In Qi Gong, we begin with Relaxation, Flexibility, and Inner Alignment

Relaxation is an Instinctual Need

History has been hard. Modern Life is hard.

If you want to relax right now, HERE is a Breathing Exercise.

There is a reason why the oldest traditions of Embodied practices, like Qi Gong, Yoga, Shamanic Dance, Singing, Drumming, Fasting, and Meditating alone Nature. Our Bodies and Minds NEED times of alert, silent, tranquil, and restorative ease.

If you would like to read a medical article I wrote of the Neurology of Trauma and Chronic Distress, TAP HERE..

Flexibility and Tensegrity

The tone and health of your muscles and connective tissues determine your Vitality and Longevity, more than any other general influence. Qi Gong focuses more on pliability, torsion, alignment and release than trying to stretch too far.

“The hard and stiff are death's companions. The soft and supple are life's companions.” – Dao De Jing, Verse 76

Inner Alignment

How is your inner sailboat?

Do you feel like you are on course, about to tip over, or smoothly gliding through the waves of Life?

Like moving towards the eye off a hurricane for safety, Qi Gong encourages finding a centered, aligned, and somewhat resolute quality of stillness. As well, most practices bring your awareness of your many centers of movement, instinct, emotion, and existential truth.

‘Go dancing and find out where the center of your unique dancing comes from.’

Qi Gong, as you probably expect, is going to introduce you to another way of experiencing the world.

In the endeavors of healing, spiritual reunion, or developing martial arts power, a direct and tangible relationship with Qi is necessary. You will learn the skills used by Chinese medicine practitioners and warrior monks to connect with the Qi of your Body and the Qi of the Natural world.

Or, at least, another perspective on what to focus on when you want to invest some time on your health and happiness, and when we want to encounter new experiential realms and ways of interacting with the subtle influences in Life

Connecting with Qi

Have you ever listened to the space between the flash of lightening and the sound of thunder…?

Feeling into your physicality, somatic experience, and intuition is a doorway to many things, such as Self-Regulation, being able to relax completely, and embodied or Somatic Emotional Intelligence.

You just need a regular and deeply engaging practice.

We all need a practice. If you want more than basic fitness and comfort, find a teacher with a clear, practical, and meaningful (to you) process of learning embodied awareness.

Relearn how to breathe. Fall back in love with stillness and silence. Dance like your Ancestors are watching!

Traditional conscious embodiment practices, like Qi Gong (and its predecessors) have been around for thousands of years - because they work. They can restore your birthright senses of agility, adaptability, and autonomy. These embodied states, not opinions, can reconnect you with your Anima, your Inborn Spirit, your Qi (the moving force that animates all life, and your Mojo (your instinctual physical vigor).

Cultivating your Qi awareness and your ability to attain a tangible connection and assess the qualities (De Qi - 得氣) and seasonal nuances of the Qi of the Day is also different when you are sitting.

Depending on the interaction or healing process you are engaged in, you may also find that your seated experience of enacting and expressing Qi (Fa Qi - 髮氣), as well as your openness to collaborating with Mystic Qi (Ling Qi - 靈氣) are uniquely different than standing.

An important principle in Qi Gong is ‘Stillness in Motion.’ In life, sometimes the slower and more present you are, is what matters the most. Research shows that calm and alert states of stillness and silence can help your nervous system reset itself and your brain physically regenerate. An essential aspect of Longevity.

Have a Seat…

Feeling into an Embodied conversation

As I have mentioned, Seated Qi Gong practice has uniquely patient, conversational, and connection focused qualities. If you have not read the section on Experiencing Qi, (See page <?>), then I recommend reading that before moving further into this aspect of Qi Gong practice. Most of the following Qi Gong exercises are also described in detail in the above section.

Sitting provides a certain shift in appreciative attention (C’an - 参), which naturally increases the amount of awareness you have for conscious perception (Gan Qi - 感氣).

Falling in Love with Repetition, Flow, Connection, and Meaning

The study of Traditional Qi Gong Forms is an essential part of Qi Gong practice. The therapeutic and meditative benefits of gradually refining your posture, alignment, and mobility, and/or releasing any tension, over and over again, are profound.

Some Applied Principles have to do with biomechanics, some with the elastic nature of muscles and fascia, and some are determined by the way your nervous system instinctually settles down. Other principles in Qi Gong are based on thousands of years of experience working with the subtle energetic systems of the Mind and Body.

The Forms and Principles explored in Level Two include: 

• Shaolin and Daoist versions of the Eight Pieces of Brocade (Ba Duan Jin)
• Balancing Heaven and Earth Form (Tian Di He Yi Fa) 
• The Eighteen Gestures of Tai Chi Qi Gobg (Taiji Shibashi Qigong)
• Introductory Muscle Tendon Change (Yi Jin Jing).Principles for restoring connective tissue.
• Your Three Basins – coordinating your core muscles with your spine.
• Opening Your Kua – restoring agility in your pelvis, hips, groin, and lower back.
• Introductory Nei Gong Breathwork will have you Breathing with your Pelvic Floor.
• Clearing Your Three Dan Tian –honoring your Instinctual, Intuitive, and Existential experiences.
• The Five Spines – improve the flexibility of your whole body.

This Module focuses on Qi Gong practices that, not only take your practice deeper inward, but also help you with your Bone Body. The third layer or level of Qi Gong skill development is called Gǔ Fēn 骨分, or the ‘Distinctly Skeletal’ part of your practice.

