Gentle Exercises for Optimal Health

In the fourth of four videos, to slip into a deep and pleasant and wonderful repose, draw your Qi down to your feet.

Here I present the third (of four) videos on using Qigong methods to reduce, repel, repulese and remove insomnia.

This is the second of four videos, detailing a Qigong method for alleviating insomnia, that aggravating sucker of energy.  

Schedule for Weekly Qigong Classes with Robert Bates

September 2010 to August 2011

Each class series will have as a foundation some practice and training in the Five Flows Set. For overviews and detailed descriptions of the Five Flows Set, please refer to the pages section to the right of this text.

Classes Are Held

• Mondays from noon to 1:00                   
• Mondays from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm
• Fridays from noon to 1:00

 Prices come out to about $80 per 8-week series.

Come to one, two or three classes a week for the same price!

The Eight Brocades

Sept-Oct 2010

Monday, September 6th to Friday, October 29

Price: $80

These famous and widespread Qigong exercises are about 800 years old. They are used for gently training the intrinsic health of the muscles, joints, connective tissues, digestion, the spine, and more. The Eight Brocades engage the physical body wholly, bringing flowing, resilient, flexible, strength.

Preventing Colds and Flu

(Six Healing Sounds and Hun Yuan Qigong)

Nov-Dec 2010

Monday, November 01 to Friday, December 17 (no class Friday, Nov 26)

Price: $70

The Six Healing sounds clear the organs and tissues of stagnant Qi, open blocked Qi channels and reinvigorate sluggish lymph. Passageways are opened so fresh energy can then enter, circulate and be refined. Hun Yuan Qigong consists of slow, gentle movements that move the Qi. This set is a marvelous way to stave off getting sick Whenever I start to feel rundown—maybe on the verge of getting sick—I practice the slow motion Hun Yuan set for about 30-40 minutes. By the end of the practice I can feel a pulsing, whole-body empowerment. I get a strong sense that the healing forces in my body have been renewed and reinvigorated.

Taoist Yoga and Healthy Breathing

Jan-Feb 2011

Monday January 03 to Friday, February 25

Price: $80

Taoist Yoga is a term often used to describe the many and varied stretching practices found in the vast cornucopia known as Qigong. Taoist Yoga—rather than being long-held postures—is always in motion. Stretches are expressed, then released after a breath or two. It is Qigong stretching. Taoist Yoga puts emphasis on growing flexible strength in the joints, ligaments, tendons and fascia than the more muscle-focused Indian Yoga. Breathing Practices are some of the most powerful and all-effecting healing exercises you can do. Our focus will be on building the all important belly breath, then working up to full-vase breathing.

Healthy Joint Qigong

March-April 2011

Monday, February 28 to Friday April 22

Price: $80

In Healthy Joint Qigong you will learn:

• Joint Rotation exercises for clearing the joints and increasing range of motion
• Joint Expansion practices for increasing the space between bones
• Joint Pulsing practices for building Qi in your joints
• Joint Strengthening exercises to add more resilience to your joints
• Joint Massage techniques for bringing blood, Qi, and lymph through joints
• Bone Breathing meditations for clearing the joints and charging them up

Simple Taiji

(Taoist Five Yin, Taoist Five Yang, and Johnsonian Purging)

May-June 2011

Monday, May 02 to Friday, June 24

Price: $80

These movements are great for improving the health and strength of your internal organs, especially the essential five that Chinese Medicine focuses on. Simple Taiji will also strengthen your whole body, lower your blood pressure (if needed), improve the health of your spine, replenish your energy resources, improve your breathing, aid your digestion and elimination, and release tension.

Qigong in the Gardens

July 2011

Monday nights only: July 04, 11, 18, 25

Price: Free!

Free classes offered to the greater Whatcom community. This will be the eighth annual series. These Qigong classes are introductory. For those who haven’t done any Qigong before, it is a chance to experience a little of its joyful, internal healing power. For everybody it is an opportunity to practice, refine your skills and to share a healing experience with others in a beautiful garden setting amidst nature.

Summer Break

August 2011

No scheduled Qigong classes

Here is the first of four videos, detailing a Qigong method for alleviating insomnia, that thief in the night.

