Free The Tao of Stress: How to Calm, Balance, and Simplify Your Life by Robert G. Santee

your
    lips gently closed and softly click your teeth together thirty- six times by striking your upper teeth with your lower teeth. After the thirty-sixth click, rotate your tongue in a counterclockwise direction across your outer gums three times. Then repeat in the opposite direction, running your tongue over your outer gums in a clockwise direction
    three times. At this point, you should feel saliva in your mouth. Swish it all around your mouth. Then swal ow it in three noisy gulps. Visualize it entering your lower dantian.
    For the second part of this posture, bring your hands up in front
    of your chest, about twelve inches from your chest, with your palms touching each other, fingers facing up and elbows pointing down.
    Rub your palms and fingers together until you feel some heat. Next, clasp your fingers together and put them on the back of your head just above your ears with your elbows gently pulled back. Keeping your
    back and neck straight, inhale deeply through your nose while gently bending your head slightly forward, bringing your elbows inward, and softly pushing on the back of your head with your hands. Exhale
    through your mouth and gently pull your head and elbows back to
    their original position. You should feel the pressure of your hands pushing your head forward while your neck muscles pull your head
    back to its original position. This completes one repetition. Repeat this eight more times, for a total of nine repetitions. After completing the ninth repetition, let your hands return to their original position so that you are once again in the Sitting in Stil ness position.
    When you get stressed- out, the muscles in your neck become
    tense. The second part of this posture (Embracing Kunlun Mountain, which is the head movement) helps relieve tension in the neck while simultaneously strengthening its muscles. The clicking of your teeth should clear your mind. The swal owing of saliva is believed to aid digestion. Visualizing the saliva entering the lower dantian helps you develop your center and still your mind.
    53
    uncorrected proof
    The Tao of Stress
    Practice Posture 2 of the Yijinjing
    Sequence: Holding a Ball in
    Front of Your Chest
    Upon finishing the Wuji Standing movement, step to the left so your feet are shoulder- width apart and simply raise both of your arms, palms facing each other, in a forward and upward arc until your
    palms are chest high. Then bring your fingertips toward each other until they are almost touching. Your hands should be in line with the center of your chest. It will look as though your arms are encircling a large bal . Keep your shoulders relaxed and down and angle your
    elbows downward and to the sides. Breathe natural y. Stay in this
    position for one to two minutes. Smile and practice guan.
    By changing your hand position from the Wuji position to the
    position Holding a Ball in Front of Your Chest, you al ow your body to communicate with you from a different configuration. This helps you become more aware of your body and develops your ability to listen to your body. What is it telling you?
    Conclusion
    This chapter focused on simplifying your thinking— one aspect of simplifying your life, which is one of the three components of the Taoist path. To help you simplify your thinking, it focused on removing clutter from your mind, embracing the reality of continual change, examining your beliefs, and exploring some basic Taoist guidelines for interacting with the world. In Taoism, which is quite practical in its approach to being in harmony with life, thinking must always be linked with behavior. The next chapter explores this link.
    54
    uncorrected proof

    Chapter 4
    Simplifying Your
    Behavior
    In the Taoist view, to eliminate chronic stress we need to remove our problematic behaviors, as our thinking and behavior are intimately linked and reinforce each other. In most cases, our behavior expresses our thoughts. Problematic thoughts give rise to problematic behaviors,