Mariama said:
我想知道是否这些练习在嘘k are also suitable for older women? When I think of warriors I tend to think of very strong, healthy, physically active, young people.
That is true, although it can be very healing for any kind of person. I don't know what Verstappen recommends, but I practice Ryushin Sochi Ryu, a Iai displine (Japanese Martial Arts). It is basically like Aikido but with weapons. It is the sort of thing that women typically won't do, but I find it very healing for several reasons. I also like it a lot, although I know that I'm pretty weird in that regard.
It is body work with a group of people where I can practice pipe breathing and meditation along with muscle relaxation, and where someone teaches me how to coordinate my body with immediate feedback. Something as simple as this can help change the way your brain works.
Anecdotally and according to research, body work of this kind always help people with ADHD traits like myself, or in case of brain inflammation.
发布任何肌肉张力to do the katas properly. The right movement comes not out from muscular strength, but out from doing the appropriate muscular tension while leaving the rest of the muscles relaxed. It has been very difficult for me, more than the average person, but the results have been very good at various levels. I do it for one or two hours per week, with the occasional summer or autumn intensive seminar in between.
For those who don't resonate with the "warrior" thing, I think that Tai Chi is another good option, so is some sort of yoga exercise.
I witnessed again and again how very rigid people get significantly more flexible and coordinated by the time they've done 6 months up to one year of Aikido with a good spirited team. They become more social and at ease with themselves. They also become more patient and assertive. I think the same might apply to any other body work where there is a nice group of people.
The idea is to use the practice as an instrument to work on oneself and not necessarily to obsess about the discipline itself. A moderated practice that doesn't rule your life.
Here are some G quotes (ISOFTM) that could give some clues as to why bodywork is so helpful, specially for those of us with underdeveloped emotional and moving centers:
"Every ceremony or rite has a value if it is performed without alteration," he said. "A ceremony is a book in which a great deal is written. Anyone who understands can read it. One rite often contains more than a hundred books."
Indicating what had been preserved up to our time, G. at the same time pointed out what had been lost and forgotten. He spoke of sacred dances which accompanied the "services" in the "temples of repetition" and which were not included in the Christian form of worship. He also spoke of various exercises, and ofspecial postures for different prayers, that is, for different kinds of meditation; about acquiring control over the breathing and of the necessity of being able to tense or relax any group of muscles, or the muscles of the whole body at will; and about many other things having relation, so to speak, to the "technique" of religion.[...]
[...]"I will now point out to you only one aspect of the functioning of the body which it is indispensable to regulate in any event.So long as this functioning goes on in a wrong way no other kind of work, either moral or spiritual, can go on in a right way.
"You will remember that when we spoke of the work of the 'three-story factory,' I pointed out to you that most of the energy produced by the factory is wasted uselessly, among other things energy is wasted on unnecessary muscular tension.This unnecessary muscular tension eats up an enormous amount of energy. And with work on oneself attention must first be turned to this.
"In speaking of the work of the factory in general it is indispensable to establish that it is necessary to stop useless waste before there can be any sense in increasing the production. If production is increased while this useless waste remains unchecked and nothing is done to stop it, thenew energy produced will merely increase this useless waste and may even give rise to phenomena of an unhealthy kind. Therefore one of the first things a man must learn previous to any physical work on himself is to observe and feel muscular tension and to be able to relax the muscles when it is necessary, that is to say, chiefly to relax unnecessary tension of the muscles."
In this connection G. showed us a number of different exercises for obtaining control over muscular tension and he showed us certain postures adopted in schools when praying or contemplating which a man can only adopt if he learns to relax unnecessary tension of the muscles...He gave us many exercises for gradually relaxing the muscles always beginning with the muscles of the face, as well as exercises for "feeling"[...]
He then describes something similar to the "body scan" of mindfulness:
_https://www.livingwell.org.au/mindfulness-exercises-3/6-body-scan/
I always start an EE class with a short body scan and by the time we finish, we all can belly breathe more naturally :)
My 2 cents!