Absorb and Project energy

Absorb and project energies are the fundamental feelings of flexion and extension that we can feel in our joints as we move in three planes. The paired feelings, at the joints, are absorb/project, flexion/extension, pull/push, yin/yang, and open/close.

In an open tadasana (wuji stance) posture bob down and up using a quad dominate squat. Find your vertical center by making your bobs smaller and smaller until you are standing still, that is a center.

Once you have that center of mass, extend and project up the back lines to activate and then settle and pause. Activate the whole body.

Then do rocking exercises to activate the ankle proprioceptors and establish neutral. Each foot has a center and you rock forward and then back and cross over the neutral line. This is a critical neutral line which is integral for balance and stability.

In the vertical plane rock forward and down to your feet and absorb, and then rock back and push up the heals and the back line all the way to the head to project. Draw a shape of an subtle ellipse with your movement, don't lose your vertical alignment. This absorption and projection movement can be coupled with a breathing exercise called the macro cosmic orbital flow.

Absorb and project energy is basically the difference between flexion and extension and recognizing the transition from one state to the other.

The macro cosmic orbital flow refers to the nature of the body structure in that it is composed of yin and yang elements. The softness of the insides of the arms, the front of the body and the leg inseams are called as yin, the back line is basically yang or firm. On an inhale, the front softens and energy flows to the dantian. It then passes through the abdomen to the kidney area where it splits down and up the back line and out the back arm lines as well.

In the horizontal plane pull the hip qua back to absorb and press forward to project remember to keep your vertical alignment. The hip qua are basically where you find the iliopsoas, when the iliopsoas softens you are absorbing, when it firms you are projecting.

Practice opening and closing moves.

Here is a martial (Bagua) example of how Bruce Francis breaks down some complicated applications into two fundamental moves, essentially absorb and project, and he makes the observation that these two move then form the basis of 1000's of applications.

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