I'm cultivating the metal element.
We're working with opening up.
Our respiratory system,
The lungs most specifically.
And remember,
In Qigong.
Qi refers to our vital life force energy.
And what is our vital life force energy?
It's the breath.
It is also combined with food,
But for now we want to work with really optimizing our respiratory system and opening up the body to be breathing in this coherent,
Optimal manner.
So we're going to use movement.
To just create a body.
That puts us in preparation for breathing really well and cultivating this optimal sense of vital life force energy,
Archie.
This is not only a practice that's good for,
As they say,
The torso and making sure the diaphragm and the lungs are good for breathing,
But it's also really good for the back.
So to start off,
We just want to make sure the torso feels really good.
We're going to loosen up the back.
I want to show you the movement sideways.
So you're going to tuck in the tailbone,
Tuck in the chin,
Round out the back.
And as you come up,
Make loose fists.
Open up the chest.
Open up the lungs.
A slight arch to the back.
Open the chest to the.
.
.
Guy.
As you exhale tuck in the tailbone,
Tuck in the chin,
Round out the back.
Creating space in the torso,
Opening up the chest.
Feel the spine undulate.
Creating a looseness through the body.
Do three more.
Inhale,
We open.
Taking in that G.
One more.
And relax.
Let's bring a little bit more looseness into the body.
Just bring in some horizontal swinging.
We're just going to swing the body.
Lightly tapping the back.
Coming off the opposite heel.
So as I come to my right,
Left hand will tap the side,
Right hand taps the left lower back,
The kidneys.
And just nice and loose.
Just a gentle twist to the torso.
Exhale every tap.
And taking a few more swings.
And relax.
Let's bring a little bit of a side stretch.
You should really feel here that you're opening up the ribcage,
The obliques.
Creating space between the hip bones and the ribs and we're opening up these intercostal muscles.
So we're going to bring,
I'm going to,
You could mirror me here.
I'm going to go my left hand high.
You could go right.
The upper hand,
The palm goes up.
The lower hand,
Palm goes down.
Up the center of the body.
Have a feeling almost as if the hand is raising the head.
Exhale coming down.
And how we stretch.
And X.
Inhale,
We rise,
Creating space here through the side.
Exhale,
Relax.
And he'll rise,
Creating space.
Let's bring a variation now.
As you come up,
Come off the heel of the low hand side.
Exhale.
Come off the heel of the low hand.
Raising the crown of the head.
Stretching.
Creating space through the side.
One more each side.
And relax.
And then we're just going to bring a nice torso stretch.
The feeling here is you're just coming up the center of the body.
Inhale.
And exhale coming down.
Palms are up.
Palms face you,
They face down,
They face out.
So if you're pushing a ball up,
Pushing out.
Couple more.
One more.
And release.
Now let's bring the feet together.
Gonna stretch up.
Interlace the fingers,
Index finger to the sky.
Inhale,
Feel like someone's pulling you up by the wrists.
Exhale,
Relax.
So now inhale,
Stretch up.
On the exhale,
Gently twist to your right side.
Making sure not to over twist.
Hold for a couple breaths.
Exhale,
Come back.
Inhale,
Stretch up.
Excel twist to your.
.
.
Once again,
Come to your edge,
You take a gentle step back,
Make sure you're not over-twisting,
And come back.
Now,
Inhale,
Stretch up.
On the exhale,
Gently come down to your right side.
Hold for a few breaths.
Exhale,
Come back to the middle.
And how it stretch.
Excel come back.
Back to the middle,
Stretching up,
Feeling tall,
Dignified,
Majestic,
And you release.
Come back down,
And now we're gonna come back up.
Bring the hands down,
Center of their body,
Relaxing.
To finish up this practice.
Just going to separate the feet again.
Hip to shoulder width apart,
Just feel even weighted.
Hopefully that's opened up the whole energetic system,
Your breathing system,
The torso.
But what I want to do right now is really focus much more specifically on the intercostal muscles here in the ribs.
We're going to do a bit of a massage.
So you're not going to be pressing down on the ribs,
The actual bone here.
What you want to be doing is massaging in between.
Just kind of opening and creating space.
Remember the whole point of this movement practice.
Is to bring the body to an optimal state.
To then be breathing well.
As we're saying.
Qi translates very,
Very intimately with the breath.
Our vital life force energy,
What we can't go without for even a couple minutes.
So you're just kind of finding that space in between the ribs.
Breeze the arm,
Just a bit of.
.
.
Gentle massage.
Making sure you're not pressing down on the ribs.
You don't want to be pressing on the bones.
It's the intercostal muscles.
Okay,
Then coming back down.
And taking this feeling directly into what we're gonna be doing next,
Which is a sitting practice,
We really work on optimizing this oxygen carbon dioxide flow in our respiration system to essentially maximize our vital life force energy and balance our energy and emotions.
So thanks for joining.
