The illustrious adventurer Captain Qeeg called me today and connected about the healing process called Sukshma Vayaam. It’s really about breathing and breath delivery and the process can apply to the whole body.

We observe Shtira, Sankalpa, Sukshma, Dukkha.

Stability/wholeness moves with Intent, guided by breath with Effortless Effort. Intent is Sankalpa. Sukshma is the Effortless Effort. In it there is no struggle. Eventually, there is pain, limitation, resistance. Dukha. Some say a pain in the dukha. Some say, Fukha Dukha. But if your ribs are in pain, you may not be able to laugh. We want to use no force only effortless effort, gravity and breath. Pain is the honest teacher, Dukkha . If there is pain we approach and exit with wholeness.

I’ve been tracking the restoration of my shoulder over the past two weeks from a tear in connective tissue at the 5th Thorcaic rib. Today I hung from a bar, a dead hang with zero pain. Definite progress.

Another Application of Sukshma Vayaam — the practice of using no force
Qeeg related to me that he had been getting good results for his knees by adopting the entrance to the Thunderbolt Posture, Vajrasna, and staying there in the pose. This process of Sukshma Vayaam is to carry the wholeness with Intent using the Effortless Effort of breath, wholeness and gravity until informed by Dukkha, limitation of pain you can snooze to go further or to exit the pose. We had talked about placing the support of a pillow or bolster at two positions. If knees, feet, and ankles are a problem you wish to address, first place a pillow under the ankles, plus a second pillow above the ankles. Sit down on both pillows to feel the support and the ease. It feels good.

Progressively, you reduce the pillow or eliminate the pillow altogether. To practice everyday for a week yields distinct results. Even one minute performed everyday over weeks gives you the clear benefit to ankles, feet and knees, plus it benefits the lines of rectus femoris up the anterior of the leg, as well as the tendons for the knee cap itself.

When you want more, you remove the pillows from the ankles, and you place a pillow between your feet, then sit back on that. This begins the Hero Postures. Deeper knees, deeper stretch in the anterior lines of the leg.

The process is the same whether we are talking about the shoulder or the knees.