Medial Qigong offers many simple prescriptions for health conditions. These are gentle, specific, yet sophisticated exercises that involve movement, breathing, and meditation. While not the only important medicine needed for many conditions or situations, these Medical Qigong prescriptions do have some great plusses over using pharmaceuticals, or even natural health concoctions. 

Qigong Prescriptions

• Give you more self-control over your own health.
• Don’t have the kind of intense side-effects many medications do.
• Can’t be used up. The bottle doesn’t get emptied.
• Can be practiced in addition to other methods you may be using for your healthcare.

You Must Do Them to Recieve the Benefits

Qigong Prescriptions do take practice, time, and commitment. The basic Insomnia Prescription–which I detail below–is an effective self-healing method for sleep difficulties. Most people who practice it begin to go to sleep easier, and sleep more deeply and sleep longer. They wake up more refreshed with a sense of energetic regeneration.

Two Main Mechanisms of the Insomnia Prescription

This short series of gentle exercises works through two energetic mechanisms:

1. The redirection of your Qi.
2. Charging your Kidneys.

Redirect Your Qi

The Qi is redirected in a series of steps:

1. From your head to your Kidneys
2. From Kidneys to your lower abdominal center (Dantian)
3. And finally, to the bottom of your feet

Awake Versus Sleep

When you are awake, the majority of your body’s consciousness and energy tends to be focused outside of yourself, in the front part of you, and up in the head or heart. When your energy and consciousness is thus directed, sleep is difficult. The Insomnia Prescription reverses that high, forward energy. It will bring your energy inward, backward, and down.

Charge and Fill Your Kidneys

The Kidneys–which also include your adrenal glands (one of these small glands lies on top of each Kidney)–are crucial in Chinese Medicine approaches. To put it simply, the Kidneys can be thought of as fuel reserves; as gas tanks. Your tanks get emptied by forcing and using willpower to get things done. Or by doing too much. You run out of energy and are essentially running on fumes. If you have ever felt, “too tired to fall asleep,” then you know what I mean.

Insomnia Prescription

The instructions for how many reps to practice: The more persistent and bad the insomnia, the more repetitions it will take.

Steps one, two, and three can be done standing or seated.

Insomnia Prescription: Step One

Use your hands to rapidly massage the Kidneys until warm. You can massage up and own, back and forth, or around in circles, both directions. You can use the palms or, if you can’t reach easily, the backs of the hands. Warming the Kidneys will increase the blood flow to them, relieve tensions around them, and generally turn them on. You want your Kidneys “on” so your thinking brain can turn “off” for several hours.

Reps: 20 to 50.

Insomnia Prescription: Step Two

Place the palms on your back, over your Kidneys. Inhale to your Kidneys. As you inhale, round your lower back a bit to help expand the tissues around those fist-sized structures. With the inhale, imagine you are drawing energy that is extra and unneeded from your upper body (especially your brain) to your Kidneys. Exhale into your Kidneys to store that extra energy.

Location Note: The Kidneys are usually found in front of the thick muscles on both sides of spine, about halfway under the lower ribs; and about halfway below the ribs. They are nearly fist-sized. Because of the big Liver above it, the right Kidney tends to be lower than the left Kidney.

Modifying Note: If shoulder flexibility problems or an elbow or wrist issue make it difficult to put your full palms on your back, you can place the back of the hands on the Kidneys. If this is still too difficult to do with no strain, you can place one palm or back of the hand on one side and turn slightly. If this is still too difficult, connect to your Kidneys by placing your hands over the front of your upper abdomen.

Reps: 20 to 50.

Optional Reps: If the Kidneys need a lot of attention: Repeat steps one and two, twice more.

Insomnia Prescription: Step Three

Left Kidney: Place the right hand on your lower abdomen (Dantian), below the belly button and the left hand over the left Kidney. On the inhale, connect to the left Kidney. Don’t breathe to it, as you did in Step Two, just be there, at the Kidney. On the exhale, use your breath and intention to guide Qi from your Kidney to your lower abdomen. It is as if there is a little highway of flowing energy from the Kidney to the lower abodmen, a one-way flow. You can also push a little with the left hand to the Dantian on each exhale.

Right Kidney: Now place your right hand on the right Kidney and left hand on the lower abdomen. On the inhale, connect to the right Kidney. On the exhale, use your breath and intention to guide Qi from your Kidney to your lower abdomen.

