Here is a List of the Principle Articles and Videos on this Qigong Website

Note: These listed articles come from the Blog section of this website. There is also a section of Pages, which contains much information as well. The links to the Pages can be found to the right on any page.

Fun with Qigong Homepage

How to use this site.

Welcome to Fun with Qigong

My first post.

Introduction to Qigong

A video explaining the basics of Qigong.

A Simple Explanation of Qigong

What exactly is Qigong?

Audio Interview

A 55 minute overview of Qigong, along with a sample of the Six Healing Sounds.

The First Principle of Qigong

Practice. Preferably daily.

My First DVD: Fun with Qigong

A video guide to learning the gentle, powerful, principle-based Qigong set called The Five Flows.

Moderation and Fasting

All endeavors seeking health should not be excessive. Excess kills. Moderation heals.

Healing the Heart

Simple approaches to heart health.

Reducing High Blood Pressure

Video detailing some Qigong ideas for lowering pressure.

Breast Health

Exercises and resources from a non-invasive, vitalistic, self-empowering approach. Every woman should learn about these methods.

Inexpensive Acupuncture

Social justice through heartful needles.

Sudden Inhalation Syndrome

Shock breathing is normal but not natural. Learn how to breathe with ease.

Qigong and Fibromyalgia

Decrease pain with Qigong.

Simple Taiji Video

An introductory form to practice the principles and basic movements of Taiji (Tai chi).

Insomnia

Insomnia Article

Thoughts and exercises for working on that night-stealer insomnia.

Insomnia Video 1

Overview of Qigong exercises for overcoming insomnia.

Insomnia Video 2

Charge the Kidneys and connect the Kidneys to the Lower Dantian.

Insomnia Video 3

Warm the feet.

Insomnia Video 4

Draw Qi from the Lower Dantian to the feet. 

Front-loading Qigong

Practice extra amounts of Qigong before travel, expected stressful events, or busy times to come.

Hot Hands of Qi

Qigong will warm and balance your hands.

Qigong and Warm Hands: Part 1

A second class with the heat camera shows some fascinating photos.

Relax Your Shoulders, Descend Your Qi

Sink your Qi to relax your being.

Qigong and the Upside Down Snowman

Get out of your head and center in the lower abdomen. Health and joy await you. Let go of tension and sink your Qi to feel much, much better. [with a video]

You Can Cure Hot Flashes

Make hot flashes a thing of the past with this simple, powerful technique. [with a video]

Qigong, Vitality and “Limitations”

Work within your limits, but don’t let them define you.

Four-Part Protection Process

A Meditation and Medical Qigong Method for staying sane and clear in an insane world.

Alleviating Depression and Other Traumatic Emotions 1

The overview video of the “Old Man…” exercise.

Alleviating Depression and Other Traumatic Emotions 2

The second video of the “Old Man…” exercise. Lungs and sadness.

Alleviating Depression and Other Traumatic Emotions 3

The third video of the “Old Man…” exercise. Open the heart and release armoring.

Alleviating Depression and Other Traumatic Emotions 4

The fourth video of the “Old Man…” exercise. Clear worry, excess emotions, and anger from the middle burner.

Alleviating Depression and Other Traumatic Emotions 5

The fifth video of the “Old Man…” exercise. Putting it all together.

Three Types of Qigong Practice: Singles, Sets, and Sequences

Three ways you might practice: Focused, expanded, or sophisticated ways.

Qigong Sets

Understanding what Qigong sets are and how to utilize them.

Qigong Sequences

Understanding what Qigong forms are and how to utilize them.

Five Flows in a Single Exercise

One exercise can take you through all of the flows, if  you stick with it.

Preventing Colds and Flu with Qigong

These gentle, immunity-enhancing exercises truly work.

More on Preventing Colds and Flu with Qigong

Use healing sounds and slow, gentle, movements.

Qigong Strategies for Illness

How, when, and when not to do Qigong when illness is in the picture.

