Do you ever find it difficult to let go of your thoughts and quiet your mind?
With so much happening in the world around you, it’s no surprise that your mind might have a hard time settling down and becoming rooted in the present moment. However, by using specific meditation and practices, you can learn how to release restless thinking and experience an abundance of nourishing, present energy within your body and mind.
Long ago, ancient Taoist practitioners discovered how to integrate the power of intention, visualization, and mindfulness to cultivate inner harmony and presentness. In this blog, you’ll discover the principles that underlie these powerful practices, and also experience a guided practice routine for yourself.
Since the dawn of humanity, the human mind has been extremely active—too active at many times. As such, traditions around the world have sought practices to let go of restless thinking and experience a sense of inner peace and tranquility. One group of such individuals was the ancient Taoists.
One thing that made the Taoists unique was their focus on both mind and body. Many traditions emphasize one more than the other. For example, a lot of meditation practices focus on working with your mind while your body sits still. On the other hand, many exercise practices focus on engaging your body physically without putting much focus on how you direct your mind.
In Taoism, practitioners learn how to integrate the benefits of meditation and physical engagement. In doing so, you’re able to bring harmony, peace, and vitality to all parts of your being.
There’s a common metaphor that reflects the Taoists’ understanding of the relationships between different parts of your being: Ice, water, and steam. Just as H2O is constantly transforming between these three states, the energy within you works the same way.
To cultivate inner peace and vitality, Taoist meditative practices focus on transforming ice into water, and then water into steam. Through this process, you can harness and refine your internal life-force energy.
Below, we’ve included an eight-minute routine to help you experience this transformative process for yourself. We’ve provided this routine in both a video as well as in written instructions.
To begin, stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart and let your hands rest by your sides. Take a few deep breaths and try to release any tension or tightness you may be feeling.
When you’re ready, bring your arms up slowly in front of you until your hands are about horizontal. Then, bring your arms down slowly until they’re about waist level.
When you move, try to move with slow, flowing movements. Let your arms move in a flowing, wave-like motion. As you move, try to synchronize your breath with your movements. Visualize the energy in your body melting from ice to water, and from water to steam.
This exercise is called Opening the Flow. It’s a wonderful exercise for cultivating an abundance of vitality within your being.
Continue to do this exercise for a couple of minutes as you continue to drop deeper into a meditative state within your mind and body.
When you’re ready, move onto the next exercise, which is called Embrace the Wind, Caress the Moon.
For this next exercise, start with your hands close together in front of you at about waist level. Face your palms towards the ground. Then, let your hands glide apart as each hand moves towards its respective side. Your right hand moves to the right and your left hand moves to the left.
When each hand is near the side of your body, flip your hands so your palms are facing upward. Then, move your hands back towards each other towards your midline.
As your hands approach your midline, bring your fingers towards your body so your hands make a gentle circular motion. Continue to circle your hands until the back of your hands are facing each other in front of you.
With the backs of your hands facing one another in front of you, bring your hands upward and bring your fingers towards your body again. Once your hands rise to about chest level, circle your hands outward and downward in front of you until your hands come back near your waist with your palms facing upward. Then, bring your hands upward until they’re near your sternum with your fingers pointing upward.
Now, for Caress the Moon, drop your hands again with your palms facing downward and then circle them upward in front of you until they reach your mid eye by your forehead. This helps you connect to divine wisdom.
Then, bring your hand downward as you release any energy you want to let go of.
Continue this sequence of movements a few times as you connect deeper to the wisdom of the universe and let go of any stress and restless thinking. After a few minutes, bring your hands to your lower abdomen.
With your hands over your lower abdomen, take a few deep breaths. Notice how you feel relaxed, energized, and at peace. Whenever you’re ready, smile to yourself and take that feeling with you into the rest of your day.
If you’d like to learn more meditation movement practices designed to cultivate peace and harmony within your being, be sure to check out the upcoming Meditation Through Movement Workshop.
If just eight minutes of movement helped you feel more relaxed and present, imagine what a full workshop can do.
In the Meditation through Movement Workshop, you’ll learn how to:
Led by master teacher Lee Holden, this online workshop gives you powerful practices you can revisit again and again. Whether you’re just starting or deepening your journey, these teachings will help you feel lighter, clearer, and more at peace.
You don’t have to “try harder” to meditate. You just have to move differently.
