Gentle Exercises for Optimal Health

I am excited to announce the completion of my new Qigong DVD.

You can pay through Paypal, or with a credit card. I will send the DVD right out to you. This would make a great Christmas gift, a way to encourage yourself or loved ones to get a Qigong practice going in their life for the new year. It is just $19.95 plus $3.99 shipping and handling.

Gentle Qigong for Health and Wellness

The Delightful Dozen

• Consists of 12 exercises.

• Teaches many Qigong principles you can apply to your life.

• Is accessible, doable, and useful for people at all levels of health

• Fosters internal relaxation and coordination of body, mind, breath, and energy.

• Is easy to learn. It is not confusingly philosophical, or super-serious.

• Helps all parts of your body become equal with the full flow of energy, information and awareness: left and right, palms and feet, arms and legs, head and feet, torso and legs, front and back, inside and out.

Developed from Primordial Qigong

Each of the 12 exercises is found in the flowing body of a gentle exercise form called Primordial Qigong. The word primordial here, refers to your original vitality. The Primordial Qigong form is a flowing, connected sequence of the movements, much like Taiji (Tai Chi) is a slow stream Qigong sequence.

I first developed the Delightful Dozen Set as a way to teach the moves of Primordial Qigong. Eventually I realized it was a marvelous practice in itself, and an ideal teaching tool for the principles of Qigong. It is a beautiful Qigong on its own.

After you master the Delightful Dozen, you may want to go on to learn Primordial Qigong, which I also teach.

Deepen and Expand Your Self-Healing Skill

If you have learned the Five Flows Qigong, which is the first video in this series, The Delightful Dozen will expand and deepen your skill. If you haven’t learned the Five Flows, you might want to go back and learn it first.

• For this new video I again take out mysteriousness and make Qigong as accessible as it truly can be. With principles taught on the DVD, you can gain great benefits from a regular Qigong practice.

• The Delightful Dozen is slightly more advanced than the Five Flows, but you can learn it as a first set if you choose. It is also an introductory set for Qigong.

• In terms of the flows of Qi as defined on my Fun With Qigong: Five Flows DVD, the Delightful 12 is mostly balancing, with some charging and some centering.

• I hope you gain rich rewards from your learning, practice and eventual mastery of the Delightful Dozen.

The video is divided into several sections

• An introductory section covers the basics of Qigong training.

• In section two I present and explain the moves of each exercise,.

• Section three is where you deepen your experience and magnify beneficial results by focusing on specific principles in turn. In order and over time learn and practice the Structure Principle; then, get the Movement Principle, Qi Principle, and Consciousness Principle.

• Once you have learned each of the exercises, you can go ahead in the DVD to follow along with the Full Set Practice in Section four.

• Once you are completely familiar with the set, you can practice it on your own.

It’s fun, easy to begin and helps you feel great. The Delightful Dozen can boost your immune system and could protect against illnesses…from colds and flu to far more serious diseases.

The Delightful Dozen trains you to be natural, at ease and empowered in your own body. By incrementally improving how you move, stand, breathe, and think, you improve your state of body, mind and emotions.

The Progression of Learning the Delightful Dozen

This Qigong is simple to begin to learn and most people begin noticing results right away.

Yet, the Delightful Dozen, like most Qigong, has layers and aspects more that add depth, breadth, sophistication that, as you learn them, increase the effectiveness of the practices and magnify results.

1. Basic Idea. First get just the basic idea down—a rough sense of what you are doing with your arms, legs and waist.

2. Structure and Movement. As you get better with a new exercise you begin paying more attention to structural details and movement precision. You also get more able to align the movements with your breathing rhythm.

3. Energy and Consciousness. After a span weeks practicing a move, the exercise becomes more familiar. Now you can begin adding focus on what the Qi flow is doing, how your energy is, and where your mind is. By this time you are attaining a complete exercise, one that is replete with benefits.

