Stress can come in different forms and in varying degrees since most of us have experienced it at some point in our lives. Some people experience stress as a physical feeling that can take the form of a tight back muscles, headache, fatigue, or stiff neck while others may experience it as a type of mental stress such as too much worrying about family, work, or school that can keep them awake late into the night and prevent them from falling asleep. Emotional stress can also come in the form of strong negative emotions such as loss, grief, depression, sadness, anger, fear, irritability, frustration, worry, chaos, nervousness and indecisiveness, just to name a few and is not any easier to handle. Some may suffer from the whole spectrum of stress that can affect them emotionally, mentally and physically. Fortunately, many of us have found a way to alleviate the stresses in our lives and for sure there is something that works really well for each of us. More and more people in the States have found Qigong a blessing in their lives helping them banish stress in a natural way within just a few minutes and without the need for drugs. But in order to achieve long lasting benefits, one must practice Qigong on a regular basis.
Pronounced Chee-Kung, Qigong is an age-old Chinese healing technique that combines deep breathing techniques similar to Tai Chi with graceful coordinated movements. Qigong is where acupuncture in Spokane and Tai Chi originated thousands of years ago. The word Qigong is derived from two Chinese words: “Qi,” which means vital energy, breath of life, or air that moves within all things everywhere and “Gong” which means the ability of self discipline, cultivating, or working with. Put together, Qi and gong means the technique of cultivating one’s life force. Qigong can help enhance the amount of positive qi or good oxygen in the body and blood, improving metabolism to help burn calories more efficiently and strengthening the immune systems to word off illness and disease. Another advantage in practicing Qigong is that it relieves stress naturally as one exhales while transforming the air inhaled into healing qi.
Practicing Qigong helps enhance qi vital energy to bring you health, longevity, weight loss inner peace, and to lower stress. It banishes stress in the body be it emotional stress, mental stress, or physical stress. It also increases the amount of oxygen in your body which helps balance the emotions, melt away muscular aches and pains, and endow one with optimal health. The breathing exercises is an aspect of this practice’s mystery that allows us full deep breaths which raise and fill the stomach and makes use of gravity to push gently the air out as we breathe out just like little babies do when sleeping.
We can start by pressing our tongue on the upper palette of our mouth just behind our upper teeth while gently breathing with our nose, and at the same time relaxing our body as we breathe. Start to become conscious of where your breath begins and ends. Are you pulling your breath downward to your stomach filling it first or is your chest rising first? You will know the answer by placing one hand on your stomach and the other hand on your chest, while you deeply breathe in through your nose and breathe out gently through your nose. Breathe a few more times if you find yourself breathing from your chest. Imagine your breath coming in through your nose and flowing down into your stomach. Imagine your stomach inflating like a beach ball, and imagine when breathing out, you use gravity to allow the stomach to fall gently towards your spine. Perfect, you have just done Qigong breathing.
The other aspect of Qigong wherein we utilize the tools and wisdom of qigong training to gather more life force or qi is known as Cultivation.
Qigong stance
Pelvic tuck forward, feet shoulder width apart while standing, knees bent slightly, toes aligned with your shoulders while facing straight forward and relaxing your buttocks while your stand straight as if you’re rooted like a tree planted firmly into the ground. With elbows bent, place your arms at your sides and your palms should face the outer part of your thighs keeping space between your fingers. Now visualize that you’re carrying under each arm a bag of rice. Maintain the Qigong deep breathing, and be aware as you breathe, your stomach rising and notice when breathing out, it gently falls back toward your spine. Relax your hands, arms, chest, and shoulders, maintaining a rounded shape with your arms at the sides and palms facing the outer part of your thigh and relax at the legs, buttocks, and waist. Next move out your hands in front on the level of your bellybutton, align the finger tips as you make a rounded shape with your arms as if you’re hugging a person. Then relax your shoulders and keep on doing for nine deep breaths, the Qigong deep stomach breathing.
At this point inhale and raise your arms outward laterally and upward towards the sky with your palms facing high up over your head. Bend your elbows as you exhale and lower your arms down to your front with your palms facing down. Perform this activity a few times. This is known as pulling down the heavens movement and it’s designed to purify your energy downward to the ground. This exercise can help lower high blood pressure, headaches, and stress. When treating high blood pressure, perform a longer exhale and a shorter inhale and as well as the movement of pulling down the heavens.
Finally, we’ll end the Qigong practice by bringing our two hands onto our bellybutton one over the other. Concentrate on the area under your hands and feel the warmth generated by your hands focused into the center of your bellybutton. Imagine the sun glowing brightly from your hands into the center of your belly button filling your lower stomach with brilliant light and gentle warmth. Perform 3 more Qigong deep breaths, with your bellybutton covered by your hands. Good work, you have just cultivated your qi for health successfully within just a few short moments.
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