An Exercise After Meditation

[ecosophia]

Here and on my blog I've mentioned Do-In (pronounced dough-inn), a form of acupressure  I've studied for years. It's the Japanese reworking of Daoyin, one of the oldest Taoist arts of healing and self-cultivation, and yes, it was popular in the macrobiotic scene when I was involved in that. (I was later amused and delighted to find that it was also very popular among Druids in France and Brittany.) 

Unlike most forms of acupressure, Do-In doesn't focus entirely on acupressure points; those are covered in the books, but a lot of the techniques are more general, meant to encourage ki (the life force) to flow more freely in the body as a whole. The techniques also focus primarily on the hands, feet, and head, and while there are special things to do for specific health conditions, a lot of it is meant to keep you in good health rather than treating any given condition. 

Here's a very basic sequence, designed to be done after a session of discursive meditation. It takes just a few minutes. Its purpose is to wake up your body, prepare it for something more active than sitting meditation, and improve the flow of ki throughout your body. You do it sitting in your chair. 

There's a crucial detail that beginners too often forget, so I'm going to put it here and then repeat it. Between each exercise, pause, breathe deeply, and relax. Imagine tension draining out of you. That moment of stillness is as important, if not more so, than the exercise itself. 

1) Rub your hands together vigorously, palm to palm. Then rub the back of each hand and fingers with the other hand. Do this until the skin is warm. 

Pause, breathe, relax. 

2) Straighten your arms loosely and shake your hands, letting them flop freely. Do this for a minute or so. 

Pause breathe, relax. 

3) Wrap the fingers of one hand around the thumb of the other, as though taking hold of a handle. Pull gently, and let your thumb slide out against the pressure of the fingers. Do this to every finger and thumb on both hands in turn. 

Pause, breathe, relax. 

4) Rub your face, making little circles with your fingertips. Start up at the hairline (or where your hairline used to be, if you're balding) and work down the face, trying not to miss any spot. Press harder or softer depending on how it feels -- if it hurts, you're pressing too hard. 

Pause, breathe, relax.  

5) Form your hands into loose fists, and tap them gently and rhythmically all over your scalp, from your hairline back and around all the way to the nape of your neck and from one side to the other. Again, if it hurts you're doing it too hard. 

Pause, breathe, relax. 

6) Still sitting, cross one leg across the other knee, so it's easy for you to get to your foot. Tap the sole of your foot from the heel up to the toes with a loose fist. Most people can do this a good deal harder here than on the scalp! Then, using both hands, rub the top and sole of the foot until the skin is warm. (You can do this in stocking feet if you prefer -- it's just as effective. 

Put your foot down flat. Pause, breathe, relax. 

7) Repeat the process with your other foot. 

Put that foot down flat. Pause, breathe, relax. Then go about your day. 

Yes, it really is that simple. Consider giving it a try. 

Comments

Making booklets from these.

[sea_spray]

Hi JMG

These little introductions are really great. I've used your series on the SOP to introduce a few friends to it.

I would like to know if you would have any issue with me, or anyone, taking what you've published here online and reusing it, with proper credit to you.


I have a idea to make a little by binding and selling books through a farmers market. I was thinking that these introductions you've published here would be great to include in that, edited to suit a booklet.

Thanks

Re: Making booklets from these.

[ecosophia]

Thank you, but these are all raw material for a book I've already placed with a publisher, so I can't authorize anyone else to reprint them.

Also, as a general rule, I'm fine with people circulating the things I put on the internet if it's for free. If you're making money off them, though, I figure I deserve a share. (This also applies to things like fanfic using my characters and settings; if it's free I don't care, if money's being charged for it I'm going to ask for a share as royalties.)

Re: Making booklets from these.

[sea_spray]

Sure.

Would the restriction on reprinting them cover printing out the raw text straight from the web page, or even the web page itself, on a home printer to give to out for free?

Otherwise I'll point people to them here.

Thank you for the information. I don't want to misuse any of your intellectual property

Re: Making booklets from these.

[ecosophia]

Please just point them here. Once the book's in print, you can certainly recommend that...

[(Anonymous)]

Well, I think my next theme for discursive meditation will have to be on the benefits of moisturizing your feet.