The Delightful Dozen

1.     Earth’s Breath Rises/Heaven’s Breath Sinks

2.     Separating Yin from Yang

3.     Holding the Qi Ball at the Dantian

4.     Circling the Qi Ball Along the Microcosmic Orbit

5.     Moving the Heart Through Time and Space

6.     Blending Fire and Water

7.     Rooting Left and Right

8.     Scooping Energy From Nature

9.     Dragon Washes its Face

10.   Stirring the Cosmos

11.   Drinking the Earth

12.   Collecting the Qi

Simple Taiji is Advanced Movement

Many times I have heard from people who tried to learn Taiji (Tai Chi) that the moves were too complex and the form was too long to remember. Instead of using their class and practice time to learn healthy principles movement, they would mostly be overwhelmed. The Simple Taiji Form solves that problem. This form consists of just two postures repeated six times, plus some transitions. By investing a shorter time in learning the moves, you are able to explore many principles of Taiji Qigong. You aren’t spending all your efforts in remembering (and forgetting).

Accessible Taiji

The Simple Taiji Form is a fun and accessible introduction to the world of Taiji. One repetition of this Qi-building form can be done in only 3 or 4 minutes. This short sequence trains balance, builds strength, improves memory, promotes health, and increases physical stability. Once you learn it, the form has many levels of practice within the same moves: It is a trove of riches of innumerable lessons and blessings. Daily practice of this little form will make your life better, healthier and probably longer.

Simple Taiji is a Qigong Practice

The Simple Taiji form will 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.

I learned this sequence from Minke de Vos in 1997 and 1998. She learned it from her teacher Mantak Chia.

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

Sun-like power in your center

Feet sunk deep into the ground

Full, flowing river in your orbit

Strong purple aura all around

The Four-Part Protection Process is a quick and effective way to protect yourself from chaos and excess energies around you. People who are sensitive, intuitive, introspective, quietly artistic, and tired out by the wild ways of the world need to do these kind of practices to stay energetically and emotionally safe and whole. I first put this set together for a nutritionist who sometimes had to attend a booth at multi-day health fairs (which are fairly unhealthy.) She was able to stay clear and energized for all three days.

Practice First

Practice the process as a meditation to build your ability with the skill. Then turn it on when you are in places of intensities and chaos. You have to practice in order to keep all four energies activated when you need them to be.

1. Sun-like power in your center

The Lower Dantian is the center of personal solar system. It is the geographical center of your body. Keep the sunlight (in yellow, orange or red) alive, pulsing, full and beaming to all parts of your internal self.

2. Feet sunk deep into the ground

Root into the earth to ground the excess Qi that might get stuck in your body. Let your weight sink and your Qi grow deep roots beneath your feet. You will be more physically and psychically stable. Stay rooted as you walk.

3. Full, flowing river in your orbit

The Microcosmic Orbit (MCO) is the flow of Qi that comes from connecting your Governor and Conception Vessels. It is a thin, central stream of energy that rises up the spine, travels over the head and down the front of the body. It is important to come up the spine and down the front. (Do no reverse this direction of flow unless you are ready and really know what you are doing.) Tip of the tongue is on the root of the mouth and the perineum is slightly, gently, closed.

Streaming this internal orbit at a speed of at least one cycle per second will help keep your internal energies circulating while protecting you from the entrance of unwanted outside forces.

4. Strong purple aura all around

Purple is a powerful, protective color. Intend your energetic egg, your Wei Qi field around your body, to be of thick purple Qi. An inch or more in thickness helps keep the tendrils and spit wads of inimical energies from entering and engulfing your body.

Note: Amidst the text below is an audio recording of these Six Healing Sounds.

The Six Healing Sounds are used for clearing, releasing, and purging the internal organs and other tissues of bad, surplus or stagnant Qi. These specific tones clear out blocks and excesses, release negative emotions, and purge toxic Qi from each organ. It is important to clear your organs of excess Qi and toxic Qi, before adding in fresh Qi.

