Baoding balls, also called Chinese health balls, chime balls or harmony balls, are ubiquitous sights in Asian gift shops. Although it might not be obvious to a Westerner not steeped in the philosophy of Chinese medicine, these balls are meant to stimulate the meridians through which your vital energy or life force, called "chi," flows. Manipulating the balls in your hands stimulates the meridians or acupressure points in your palms, according to Chinese medicine. This in turn stimulates energy flow through other parts of your body.
Basic Rotation
Grasp a pair of Baoding balls in one hand, palm facing up. Practice rotating the balls around each other clockwise. Once you've mastered clockwise rotation, try counterclockwise. Once you've got a feel for how to move the balls, try not to let them touch together in your hands. Think of spreading the balls as far apart as possible in your hands, using your palm, fingers and thumb to manipulate them.
Angled Rotation
When you rotate the Baoding balls with your palm up, gravity helps keep them in place in your hands. For a more difficult challenge, turn your hand thumb-up and continue rotating the balls. You also can rotate the balls with your palm facing down. Note that as you get better at manipulating the balls, you'll be able to use larger balls, but you might need to go back to using smaller balls to master the thumb-up or palm-down rotation. Remember to practice rotating the balls in both directions.
Three-Ball Rotation
Try holding three Baoding balls in one hand and repeating the exercises previously described. You can either rotate all three balls as if they were a train going in circles -- each ball following the same path, and none of them touching each other -- or hold one ball motionless in the center of your palm and rotate the other two balls around it. Challenge yourself to aim for smooth, controlled motion, and practice rotating the balls both fast and slow. You can even add a fourth ball on top of the three in your hand, and focus on keeping it steady throughout the rotation.
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