Qigong (sometimes spelled Chi Kung), pronounced "chee-gung" literally Means "energy exercise" or "energy work". It is an ancient Chinese healing system similar to Tai Chi and Yoga, estimated to be 5,000 years old. It is the foundation of Tai Chi and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) which includes acupuncture. TCM grew out of Qigong and believes blocked and stagnant chi leads to all pain and disease. Qigong facilitates the movement of Qi (chi= bio-electric or life force energy) throughout the body to increase vitality, strength and protection from external forces.

Qigong has made a resurgence in China in recent decades. It is estimated that over 100 million people practice it daily now. It was nearly lost during their Cultural Revolution but for the dedication of surviving Qigong Masters who passed it down. Within China, qigong is divided into two major categories, "still" and "moving". "Still" qigong lays emphasis on quiet, motionless meditation, generally employing methods of internal concentration and regulation of breathing. It is usually practiced in outwardly motionless postures such as the lying, sitting or standing positions, and since it emphasizes exercise of the internal aspect of the body, it is often known as internal qigong. "Moving" qigong involves movement of the limbs and body under the conscious direction of the mind, and since the movement is expressed externally, it is also known as external qigong. The term "soft qigong" usually refers to exercises which enhance spiritual, mental, and physical health with meditation and gentle exercises. "Hard qigong" refers to exercises done in martial arts to strengthen and protect the body from vicious blows.

There have been many qigong schools in China. Although each school adopts unique methods, they all agree on the basic importance of regulating the mind and deepening the respiration. The essential points of practice of all the different schools and styles of qigong is the following: correct posture, deep breathing, and quieting the mind. It is vital the posture is natural and relaxed to allow smooth breathing and help lead the mind into a relaxed and quiet state. The aim of breathing is to change from chest or shallow breathing to deep or abdominal breathing.. In order to enter a quiet state of mind it helps to keep the mind concentrated on the "tan chien" (pronounced dantian) a point located one inch below the navel. This mental focus can be more easily attained by first concentrating on the act of breathing into and out of the abdomen. With practice and perseverance one can achieve a state of deep meditation where all awareness to external stimuli is reduced, and despite moving the body through the form, the cerebral cortex enters a quiescent state and is not disturbed by extraneous thoughts.

TOP

Techniques of Breathing

The purpose of practicing qigong is to learn to consciously control and direct one's chi life force energy. The key to doing this is in the deep abdominal breathing, ie "bellows breathing" while concentrating on the tan chien (dantien). The bellow, used to flame a fire, pushes air out and draws it in from the bottom where it has the greatest air capacity.

The way to breath during exercise of guigong is to inhale through the nose with the tip of the tongue gently touching up against the roof of the mouth or the palate then dropping down to the floor of the mouth while you exhale through the open mouth. This technique helps to connect the movement of chi energy through the "microcosmic orbit" as it travels up the front organs (the Functional Channel) to the crown (pineal gland) then down the spine (the Governing Channel) to the perineum ("Hui-yin" which means the "lowest energy collection point", also known as the Gate of Death and Life, is between the front gate, the sexual organ, which is an important life-force opening and the back gate, which is the anus) and back up again. You can control the exhale through the mouth a little by pursing your lips during the exhalation. At times it is helpful to exhale out the nose for better control. The anal lock is applied throughout the exercise to keep from losing energy from this lower gate. Here the life force can easily leak out when the anus is not closed tightly through muscular toning.

There is some danger to beginners when first learning to move the chi energy: do not strain or hold the diaphragm with too much tension when doing this as it can accumulate energy in the heart and elevate blood pressure, be sure to place the tongue on the roof of the mouth when finishing so as to bring the energy down from the head (the Governor Channel) to store it in the dantien otherwise you will find yourself unable to calm the mind. This is especially annoying if you practice in the evening and find you cannot get to sleep later when in bed. Additionally, there is danger in new practitioners trying to generate chi energy to their fists or feet while in combat whether just sparring or a real fight. Chi energy used this way can be surprisingly powerful, even deadly, in the hands of a novice. It is strongly advised that you do not use chi energy in this manner at all.

In Asia people accept the idea of chi very easily. They are raised to understand that it is in us and in all living things. They are told as children when they do not feel well that "their chi is too weak" that day and are shown what to do to improve their chi energy. They may know or have heard of a Qigong master who lives in their community. They probably have seen demonstrations or shows put on by groups of Qigong practitioners or Buddhist or Taoist Monks. Whereas, to we in the west it is an alien concept.

Practicing qigong should have a calming or grounding effect upon us. If we are not calm afterwards then we did not keep or store the energy into the dantien well enough (see comments above). One way to feel the generation and movement of chi energy is the increased warmth in our body when we practice it. When we become more adept we should be able to make a specific part of our body warmer by consciously moving chi energy to it. The Chi Buddhist Masters of Tibet prove their mastery of chi by a test in which they lay naked on a frozen lake in 30 degree below zero temperature covered in several layers of frozen sheets. They then melt the sheets of ice by generating chi energy. When they are done there is a depression in the lake ice where their body had lain. We can use the chi early on to help heal injuries and aches in our body. Try rubbing a little Tiger Balm on a sore spot and concentrate the chi there by breathing deeply and visualizing light traveling to that spot which emanates from our dantien up to our head and down to the site of pain.

Just to practice the focused abdominal breathing daily can benefit you with improved health, calmer mood and better concentration. The challenge of the practice of 18 Lo Han Gigong is to maintain the concentration on the dantien and the deep abdominal breathing while moving through the different postures. Each move is more difficult than the one before it. Each move has a different outward as well as inward or subtle new challenge to overcome to keep the breath and concentration in the right place. The beginner tries to stay focused on these aspects while learning the moves. The intermediate practitioner becomes more focused and more adept at keeping the energy and concentration in the right place. The advanced practitioner is learning how to master the form by decreasing the amount of breathing exchanges that are needed to get through it. In other words, the breathing becomes deep, relaxed and effortless and it guides the movements, instead of the other way around. This takes a long time and much discipline and practice to become proficient at.

Some helpful imagery to use to practice breathing is to visualize it as flowing like water being poured into or out of a large container as the air flows into and out of our lungs. It is helpful to be reminded that each breath actually begins with exhalation first. Also that inhalation is not done by forcing air in — it is a natural flowing of air in to the lungs from outside because when the diaphragm has relaxed downward it creates a slightly more negative pressure inside the lungs than there is outside so the air will automatically flow to this negative pressure to fill the void. Other imagery that can help with breath practice includes visualizing a yo-yo or perhaps a bungie cord or an elevator. You can use these thoughts to feel how as the breath travels it just sort of rides along up and down gracefully and you begin to feel more relaxed. There is this feeling of buoyancy or lightness as the breath gets to the top of the inhale for a moment before heading back down for the exhale. The same thing is felt at the bottom of the relaxed exhale right before heading back up. It can be compared to the feeling one must get when traveling in a rocket which reaches orbit where there is no gravity and you begin to float up then the rocket heads back down into earth's atmosphere where the gravity slowly returns and you are gently pulled back down. A somewhat more esoteric way to describe this is by using the pendulum which as it travels to one side it slows and virtually stops then reverses direction. Since the pendulum is inside of some clocks to keep time you can make the leap that during the point when the pendulum has reached it's maximum point and is turning backward there is a moment when time stops! By using this analogy while learning to control the breath one can feel a sense of time slowing, which can help us to not feel always so rushed and allow us to really give ourselves to our practice rather than be thinking and worrying about the next thing that we must do.

TOPe your entire body and extend your cardio vascular endurance immensely.