Hold a Non-Aggressive Fist
Hold Concentration and Relaxation Together
The photo shows a hand formed into a non-aggressive fist with the fingers wrapped around the thumb. Photo by Luis Quintero at Unsplash.
The non-aggressive fist is the fist that does not hurt anyone. A fist represents power and advocating for yourself or a special cause. The fist also means victory. Holding a fist can affect your mind and body and give you courage to endure and prevail. More importantly, consciously holding a non-aggressive fist to combine relaxation and concentration together can be a way to reach for peace and protect your peace in the moment. Conscious practice of choosing peace can be good for your body and mind, because being at peace and seeking peace as an organizing principle acknowledges your connection with all of life—with others as well as yourself—amidst times of great change.
Three simple exercises below illustrate the positive effects of a non-aggressive fist with different intentions:
Hold a Non-Aggressive Fist,
Wo Gu Fingers
Support a Tight Fist.
These exercises are described below.
The way you hold the non-aggressive fist during Qigong practice can be a way of being present with your feelings while not engaging or identifying with them. Channeling aggression, as when you do the punch in the Baduanjin Qigong with angry eyes is a great example. Such a practice reflects the need to channel energies appropriately and also to be able to switch or move through emotions and not get carried away by them. Sometimes, life causes vexation, and you need to make a change or a needed correction. It is important to channel these kinds aggressive energies with precision and compassion, maintaining peace and a sense of flow throughout.
Non-Aggressive Fist
You make the non-aggressive fist by basically wrapping your thumb with all your fingers. Because your thumb is the pathway of the lung meridian, it is like holding your capacity to breathe in each hand. This fist appears in several Qigong forms that I teach and practice. Baduanjin or Eight Brocades features the non-aggressive fist during the punch. From a practical standpoint, if you were to use this fist to actually punch a surface with force, you can also hurt your hand (that is, break your thumb!), so it is useful to think of this fist as an energetic fist that serves a special purpose: it is a way of connecting body and mind. Use your mind to concentrate on the position and sensation of your thumb and fingers, and use your body sense to gauge the force or squeeze.
The non-aggressive fist is also known as Wogu fingers (where wo gu means “solid fist” in Chinese), which is known as the mudra or a hand gesture you use for protection and warding off evil.
Sensing the world and learning how to control your hands are a big part of what happens as humans mature from infancy into childhood, and then into adulthood. Qigong practices with the hands can have a profound affect on the body and the mind.
Below are three practices based on the non-aggressive fist.
Exercise 1: Hold a Non-Aggressive Fist
Hold a non-aggressive fist to protect your peace. This exercise is a breath practice where you coordinate the squeezing and relaxing of your fist(s) with the inhalation and exhalation. You may notice a change in your breathing pattern that can affect your posture and calm your emotions. Use this simple practice to protect your peace when you get a moment in between the hustle and bustle of the day or just as you are about to dive into activities, tasks, or chores. I have done it at red lights while driving or just before sitting down to eat or lying down to sleep. Simply deciding to protect your peace can be and feel powerful.
Here are the steps: Put your thumb across the palm of your hand, so that it touches the base of your ring finger, and then wrap the thumb with the fingers of that hand to make a fist. You can do this using one fist or both fists. Squeeze the fist(s) tightly as you inhale, relax the fist(s) but keep the fingers lightly wrapped around the thumb as you exhale. Do this 3 to 5 times for a mini session, or do it a few extra times when you have a more time to dedicate to it. The relaxed concentration of this exercise can feel relaxing and refreshing while also giving you a sense of listening to yourself and how you measure effort (represented by the tight fingers) and relaxed effort (represented by the loose or relaxed fingers).
Exercise 2: Wo Gu Fingers (and Toes) for Protection
Use Wo Gu Fingers to create a shield of protection around yourself. This one is great when you are walking down a dark street alone at night. I have used it to ward off pesky bugs and to speed walk home from the train station at night.
Here are the steps: Put your thumb across the palm of your hand, so that it touches the base of your ring finger, and then wrap the thumb with the fingers of that hand to make a fist. Do this using one fist or both fists and add your toes curling as if to grip the earth or the ground underneath you. Squeeze the fist(s) tightly as you inhale, relax the fist(s) but keep the fingers lightly wrapped around the thumb as you exhale and make a sound like “ha!” It can feel satisfying. You can even do the sound just in your mind, if you are in a location or space where adding a sound might be rude or disruptive. Do this to set your mind and body and intention on the idea of protection, which you can embellish using your imagination: great light or a ring of fire that no one can cross without your permission.
Exercise 3: Support a Tight Fist
This is a kinesthetic metaphor for the act of supporting and witnessing big feelings in yourself or others. Here, the tight fist represents the intense energies and feelings you may be witnessing in yourself and others while the relaxed supporting hand underneath is the benevolent witness and simple bare attention you bring to the matter.
Here are the steps: Make a tight fist with one hand, keep it tight and let it represent big messy chaotic feelings that are vexing you. Hold this fist so that the inside of your wrist is facing upwards. Keep the fist tight, but then use your other hand to hold and support the fist from underneath. Bend your elbows, and bring the hands in close to your belly. Breathe normally, but see if you can relax the bottom hand while you keep the fist tight. Hold for at least 30 seconds or 3 to 5 breaths.
Hand Evolution and Final Thoughts
Human hands evolved over millennia to grasp objects and use tools. Some scientists say hands evolved as the human nervous system evolved, and hand movement control is neatly organized so that it is both sensory and motor neurons that are at work whenever you move your hands. Such things as grip strength and the ability to interpret texture and estimate the weight of objects are features of hand movement that give a sense of the sophistication of hand movement and control. Think of reading Braille or playing a musical instrument. In a way, your hands are “closer” to your brain than, say your feet. You can sense the world with your hands and work and communicate with your hands. Hands are listening devices as well as a medium of communication and interaction with the environment. Think of trembling hands of a nervous child or the warm reassuring hands of a loved one revealing the state (tense or relaxed) of the nervous system.
Having conscious control of the hands while moving and performing Tai Chi, Yoga, or Qigong forms can reflect strength and fluidity of the mind-body connection. When the energy flows freely, there is healthy circulation of blood, and the intention behind the movement can come through as unified movement. The hands can become warm and the blood and Qi flow, and as you practice this consistently the hands can become graceful, expressive, and precise. Similarly, hands can be cold and tense as you practice when the blood and energy are not flowing to the hands, but perhaps the core, as when you are outdoors on a cold day. As a rule, cold hands during practice of mindbody arts can be a sign of stagnation, or energy not flowing freely. You can use the sensory information you glean to make conscious adjustments to position and tension of your muscles and encourage the free flow of Qi and aliveness in all your limbs. These things are under your conscious control and can be the ways you self-regulate.
What it is like when you move freely? How do your hands feel and move when you feel safe, at peace and free? Your exploration of these things is your meditation process and can spark new thoughts and new ways of being. The conscious gestures you make with your hands can shift your experience of daily life.
Further Reading
"Hand Movements" (PDF) by Flanagan, J Randall; Johansson, Roland S Encyclopedia of the human brain. Elsevier Science. 2002
“Human hands evolved so we could punch each other” by Sara Reardon New Scientist 19 December 2012
Prehension: The Hand and the Emergence of Humanity by Philosopher Colin McGinn The MIT Press August 11, 2017 ISBN: 9780262533645