In this exploration, we'll be using what's called the external harmonies in Tai Chi—the way that there's this natural correspondence between shoulders and hips, elbows and knees, wrists and ankles, hands and feet, and even all the way to our fingers and our toes. We'll especially allow ourselves more to feel our lower body and the presence of our lower bodies, first of all, because we have a lower body full of presence—it is presence. And also as we feel more the presence of our lower body, it can provide this feeling of the ballast of presence. For example, when we get more caught up in our head and our emotions get more reactive, usually there's more of this tendency to have a kind of rising energy and to feel like our identity, our presence, is more concentrated around our head. By feeling our lower body, even all the way to our very toes, that can be a way that we feel, sometimes it's called more like Chi down—and can even feel a more distributed sense of our identity that helps us be the ballast in the stormy seas of our own inner experience and living this crazy thing called life. I'll guide you through discovering the fingers of the feet—that's exactly what they are, we call them toes, but they're really the fingers of the feet. In the Taoist tradition and philosophy, there's that sense of humble, right? And even that sense of how water always goes to the lowest of the low places. And the toes and the soles of our feet are the lowest to the low place in our body. Through this practice, you might find how feeling those toes can give us more access to a sense of presence in the entire lower body—and can offer another way of working with a busy mind, heightened emotions, even having trouble falling asleep. If you ever have a hard time falling asleep, you can practice counting toes instead of counting sheep. Some possible takeaways from today's practice: Learning the external harmonies—correspondence between upper and lower bodyDiscovering the fingers of the feet and how to feel themUnderstanding the Taoist philosophy of humility and water seeking low placesFinding the ballast of presence in the lower body for emotional regulationExperiencing how there's more to our experience than just what we tend to focus onThe Body as Nature's Flow Series: In these hour-long sessions, we explore the three qualities of presence—mutual flow, free flow, and whole flow—through direct, felt experience in the body. Each session begins with 30 minutes touching in on these foundational qualities, then goes on an adventure exploring different ways to feel into presence through our immediate, physical experience. Drawing from physicist and Tai Chi Master Wonchull Park's teachings on nowflow, these in-depth practices help us recognize how we too are part of nature's flow. Thank you for Being with Being. beingwithbeing.org
