#WarriorsOfStillness Book Review
#Final Part4
#Standing #Meditation #ZhanZhuang #Healing #TherapyTherapeutic Discoveries
Almost from the moment l began the practice of standing meditation, my body reacted rebelliously and violently At first, the musculature of my body simply was not developed and strong enough to meet the demands of holding the positions, resulting in an intense trembling of the musculature and involuntary, often violent, shaking of the body. Yet, even as l developed the physical strength to maintain the postures, this shaking continued. Physically and psychologically got got literally "all shook up." Recolletions of childhood trauma and associated fears and angers began to surface during bouts of shaking. These I interpreted, in accordance with my Reichian and bioenergetic perspective, as the therapeutic process of dissolving specific myofascial blockages in the body armor. Thus, working through the agony of the standing and shaking became an integral part of a therapeutic journey. It became my path of resolving old traumas and contradictions while opening the energy path ways and reintegrating the body's segments, or springs. In a nutshell, my developmental experience in the Yiquan system attests to the truth of the old adage that the agony precedes the ecstasy.
In my case the process of breaking case tne requisite breaking up psychosomatic blockages through the shaking was agonizing indeed. The subsequent experience of reintegrating the segmented parts of the body with each other and with the mind has, over the years, been an endless source of ecstasy.
Standing meditation is the work of bringing deep unconscious reflexes and processes into consciousness. By paying attention to and correlating proprioceptive and kinesthetic data, we seek to hone these instinctual abilities to a fine edge..