One of my favorite meditative/mindful techniques I use, especially when I find myself getting bored or overly excited, is the Red Rubber Ball. I learned this from an Aikido-ka about 22 years ago and I love it.
All you have to do is imagine you have a red rubber ball in your hara. This is three inches below your navel and three inches in, approximately. If you find yourself bored or nervous, like what can happen to me, just bring your focus to the red rubber ball.
Sometimes I breath into it and when I inhale I make it expand and when I exhale I make it contract. Now, if you want you can use different colors. Sometimes for a cooling, calm feeling I will pick green or blue and breath into it or let its energy bath me in calmness. You are only limited by your imagination.
Over the years I discovered I could also 'magnetize' the ball and make it attract a healing, insight into a problem or even money. However you picture magnetization, imagine it and see it attracting what you want and how great it feels! The feeling of the healing or insight or money already being here is very important. It is the attractor factor inside the ball.
Well, off for a week of vacation.
Hands palm to palm,
Shinzen
ZHIJIEXIN
13 hours ago
Wow the "word identification" on the last reply I posted was "shnzi"
ReplyDeleteHmm good one. I do like to draw attention from the head I used to pull focus to the solar plexus or somewhere that does not think.
ReplyDeleteAlso though the center of the head is a very nice place to be. The intrusive thoughts hang around the front of the head whereas the center of the head is blissful.
I like the ball too :)
Osho said that hara is the still point of the body; no matter how we move, the hara is always the center of balance.
ReplyDeleteNice advice, I gotta do this sometimes :)
Ta Wan: Shnzi...neat.
ReplyDeleteRizal: The hara is very important in Budo for the same reasons. It is our center...when we move from our center we are more balanced and can execute our technique with power and grace.