Working From The Centre (Part 2)

James Drewe
5 days ago
3 min read

... Continuing from Working from the Centre (Part 1)...

Feeling and Using the Dantian (下丹田 Xià Dāntián)

If you have tried the exercise from the previous blog: "With a finger on Qihai (Ren 6), extremely gently try to contract the area under your finger, but inside your abdomen, and only this area", you might have found that it's almost possible, but not entirely.

What happens is that when you try to contract only that area, other areas also contract, or to be more accurate, other areas are drawn gently inwards towards the centre's contraction.

This is exactly what you want to happen, but the important point here is that the drawing in is being led by the centre.

Leading with the Correct bit

Everyone can pull their perineum (the group of muscles between the genitals and the anus), also known as the 'pelvic floor' upwards; you do it when you want to stop urinating in mid-flow. However, when you do that particular action in that way, you are leading with the perineum.

The same applies with the abdomen; everyone can pull their stomach/abdomen in, e.g. to get into a tight pair of trousers, but again, you are leading with the muscles at the front of the body, and not with the centre.

This might all seem a bit academic, I mean, pulling in is pulling in, isn't it? Surely at the end of the day the result is the same?

The Centre is the Controlling Point

But it isn't the same; if you do it incorrectly, it means that the centre of gravity has shifted position.

It's like spinning a wheel which is lying on its side; it will spin for ages when balanced properly, but when the centre of balance is further out towards the rim on one side, for example you put a weight on one of the spokes, it gets wobbly, the axle wears faster, and the spinning time is shorter.

Isn't that one of the main reasons that we have the wheels on our cars 'balanced', so that the wheels work from the centre?

In martial arts and also in dance, this 'working from the centre' is crucial if the practitioner wants to retain both internal and external balance.

Practising it

As you practise contracting the centre, you will notice that the perineum (between the genitals and the anus), gets involved, and you might then notice that a place in the diaphragm, or just below it (roughly the same distance above the centre as below) is also starting to engage.

This should be subtle, more like a pull than a tightening.

The point below your navel, (Qihai - Ren 6, where your finger was) is already slightly engaging, and, if you take your attention to your lower back, you may then feel that the point on your back (Mingmen, Du 4) is also joining in.

So, as you contract your Dantian, all of these other points are being drawn gently inwards as a result of your squeezing in the centre.

The key here is to operate totally from the centre/core, without deliberately engaging the other points and only observing them. This is something similar to closing an umbrella, where pulling on the central column draws all the hinged struts, and therefore the fabric, inwards.

This is the practical and physical side of things.

Building your Energy

What if you want to build your energy, and increase the number of 'bars' in your personal battery?

Energy Circulation

There is a another even more esoteric side to using the centre, and this is to do with something called the 'Microcosmic' and 'Macrocosmic' 'Orbits'.

One of the reasons that so much importance is placed on the Dantian is because, in Chinese thinking, it is considered to be the energy storehouse, and is strongly connected to longevity.

The Chinese sometimes refer to the lower Dantian as a 'cauldron', and they even picture it as a shallow witches cauldron which is steaming. By practising contracting the Dantian regularly, a number of things start to happen in the lower part of the body.

The next blog will deal with how to develop the body's 'battery'.

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James Drewe teaches Tai Chi and Qigong in both London and in Kent and online.

Details of weekly classes both live and online can be found on the website, and there are classes for 2-person Tai Chi on one Saturday a month.