Reps: 20 or more, each side

Steps four and five, below are done seated–either on the floor or on a chair.

Insomnia Prescription: Step Four

Left Foot: Warm up the left sole of your foot by rubbing it with your right palm. In Acupuncture and Qigong theory, the center of the palm is a fire point, connected to the heart. The point being rubbed on the foot is called Kidney 1 (KD-1) or Bubbling Spring. It can be found in the space created by the two balls of the foot. By rubbing this water point of the Kidneys with a fire point  you enliven your Kidneys, leading to stronger, more healthful states of energy in your internal organs. You are also bringing more attention to the lowest part of your body.

Right Foot: Repeat on the other leg, warming up the right sole with the left palm.

Reps: 20 to 50 per side, or more.

Insomnia Prescription: Step Five

Left Foot: Place the left hand on your lower abdomen (over the Dantian) and the right hand on the sole of the left foot. Feel the Dantian on the inhale. On the exhale, gently encourage energy to travel down the leg to the bottom of the right foot. This gentle focus of one-way Qi flow will help root your energy down your body. You may have to cross the lower left leg over the right leg to reach the sole easily.

Reps: 20 to 100 per side.

RightFoot : Repeat on the other side, right hand on Dantian, left hand on right sole.

Practice Makes Sleepy

It might take a few sessions of practice for chronic insomnia to begin to lessen it’s cruel hold on your sleep: It takes time for the water to make progress on filling the well.

Qigong Classes on Monday Evenings in July

This Summer will be the seventh year I have offered free Summer Qigong classes. The first year I held them in Whatcom Falls Park in Bellingham. Every Summer since I have held them at the glorious garden space of my home. 

These classes are open to anyone intrigued or entranced by Qigong, whether new to the art or a seasoned practitioner.  

Free Qigong in the Gardens

Summer 2010 

When:     Each Monday in July (July 5, 12, 19, and 26) 

Time:     6:00 pm to 7:00 pm 

Cost:      None  

Where:   1095 East Axton Road 

Who:      Anyone interested; and whoever they invite  as well.  

Directions and Confirmations

There is no need to confirm you are coming. Just show up. However if you need directions, please contact me directly and I will send them to you. 

Come to any of the classes you can get to, or to all of them. 

Contact Robert Bates to get directions 

2010 Free Qigong in the Gardens whole page

2010 Free Qigong Classes postcards (multiple copies)

Qigong is an Investment

Qigong (“Chee Gung”) is the art, science, and philosophy of natural healing and personal energy management. Qigong is extremely effective in increasing wellness, ensuring longevity, and curing many ailments. Qigong is remarkably effective as a significant health care approach, yet amazingly inexpensive (especially this particular series of classes). Practicing Qigong is a superb investment for both building wellness and saving money by staving off current or future health problems. Someday Qigong may be a primary part of American healthcare. The way the medical money tide is growing and insurance avalanche is going, that day may come soon. Start learning it soon so you will be ready. 

Gentle Exercises for Grand Results

This summer’s focus will be on The Five Flows Set, and on specific Qigong Prescriptions. The Five Flows Set is a satisfying set of slow and gentle exercises that brings great balance to the body and calmness to the mind. Prescriptions are specific exercises designed to help particular health conditions. The Qigong Prescriptions will include exercises for several common problems, including colds and allergies, insomnia, hot flashes, heart issues, and nausea. We will start each class with the basic Five Flows Qigong. Then I’ll lead people through particular Medical Qigong Prescriptions. 

To front-load your Qigong means to do lots of Qigong ahead of time, in the days or weeks before some upcoming need. You may or may not know what this future need is.

Prepare for Anything

There are two ideas here: Prepare for the unexpected and the expected. Practice enough Qigong so that you can handle whatever unexpected splats or splashes may come at you in life. Also prepare for anticipated times of busyness.

Pre-Manage Your Qi

In a conversation about this topic the other day, a student of mine reflected that “a challenge is just Qi to be managed.” This makes sense to me. When you can, manage that Qi ahead of time, that is to the good.

Prepare for the Unexpected

Qigong can help you deal with the requirements of life, but sometimes life asks much of you. It makes sense to front-load your Qigong: Do more than you usually do so you have plenty of energy for those busier or boggier times that sometimes descend upon you. Front-load your Qigong so you can deal with the stress and activities of your life with strength. If strained, busy or traumatic times come into your life, it is difficult then to step back and do a bunch of Qigong. When heavy events and hefty emotions take up your time and energy and focus, it is best to have a full reserve of Qi—a full tank. But if your tank is empty, strong responses are harder to come by.

