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| Thursday, October 22, 2009 |
| What is Qigong? |
Qigong (pronounced Chee gung) is a Chinese meditative practice. It uses slow, controlled breathing and graceful movements to promote the circulation of Qi throughout the body. Qi refers to air or a life force that moves through the body. Gong means work, so the word Qigong means working with your life force. With the increase in popularity of yoga and meditation, Qigong has become a popular new form of exercise.
The Chinese and many others believe that practicing Qigong leads to better health and a calm state of mind. It has been practiced in China for over 2500 years. Today it is practiced by millions of people all over the world. If you haven’t heard of it before don’t be surprised, many of my friends and clients have no idea what it is. You might be more familiar with closely related practices such as yoga or tai chi. Either way, it is never too late to learn something new.
Qigong has been a component of Chinese medicine for many years along with things like acupuncture and fang shun. Some of the goals of Qigong include bringing yin and yang into balance in the body, opening outpoints and balancing emotions. However, the overall goal is to “create an environment in the body that is conducive to self healing so that the practitioner can achieve and maintain physical, emotional and spiritual well-being.”
So how does it work? The practice is divided into two categories, dynamic and static. During the static phase there is no physical movement. The mind focuses on your bodies’ energy in a sort of meditation. During the dynamic phase there is movement. Many of the dynamic movements are similar to yoga and tai chi moves. When you move a body part, you are focusing your mind to move Qi through that body part. A Qigong class is usually 70% mental work and 30% physical work. If you are ill or disabled you can still practice Qigong by doing only the mental work until your body is able to do the physical work too. The Chinese use Qigong as a form of medicine as well as meditation.
Qigong is designed to be practiced daily, especially for those who have illness or injury. However, you can incorporate it once or twice a week and still see benefits. You might want to add it to your weekly workout to help stay calm and focused. If you have no knowledge of Qigong, it may be difficult to get started. Give it a try at a local health club or yoga center. If you give it a try you will find that it is based largely in imagery, visualization and breathing. Once you have learned about it and practiced it you can actually do it on your own. You can take five or ten minutes out of each day to practice Qigong on your own and then attend class when you can. If there are no classes near you try a video called Qigong for Beginners. Once you have mastered that you can move on to intermediate and advanced.
If you exercise regularly on a treadmill, bike or in an aerobics class, the thought of slowing down to take a Qigong class may not appeal to you. Believe me, it didn’t appeal to me either. However, after I actually tried a class I really liked the calm feeling it gave me. It made me much more aware of my breathing and my overall energy. I really liked the class. I recommend anyone and everyone try this class. You may find that it really helps increase your focus while creating calm. If not, oh well, back to the treadmill. But at least you tried!
- Jennifer
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Labels: Jennifer, Mind-Body Connection, Physical Activity, tai chi, Yoga
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posted by My Sensei @ Thursday, October 22, 2009   |
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| 1 Comments: |
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Never heard of it.. kind of like yoga in the calming & breathing sense but also there are different forms of yoga. Very interesting!
Thx!
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Never heard of it.. kind of like yoga in the calming & breathing sense but also there are different forms of yoga. Very interesting!
Thx!