The Natural Stance is also known as the Wuji Stance or the Promise Stance. It is one of the most important techniques to increase our internal strength. It has been considered the foundation of Taijiquan (Taiji boxing) by boxers of all ages.
The theory of Taijiquan says: Taiji is born from infinity.
When practicing the Natural Stance, your body is in a highly relaxed state, mind and form are united, yin and yang are harmonized, and there is no form or image. It is a balanced and harmonious inner wellness exercise.
The purpose of this exercise is for you to start the correct way and to breathe the correct way. All you try to achieve is a balanced and harmonious inner wellness.
Natural Stance Practice
01 Preparatory style
Action and movement
Stand naturally with your feet shoulder-width apart.
Keep your head upright and your body straight.
Squint your eyes forward and downward.
Hang your hands down naturally to the sides of your thighs.
Put the tip of your tongue against your upper palate.
Your whole body is relaxed as in the figures below.
Mind and breathing
Once you have relaxed your body, imagine that you are integrated with the vast universe. The vitality of heaven and earth enters your body from the baihui acupoint on the top of your head, slowly flowing into your dantian area at your lower abdomen. You now enter a state of selflessness. You are now in a state of non-existence.
Time
You stand in the preparatory style for 10-15 minutes.
02 The Stance style
Action and movement
Continue the motion from the previous style. Bend your knees slightly with the center of gravity of your body on the yongquan acupoint at the bottom of your feet. Rotate your hands forward from the sides of your body, with your palms facing backwards and outwards, and your fingertips pointing down. Your arms are slightly bent, maintaining a natural and relaxed state as in the figure below.
Key points. Your body is completely relaxed and you are absolutely motionless. Your eyes look downward without closing. Your chin is slightly raised without retracting.
Mind and breathing
Connect baihui acupoint, huiyin acupoint, and midpoint connecting yongquan acupoints into a virtual line. It should be a straight line. This tells you how to adjust your body stance properly.
Next, loosen your shoulders and turn your elbows. Relax both shoulders and turn your elbows (elbow abduction, hand internal rotation)
Both hands drooping: both hands droop naturally.
Focus on your dantian area: think about the dantian area.
Key points. It will take you two minutes to perform 1 through 4. Thus it is a 2-minute cycle. You should practice the cycle continuously. For how long?
Time
You decide on the time per session based on your personal situation. For a beginner, you may decide on a 20-minute session or a 40-minute session. As you make progress, you may decide on a 60-minute session or a 120-minute session.
If you practice for body wellness reasons, you may do a 40-minute or a 60-minute session. If you practice to lay a foundation for martial arts practice in a later stage, you should practice for at least a 120-minute session.
It is advisable for you to gradually increase the time, such as adding five minutes a week.
03 The Closing Style
Action and movement
Stand naturally.
Put your hands together towards your dantian. The inner palm of your left hand sticks to the dantian, and at the same time, the inner palm of your right hand sticks to the outer palm of your left hand, so that your dantian and the two hearts are in a straight line. Guard your dantian with your mind for a few minutes. Now put your hands down and move freely as in the figure below.
Mind and breathing
You do this to return the inner energy of the whole body to the dantian.
Time
You will spend 2-5 minutes on this style.
Health efficacy
It enables the practitioners to effectively regulate the autonomic nerves, enhance the integrity of the cerebral cortex, improve the motor nervous system and autonomic nervous system.
It increases the automatic response reaction of the practitioners.
It is one of the effective ways to train the high-function nervous system.
It will cultivate vitality, relax the body, stabilize the center of gravity, correct body posture, and enhance leg strength.
Caution
You are getting into one of the advanced Mustang Stretching Techniques.
You must have practiced the beginning and intermediate techniques before you have come this far. If you stumble into this by chance, you should go back.
Otherwise, you should get a personal coach when you start to practice this technique.
If you have a martial arts (kungfu) foundation, your kungfu master will advise you.
Do not use brute force when you are practicing Kung Fu, but use your mind to direct the energy flow.
You must practice the routines strictly according to the instructions, otherwise not only will you not get the health efficacy, you may suffer from strokes or even more serious injuries.
Call to Action
Folks, that is all for now. If you think this article may be beneficial to your friends and loved-ones, feel free to forward this article to them. Life cultivation is mostly for older people with declining body health. If you are young and energetic, this may not be your cup of tea. However, if you have family members or friends who are middle-aged or older, they may want to practice life cultivation to maintain a life without pain or medication.
This is an extract of the full treatise published in the Mustang BodyWorks Series, a paid-subscription. You may buy the full treatise for the price of US$10.00.
Stay tuned for the next episode: Practice Stance.
Call to action: Subscribe below for notification to read more new blogs for free.
Call to action: Subscribe to Mustang BodyWorks Series with our support. You may then practice life cultivation all by yourself at your home at your own pace.
Call to action: Join Mustang Life Cultivation Club for life cultivation practice with our support. You will have a personal mentor to guide you along.