The 5 plus 1 organs of this set are the Yin organs of Chinese medical theory. Each of these organs is thought to be a master organ that controls several other organs, systems, and functions in the body. By working on each of these organs, the whole body is helped.

There are many versions of healing sounds in Qigong, including the Old Man…” exercise for healing emotional issues. The tones I include here work very well for clearing those physiological stagnations that lead to low energy and other symptoms. The most important aspect of performing healing sounds is to feel the sound affecting the target organ, to feel a vibration that is shaking loose energetic and emotional debris.

Visualize the Target Organ

It is useful to gain a visual understanding of each of the 5 main internal organs by consulting a good anatomy book, or just finding each organ on a search engine. I recommend Atlas of Human Anatomy by Frank H. Netter. M.D. It is not only the clearest collection of anatomy renderings I have seen, but also a moving collection of artful paintings of the complex interior of human beings.   

As you perform each sound, lightly intend for old, stuck, icky Qi to be released from that organ. As you feel the vibrations, you might visualize a mist leaving the organ and out of your body.

Try to practice with your eyes open. If you are too inwardly focused, then the Qi has a difficult time leaving your body—it stays where your mind is focused.

Repetitions

I good way to practice this short set is to perform each healing sound and movement in order for about 5 reps: Liver, Heart, Spleen, Lungs, Kidneys, whole body. Travel through the set for a total of three rounds.

Below is the version we are currently practicing in our classes:

An MP3 Recording of the 6 Healing Sounds

To get a sense of what the various tones actually sound like, I recorded this five minute audio recording in a Qigong class.

6 healing sounds

Sound #1: Liver

Intertwine palms over the head, lean to the left to release the weight off the Liver, push the palms upward, facing upward, and make the foghorn-like descending sound “Shuuu—uuuu.” You are releasing such the energy of such emotions as anger, grumpiness, and irritation, leaving you feeling at ease in your body and your life.

You are releasing excess, toxic or hot Liver Qi in three ways:

1. Gently pressing the right leg into the ground helps the old Qi flow down the outside of the right leg into the earth. This utilizes the companion pathway of the Liver meridian, the Gallbladder meridian.

2. Express old and bad Qi out of your mouth (with all of the sounds exhaling from the mouth is part of the releasing.)

3. Visualize and sense a releasing of a mist leaving out of your right side, where the Liver is located just under the ribs.

The Liver represents and oversees the Wood Elemental Energies of the body. A smooth-functining Liver results in feelings of well-being, and the free and easy Qi flow in the body.

Sound #2: Heart

Inhale as you bring your fingers to touch your sternum. Exhale or sing a long, sighing, descending (from high to low tone) “Haaaaa” as you expand your arms outward and down. Open the fingers at the end of the movement and perform a pelvic tilt. You are releasing anxiety, heart tensions and hard-heartedness.

You are releasing Heart Qi in three simultaneous ways:

1. Opening the arms and fingers out to the sides as you lower them, allows dammed Heart Qi and emotions to travel out of the limbs. Often people tend to hold tension in the arms blocking the natural pathway of excess heart energy. Be sure to roll the fingers open at the end of the move to release the old Qi into the earth.

2. The sound vibrates excess and stuck energy and emotions in the Heart so you can release through the mouth with the toning.

3. Smoothly dropping into a pelvic tilt allows some of the excess Heart Qi to root into the lower abdominal energy center (the Lower Dantian).

The Heart represents and oversees the Fire Elemental Energies of the body. A smooth-functioning Heart results in more order in your life.

Sound #3: Spleen

(Including Pancreas/Digestive System)

Inhale as you bring your palms to face the left upper quadrant of your abdomen. Connect energetically and with your mind to the stomach, pancreas, and Spleen. Now turn the palms to face downwards. Push the old Qi of the of the digestive area (left upper quadrant of the abdomen) into the earth with the palms as you exhale a  deep, droning, digederoo-like “Whooo.” Push down to the left/front. Try to feel the old Qi entering deep into, and being accepted by the earth.

