Fluid and light motion is everything in alleviating joint discomfort. From the viewpoint of energy science, joint inflammation happens when energy is not circulating well in your body and gets clumped in or around a specific joint. Imagine water flowing in a clogged drain pipe. The pipe is where energy flows in your body, the clogged area is where energy is stuck, and the water pressure that results from the water not being able to pass through is the painful feeling in the joints.
The key approach to unblocking this from an energetic perspective is to make energy flow in areas that it currently isn’t. Therefore, it is important to increase circulation and bring “clog removing” energy into areas of your joints that are blocked. In Body & Brain’s practice, we use a free-movement “energy dance” technique called “Dahn Mu” to activate and send energy to melt through blockages. You can try this at home or even in your office space--wherever you have a little bit of room to move around.
Turn on your favorite relaxing tune. We recommend using music with water like this:
Sit comfortably on a chair with your feet flat on the floor with your hands resting gently on your knees. If you prefer to sit on the floor, you can sit in half-lotus pose.
Raise your palms to chest level and have them face each other (about 2 inches apart) without touching. Now gently tap the tips of your fingers to each other. This will stimulate your energetic senses in your fingers. Do this for about 1 min.
Keep your palms facing each other with a 2 inch space in between so they are not touching. Focus your awareness on the gap between your palms. It is easier to to concentrate with your eyes closed. Remain focused there until you can feel an electric, magnetic, or heat sensation. If you can’t feel anything, don’t be discouraged! Try tapping your fingertips on each other again for another minute and retry.
When you can feel the sensation between your palms, expand that feeling by widening and shortening the gap between your palms in a slow, fluid motion. The key to this is keeping all of the joints in your hands, shoulders, and elbows relaxed.
Extend your motions wider and now engage the elbows, shoulders, and the entire arm. Imagine fluid energy extending all the way out to the outermost tips of your fingers.
Now extend the fluid motion to your torso, neck, hips, knees, ankles, and even your toes. Move your entire body in a water-like, fluid motion from energy. You can twist, turn, expand, contract your body--anything is fine. There are no fixed motions to this energy dance. The key is to be as relaxed as possible. Remember to keep telling your mind to relax every joint. Extend energy out to the outermost tips of your fingers and outermost tips of your toes. Your body is opening the blockages through the “clog removing” energy. Try continuing this movement for about 5 minutes, or however long you would like until your body feels open and free.
Bring your motions back to center and gather your mind back to center as well.
Whenever you feel blockage around a joint, you can utilize Dahn Mu to open yourself up with energy.