Prepare for the Expected

You can plan ahead also. If a big project, busy time, or problem looms in the near future—step up your Qigong practice in advance.

Front-Load Before Traveling

Recently I front-loaded some Qigong before a trip. I was on my way to Florida—an all-day long air journey from Washington State. I didn’t know if I would be able to complete a Qigong practice that I am trying to do every day for a while. Besides various other Qigong, Taiji and Xin Yi exercises I tend to do, I was in the midst of a 100-day practice of three Wild Goose Qigong sequences (Bagua Palms, Soft Palms, and The Second 64.) 100-day practices are a great method for deepening the understanding and ability of the chosen form or exercise, and a good way to ensure the benefits are accrued.

Space Enough, Time, and Courage

These Wild Goose Sequences—especially the long form known as the Second 64—take considerable space to perform. I didn’t know how easy it would be to run through them as I would mostly be in cars, airports and airplanes on the travel day. Maybe I’m a little chicken about practicing such involved, unusual moves in public airport spaces.

A Special Rule

Wanting to continue my 100-days in a row process, I made a new rule for myself: If I could go through my required sequences four additional times the day before the trip, my daily string of success still held. The extra reps would catapult me past the inactive day. Or, to use another metaphor, the one plus four repetitions would be a bridge of Qi that connected the practice days. Or perhaps more of a running jump over a chasm to land on the feet, and keep walking.

Two plus Two is Too Much

I read once that at one point in his life, the famous Aikido master Koichi Tohei disciplined himself to two hours of breathing practice everyday. If he missed a day, he made all of it up the next day, doing four hours of breathing. This is a great idea if you can make it happen.

Front-Load Before Meetings

I once met a British Columbia man at a Qigong retreat who had a business harvesting shellfish. He said that fairly frequently he had stress-inducing meetings with suppliers, governmental authorities, fellow fishermen, and customers. He found that by practicing Qigong breathing practices on the way to these meetings he was able to get through these verbal sparring matches still relaxed.

Three Hours Reading, “Everyday”

Chiropractor and success teacher John Demartini’s most important daily practice is to read non-fiction books for three hours. Sometimes on an especially busy day he doesn’t get his 3 hours in. He finds time for catching up on his requisite reading later, such as when air-traveling. Airports and airplanes are ideal opportunities for reading.

Catching Up Adds Up

These are examples of catching up that display great commitment and discipline. I haven’t had much success with catching up on dropped tasks or late projects. That is one reason I like to get more Qigong done ahead of time.

Always Overestimate Travel Time

My travel time to Florida was longer than expected. One of the flights I was on was delayed one and half hours because of an electrical problem. The heater in one of the cargo bays would not work, which meant that the two pets sitting in that compartment would have gotten very, very cold at 30,000 feet. While that problem was worked out, I read and studied the workbook of the seminar I was going to (I was repeating it.) I touched down in West Palm Beach later than I had anticipated.

A Long Day and a Successful One

After a long day that began at 3:20 a.m.—and the disorientation of settling into a new locale—I could have done my 100-day Qigong practice. I could have found a flat, open space to practice in. But it was dark now, and dinner beckoned. I didn’t know my way around. The little motel area I was staying in didn’t appear to have a big enough area to practice these forms in. I was satisfied though. I felt at ease about it because I had front-loaded the day before. I had managed some breathing and stretching along the airways and planned to get back on track the next day with my full practice . Which I did.

Progress, Not Perfection

Qigong is not about perfection, for there is always more to work on, play with, go for. Qigong is about the process. Progress is made in health and life clarity by engaging in the process in a regular, and (I believe) gentle, disciplined practice. By my special-case front-load rules, I am still making progress on this particular 100-day practice configuration. If I don’t miss any more days, I complete it on June 30. I’m already thinking about and getting excited about what my next 100-day focus will be. Maybe the complex sequence Plum Blossom Stepping.

The Last Day

Incidentally, on the last evening and morning of my trip there was a magnificent thunderstorm. The skies poured and poured–as they will in some tropical places. I was not able, in this terrific downpour, to go outside and practice in the park on the last morning.

