Qigong

[AnthroHeart]

There is a concept used in kung fu that I find useful for posture and stance, and that is the 'string of pearls' visualization. The idea is that you want to stand with your knees slightly bend, leaning back slightly but also kind of stretching your head upwards towards the crown. The idea is to get the effect for your spinal vertebrae to kind of 'hang' like a string of pearls, fixed between your upward movement (like holding the top of the string) and letting your base or root relax in to the support of your knees, thereby taking the impact pressure off your spine and achieving a sort of floating between the vertebrae, reminiscent of a string of pearls.

Usually done in 'Horse Stance'.


http://chikung-unlimited.com/qigong-exer...-exercise/
Looks like they mention the thread technique too.

I agree, you should try and do everything as slow as possible, and synchronizing your breath with your movements. I was taught 4 basic cycles. When you do upward physical movement (like raising arms) breathing in, then breathing out on the downward movement. The opposite are the other two cycles. Breathing in on the down movement, and then out on the upward. This doesn't have to be 'up' or 'down' movements, but any sort of cyclical motion. The idea is to balance the breath with the motion so the peak and valley of the breath matches that of the movement.

I agree on going slow. The energy flows slowly in a captivating sort of manner to me.