You never know what process can bring harmony to your life. Some people find their peace in meditation while for some running and gymming is peaceful. It’s important to know what brings quality to your life, which process you find welcoming. While you might have learned much about yoga and weight lifting, today I bring another Chinese tradition that helps to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
What is Qigong?
Qigong is an ancient system of coordinated body movement and posture, breathing, and meditation to obtain spirituality and good health. Qigong practices are also used in martial arts training so you can imagine how effective this can be.
Qigong helps you cultivate and balance your qi (pronounced as chi). Qi means life’s energy or vital energy.
Qigong is practiced in different parts of Asia and has different methods. But all of them have something in common, i.e. specialized breathing coordinated with hand movements.
There is a guiding principle in each practice of qigong. To maintain focus you need to coordinate your eyes with body movements, mind’s focus, and your breath.
Some of the most popular qigong types are:
- Medical Qigong – Practiced for healing oneself and others
- Martial Qigong – Practiced for gaining physical powers
- Spiritual Qigong – practiced for attaining enlightenment
But before we earn ‘how to do Qigong’, let us know what is the goal of qigong.
Goal of Qigong
Before you learn how to do something, you should know what benefits it will bring you.
Qigong is a subtraction process. It lets the universal flow of energy move through us and we get out of our way. That means we get out of our anger, frustration, problems, etc of the horizontal axis. If we bring harmony to this horizontal axis, our lives will run smoothly. We can achieve the power of the vertical axis. We don’t have to run from the human condition but engage, understand, be aware of the moment.
Living organism gives off the bioelectric field and if you are in touch with a Qigong healer, he can detect those fields and thus the imbalance. Practicing qigong will help you correct those imbalances.
You might have those imbalances through lifelong emotions, the environment around you, stress, etc. Qi must flow like a river in your body. Qi becomes stagnant if there is a block and you feel undernourished.
If it flows rapidly, it will exhaust your internal organs. Balancing your qi will help you manage these energies: fill your deficiencies and remove the excess.
Physical and Psychological benefits
While qigong can change your life upside down, here are a few physical benefits that are most popular.
- Increases bone density
- Improves cardiovascular functions
- Improves somatic systems
- Decreases anxiety
- Improves self-efficiency
- Improves immune system
Qigong has magical construction powers. It builds up awareness and energy that you can tackle anything that’s happening around you. Qigong is one of the key practices of martial arts and has been practiced by many. Now that you know what magic Qigong can do, we will look into different kinds of qigong and how to do them in the next article.