Nine Golden Dragons Daoyin
The legendary Chinese dragon is a powerful creature, primordially powerful, greatly auspicious and moving mysteriously and sinuously in serpentine spirals. Drawing on both the traditional chinese Dragon Dances and these images, Dr. Shen Hongxun created the Nine Golden Dragon Daoyins, combining meditation and powerful spiral movements to create enjoyable, invigorating and health-giving exercises, an effective clinical therapy for treatment of various ailments and an excellent preventative measure to promote health and well being.
In particular the exercises focus on the spinal column, working to free all the muscles, tendons and ligaments around and alongside the spine. Restoring flexibility to the spine allows the vertebrae and spinal discs to be re-aligned, a process which can result in the relief of common backache and other diseases which result from impaired and trapped spinal nerves or pinched blood vessels in the spinal area.
Many common health problems and some more serious conditions find their root cause in the mal-positioning of the spinal vertebrae. One major reason for spinal problems is habitual poor body posture. Another factor is reduction in size of the inter-vertebral spaces due to gravity, putting pressure on the nerves and leading to an accumulation of negative pathogenic factors (Binqi) in the soft tissues surrounding the spine and in-between the vertebrae. This pressure can be one of the causes of pain. If this persists over time malfunction and disease can develop in organs which are linked to the spine via the impacted nervous connections.
The two energy channels that spiral their way around and along either side of the spine from the coccyx up into the skull (often referred to as the Kundalini channels) form a connection from the root of the body to the centre of mind. The forces created by the movements of the Nine Golden Dragon Daoyins naturally remove blockages, open these channels, correct the balance between body and mind and invigorate the spirit.
These exercises help to correct body posture by adjusting spinal alignment and the position of all the joints in the body. The exercises also create a strong internal force which helps to open the energy channels and expel negative factors and toxins from the body.They are the best exercises for accessing, experiencing and understanding what in Taiji is often called “silk reeling” force and are also enjoyable to practice.
For Participants who have already completed the workshop
Revision notes can be found HERE