So I moved all of the furniture our of the apartment living room to create enough space to get my Wild Goose Qigong discipline in. The glass table was an especially heavy and awkward piece of furniture. It took some clever manipulating to transport without scratching the floor. Witht he space open, I managed to get my practice done; though it took some scrunching of steps and intermediate shifting of positioning within the Second 64 form.  

A Note on Terminology

The term “front-load” doesn’t seem to be listed as recognized term in any discipline but finance, but I like it for this Qigong usage.  “Preload” is a more widesperad term, with a wide variety of meanings, including to stretch the heart’s ventricle, to drink booze before going out to drink more booze, and to have already included software in some gizmo. Since I was calming my heart down, doing it soberly, and performing naturally, “pre-load” didn’t fit.

Awaken the Breath

When:         Saturday, June 5, 2010

Time:         10:00 to 2:00

Cost:          Only $40

Location:    Robert’s beautiful healing studio at

                  1095 East Axton Road, North of Bellingham.

Sign Up:     (360) 398-7466, or rbbatesdc@comcast.net

Breathe Bigger, Better and Easier

Breath Practices are some of the most powerful healing exercises you can do. You can insert conscious breathing into just about any part of your day and be better off for it. You can benefit from conscious breathing practices virtually your entire life. Any amount of good breathing you do adds to your health.

With These Breathing Practices You Will

•  Massage the internal organs for greater all around health
•  Keep the head clear and promote mental clarity
•  Help move the lymph throughout the body, increasing immunity function
•  Increase your energy
•  Calm your emotions
•  Increase your lifespan
•  Decrease tension
•  Sleep deeper
•  And much, much more

 What We Will Cover in This Workshop

• Qigong breathing practices, each with different health goals
• Simple tests to assess how well you are breathing
• Easy ways to integrate vastly more quality breathing into your   everyday life
• The Framingham Study: How your breath capacity can accurately predict your lifespan; and how to definitely increase your lifespan with breathing practices

 Breathing Exercises We Will Practice

Follow the Breath. Just watch. Notice how you are actually breathing. You can learn a lot about yourself this way.

Graduated Quiet Breathing Meditation. Build awareness and sink into a relaxed, healing mode of being as you activate your parasympathetic nervous system, coordinate your consciousness and balance your brain

Abdominal Breathing. The foundation of proper breathing. Breathe into and out of your abdomen, letting it expand with the inhale and flatten with exhaling.

Belly Book Breathing. Re-teach yourself how to use your diaphragm to pull air into your body by expanding your abdomen, instead of lifting your shoulders to bring air in.

Pelvic Breathing. Sometimes breathe low into your pelvis to build power and prevent many problems.

Low Back and Kidney Breathing. Drawing the air into the lower back to expand that area and fill the Kidney’s with Qi.

Filling the Vase. Fill your torso with breath like pouring water into a vase; the water fills up the lower parts first before working up. Empty your breath in reverse.

Gentle Breath Holding. Holding the breath for a short time—repeatedly—to help relax tensions in the breathing apparatus.

Plus

The Remembering Breath. Put up green dot stickers. Every time you see the dot, take a deep breath. This will give you many deep breaths each day.

10 Percent More. Add just a little to the size or seconds of each breath.

Breathing Awareness Set (to take home.) Begin to take more control of your daily breathing habits.

Refine Your Qigong

A crucial principle of Qigong practice is to refine your skill. An example of refining comes from a Qigong practitioner I once advised who had been having trouble sleeping. I had an exercise prescription for insomnia in mind that I wanted to teach her, but first I asked to see the Qigong she regularly practiced. She showed me several static postures. Each posture was to be held for 100 breaths. The primary posture looked something like the following photo.

Shoulder Tension

Notice how much force and tension I am bringing up into my shoulders, neck, upper arms and upper chest. Not only is there a great deal of effort going into the pose, but everything in the upper chest, shoulder and neck is getting squished. Holding such posture for very long will create energy but allow it no place to go. The Qi will be trapped by the contractions of the muscles and the compressions of the joints. Compression builds Qi; but then a release of the holding is needed. An open, easy flowing can then happen.