That said, I really enjoyed this.

[ecosophia]

Not a bad idea!

Do-In

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG
Thank you for posting this. Your previous mentions of Do-In got me intrigued, but I hadn't tried it before. I was encouraged to notice some subtle, pleasant changes to mind and body. I'll try to keep this practice up.
I understand after discursive meditation your consciousness is (hopefully) moving down from the mental plane. Do-In would presumably correspond to a plane below the mental but above the physical (the etheric?). Is there a particular advantage in coming at this practice after a mental plane practice like discursive mediation or is it just a good time to do this kind of work? George

Re: Do-In

[ecosophia]

Mostly, it's a good idea to do this after meditation because your body is relatively relaxed and it's easier to open the channels and clear away blockages. Yes, Do-In relates to the etheric level -- ki, qi, prana, etc. are Asian terms for the same thing Western occultists call ether.

[fringewood]

Hi JMG,

Thank you for these exercises. I have been doing some do-in exercises I found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6WjP5G4xLs for about six months. They are very relaxing and invigorating.

I also found this on youtube which seems to have a larger repertoire:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRZDrVLi3te-zg0XajHRqWQ

Thanks again for sharing your vast and eclectic store of knowledge!
Linda

[ecosophia]

Interesting. The first one corresponds very closely to the sort of thing I've studied; the second combines Do-In with hatha yoga -- which might work quite well, for all I know.

LRM

[(Anonymous)]

Is this practice compatible with LRM/GD training. I learned the hard way that Tai chi isn't. That's some pain I don't want to repeat.

Gawain

Re: LRM

[ecosophia]

I'm not at all sure I'd want to try mixing the two, especially if you've had trouble of this kind before.

[(Anonymous)]

I did it and found it quite nice! It's funny how similar this is to things I naturally stumbled on to help my hands and feet recover from kickboxing and guitar. The hand stuff I did was EXACTLY the same, with the addition of a few more things. For example, i also grab the first and middle fingers together and pull, which decompresses the wrist, and the same for each pair of fingers down the line, and shake my hands the same way but in several more orientations. It works great.

The feet were a little different than what I stumbled on, but i found they had about the same effect. Maybe getting the ki flowing is something we naturally want to do whether we realize it or not.

Kyle

[ecosophia]

You can certainly add additional moves like the ones you've described -- this is simply a very minimal, basic, beginners-level sort of practice.

As for getting the ki moving -- yes, very much so! This stuff is natural to us; the only reason we need to follow instructions is that most of us in the Western world aren't good at figuring out how to respond to the promptings of our bodies.

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks for this! Can this be done if one is doing the DMH?

[ecosophia]

Yes. I was practicing Do-In daily when I was field-testing the rituals in the DMH, with good results.

[sidneyspath]

Sounds wonderful! I will try this. -- Sidney

[(Anonymous)]

I didn't meditate before (I did earlier today), but I just saw this and gave it a try, and I think it's going to be worth doing! It feels quite refreshing, although I'm not sure how to describe it....

The one undoable thing

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, dear, in all your instructions on meditation etc, you always lose me at "relax." Because if I knew how to do it, I assuredly would. And the "lying on a hard floor" exercise given in a far earlier post does not seem like a good idea when you factor in arthritis.

Re: The one undoable thing

[ecosophia]

Then don't worry about it. Just pause, draw in a deep breath, and let it out slowly, then go on to the next exercise.

[(Anonymous)]

Would there be any risks to doing this as a daily practice?

[ecosophia]

None at all. It's intended to be done after every daily session of meditation.

Phlegm

[(Anonymous)]

These feel great! And also... like something I've done variations on before but stopped, and now wonder why.

One thing I notice is a phlegm taste in the mouth doing esp scalp and face massage. How would you interpret that... maybe sinuses draining? It happens a little working on the feet too.

Thank you!

[kimberlysteele]

Thanks for this, JMG! This will be great between practicing instruments and singing. When it comes to the piano and the guitar, players are always knocking our fingers around and compressing the joints. No matter how easy a performer makes it look, there's usually some tension somewhere that needs to be released. I really appreciate this walk-through of Do-In, it's wonderful!