Help please

[akashic610]

I'm a novice when it comes to NEW so I'm having some trouble with a few things. I have both MAP and AD. When I say tracing I mean with my awarness and not actual physical tracing.

1. When I trace the feeling of something going over a small part of my body such as my finger or my toe I feel nothing more than an intense awareness of it being there. When I try to move the tracing to another part of my body I have a hard time because my awareness of the previous body part, whatever it may be, is still so strong.

2. I noticed with my toes, that if I try to trace over just one toe on my left foot, I often begin getting the same intensified feeling in my right foot's same toe.

3. When I try to trace over a larger body part such as my arm or leg I have a much harder time getting that intensified awareness of it. many times I don't even get it.

4. When I trace over even a smaller body part, I get nothing more than intensified awareness of it. No tingling, warmth, coldness, or anything like that.


Keep in mind I have probably only practiced tracing for a total of 10 minutes so far, if that. I don't always use the same feeling of tracing; sometimes I'll use the feeling of a sponge, and other times I'll use the feeling of something sharp. Your help is greatly appreciated, as I REALLY want to begin making progress with NEW.

[Korpo]

Hello, akashic610.

I think you are concentrating in a too hard and rigid manner, resulting in a sharp "point of focus". This can bring on tension and make energy work unnecessarily hard. If you focus too hard on a part and the sensations it brings it can be hard to unfocus again. Unfocusing is about relaxing one's "awareness grip" on a part of the body - it is related to relaxation. If you focus too hard and intense it can be hard to release that focus again - you are telling your own mind "try as hard as you can", but in your case it might be appropriate to learn more sth like "try to release gently" - it is something I have a problem with as well.

My personal theory about these things is that there are persons that have good focus and tend towards the stressful type (like me) and less tensed-up people who have less focus. The "stress people" need to take care more on how to release things again (like unclenching a fist) and the "relaxation people" need to learn more how to get a precise grip. This is like coming to the same point of balance from two directions - the optimum is a relaxed, yet firm "awareness grip".

Gentle and soft is always a good set of attributes to aim for in any energy work - rigid and hard tend to make problems.

This also eases targetting bigger parts of your body, because this requires to widen focus from a narrow, laserlike point of awareness to a "field" or "area" of awareness. Again, IMO, this related to relaxation.

Personally I think this can be trained for by learning things as "progressive (muscle) relaxation" where you learn how to tense up and release in order to get a conscious grip on both responses. But to me any input would be welcome as well, because I am not beyond this condition either.

Take good care,
Oliver

[akashic610]

Yeah, I never thought about that. I always go at it with the approach of trying as hard as I can to feel it, like I'm making a monumental effort. Next time I'll try to do it in a more relaxed manner. I just always assumed that as long as I was physically relaxed I was good to go; I need to loosen up a bit mentally also.

[akashic610]

Well I just tried it again, and I tried not to be mentally tense or anything. Didn't really feel anything this time. Only tried it for a few minutes so i guess I need to keep trying. If I keep practicing I'll eventually feel something right? I'm not gonna get into the NEW procedures for developing energy until I can actually create the sensation with this tracing method and feel the energy.

[Korpo]

akashic610, besides the possibilty that I could be just plain wrong in assessing your situation... ;)

Try to find the middle ground. Between mental effort and mental laziness. The start of where you feel something. Gentle does not mean "nothing", it does "just about enough".

Think about trying to grab an orange. The first approach was squeezing so hard you get juice all over your hand. Now it slipped from your fingers. Grabbing something without damaging is actually quite a feat, we just do it every day till we get it right...

Same goes for awareness - trying as hard as you can can produce a tense mind. But you should try. It is a matter of degree, not a black/white thing.

Good success,
Oliver

[akashic610]

Thanks for your help Korpo. I am quite confident I will get the hang of it soon. I think I also need to eliminater any doubt that I have that what I am doing is actually doing something. I still have some doubt as to whether it's actually doing anything or not. In the small amount of time that I have practiced this, I have found that I either do the tracing and find that my awareness becomes so fixed to the area that I can't move it elsewhere, or I can't feel anything at all. Another question I have is, when I do the tracing and my awareness becomes fixated on the area like I've been describing, I don't feel any tingling or warmth or anything like that. Just a strong fixation on the area. Is this energy?

[Korpo]

Hello, akashic610.

Confidence is good - that really helps. :)

I doubted it myself quite some time even after the effects were too many to be overlooked. Part of it is the reluctance of acknowledging something that has not really acceptance in the West. This passes over time.

