Lee Holden teaches how to stay present by tuning into your body. Depression pulls you into the past, anxiety into the future. A sensing exercise shows how pain and sensation are signals worth listening to, grounded in qigong principles for presence and movement.
Chapters
So it's said that if you are depressed, you're probably living in the past. And if you feel anxious and worried, you're living in the future. And when you're present, it clears the slate of the past conditioning and clears the slate of future projecting. When the mind is clear of the past and the future, the present moment blossoms like a flower into sunlight. So let's blossom, and let's get that energy to wake up into where we are. Where am I? And I want you to just notice, right here, right now, just ask yourself that question. And let's take a little inventory of where we are. So close your eyes. Let me just invite you to close your eyes, ask that question, where am I? And just feel where you are in your body. So in that first meditation, we tuned into our senses. Now I want you to tune in to the inner landscape that's going on within you. Where are you in your body? What's going on with your body? You've got a chance to develop some really good listening skills. The way in which you can listen and feel your internal energy has shifted. So notice how your body feels. Listen to the messages of the body. Pain, discomfort, the feelings of being uncomfortable in the body are often messages that the body is trying to communicate to your mind. Treat your body like a good friend. If your good friend had an issue or problem, we'd listen here. The body is trying to communicate, and when we speak the language of energy, we're speaking the language of the body. And we can listen in and gain tremendous insights into our lives if we listen to the body. Notice if there's any areas in your body that have discomfort or pain. And then just ask, what are you trying to tell me? And sometimes our pain is our greatest teacher. It can help us move through life in a different direction. What's this pain discomfort trying to tell us? Be present and listen in. Take a deep breath into that and slowly open your eyes. And so when we start to work with energy and understand energy, we can understand the language of our bodies. And in the west, we often say, I don't want to feel this pain. I'm going to take a pain killer. So that all of a sudden we're not communicating. Our body isn't able to communicate with us, so it has to talk louder, it has to give more pain so that we pay attention. And sometimes it's as simple as do something different. Don't sit at your desk for 12 hours doing this is what the body's saying. Don't sit in a chair that's uncomfortable for eight hours. Move your body. Get your energy to circulate. What is your body telling you? Be present with the energy of the body because the body speaks the language of energy. And when you learn that, you gain tremendous insight into so many valuable aspects of life. All right, so in today's lesson, we are going to work with getting grounded, getting grounded in our practice and feeling centered. Centering is a principle in qigong. In fact, we move from the center. When you move from the center, you move with power and energy and integration. So in this practice, we're going to put something together. We're going to put together the principles and the energy that we've been working with and create a routine that's powerful, that's grounded, that's full of present moment awareness. Mindfulness in motion is what we're doing. All right, let's get ready to practice. And what I want you to do as a little exercise, journal about what your body's telling you, the messages of your body. Also write down the lessons that you might learn from your body. Maybe how pain or painful circumstance has transformed your life.