Qigong Workshops

A baker’s dozen of Qigong workshops your group may want to host.

The World-Famous First 64 Form

From Wild Goose Qigong, there is much healing in the intracies of these fun movements.

Reduce Stress with the Super Powerful Method of Belly Breathing

So much of a person’s stress arises from the backward, upside down, unnatural, but entirely common practice of chest breathing.

Pay Attention to Your Feet

With so much heady focus in our world, we lose connection to the whole of our bodies and the sustenance of the earth. Become more whole and balanced by paying attention to your feet as much as to your brain.

Save Yourself from a Lightning Strike

Crouch and survive.

Simplified Exercise Set

Sometimes an entire set is too much.

Open and Move from the Gate of Life

The Gate of Life is so important and so practical and so unknown.

Can Qigong Save America (and the World?)

We desperately need inexpensive, effective healthcare. Qigong is one of the answers to this urgent need.

Slap Yourself Healthy

Gentle tapping methods for wellness.

The Three Intentional Corrections

How to reframe and refocus your experience in the moment with Qigong.

Healing Knee Pain 1

Using the wall sitting exercise.

Healing Knee Pain 2

Success with the wall sitting exercise.

Change Your Life in Two Minutes a Day

Getting a daily Qigong practice started can reward you with big health dividends later on.

Bend Your Knees for Health’s Sake

Bending your knees helps alleviate many chronic pain symptoms.

When in Doubt, Shake

Use the Shaking the Body exercise to release fear, uncertainty, and tension.

Exercise with Ease

Be gentle and moderate with your Qigong to get the most out of it.

Qigong Will Soon Be a Common Sight

“People just have to get used to it.”

Spend a Billion Dollars to Save a Trillion

Qigong could save huge amounts of money, nationally.

Qigong is a Medical Bargain

It is downright cheap. It is gold that takes put pennies on the dollar.

Three Little Words Can Change your Life

The first three principles of Qigong: Practice, Modify, and Refine.

I Healed My Smashed Toe with Qigong

Using the gentleness and gentility of Qigong for giant gains.

Stay Centered or Suffer the Consequences

Multi-tasking leads to injury.

Breathe When You Type

Qigong is cheap medicine, easily accessible.

Train Your Qigong in Calmness

Qigong practice cautions.

The Secret Practice of True Wealth

Invest in Qigong and reap the lifelong rewards.

The Half-Half Rule

At least do some Qigong. You will be happy you did.

The Baby Bowl

Healing babies instead of watching the Superbowl.

Qigong Posture Relaxation

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.

Heavy elbows to relax the shoulders

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.

If you have cold hands, Qigong can warm them up. Qigong increases the Qi and blood flow to the hands. The hands get pleasantly fat and full and the palms and fingers turn reddish. Sometimes there is a red and white mottling. Warm hands indicate many good things: Your internal organs are charging up, excess energy in the heart is distributed to the periphery, overall blood flow is better. Hot hands can also indicate that harmful excesses of heat in the head or heart are being safely shunted to the hands–a place much better for body heat to reside. Qigong can warm cold feet too, which means the Qi and blood flow through your legs is improved and the body is more rooted, balanced in energy, and infused with life force.

Five Pairs with a Loyal Flush

Five Pairs of Hands

Above is a photo of my hands and four of my students’ hands taken at a Qigong class with a heat camera. The heat camera is a special device designed for finding heat leaks in houses. It works great as a Qigong tool of exploration. My hands are the white ones ringed with red, which indicates a lot of heat in them. Notice the palms of the others, which tend toward a middle-heat yellow with some warmer orange-ish red. Also notice the blue in the fingers, indicating coolness.

This photo was taken at the beginning of a Qigong Practice, showing my Qi-charged hands which are habitually, healthily warm already. In 1995, after practicing Qigong regularly for about a year, my hands turned on. They get pleasantly warm almost every time I practice my healing methods on someone, or practice Qigong exercises. They are warm to start with and get warmer.

