Gentle Exercises for Optimal Health

Right Now, Do a Little Awareness Experiment

Noticing both your feet and your head, how much of your awareness is in your feet and how much in your head, percentage-wise? In other words, are you balanced, top and bottom?

Most people I’ve talked to say they have anywhere from 60 to 90 percent of their awareness in their heads. This means, they are not balanced energetically, magnetically or consciously. They have much more awareness in the moment up top. They have more energy in their upper bodies than lower.

Whole Body Balance

It is a cardinal rule of Qigong that balance is a must for healthy, whole living.

50/50 is Nifty

It might sound obvious to pay attention to your feet, yet I find it common for people to be doing the opposite. Often people are so much in their heads, that their feet are afterthoughts, follow-alongs. They trip along on them, bidding them to get them from one place to another with hardly a parcel of awareness devoted to them. They become top-heavy energetically, emotionally, and physically. Read the rest of this entry »

In the Cliff Mass Weather Blog are some life-saving ideas about how to survive a lightning storm if caught out in the open. Basically, get away from any tall objects, including trees and hills. Then crouch down and cover your ears.

I’ve done healing work with people who have been struck by lightning. Their bodies tend to be super-over-sensitive to any input and easily go into chaos instead of integration. It can be difficult to fully heal from even a peripheral lightning strike. I suggest avoiding lighting if it arises above you.

The Lightning Crouch position shown on the Cliff Mass blog post is remarkably similar to a to move in Wild Goose Qigong called “Return Qi and Fall Asleep. ” This is the penultimate move of the major form, The First 64. I’m not sure of the significance of this. I do know that Wild Goose Qigong was developed in the high Kunlun Mountains of Western China–where presumably there were many storms.

Regain Your Birthright Energy

Learn the “Delightful 12” Set and the “Primordial Qigong” Form

Fall, 2009

When:   Eight Mondays, September 14 to November 2

Time:     12:00 pm to 1:00 pm

Cost:      $80.00 for the course

Where:  1095 East Axton Road

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The Delightful Dozen Set Empowers Self-Healing

These exercises will leave you feeling calm, together, and at ease; while gently pulsing with lively energy. The gentle movements of the Delightful Dozen are especially useful in bringing a balance to the two sides of your nervous system, which leads to your whole body being more unified. The twelve exercises of this set are a superb set in themselves and they prepare you for the flowing body of the Primordial Qigong form, below.

See an example exercise

The Primordial Qigong Form is a Movement Ritual

Primordial Qigong is a complete healing form. Done slowly, like Tai Chi Chuan, it takes about 18 minutes to perform. Primordial Qigong elegantly and effortlessly combines meditative, intricate, flowing movement with Taoist internal alchemy. In Taoist internal alchemy, natural energies are gathered, blended and circulated internally to bring about physical healing, energetic balance, emotional peace, and spiritual growth.

Primordial Qigong is a movement ritual that flows like a silent prayer. Qi is gathered from the four directions, the five elements, the earth, stars, sun, moon and other natural forces. The practitioner is charged up while achieving a balance of Yin and Yang in the body.

Sometimes a Shorter Set is in Order

If you are short of time and still want to get some Qigong in, you could do an abbreviated set using the Five Flows idea. Do one exercise from each type of Flow.

Or maybe you are showing a friend or family member a little Qigong and you want them to experience it, but doing a complete set seems too much. Five new exercises are easier to grasp than 12 or more.

A Short, Yet Complete Set from Five Flows Qigong

Warmup
#1: Shaking the Body

Clearing
#4: Outer Qi Shower

Charging
#6: Charging the Qi Ball

Balancing
#10: Riding the Waves

Centering
#12: Centering the Qi

Many-Rep Single Exercise Set

Another method you might want to work is to take one exercise and perform it over and over and over; dozens, scores or hundreds of times. As long as you are not hurting yourself by overdoing, you could gain a lot of healing shifts from such a mega-single-exercise-practice.

The reason to do one exercise of Qigong over and over is not for the high number of reps. It isn’t  quantity you are seeking but the ability to get deeply, comfortably familiar with the exercise and gain much greater effectiveness.

By deepening in this way, you come to understand the exercise more and are able to let it expand in all it’s possiblity through your body.