Relax the Shoulders Down

One of the important points taught in Qigong and the internal martial arts is to relax the shoulders–let them sink down. Likewise, relax all of the body. Unless you are specifically performing a strength-building exercise, always take it easy. Be vital and involved, but easily. If you perform a dynamic tension, Charles Atlas-style exercise, you need the soft Yin of letting go to follow the hard Yang of holding. Follow tension with relaxation. Follow harder training with nourishing training.

Drop Deep into your Body to Sleep

One of the keys to sleeping well is to let the extra energy of the day trickle down and settle into your body. You want to reverse the focus of consciousness from forward, up, and out to inward, down, and back. If your consciousness is high, tight and agitated, sleep is difficult to drop into. If you are building and exciting energy higher up in your body, you are training yourself to excess and imbalance.

Here is how I suggest refining the pose from above:

Let the Shoulders Down

Now my arms are lower and everything is more open. I want to hold this pose and relax the muscles as much as possible to build the Qi. I want to smooth my breathing and soften my attitude.

Yet I can let down more. With an exhale I release more holding, and come to this:

Relax even more

So let those shoulders stay down. If they rise up, let them down again. Down, down, down. Let the undersides of the arms and elbows be heavy and let those shoulder and back muscles release.

Spaciousness Allows Flow

Now you have more space in your shoulders and chest. Blood, Qi, and lymph can flow easily and fully. And your Qi can drop. A high-shoulder, tension pose holds the Qi in, frozen in place. Little can flow up, and more importantly, mere trickles of Qi can flow down. Too much energy gets stuck in the head. It is hard to relax and difficult to sleep well if, you cannot allow the busy energy of the day waft and be drawn downward.

Sink the Qi

The Qi should sink to the lower abdomen. This is a real experience you can learn to access and allow, an experience that feels nourishing and truly stabilizing. Qigong and Taiji teach you how to do this–and it is more than worth the training.

Our Shoulder Tension Society

What I find most intriguing about the shoulder-tension pose above is that it emulates what most Americans and those in the rest of the modernized world are doing anyway. We are societies of rising shoulders. We raise and hold our shoulders up as protection from perceived social danger, as a way to avoid breathing deeply, as a method to force the completion of tasks, and as a way to avoid relaxing into our being and our true and essential connection to the Earth.

Here is a photo of another holding pose:

Arm and Shoulder Tension

If you hold the above pose for 100 breaths you are sure to build a tremendous amount of energy. The compression of the muscles, bones, and soft tissues will create what is known as piezoelectricity. You will create energy, but the tension held for so long gives it no where to go, and it also fosters an imbalance in the body. You will have more energy up high, than lower. If you want a nightly repose that is deep and long, this kind of exercise will probably prevent that. If you want to toss and turn for hours and have wild and fantastical visions in fitful sleep, such poses would be a good way to create that.

It would be better to do more intense kinds of exercise in the morning, as you are fully in the Yang, rising, energy-building part of the day.

Hold Poses with Ultimate Relaxation

Usually, at least as I have always seen in Qigong training, such long-held postures are held with ultimate relaxation, not maximal tension. In other words, you hold the pose with as good as posture as you can—upright, expanded, and relaxed as much as you can at the same time. This will calm your Qi, calm your mind, settle your heart energy. Your muscles will let go, yet the energy will somehow become more full. Most importantly, all the extra tension and energy will sink and accumulate in the lower abdominal center (the Dantian.) You want this to happen.

Looking at this photo, I could probably relax down much more yet, another level or two or three of letting go. But this is a good start.

Holding tension-types of poses looks much like a Yi Jin Jing exercise, translated as a Muscle/Tendon Changing Classic. The purpose of Yi Jin Jing practices are to strengthen the tissues of the whole body to build resilience and strength. The Yi Jin Jing exercises are said to have been developed about 1500 years ago at the original Shaolin monastery.

Here is an old drawing showing some Yi Jin Jing.

However, Most of these posture–maybe due to the artist’s ability–show too much shoulder tension. Over the almost one and half millennia since these drawings were executed, the understanding of the principle of “heavy weight underside” has permeated the teaching of internal martial arts and Qigong.

In the Yi Jin Jing I’ve seen, the postures are held for at most a few breaths. Then a purposeful relaxation follows. This leads to a sudden increase of blood through the tissues and a release of blocked energy, which has been built up by the holding. This energy is then circulated through the body.