Qigong Will Balance the Energy of Your Hands

Many exercises of Qigong help equalize the Qi, blood, lymph, and neural energy between your hands. Balanced hands indicate a balanced body. The blood vessels on both upper limbs are equally open and strong. The divisions of the cerebral cortex–left and right, front and back– are in equilibrium. The nerves coming from the spine to the hands are engaging equally as they travel through the shoulder complex, arms, and into the hands.

One Cold and One Hot Hand

The heat photo of the above pair of hands shows an imbalance between left and right. The right is much hotter. Qigong can help balance the temperature of these hands.

The Good Hands Practice

Robert's Hot Little Hands

These are my hands after 50 minutes of Qigong practice and teaching. Note that even the fingers are quite warm. An important part of my hands-on healing work involves using each finger, both independently and in conjunction with the rest of the fingers, the palm, and my whole body. I think that this engaged finger individuation also helps with keeping the Qi alive and warm in my hands.

A hot flash means you have too much heat being produced in the body. Usually the extra heat rises into the head, making you uncomfortable. It could arise for a number of reasons: sudden hormonal shifts, too much sunshine, a liver working too hard, or being drained of vitality so that your body has trouble keeping you cool.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Healing Sounds to Clear Your Body

Part of the expansive collection of Qigong exercises is the art of healing sounds. Over many hundreds of years, Chinese Qigong practitioners discovered and refined particular sounds. The basic use of healing sounds in this discipline is for cleansing the body, mind, and emotions of stuck, stagnant or excessive energy. Sounds vibrate the tissues, releasing contracting-tension and shaking loose what is stuck.

“Sheeeee” Helps Hot Flashes

Here is the sound for excess, high heat in the body: “Sheeeeee.” It is pronounced and performed in a special way. You will simultaneously do these three actions:

• Draw your hands from the top of your head down through your legs and into the earth. The eyes and head follow the hands down.
• Imagine and visualize and sense that you are clearing your body of extra heat from head to feet. It is like your cells are being showered with cooling water, or the inner windows are being squeegeed clean.
• It is a descending tone “Sheeeee.” This dropping sound starts in the high range and descends very low, like going from soprano to basso. The farther down your body you go with your hands and consciousness, the deeper becomes the sound.

Note: Do not bend over as you get closer to the ground. If you bend too much you will, via gravity, put energy in the head. With this exercise you want to get energy out of the head, not put more in.

Sequences

A Qigong sequence is a series of movements put together into an artistic form. I often call these forms, but many people use the word “form” for a single exercise or a set. I’m playing with the word “Sequence” as a more accurate, separate descriptor.

In a Sequence–or form–one exercises follows another in an arranged order. Sequences usually cover some ground with different types of steps, arm movements and torso movements. These patterned forms usually face all directions within the series of moves.

Forms are Artistic Patterns

Forms–or Sequences–can be seen as patterns performed on the ground, in time, and in the space around you.

Sequential forms are a more advanced way of practicing than Single Exercises or Sets (though not necessarily better.)

Sequences are like books or encyclopedias of skills and knowledge. Often Sets are created by taking and adapting movements from forms into successive drills. I have done this with the Primordial Qigong Sequence, creating the exercise Set I call the Delightful Dozen out of it.

Whereas the Delightful Dozen faces one direction and calls for about a dozen repetitions of each exercise; Primordial Qigong faces each of the cardinal directions eight times in a circling sequence and with varying numbers of repetitions for each sequential movement within the form.

In the formal sequence of Primordial Qigong, each exercise has it’s own number of reps to do—between 1 and 10 reps—before  flowing into the next exercise

Other examples of Sequences include much of the system of Wild Goose Qigong, including The First 64, The Second 64, Soft Palms, Spiral, etc…

Yang Style TaiJi (Tai Chi)

Every system of Tai Chi (at least 6 different major systems out there) has it’s short and long forms as a major part of their training. The Yang Style of Tai Chi Chuan, for instance, has a widely taught beginner form of 24 movements; the intermediate  20 minute (or so) long 108 movements form; and another, rarely seen, more complex, 108 move form.

