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.  

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

The Lower Dantian should be the biggest and fullest of the three dantians, yet it is often the smallest and weakest.

Hot flashes can sometimes be eliminated in a moment by the use of a simple healing sound from the Chinese Art of Qigong.  I have seen these amazing shifts happen on several occasions with different people.

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.

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.

To Sign Up for Classes: (360) 398-7466, or email

Monthly Wild Goose Qigong Workshops

Once a month on Saturdays, Robert Bates will be teaching 2-hour Wild Goose Qigong Workshops. The workshops will be for both beginners and continuing students. Everyone will work on the First 64 form. Continuing students then can stay with the First 64 practice or work on Spiral, Soft Palms, or Slapping Healthy.

Time: 10:00 to 12:00

Dates: February 20, March 20, April 17, May 15 and June 19

Cost: $80 for the 5-class series or $20 per class

Location: Robert’s Healing Studio: 1095 E. Axton Road, Bellingham, WA 98226

Gain Greater Health and Have Fun Doing it

Wild Goose Qigong exercises are Chinese longevity exercises that originated in the Taoist tradition in the Kunlun mountains of Western China, many centuries ago. Long a secret, Wild Goose Qigong became widely practiced in China in the last few decades. The exercises represent the daily routine of a wild goose—a bird of longevity and high energy. Wild Goose Qigong is effective at helping treat disease, increase energy, improve mental clarity and brain functions, and maintain general fitness.

The Fabulous, Famous, Fantastic “First 64”

The “First 64” is one of the most well known Qigong sequences in the world. It is usually the one first taught in the Wild Goose system. It consists of 64 named moves of great variety that are performed in succession along a specific stepping pattern, much like a Tai Chi Sequence is done. Each of the moves has particular benefits for health, wellness, and healing. The movements flow together in a flowing, active tapestry. The “First 64” is a lot of fun to practice and has many unexpected and unusual moves. The form includes turning, twisting, stretching, leg strengthening, balance building, and spinal strengthening. There are moves to eliminate old, stuck and toxic energy from your body and fill yourself with fresh new energy.

These classes are moderately vigorous and will include warming up, stretching, Qigong drills, and instruction in the profound and fun movements of the of the long sequences.

Below is the fifth of five videos on Reducing Depression with the “Old Man” Qigong Set.

The final video in this series puts each part of the the form together into a flowing whole.

The Ratio of Moves

Once you have practiced each of the 3 moves separately and can perform them well–with good amounts of feeling and healing–then you put them all together. The connected movement ratio is as follows:

1, 2, 3

2, 3

2, 3

Put Another Way, You Do

1. Lungs

2. Heart

3. Middle Burner

2. Heart

3. Middle Burner

2. Heart

3. Middle Burner

Then start over, again starting with the Lungs.

The Daily Exercise Prescription

The basic formula for practicing the full “Old Man” exercise is to do it for set amount of time. Get into a flowing groove by the set over and over and over again for 5, 10, 20 or more minutes at a time.

As you practice, you don’t need to count reps. Just glance at a clock every once in a while.

Urgent Prescription

Those who need to get their bodies on track quickly can elect to do 25 minutes of the “Old Man” 3 times a day.

Below is the fourth of five videos on Reducing Depression with the “Old Man” Qigong Set.

The Middle Burner

In this section of video training, I detail how to release blocking tensions in the the center organs of the body: the Spleen, Stomach, Pancreas, Upper Small Intestine, Gall Bladder and Liver, as well as the Solar Plexus area. The entire area is known as the Middle Burner.

Emotional Release in Masse

Releasing blocks in this area will help you easily release repressed emotions such as worry, over-thinking, anger, grumpiness, and rage. It will also help generally clear held-onto emotions from your body, resulting in more freedom for feeling well.

Ho, Ho, Ho

The healing sound used for this central section of the torso–the Middle Burner–is a long “Ho.” This sound is expressed to vibrate the target area from left to right (or right to left.) While making the sound you lower the bent arms to the lower ribs and turn the torso from left to right (or right to left, if you like.)

Twist the Towel

The torso-turning is a unique method that will take a little practice to get. It is an organ-wringing style–like twisting a towel–that is done from the center, between the chest and the belly button. This massages the organs of the upper abdomen and helps release tensions, trapped emotions and toxins from them.

Below is the third of Five Videos on Reducing Depression with the “Old Man” Qigong Set.

Open the Heart and Release Armoring

Opening the heart area can release stuck and stagnant emotions such as impatience, frustration, criticalness, anxiety, cold-heartedness, and armoring against feeling. All of these emotions get in the way of healing; as well as living a full, vibrant, friendly life.

The Healing Sound of the Heart and the Sparrow Fist

The Heart healing sound used in the “Old Man” exercise is a sighing, descending “Haaa.” The hands are held in a partly open palm shape called a Sparrow Fist. The hands descend from head level down to the lower chest as you make the chest-vibrating “Haaa” sound.

It is also important to slowly, slightly lower the head with the movements here, bringing  your gaze somewhat downward. This helps lower excess rising Qi.