disorders of the nervous system, birth injuries, cerebral palsy, stuttering, some mental illnesses in remission, as well as with numerous chronic diseases or injuries that have led to spasms of energy channels. In this case (with intense movements), you should practice with your eyes open and for no more than 30 minutes.

6. Loud sounds (crying, tears, laughter, singing, screaming) during the Big Tree occur with certain diseases of the heart and lungs.

Then:

a) with proper practice in the state of qigong, with these sounds, sick qi leaves the body, and good qi comes from outside in its place. But if you have existing diseases, you should not specifically cry, laugh or scream. This can only be allowed to happen if everything happens naturally, automatically, in the STATE OF QI GONG;

b) if you are sensitive enough to sense the corresponding illness of the person nearby, then this may also cause your reaction. Then, for example, after you cry, his condition will begin to improve. All this is a manifestation of the therapeutic effect.

Practiced at the initial stage to cleanse and gain energy.

This exercise is several thousand years old.

In one modification or another, it is performed in various schools of qigong and wushu.

However, in them the name is translated as a pillar (sometimes a high stump). This is a literal translation without taking into account the deeper meaning. When practicing in these systems, students were required to stand motionless for a long time, like a pillar.

In the Zhong Yuan Qigong system, this exercise is also one of the most important; various forms are practiced in the first three stages. However, here it means a big tree.

And if in China they talk about the “Big Tree” in this form, explaining the meaning of the exercise, they always refer to the fact that it is borrowed from the Zhong Yuan Qigong system. Compare for yourself: a tall stump or pillar implies something motionless and inanimate, and a large tree means powerful, living, breathing.

Many trees live for hundreds of years. In winter and summer, in cold and heat, under the sun and rain, they grow without experiencing feelings, desires, emotions.

Their roots go deep into the ground and receive from it water and all the substances necessary for life, which rise up the trunk to the leaves. Their crown rushes upward, is washed by rain, sways in the wind, bathes in the sun's rays during the day and receives the light of the stars and the moon at night.

And all this enters the leaves, branches, trunk and descends along it to the roots. Thus, the tree receives nutrients and energy from below, from the Earth, and from above, from Space. And they pass along the trunk towards each other, accumulate and enable the tree to grow and live. And so the tree connects the Earth and Space.

What if a person becomes like a tree?

Wouldn't this prolong his life? For many years, forms of this practice were selected and perfected until it was established that regular exercise of this kind actually allows one to accumulate the energy of the Yin Earth and the Yang Cosmos, prolong life and get rid of many diseases.

Starting position - legs shoulder-width apart, feet parallel, knees slightly bent, back straight - to do this, move your pelvis slightly forward.

(You can adjust the position of the body so that in addition to the legs there is a third point of support - the tail, like a kangaroo).

The chin is lowered slightly to keep the neck straight.

In this case, the head seems to be suspended from the top of the head (like a Christmas tree decoration). The body is relaxed. The tongue touches the upper palate, the eyes are closed, but not completely closed.

Imagine that both your legs grow deep into the ground and turn into the roots of a mighty tree and, like the roots of a tree, absorb moisture, nutrients and Yin energy from the earth.

Imagine that your torso grows high into the sky, above the clouds, to the light of the sun and to the light of the stars, the moon. And from there you accept and absorb light, wind, rain, and the energy of the Yang Cosmos. And you yourself become huge, like the Cosmos.

Raise your arms so that your palms are in front of your navel. The elbows are set back from the body, as if there are tennis balls under the arms, fragile as eggs. The lines of the arms are rounded and relaxed, as if hugging a large beach ball. Imagine and feel an elastic ball between your palms and the center of your navel.

Forget about yourself, about your posture. Feel how the qi of the Earth rises from below through the root legs, and the qi of the Cosmos comes from above. Feel this movement and the ball of energy between your palms and your navel. And forget it again.

The minimum duration of the Big Tree exercise is 30 minutes.

This is caused by the fact that blood washes all parts of our body in 30 minutes. Therefore, it takes at least half an hour for the qi that begins to enter the body, together with the blood, to reach all areas and all cells of the body.

After some time, when you get used to this form, the duration of the exercise should be increased to two hours.

Exit: concentrate the qi in the lower dantian. Slowly open your eyes and fold your hands in this area (women - right hand on the navel, left hand on top; men - vice versa). In this case, the center of the palm (Laogong point) of the hand located on the navel from below should coincide with the center of the navel.

Mentally concentrate and squeeze the ball in the lower tan tien into a point. Feel a hot spot or pulsation under your palms. This is the center of your Xia Dantian.

ATTENTION: During the regulation, women are advised to hold their hands and the ball opposite the middle cauldron - Zhong Dantian - to avoid bleeding. During pregnancy, the Big Tree is performed without using your hands and without feeling the ball at the level of the lower cauldron.