New Frame Chen Style Tai Chi Form

In my Chen Style Tai Chi class with Bob Lau we practice something called the New Frame. This very long and complicated form (which I have a long way to go to really understand in a significant way) is made of 83 moves. However, most moves have several sequential components to them, so 83 is a but a method of naming. There seem to me to be about 250 separate moves. “Whew.” I’m currently learning a Sequence called Spiral Taiji from my internal arts teacher Bob Lau.

Advantage of Sequences

An advantage of working with Sequences is that they force you to be present and fully conscious as you are training. Spacing out and not paying attention leads to missing your next steps and getting lost. Sequences are a magnificent as moving meditations.

With the differing numbers done of exercises, the exact sequences, the steps being taken and directions to face, sequential forms are masterful ways of training your memory.

Sequences also encourage a the building of artful skill. Forms add a tapestry of artistic color and nuance to Qigong.

And they are fun!

There are a number of ways to look at Qigong in order to understand it better, methods of breaking down aspects of it into categories. In future posts I’ll talk about several different such ordering methods.

One way to look at Qigong in terms of how the exercises are organized: whether you are doing a single exercise repeated; a set of exercises drilled repeatedly and in order; or a sequence of exercises done in a flowing pattern.

For Simplicity, I Call These the Three “S”s

• Singles
• Sets
• Sequences

Single Exercises

Single exercises are done by themselves, repeatedly. These are usually drills of foundational movements or meditations that help you gather a particular energy or develop a particular important skill.

These drills might also be taken out of a set or sequence and practiced alone. A single exercise might be a prescription for your condition. Two examples are doing lots of Shaking the Body to release tension, or performing many reps of the Inner Qi Shower to release and descend excess heat in the head.

Another example of this is building balanced energy in your hands for healing with the exercise Charging the Qi Ball.

The Golden Ball (also called 8 Actions of Qi) is an 8-movement single exercise I learned from my Medical Qigong teacher Jerry Alan Johnson. The Golden ball is particularly good at balancing your body’s Qi field.

Swimming Dragon is a sophisticated Single Exercise that is great for the spine and other joints of the body.

Reasons to Practice Single Exercises Include

• to really deepen a skill,
• to drill and drill for a particular need, such as an exercise prescription
• to built a foundation necessary for later practice needs
• because you are short of time

Get in a Groove

The best way to practice Single Exercises is to do them for a period of time, rather than a set number of repetitions. For instance you could decide to practice the exercise over and over for 5, 10 or 20 minutes. After a few minutes you will get into a groove. You’ll be riding a wave of a rhythm that takes you with it.

In my next post I will talk about Sets.

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.

Ideally, you should–in this moment and all moments–be as aware of the feet as the head.

Even when you are involved in thinking, you want to stay in your body to do it. Ironically, people think more completely and with greater intuition when they do so with their whole body.

Head-only thinking tends to lead to tension, stress, incompleteness of thought, and myriad physical discomforts.

Tottering Leads to Doddering

If you are often tottering in headiness, your lower body is being neglected. The gains and knowledge of civilization that reside in your brain are important. But they cannot exist without the animalian body that is represented and carried by your legs and feet.

This feet unawareness is indicative of being way too much in the head, a cultural hazard of being in the modern world. You think, think, think so much that you create whirlpools, backwater eddies, chaotic waves and splash-smashing waterfalls in your brain, taking you out of your body; out of being integrated between nature, thought, and awareness.

Joyful Genius

Genius is in internal integration. Joy is in internal integration.

Prevent Craziness

In the long-term, head-centric states of being lead to many mental health issues, such as confusion, uncertainty, bleariness, and mental weariness. I believe that ultimately, many psycho-physical problems such as mania, depression, lying, denying, schizophrenia, and dementia are (at least partially) the results.

