I’ve done this simple qigong practice over the years. It is a good practice to do when you feel lethargic and out of sorts, or when you’ve been sitting too long at your computer. If you do it with attention, it will get you sensing and breathing again. It will get your energy moving and help you become more alive and alert.
Practice
If you don’t happen to have a cherry tree nearby, imagine yourself standing beneath one. Physically stand up and sense your feet on the ground and the earth fully supporting you. Sense how you are breathing. Don’t try to alter your breath in any way. Just let it be as it is.
Stretch upward first with one hand and then the other to pick the imaginary cherries and put them in a bucket at your feet. Inhale through your nose as you stretch upward; exhale through your nose as you reach down to put the cherries away. Let your weight shift back and forth, simultaneously sensing one leg empty and one leg full (taking the weight of your body). Remember to close your fingers around the cherries when you are picking them and to open your fingers when you release the cherries into the bucket. Take your time finding a comfortable rhythm. Really sense, feel, and enjoy what’s happening.
When you’re ready to stop, just stop. But before doing whatever you need to do next, just stand and sense your body and breathing. What differences do you feel from when you started?
Copyright 2011-2015 by Dennis Lewis