Consciously warming the body?

The other day I was waiting in line to see the Lord of the Rings. I got there more than an hour early because it just came out and me and my friends wanted good seats. It was really, really cold, and all I had over my t-shirt was a relatively light jacket that wouldn't zip up(zipper broke off a while ago).
Anyway, to get to the point, instead of getting up and moving around like my friends were, I sat down cross-legged and quieted my mind, like a was doing my meditation. I didn't actually do the meditation method, but I did the breathing part. I also took my mind away from my body (that wording makes me sound really high-level, but I'm not).
After only about 10 seconds or so of doing this, I was not cold at all. Not only was I not cold, but I also felt warm. If I stopped doing this for more than about 5-10 minutes, I went back to being really cold.
Have any of you experienced this kind of thing before? I have noticed being generally warm in cold weather before, but never consciously warming my body for cold weather. It was really cool and amazing.
Have any of you noticed this ability as a by-product of internal training?

It is possible to heat up the body doing breathing, circulating energy with intent or automatically as from habit to accompany the kind of breathing practiced at the time. I have had this experience.

The thing that impressed me about your post was your taking your mind away from your body, which is simple dissociation. It is possible that the combo of your breathing exercise and the mild dissociation could have kept you from feeling the cold as much, and warmed you.
I am curious. If you were to get up after sitting as you did, and continue the breathing without taking mind from body, but with maintaining interaction with your environment, would you have stayed warmer to the same degree, to a lesser degree, or not at all? Would be an interesting experiment.

Cody

Interesting idea, Cody. I think this would definitely be possible, but I am not skilled enough yet to do this. I don't think I could get up and still maintain the same state that I have while sitting.
If I remember correctly, in certain yogas, there is (excuse my incorrect spelling here) sabikalpa samadhi, which is union with the divine/enlightenment while sitting in meditation (samadhi), but not until nirvikalpa samadhi can one maintain this state throughout the whole day or forever.
One reason I think this is so difficult is that when one reaches such an advanced level, the state you and I speak of is natural. It is not something you would "think" about maintaining. One who has reached this level does not go about their life thinking "must...hold.....on...to......enlightenment... ..". It is simply the state they are in constantly.
Anyway, thank you for the response, and your ideas have made me think.

its not uncommon to regulate ones energy so as to generate heat or dissipate it when necessary. I've stopped wearing gloves every winter for the last 7 years becasue all I do when go outside to create warm hands is to enclose your thumb with all your fingers. This energetically stops Qi from leaving the webbing and finger tips of the hands, and re-directs it back into the palm thus creating a heat circulation. However dont hold it too tight as you will stagnate the Qi and create internal cold in your hands. I find reverse breathing heats me up to.

:)

Hey taijiquan student, I've actually had some success doing the same thing. and I was actually waiting for a movie as well! Basicaly what I did was started breathing and leading the qi to my dantien and imagining a small red flame. Each breath I take the flame get's biger and warmer, and as I breath out I picture smoke blowing out of my nose. With each breath the flame get's bigger and bigger untill it has covered my whole body. It's kind of a basic explanation but I remember reading something like it in a book somewhere. I think it has something to do with feeling the spirtual flame in you naval chakra, but I could be wrong about that. Anyway, I guess the practioners would test thems selves by meditating like this in the snow with no clothes on until the melted the snow around them. Like I said this a basic explanation but it's what I usually do to stay warm.