The Spleen represents and oversees the Earth Elemental Energies of the body. A smooth-functioning Spleen energy results in better digestion, stronger immunity, strong internal organs and more trust in the course of your life.

Sound #4: Lungs

Inhale as you bring your palms to face your Lungs, opening the upper back. Unbend the elbows horizontally from the chest to the sides, stretching the thumbs (which are the ends of the lung meridians) and exhale the sound “SSSSSS….” You are breathing out excess cool dryness, smoky exhaust, sadness and grief.

With this movements connect to the Lungs and open the front of the chest. The arms extend out of the chest movement, with the fingers extending at the end. Feel like you are opening your chest like two cupboard doors. This movement is about getting a sense of the lungs opening the arms, rather than the arms just expanding out.

The Lungs represent and oversees the Metal Elemental Energies of the body. Smooth-functioning lungs result in more confidence and uprightness, as well as alleviation of sinus and breathing issues.

Sound #5: Kidneys

Inhale as you bend at the waist and place your palms on your knees; connect energetically and consciously with your Kidneys, while gently pushing the low back backward. Exhale fear, coldness, and tiredness with the sound “Chreeee.” This high, almost nasal, sound should end in an ear-tingling sensation

According to Chinese medicine, the knees are connected to the Kidneys. Palming the knees engages the Kidney energies.

Rounding the back in this pose opens the Kidneys and Gate of Life.

The Kidneys represent and oversee the Water Elemental Energies of the body. Smooth-functioning Kidneys result in more energy, warmer hands and feet, better brain function, and better sleep.

Sound #6: Whole Body Cellular Cleansing

This is a general clearer and balancer of both Qi and excess heat.

To begin, inhale as you raise arms above your head. Bring the palms to face down over the top of your head. 

Lower your arms in front of your body, cleansing your cells, tissues, organs and intercellular spaces with clear Qi and the tone “Sheeee.” This tone will start in the high range and descend smoothly to a very low base at the feet. It is like you are squegeeing the old, murky, dirty Qi from your cells, leaving them bright and shiny.

The key to this movement is to send thought and heat down, down, down, to the feet, feet, feet and into the ground, ground, ground. Send head Qi and excess risen energy down through the feet into the ground. Developing clearing and redirecting ability with your Qi is crucial in dealing with many syndromes, such as headaches, stress, neck tension, heart tension and hot flashes. I give more instruction for this exercise on this video:

watch?v=rSQlPMXHozo.

Loud, Moderate, or Quiet

With healing sounds, you can make them loud, moderately quiet or aspirated. The aspirated sounds are very quiet and good for doing the healing sounds in public spaces like parks or for keeping your family in the other room from laughing at you. The loud sounds foster the most release on a gross, physical level. The softer the sounds the more energetic and neurological the changes are, with more long-term results.

The Five Flows are a progression that follows the creative cycle of the Five Elemental Energies of Chinese medicine and philosophy. In my Five Flows Qigong set, I ascribe two or three exercises for each flow. Done in order, they are a complete Qigong practice. There could be more exercises per flow.

Or fewer. There could be just one exercise.

I’ve noticed that a single exercise repeated many times in a row follows a pattern similar to the five flows of Warming Up, Clearing, Charging, Balancing, and Centering.

By moving through all of the phases within a single exercise—whether that takes five reps or 50 or 100—you gain much from the exercise. The Qi state actually changes your physiology for a while (hours to days.) While the physiology is enhanced, your body works better. For those hours or days, you are a better functioning being whose inner workings are working at high quality, high speed levels to heal the hurts of your past and bring more joy in the moment.

Warming Up

Reps 10 to 20.

Generally when you are practicing an exercise it takes a few repetitions to get into it properly. You might feel a bit creaky or not quite coordinated with the exercise. You are in the process of calling up and remembering the exercise. The first few are the warm up phase.