Bringing more attention to the feet than you have had can recenter you and take you away from incipient or current craziness.

Focus on Your Feet in All Activities

Focus on how your feet are, whether you are sitting, standing, walking, or even lying down. Putting attention and energy into your feet helps balance the attention-energy of the whole body. It roots you to the ground, improves coordination, and lessens the likelihood of a fall while walking.

Pay attention to your feet and let cares and tensions melt down your body, through the feet into the earth. Let your feet be as awake as your brain and your entire body and being benefit.

One of the most important concepts of that one learns in the Chinese movement arts is a central area called the Gate of Life or Door of Life. Learning how to work with the Gate of Life can bring more energy to your Kidneys, meridians and brain.

It can help you have more oomph for expressing yourself in the world and often will even eliminate lower back stiffness or pain.

Finding the Gate of Life

The Gate of Life is a small circular area found in the center of your lower back, just behind and at the height of the belly. The Gate of Life is exactly opposite where your belly button is. To me, the active area of the Gate of Life seems to be about the size of an American dime.

Gate of Life (in the lower spine)

location of the Gate of Life

Move from the Central Pivot

In Qigong practice you learn how to use the dime-sized area as a pivot point for moving your torso. Learning this skill is a great aid in building usable energy, kinetic power, and saving yourself from many pains.

In teaching this movement principle over the years I have found many students and clients have a rough time figuring out how to turn their waist from that place. They’ve never thought of it before nor tried it.

The Wrong Way to Turn the Waist

People will usually try to move their torso (and arms) from anywhere but the Gate of Life: By turning the pelvis, twisting the hips and knees, turning the upper back, moving the shoulders or arms, etc.

All of these method of turning actually put strain onto your body. Over time that leads to nagging pains, muscle tension, repetitive strain injuries, and more susceptibility to traumatic injuries (e.g. less resiliency.)

With one client recently,  I noticed when she twisted side to side she got no movement at all in her central lumbar spine. I was teaching her the Five Flows exercise “Turning the Waist” a drill that is mostly about moving from the Gate of Life.”

The whole area was locked. All of her torso movement came from above or below the lumbar spine. She had forgotten how to use the muscles, vertebrae and fascia rotationally in that area.

For most people, this is a habit they have picked up. I think it is probably common in a chair-centric culture like ours.

Propelling Movement from Everywhere but The Gate of Life

I tried to get her to move from this area (the Chinese “waist”) by having her turn in a very small motion on the horizontal plane. She wasn’t able to access the body knowledge to do it. As I’ve seen a number of students do, she tried to carry the movement of the Gate of Life area by twisting her upper back, throwing her arms and shoulders to one side or the other or pushing wholly with the pelvis.

In other words, she was doing exactly opposite  of the idea. Instead of controlling torso movement from the Gate of Life, she was moving from everywhere else. A much less effective method of movement.

A Simple Method to Awaken the Gate of Life

Then I had an idea. I wondered if some direct pressure to the Gate of Life area would give her body the feedback she needed to learn the technique. Pressure on the lower abdomen works for learning belly breathing, why not for this?

I happened to have had a short, finished rounded stick used for ringing a small bell. The surface area of the end is small, about the size of that dime. Perfect. The end is also fairly flat.

This is How I Placed the Bell-Stick

I put the end of the stick on the wall and the other end on her Gate of Life. She shuffled backwards just a little in order to keep the stick in place. The stick was horizontal to the ground and perpendicular to her back. Her body was vertical.

Then I told her to gentle push just her lower back backward a little—not the whole body. In other words, to slightly round her lower back toward the wall. This is the first step in opening the Gate of Life.

Below is a photo of my Qigong and Tai Chi training partner Bob Shapiro activating his Gate of Life with the bell-stick.

Activating the Gate of Life

Arch back gently against the Gate of Life

Small Turns From the Center of the Lower Back

The main practice then is to use the light force of the stick in the back (it is gently held in place, not jammed in) as a prod and prompt to turn left and right. These turnings are minute, and should originate from the stick end touching the Gate of Life. It is important to keep the bubble of the area pressed back and not just lean into it bodily. Push the stick into the wall—a little—with just the pinpoint end.

