The Lunar Cycle

[Anonymous]

I don’t want to start too a crazy thread, but it is something that genuinely affects my standing practice : When the lunar cycle approaches full moon for the last week of it’s rising things go awry. It takes that phrase about recognising that “something is just not quite right” to the Nth degree. In my work, my QiGong practice and my favourite leisure sport (tennis), each involve high degrees of body-mind connectivity, focus and attention. All these seem to go haywire in the last week approaching full moon depending on the particular lunar cycle (some being stronger moons than others). This is not crazy talk even if it indicates a degree of classic lunacy on my part – the moon moves the ocean tides, so the sense that it is moving the blood & fluids within my body is not far fetched despite my family’s raised eyebrows at the explanation for my oddness. It is something I recognise a few days after it has started rather than something I wait for or dread. I do try and manage it through sinking Qi/meditation, I have tried welcoming it with open arms (literally) but the pull externally, and physical internal tension is too strong for my abilities at this stage- I am hoping a year of EA standing will give me more tools to channel and use the difficult energy I currently experience. I have always had this since young (in fifties now), and managed it as best I could, but would be really great to be able to use/surf it rather than be used by it if I could learn how!

I was wondering firstly if this is a common phenomenon? secondly I wondered if Taoist QiGong had addressed this in any particular way for those who may be lunar cycle sensitive? I would emphasise that the disturbance is firstly a physical manifestation; felt internally as pressure being pulled mostly outwards; then as everything goes off, tasks become more difficult/awkward and everything is choppy- it manifests mentally, as agitation & disturbed focus…

Maybe, without being presumptive it is not so different from something many women experience with strong PMT. Maybe there are some practice answers there ?

Bizarrely, as I wake immediately after the fullest moon, as I did today; all disturbance dissipates and I can get back to practice, work, and leisure activities with very clear focus and relaxed intention, just mystified why the last week was so “off” and difficult. An example from this month’s practices would be very strong and blocked upper legs/quads/thighs all last week when doing standing practice (not ‘normal’ for me), somewhat alleviated using rotating arms etc, but today (once full moon passed) no tightness and much easier flow through same previously rigid/tense points as if all that tension and resistance had never been there.
Relieved!

Regards ….not expecting miracles, the moon or the stars

Nick

[Anonymous]

Nick
How about focusing on keeping your weight more toward the heel when standing? It should help keep you grounded with the downward current of energy and dump out all the stuff full moons stir up.
I know what you mean with full moons though, and eclipses and all other manner of stellar phenomena that goes on day in and day out.
The nice thing about Taoism, what Bruce teaches, is to go beyond these influences, and for that matter any influences.
Cody

[Anonymous]

Regards Nick.. in short, I’d say yes (it does/can address),, as I have had a number overload-instabiliites, in the past, (cycles, like the lunatic-tide.. but even more so- which goes along with it- the oncoming storms &/or barametric pressure sudden shift.. which some can experience in a “trick knee” a jt-capsule.. but can also be somewhere in the skull.eyes/spine, etc.. a shift in pressure in there affects things.. but eve more so, shifts in the “subtle material-foundation” (which could be termed “psychic-energies” -not just in general, but the specific use Bruce covers in EnergyArts Tao-material.. 4th-5th-6th Ebodies..)

One quick comment (just returned home after sudden two weeks drop it all and go-away, this even return, so just a few seeds, vs a complete response in this .. ).. What you describe might relate to the environmental and resonant-response, increases in flows through your system.. (like during a certain time, in a cycle, certain conditions, the energies running through your system increase, either by your system opening-up more.. and allowing more to flow through easier- lowering the usual resistance.. or perhaps triggering your system to reach out and pull and push through your system more strongly… or just that more flow is in your enviro.. (like wind just blowing more strongly.. the same air, it is just blowing more)…

all of these (different reasons, and thus dynamics of what is triggered) have to do with your system amping up.. but if you practice so you can (within 70%- Goldilocks’,. so your system is at ease and thus can adapt to what it experiences.. )amp up what you experience.. at other times… -this allows you to adjust to having a stronger flow in other conditions (either- off the full moon, say nearer the mid(s), or perhaps the New…).. if you can Trigger an amping when the cycle isn’t Pushing that on you.. then when it is pushing on your (approaching the full..) and your aren’t “doing it”.. it should be what you have trained… (thus your system is used to it, per your learning the skill of being able to trigger that amping up off-cycle.. and not by “efforting” and with NO ‘strain…

—stand, release, open, and feel ‘a flow’ (different “flows” but once you get a sense of one- then keeping that feeling steady, is like a biofeedback.. and having that feeling increase.. indicates you are moving more into that alignment… ) so so sung-sink-liengthen.. and feel that? -grounding, how does that feel? (also becoming more ‘at ease” and even-smooth, vs jazzed or jumpy).. (ie what would it be like to be as amped as you are, as you describe above.. “but without any of the disconnection” you describe? ie if you didn’t experience any of the negative impact your describe, would there still be a feeling of “increased energy” ? or outward-expanssion (decreased holding in on you, or increased outward push from within? something trying to flow through, or your essence moving? -ie reacting to a force, or acting one-self… perhaps not a pushing out, but a feeling of being pulled out?

either way, if a feeling of increased awareness, or energetic jazzed-up amped.. can you parse out an aspect that is a sense of “energetic More” .. yet without the sense of frazzled. rather offeeling that sense of More, while becoming more connected, more present, more in a state you can sustain.. without effort.. etc..

(above inquiry may be a useful through to look at, but after that its more the question.. like those questions are “looking” in the scanning process.. and you see what arises…- respond like an echo, can your mirror be free of all stain and dust?)

cheers-luck

[Anonymous]

Hello, Nick describes something I noticed a long time before I even
knew about Taichi or Qigong. When the time of the month arrives, my joints swell, I sleep poorly, I am more irritable…. now that I practice qigong , and I’ve Healed myself from chronic pain through Qigong breathing and exercises, I still feel the changes, but I am somewhat less irritable, and I change my pillow from the north to the south. Yes, it helps a bit! But I keep thinking that I don’t have enough energy or balance in the body to withstand the outside influences, looking at the children, they are not affected as much! So I practice some Qigong excises at night before I go to bed, no matter how late that is, it helps me sleep. In terms of tightness , yes I feel muscles mor tight even achey, in th morning especially, I try not to push harder through standing but rather use exercise to move the Qi, and concentrate on the aches breathing into them to expand the tissues. I practice standing if I have no pain, though I feel tension and blockages. I feel that pushing hard goes against the 70% rule….

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