Mindset leading to expansion?

[mograph]

A friend of mine tends to use upper-body muscle when expanding, and to a lesser extent, so do I, unfortunately. So although I'm aware of metaphors such as expanding the ball, keeping intention in the body evenly and so on, I'm looking for the feeling or mindset that leads to a correct expansion so I don't use muscle per se.

Recently, I did achieve a kind of effortless expansion when resisting a very helpful partner, using a very gentle intention in the hands and a general feeling of relaxation. But the feeling felt very delicate, as if it could disappear at any second and be difficult to replicate. Also, I was listening very intently to the sensation once it was there, but that listening didn't help me when the sensation was gone.

So, if I can find the feeling that can help me reproduce that gentle yet irresistible expansion, I'd be a happy camper ... for now, anyway. In the past, I've used the feeling of "protect" or"resist", which as you might guess, creates too much tension, too much li. However, on occasion, I've tried a different feeling as well, and that's one of "calm investigation" or "mildly insistent probing" to expand without tension, and to keep listening to the partner at the same time.

What do you guys think? In your direct experience, what feeling or mindset had led to the correct feeling of expansion when under some form of resistance?

 

[oxy]

When you are expanding the ball, where are you imagining the center of the ball to be?

 

[Xue Sheng]

I may sound like an old CMA Shaolin movie but relax and stop thinking about it so much keep training and it will return

 

[mograph]

When you are expanding the ball, where are you imagining the center of the ball to be?

The ball is made by my arms and back, so the center is between them.
Anyway, as Xuesheng recommends, maybe I'll stop thinking about it so much and keep practicing.

 

[DaleDugas]

having an image of a ball expanding is okay in the beginning, but you want to start to feel as if the ball is expanding not only seeing.

The more you can get this feeling to be reproduced when you want it. The better you will be able to recall at will.

Hope this helps

 

[Myrmidon]

The ball is made by my arms and back, so the center is between them.
Anyway, as Xuesheng recommends, maybe I'll stop thinking about it so much and keep practicing.

You can also think of an arch, or several archs... arm, back, legs...