Connection vs. Coordination

[Anonymous]

When I watch the BMP DVDs, I often watch how other students are moving. One thing I look for is whether someone moves by coordinating their movements or if they move with connection. We all strive to be more connected but ask yourself how successful have you been.

I’ve recently been working on moving all of my soft tissue as though it were one connected blob. The bones and skin give it structure and boundaries but the movement is felt and experienced more like the movement of an octopus or snake. This is particularly true in the torso and throughout the organs and cavities. You literally shape the body with your mind and power is more like directed pressure.

I’m just wondering if anyone else works with their tissue in this way?

[Anonymous]

Hi, James. Your post poses a useful question, as usual. I’ve only been doing bagua for a couple of years now and feel a long way from really “getting” it. I do feel a strong whole body awareness and connection. I’ve also worked a lot on moving from the heart/mind and that gives me a great feeling of connectedness. Part of it, I think, is my 25 years of tai chi practice – that helps a lot.

One thing I realized is that I’ve been overdoing the twisting. I was looking for a feeling that wasn’t really there, a kind of grinding from the muscles. So I was twisting past the 70 percent. When I relaxed away from that, I felt a greater feeling of connection, but a softer, more gentle kind of motion. I’ve found that I can connect the feelings in my internal organs to my limbs and their motion when I relax and don’t grind.

I don’t know if any of this is helpful since I feel you’re way beyond me in your bagua practice. I look forward to more of your posts.

thanks,
Matthew

[Anonymous]

I think the grinding you describe is the same thing that I talked about in my rant about over rotating to the center of the circle. It cuts off too much of the “chi” (I prefer to think of this as blood vessels and fluid flows.).

I’d be curious if this might help: forget about twisting and try something else for about a week. Concentrate on getting energy (felt pressure) from the bubbling well point in the foot out your toes. The trick is not to try to get pressure to press up from the ground. You want to get pressure to that point in the direction of the toes. Everyone seems to think you activate the point from pressure coming from the sole/ball of the foot. I’m suggesting you find it along the length of the foot, horizontal to the ground preferably in the central channel. Keep thinking the point is halfway between the top and bottom of the ball of the foot.

Move the energy out whenever the foot is going forward and back from the toes toward that point whenever the foot is pushing backward. Try to engage the softness of the tissue. The goosh.

You can practice any form you want but just concentrate on this one element.

For beginners, you can do the same thing with your hands before trying this is the feet.

[Anonymous]

I just found a great description of what I was trying to describe. On page 43 of Module 1 of the BMP, Bruce has a section called “Connected Pressure”. The proceeding section, “Create an Elastic Body and Mind”, is related as well.

I find this really encouraging. I continue to go back over the BMP material and find more and more detail that I either missed or didn’t fully absorb the first time through. It is comforting to know it is there. I just need to keep digging and training.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it’s funny to go back and reread the material and see something deeper that you completely missed the first time. I just went back on Sunday and reread the first module and learned a lot.

[Anonymous]

Does that initiate the twisting of the legs? Certain things in my training have led me to believe that the issue with connection is not usually in what you’re doing but where it starts from.

[Author]

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