Clearing

Reps 20 to 30 or more.

The next phase of a repeated exercise you are drilling is the release, clearing, or cleansing phase. Here, the blocks to movement begin to let go, melt, release and transform. Blockages in your body, energy flows, nervous system, mind, memory of the moves, etc. begin to let go. Your movement becomes smoother, more natural feeling. You start to breathe more easily.

Charging

Reps 30 to 40 or more.

In the third phase you begin to charge up. The heightened Qi flow feeds your organs and cells. The movement is feeling quite good to do. You notice such sensations as internal warmth, buzzing, tingling, a sense of more stability and pleasant solidity.

Balance

Reps 40 to 50 or more.

The fourth phase is one of equilibrium, of a full flow of Qi in the whole body. This is the balance phase and it is here where you reach that Qi state. Qi begins to flow more evenly. It flows in and out, up and down, and all around in an increasingly stable, flow. The Qi state is one where you feel yourself and your cells being nourished and filled with life force throughout.

Centering

Reps 50 to 60 or more.

The fifth phase is a continuation and deepening of the Qi-state phase. Now you gain greatest benefit of the exercise, absorbing Qi fully into your system and deepening the experience, making it a easier to recapture or repeat. The exercise becomes a moving meditation. A move-itation. The Qi brings you greater centering, grounding, and rooting. Your mind is quiet (at least quieter than usual). Your body feels whole. Your emotions are settled. There is an integration and internalization of the exercise.

Qigong Radio Interview

I was interviewed on an internet radio show called Paradigm Shifters in January of 2011. The interlocutor was Veronica Entwistle, who has interviewed some 200 people for the show over the past 3 years.

The interview was a blast. Veronica is a skilled interviewer who kept me on track in explaining many of the important concepts of Qigong.

Here is the interview at a site called Kiwi6.com. In this audio I give a detailed overview of what Qigong is. I also demonstrate the 6-Healing Sounds Qigong.

The thermal imaging camera works great as tool for exploring certain aspects of Qigong. The swashes of bright colors give an overview of how someone’s Qi and blood flow are. The balance of colors show how balanced the body is. The type of color shows the level of warmth in each area. Extech i5 is the camera’s designation. 

Thermal Imaging Camera

We took photographs both before and after class. Our class exercises consisted mostly of slow, whole body charging exercises with particuar focus on the hands, Kidneys, legs, Dantian and Lungs.    

Following are some of the things we learned.    

First Student

Even though cold at the begining of class, this persons’s hands were much more balanced to start with than earlier this year.    

And the hands are way hotter after this class than before it.     

Before class hands

After class hands

Notice also how the heat of her head becomes more balanced by the end of the class compared to the photo before class.  She has distributed some of the head heat down into her arms, hands, torso, and legs. 

Body shot, beginning of class

Body shot, end of class

She is learning how to use Qigong to shift the state of her body in an intentional way.     

Second Student

This person’s hands and fingers heated up a lot from the Qigong.     

Before class: warm palms, cool fingers

After class: warmer, but with an imbalance

Third Student

These photos show that the hands heated up very well from the Qigong, and that there is more energy in the head than is probably healthy. Too much energy in the head is a precursor to many kinds of problems. After viewing the photos, I suggested she focus on her feet more to bring more energetic, thermal and neurologic balance to her entire body.    

And focus on the Dantian when practicing Qigong.    

Hands before

Hands after

In the photos below you can see that clothes keep the heat in. But both the head and the hands were visible and comparing them was useful. A hot head and cold hands are, in general, the reverse of what you want. Seek a cool head and warm or hot hands.    

These photos show lots of energy in the head and moderate energy in the hands.     

I suggested working on learning how to send that head energy to the palms and fingers.This is actually the essence of a Qigong headache remedy: Send the excess heat in the head down the arms to warm up the hands. The pain in the head will often reduce or go away through this simple prescription.    

Before class: hot head and cool hands

After class: warmer hands

Fourth Student

This person heated her hands up significantly.    

