Trouble with the MBA excercise

[TheDarkChakra]

I've been doing some scratching to be able to feel the tingle in my palms and hands anytime but I'm having trouble feeling it when i dont scratch it. When i concentrate in the middle of my palm the tingling doesn't feel exactly in the middle but in other parts of my hand like fingers but never directly in the center unless i do more scratches there.

Do i have to feel it EXACTLY where i want it to be or close to the point where i want it to be is enough? Like do i have to feel EVERY CELL of my hand from thumb to shoulder tingling or few slight tingles is enough?

When they say start with your thumb until all the way to your shoulder does it mean that i must scratch all the way at ONCE or little by little like: I scratch my thumb then close my eyes than feel it, then i scratch an inch of my forearm then i feel it, or do i have to do it all at once?

Yesterday I did hours of this exercise with breaks and today in the morning i tried and am having a much tougher time feeling the same point even with scratching than yesterday. Did i tire out my energy yesterday?

How do i know i can move my body awareness anywhere?

I know this is a lot of questions so please try to understand and answer as many as you can but all of them will be very appreciated. Thanks for your time.

[Apex]

I can see you're working very hard at this, so I'll try to help out.

The idea behind the scratching is practicing targetting various parts of the body. After this, movement is added, followed by splitting awareness, and so on.

When you feel the area that's tingling, be aware of where you are in terms of awareness. Holding awareness in that area does not depending on whether it is tingling or not, only that you're specifically homing in on that area of the body. Usually we're homed in on the area between our eyes, for whatever reason.

As an example for reference, say you broke your upper leg bone (which I hear is especially painful). You might be told to "not think about the pain" or "think about a different part". So you could focus on your shoulder and notice the pressure that is being put on it from your shirt, sweather, or whatever you're wearing. You could focus on your neck and feel the collar edges nudging against it as you move your head around. This is not limited to physical sensations. You could hold an ice pack and focus on your palm, feeling that it senses cold. This is the basic idea behind moving awareness to a part of the body. You move there and feel everything it feels. Naturally, you're always aware at some level of everything at once, but it's the action of focusing (to the near exclusion of everything else) that defines awareness shifting.

Hope this helps.

[CFTraveler]

When I started doing the tactile awareness exercises, sometimes imagining a brush or sponge wasn't enough to stimulate the areas I wanted- I wanted to "feel" the tingle. So instead of imagining a brush, I alternated with imagining a wirebrush or a bottlebrush (those things are very stiff and very poky) and other times, when I was "sponging" energy up my legs I would imagine (yes, I know this will sound weird) Large ball bearings, like the size of golf balls (maybe a wee bit smaller), like 50 of them going up and down the inside of my legs. That got a definite tingle going. I don't use that technique anymore- now just being aware of any body part makes it tingle- this probably means that I have blockages but I still "sponge" every day. I like it better than chakra work. :lol:

[TheDarkChakra]

I think im better with feeling rather than vizualizing and no one has yet answered my questions. Yet thanks for helping me though.

[Celeborn]

Don't worry too much about your targeting accuracy. That will come with time and experience.

I think you should give yourself time to get good at just holding on to the tingle in your hand before worrying about your shoulder. If you can teach yourself how to keep it in your hand, and make it stronger and weeker, bigger and smaller, all with your force of will alone, you will not need to scratch.

I learned on my hands alone, and got to the point where I could turn it on and off with just a thought, before I started really trying to move the energy elsewhere. There is no real reason for you to have to be stratching all over your body. :D

You will know that you body awareness has moved when you can feel the tingling distinctly in your hand (or elsewhere). When you can move your awareness elsewhere and the energy/tingling sensation follows it across your skin anywhere on your body that you direct it, you will know that you have gotten a pretty good handle on moving your awareness.

Remember the ancient Daoist proverb: "Where your awarness goes, your chi will follow." The stronger your control over your awareness becomes, the better you will be able to target areas of your body, and the better you will be able to control the chi's movement.

Also, in the begining, you need to take it slow. Try not to do more then an hour at a time. But do be consistant, and try to do at least 20 minutes a day. It is the consistance that builds your energy body. If you just do a whole lot all at once and then stop for a long time, your efforts will be wasted. With time your energy will build up and your practice time will naturally lengthen.

Hope this helped a bit.

[TheDarkChakra]

Hey Celeborn thanks a lot!!!! I greatly appreciate it! I understand it much better now, it helped out a lot :D :) :D :) :D :) :lol: .

Thanks everyone else who posted here because i learned something from you too :P .

[Seph]

Hi,
I know its been a while since the last posts in this thread, but im having similar problems atm.
I have been doing the exercises in NEW for a while but i do not feel i am making any progress, i think this is because i do not know what i'm looking for too indicate the progress.
If anyone could give me any answers too the questions below, or any other information they think I would find helpful I would greatly appreciate it.
1) How do you know when you've correctly focused on a body part (such as your finger tip)? Do you some sort of feeling in that particular point?
2) When you move your awareness is that feeling supposed to go where you move your awareness too?
3) When you move your awareness is it like a big jump from one point too another? or can you feel it constantly moving on a path to the point your trying too get it to?
4) Lastly, when moving your awareness are you meant too have eyes closed and is it ok too visualize your awareness as a little dot on your body?

[CFTraveler]

Hi,
I know its been a while since the last posts in this thread, but im having similar problems atm.
I have been doing the exercises in NEW for a while but i do not feel i am making any progress, i think this is because i do not know what i'm looking for too indicate the progress.
If anyone could give me any answers too the questions below, or any other information they think I would find helpful I would greatly appreciate it.
1) How do you know when you've correctly focused on a body part (such as your finger tip)? Do you some sort of feeling in that particular point? There can be but not necessarily. If you know where that part is with your eyes closed you have moved your awareness there.

2) When you move your awareness is that feeling supposed to go where you move your awareness to? Yes, and the previous applies.

3) When you move your awareness is it like a big jump from one point too another? or can you feel it constantly moving on a path to the point your trying too get it to? You should feel it as moving through your body to the part it's going through. If bouncing makes your awareness jump from place to place, slow down and build up. Don't worry about taking too long.

4) Lastly, when moving your awareness are you meant too have eyes closed and is it ok too visualize your awareness as a little dot on your body? Actually, in his latest works, Robert sometimes demonstrates the point of awareness as a laser pointer pointing at the area and moving it back and forth, and you should visualize (or feel what it would be like if you had ) a blue ball of energy going from part to part of your body instead of a sponge, which was how it was described in the original works. Do what works for you.

[Seph]

Thank you so much. That helped an enormous amount. Using the blue ball idea and letting it kind of "roll" over my skin, i could feel throbbing sensations where i put it.
At one point i had it in my right hand and tried making it jump into my other hand but it wouldn't work, so i imagined physically picked it up and put it in my left.
Thanks again :)

[CFTraveler]

Glad to help.