Benefits of Standing
Another major branch of the Healing Tao system is the Iron Shirt Qigong. There are three levels of Iron Shirt Qigong and a lot of these involve standing postures. Standing helps one find a sense of stillness, rest, relaxation, and the ability to be grounded and rooted in your movements.
The second branch of the Iron Shirt involves tendon exercises where you’re stretching the tendons and loosening them up, and re-growing the tendons.
The third part of the Iron Shirt is “washing the bone marrow.” We tend to think of our bones as a skeleton that we might see on Halloween. In actuality, they’re living, breathing organisms within us. We’re washing the bone marrow by hitting the bones, massaging the kidneys, there’s an aspect of reproductive organ massage that stimulates the hormones and wakes up the bone marrow.
I think the Iron Shirt practices (for the grounding, the rooting, the tendons, the bone marrow) are a wonderful branch of the Healing Tao and good for really anybody at any age to gain stillness, stability, a connection with the Earth and increased bone density. Try it! -andrew