In TCM, your Kideys are responsible for storing (and spending) your Jing, or your essential (non-specific) tissue resources, like hormones, neurotransmitters, minerals, and your bone marrow (source of red blood cells and most immune cells). Chinese medicine has the understanding that your Bone Marrow is stored in Your Cerebrospinal fluid and Brain. Said another way, when you deplete your bone marrow, or allow for enough neurodegeneration, you will begin to age more rapidly and lose your innate adaptability.

The best ways to apply Qi Gong to boost your Kidneys and become your Bone Body include:

• Agility and Longevity Qi Gong incorporates enough resistance, speed, and mobility to help you build some lean muscle, strengthen your joints, and improve your flexibility and balance. This flow is most often used as a warm-up for Martial Arts classes and to help people activate their innate capacity for Neuro-regeneration.
• Standing Meditation(Zhan Zhuang) will teach you more about postural efficiency and alignment than anything else. Your body will eventually show you where you are holding, leaning, or collapsing. The principles of Standing Meditation will guide your adjustments in just the right directions, forever. It is also a profound form of introspective and apophatic (beyond self) mediation.
• Silk Reeling Skills (Chan Si Jin) –nothing makes human movement more beautiful, elegant, and powerful to watch, than whole-body fluid and spiraling coordination. If learning Qi Gong is like learning an alphabet, practicing Silk Reeling is like writing poetry – while doing calligraphy at the same time. This practice can help martial artists develop explosive speed and power (Fa Jin) and assist those learning to release Trauma express instinctual and visceral distress.
• Freeform Tai Chi– Just as learning choreographed and repetitive forms can turn on or reawaken certain pathways in your nervous system and meridians, moving freely while focusing on subtle aspects of coordination, is the only way to engage other aspects of your Mind/Body connection. Sometimes dancing, Qi Gong and flow NEED to be random.

Longevity practices should bring aliveness, playfulness, and gratitude into a very long and healthy life.

Breathwork and Meditation, especially in combination with the above practices, are ideal for enhancing your Neuroplasticity – which is another way of saying Neuro-Regeneration – which is the opposite of Neurodegeneration.

In TCM, Neuroplasticity practices boost your Kidney Yin and Yang functions, and are one of the few ways to replenish your Jing.

Five Animal Frolics – State Shift and Shape-Shifting Qi Gong has a very long history of imitating animals. Being playful, becoming a Dragon or a Monkey, and allowing your body to dream it has infinite possibilities is very good for your Spirit. Breathing with intention, until you feel altered enough to see the Universe as a friend is also very good for your Spirit.

The famous TCM doctor Hua Tuo formalized this ancient Indigenous practice almost 2,000 years ago. Dr. Hua Tuo was also the first Chinese medicine  surgeon, being the first in the world to developed the use of anesthesia, and furthered the knowledge of anatomy.

Hua Tuo's incredible life ended at age 97 by being poisoned by a jealous official. His primary student lived to be well over 100 years old.  in an unfortunate manner.

Five Animal Frolics is one of the oldest forms of Qi Gong is imitating and playing like an animal. This opportunity to lose yourself while turning into a Panther, Bear, Tortoise, Ape, or Phoenix can connect you with some deeper instincts and free you from feeling stuck – on many many levels. These forms can be practiced slowly like Tai Chi or with the agility of a martial artist. The more you challenge your agility, balance, and coordination; while keeping your muscles and tendons toned and pliable the longer you will live. More importantly, the more alert and physically fit you can be up until your last days of Life.

Longevity practices should bring aliveness, playfulness, and gratitude into a very long and healthy life.

NEVER stop Playing!

The Chinese characters for Yang Sheng Fa (養生法) describe feeding your leftovers to your goat, just in case you need to eat your goat to stay alive. Some aspects of Chinese philosophy are very pragmatic. Said another way, Yang Sheng Fa is a lifelong daily practice of self-care that involves all aspects of your life, even the humble and seemingly unimportant things. This approach to living a conscious and healthy life is more about flow and seasonal alignment.

The Yang Sheng Tradition can be described as Chinese Medicine 101 – if you are ill and want to understand how to get healthy, you need to know what went wrong. To understand what went wrong, you need an understanding of how your internal organs, glands, metabolic and immune systems, and your circulation works.

Becoming a Professional Qi Gong teacher is about both, the ability to be more specific, and the ability to speak to the broadest and most impactful challenges of our time. Because I am speaking about becoming a health care professional, even if it is just for yourself, your family, and friends, I want to encourage you to keep learning about health.

The next LIVE course begins March 25 , 2025.

In this final Module, we will spend some time having a converstation and learning about the more advanced practices of Qi Gong, Dao Yin, and Inner Cultivation (Nei Gong).

Nei Gong Meditation and Your Six Innate Minds (Yuan Xin)–Nei Gong is a life-long path of meditation and learning to become a more adaptable and present human being. If there is one final attribute to add to your Traditional Qi Gong training, it is to find some guiding wisdom and Spiritual practices to cultivate an agile and self-aware Mind, as well as a collaboration of your instinctual, intuitive, adaptive, feeling, egoic, and existential Minds.

I will also offer additional Webinars on the teaching process for any sport or skill, the ethics of teaching a Spiritual practice to those in a vulnerable place, and what I have learned about beginning and building your online presence.