Turning to the left from the Gate of Life

It Worked!

My client was able to get a definite sense of moving from the Gate of life with this method. The horizontal movements were small, but definitely coming from that central pivot area in the lumber spine. This was a new way for her to move and  one that will need more practice. She could feel an awakening of awareness, musculo-skeletal movement, warmth, and energy flow.

More on the Location of the Gate of Life

In Acupuncture terms, the Gate of Life is a point on the Governor Vessel (Du Vessel) called GV-4.

It is also called the Ming Men.

Anatomically the Gate of Life is generally on or just below the tip of the spinous process of the L2 vertebrae.

It tends to be at the deepest portion of the lumbar curve, the part closest toward the belly on the front.

Many people overarch their lower backs forward, which closes the Gate of Life to full energy flow.  The Peak of this arch is the closed gate.

Over my years of practicing, observing and reading about Qigong I have often observed that Qigong and Tai Chi are difficult for beginners to understand. Many forms are simply too advanced or unusual for the average Westerner to grok.

The underlying methodologies are often hidden to the uninitiated, and often not even spoken of.

Knowing what you are doing, what you are trying to accomplish, why you are doing that and how to go about it are crucial to getting the greatest benefit from your practice.

Cracking the Qigong Code

I want to crack open the secretiveness and confusing-ness; to make the subtle motions and sublime notions of Qigong come to the light of easy awareness.

Once you understand and can imbue the principles of movement in the exercises you begin to see how they apply in other venues and avenues of your life. You see how applicable the principles, philosophy and foundational movements are in multiplying ways.

One of the main uses and meanings of the Five Flows Qigong set is that it is an introduction to many other Qigong exercises. The principles and movements are a foundation for many, many other exercises in the great pantheon of Qigong.

Slap Yourself Resilient

I read an article today in a Dragondoor.com catalog about a man who survived a car accident unscathed. His car was broadsided by a pickup truck speeding some 50 miles per hour. Though the side of his car was smashed and was spun around 360  degrees, he had no repercussions that he could notice at all. No headache, muscles soreness, neck stiffness-nothing.

This man-Stephen Berwick-has developed a Qigong system for systematic self-hitting called True Strength Yang. The self-hitting can be seen as an extension of the idea that I introduce in the Five Flows exercise Outer Qi Shower.

He attributes his amazing escape from even nominal injury to his practice of this art, one he developed from old Kung Fu principles.

Self-Hitting is an Advanced Art

Though there is some self-hitting history in the West, it is not usual.  Self-hitting practices are common and quite developed into many varieties in the Orient.

Healthy self-hitting has many benefits. It helps loosen stagnations and toxins from the muscles and cells, bring blood flow to the skin, and generally wake up your internal systems. You can slap or tap muscles, organs, acupuncture points, etc.

Slap like a Wise Goose

There is a wonderful and quick Wild Goose Qigong form called Healthy Slapping Gong that uses 9 sets of 9 pinpoint taps to wake up some 60 pairs or single acupuncture points. When I practice this short form I notice a sense of fullness, rightness, and openness in my body, breathing, and energy flows.

I was told that the famous Wild Goose master Yang Mei Jun used self-tapping extensively. She was said to be tapping herself all the time in her older years, keeping her energetic juices flowing. (This would have been in her late 90′s and early 100′s.  She died at 106.)

Slap with Sticks and Wires

The Universal Tao School of Qigong uses bamboo sticks and wire hitters to slap. Two bamboo (or rattan) sticks taped together are used to send percussive vibrations into the tissues. The wire hitters are 100 small wire rods set in a handle. Self-hitting with the wire rod is said to be able to set free deep stagnations in the bones, while strengthening the bones and other tissues.

[Safety Note: Always avoid tapping the joints with any kind of tool or with any but the lightest of force.]