Before class: sort of warm hands

After class: hot hands of Qi

My Hands on This Day

My hands are usually warm to hot. They tend to heat up and turn on when I do hands-on healing work with people. People who have practiced Qigong regularly for a few years usually have hands that are warm, alive, and balanced in Qi. This is a generally true even at the beginning of a practice. Warm hands become a way of life. Warm hands, balanced left and right, are usually indicative of health.    

Before class: Robert's hands

After class: Robert's hands

Fifth Student

Here is another example of the power of Qigong to energize. This student’s palm areas (Lao Gongs in Qigong lingo) are warm to begin with, but his fingers and left thumb are cold.    

Before Qigong: cold fingers

After Qigong

With Qigong practice this person’s Qi and blood began to suffuse his fingers. This student has been practicing Qigong for less than two years, and is learning well how to reorder his blood and Qi flow.    

Sixth Qigong Student

This student’s hands show a cold and imbalanced profile to start. Notice the marked purpleness on the right hand. The left hand is more lavender. Both are cold.   

Cold and Imbalanced to Start

     

So much better after Qigong

Wow! Warm and very close to being balanced. This person has been studying Qigong for more than two years. He is making great progress in learning how to shift his energies.

Seventh Qigong Student

Cold fingers with some brightness of  heat in the central palms to start.

Cold at the beginning

Warmer at the end of practice

Notice how much improvement there is here. A little imbalance shows in the fingerpads, but overall, the photos show a marked improvement in less than an hour of Qigong practice. This student has been practicing Qigong for a little more than a year.

     

 

In a short video that I have included below is a simple Qigong-like exercise to help a heart with any excess condition. Excess conditions are those of too much Yang in the heart, (or too little Yin elsewhere). High blood pressure, angina, tachycardia, and other physical heart issues can be the result. This exercise can also be helpful for such issues as anxiety, insomnia, over-excitement, night sweats, mental and emotional problems and dizziness.

In a two minute video clip, Stephen Sinatra, a cardiologist, talks about how the arms are extensions of the heart. Early in embryogenesis the arms came from the heart area.

Thus,

“If you want to work with someone’s heart, work with the energy of the arms.”

He makes the point that conductors, who are raising their arms in motion, live healthily into their 90’s.

The key to the video is the little exercise Stephen Sinatra shows. He recommends swinging your arms back and forth a couple hundred times a day to keep the thoracic duct open.

The thoracic duct is the major pathway in the center of the chest where lymph flows from the abdomen and legs back to the heart

The video style is intense (itself a stress on the heart), but short.

The Heart/Arm Connection

I’ve often noticed this heart and arm connection with my healing clients and Qigong students. Symptoms in the chest can often be relieved by opening the shoulders and guiding attention, sensation and Qi down the arms, and off the fingers. In Medical Qigong training we are taught to take a patient’s excess heart Qi out of the heart, down three of the meridians of the arm (Small Intestine, Pericardium and Heart). Dredging down the entire arm, not just the meridians, works quite well also.

The arms and hands can be thought of the external manifestations of the heart. It is with the arms that we create, or hug ,or hold tight, or push away, or fight for our space. A post and video I made for lowering high blood pressure prominently uses the arms to release heart tension.

I almost included arm swinging in my Five Flows Qigong Set, and even made a preliminary video of it. (I put it into Five Flows Qigong Set 2). Here it is:

The swinging exercise has other benefits to the heart. It opens the thoracic outlet, relaxes the shoulders, sends blood to to the hands to relieve excess, and improves lymph flow from the arms via the axillary nodes and clavicular pathways.

This exercise—like just about everything else in life—works even better with lower abdominal breathing.

Note: Just about any Kidney strengthening exercises can help with excess heart issues. The fiery heart needs to be supported, nourished and controlled some by the water energy of the Kidneys. This is according to the useful (and quite functional) pattern of the Five Elemental Energies.