One thing the mind can become focused upon is blockage - blockage can feel like many things - strength, pain, resistance, or absolutely nothing at all. Energy flowing feels in its neutral state like soft liquid or like air, depending on density and subtlety. Blockages triggered or resolving may feel like heat, pain may happen, tingling, ticking, itching.

The problem of making a smooth motion out of the tracing may possibly be overcome by the following:

Concentrate on a spot where you want to go. Concentrate on the next spot. Then the next, until the whole line has been traced, point by point. Energy/Qi follows where the mind leads, so it will try to flow where your mind/awareness "points".

By making the distances between points smaller and smaller you can step by step train for a smooth "motion". Like the quadrature of the circle - at some point a set of lines can seem like an arc - else computer graphics would not work. ;)

Good success,
Oliver

[akashic610]

Once again I thank you for the advice. I think I'm just gonna keep practicing; experimenting the awareness tracing on different parts of my body. I'm able to ease the intensity of my focus so I can bring my awareness hands to other parts of my body now without being stuck on the original point of awareness. But now I kind of have the opposite problem, I can barely feel anything. The only spots I can feel anything are on the palms of my hands and the bottom of my feet which is understandable since these are energy centers. And even these are weak sensations. When I try other areas, such as my shins or the back of my hands, I feel nothing. Is this normal? Am I taking the right route by choosing to just keep practicing until I can surely feel significant sensations?

Also, I don't physically trace any of these areas, as I have a strong memory of what it feels like to physically trace over pretty much any part of my body. Should I be physically tracing each part first?

[Korpo]

The palm centers and the sole centers are indeed among the strongest exchange ports of your body. So if you feel something there it means you have some energetic sensitivity but it surely can be improved. :)

Robert's tutorials surely were helpful in getting me started - first you could try to stimulate those centers that you can feel, and then you can expand, maybe even inch by inch, with techniques like brushing or sponging.

Greater awareness of energy can also manifest in being able to feel your body better. I can feel the insides of my body in energy work - I have a clear sensation of "being inside" and soft sensations in parts that are clear, and blockage sensations else. I do not know how it is for you.

I did not need the physical stimulations beyond maybe two weeks, if even that. If you can put your awareness somewhere that suffices usually.

Could you tell me if you are healthy or even very fit or are you "not so fit" ;) ?

Oliver

[akashic610]

I have actually been lifting weights for almost two years now regularly. I keep my diet as clean as possible; I have to eat a lot of food in order to support the muscle mass that I gain, and to continue to gain it.

And speaking of brushing and sponging, I think that may be why I cannot feel anything when I trace other parts of my body besides my palms and soles. The palms and soles, being as sensitive as they are, can be stimulated just by tracing with a finger. But other parts of my body, being not so sensitive, have to be brushed or sponged(with your awareness of course), in order to be stimulated. Am I correct?

[Korpo]

I really cannot say. :)

About health and fitness - usually a fit body is less blocked than a less fit one. But that does not necessarily mean muscle. Rather the absence of disease and the presence of wellbeing are more important. Exercise can provide a lot of "raw" energy, many external martial arts rely in their energy work on that.

Energy work calls for a quality called proprioception - the ability to feel within oneself. Internal martial arts like Taiji Quan (Tai Chi Chuan) can build that, as can Qigong, and a myriad of other exercises, including NEW energy work. Body awareness is usually less in a stressed-out person and best in a relaxed person. Energy work can help in gradually make the transition from stressed-out to relaxed.

What I said about "optimal grip" is what is behind this - the internal martial artists of China are not the exact opposites of the external ones, but very much. See a Karateka - he will tense up to the fullest at the end of a strike, and make a piercing battle cry. Everything is maximum tension and aggression. A Taiji fighter will concentrate on being not where his opponent hits, hit where not expected, evade when attacked, and apply an amount of force on attack that still allows changing course of action if required. And does not tense up. In the end this produces fighters that are on average faster and of better health than their Karate equivalents, though training can be extremely intensive in time and is surely not less hard work, rather more.

Proprioception develops slowly if you have never trained it before. In Taijiquan it is part of balance - very often the fighter has all its weight on one leg while shifting. Feeling inside yourself, rediscovering your body is a very slow process that takes months to years. Experienced practitioners can for example feel their state of their liver and manipulate that, so you see a lot is possible, but we all start small.

It is not unusual to feel little in the beginning, but consistent practise should increase this over time. As a sportsman you might actually have less blockages than others and actually feel less because a healthy body produces less strong sensations. But over time sensations will become more pronounced. Energy work makes your mind into a magnifying lens, and the more you develop it the more you will discover, I am sure of that.

Oliver