The Tarzan Chest Pounding

In an article about a Tarzan-like chest pounding, Qigong teacher John Ducane talks about the value of tapping:

“Why do you think we instinctively like to pat our kids or friends, or administer taps to ourselves and others? Yes, it’s often a demonstration of affection, but it’s also an instinctive move to enliven and bring energy to ourselves and those we care for.

With their tremendous interest on observing nature and animal behavior to gain insights into human Qi cultivation practices, the Daoists systematized many of these instinctive patting and tapping practices, so we could more consciously employ them to our benefit.

… the chest pounding helps to enliven both the lungs, the heart and also key acupoints in the front of the body. We become immediately more alert and systemically activated to deal with a potential environmental challenge.”

Tap Gently

My recommendation is to be gentle with your slaps. But there are schools of thought that encourage more vigorous slapping. Stephen’s Berwick’s methodology is on the harder end of the spectrum to build strength, toughness and resiliency. It apparently saved him from serious injury. Don’t do any of this kind more vigorous slapping without a qualified instructor guiding you.

Study and Practice Qigong Principles

My main point of this post is to encourage you to learn and use Qigong principles, which are based on our natural way of being, doing, and attaining. Qigong principles are a fascinating and functional study that will serve you well the rest of your life.

Know principles and exercises that apply them. This will widen and clarify your perspective when learning other exercises.

For instance, The Five Flows Qigong exercise Outer Qi Shower is a harbinger and doorway to all of the slapping methodologies above; and many more. Practicing it will help you understand more later than you would have otherwise.

You will have a doorway to understanding that give you more ability to use what you learn, and learn it well.

It is a superb and pleasant exercise to experience on it’s own.
It leaves you feeling tingly and ringingly alive.

All you do is ask yourself three questions, then respond with the appropriate shift.

You ask:

• How is my posture?
• How is my breathing?
• How is my consciousness?

Shift Your Posture

For the posture question, you may find yourself slumping at the keyboard, leaning on one leg too much, locking your knees, tightening your head, etc. When you notice a posture problem just: Unslump, balance the lean, release the knee lock, or relax the head.

With better posture you will gain energy, avoid structural problems, and be more present.

Checking in and shifting again and again throughout each day will have long-term benefits in how you feel, how you operate in the world, and in maintaining health.

Shift Your Breathing

After the breathing query you may find yourself with such problems as restraining your breath, breathing high in the chest instead of in the lower torso, straining the shoulders or neck, or breathing too swiftly. Inhale a deep, full, easy breath as best as you are able.

Cultivating a habit of empowered breathing will help with energy levels, immune function, thinking clarity, mental calm, relaxation and much more. Good breathers live longer too.

Shift Your Consciousness

A look at consciousness means: Where is your mind? Are you, as most of us are in America, overly-entrenched in your brain?

You might notice sometimes that when you try to think something through you put a lot of energy into the head. This actually takes you away from the truth of the present into our memories, beliefs, fears, and rationalizations.

You want to have your consciousness in your entire body, equally strong in all parts. Withdrawing awareness from parts of yourself leads to physical problems and lessens your unique intelligence. I’ve noticed this problematic pattern many times with clients in my healing practice.

Make the shift, relax the energy down (if it is indeed packed in the head), and think from  your body, with the brain as part of the body, not the master with all the power.

Repetition Makes Natural Feel Normal

One of the reasons for applying the Three Intentional Corrections regularly is that our habits of being usually take magnitudes of repetition to break and change. If not changed, then our bodies, breathing, and mind sink into ruts that are difficult to lift out of. They cement into patterns that feel natural but are not.

Repeatedly enacting intentional shifts begins to retrain you toward a more holistic, balanced, and effective ways of being.

Eventually you may find yourself practicing the Three Intentional Corrections in a smooth, single flow to bring yourself back to balance. You will shift your posture as you inhale in a breath, then exhale your consciousness into your whole body.