As we have seen the benefits of Qigong before, how it can cultivate your ‘qi’ and bring balance to your life. Balance is very important in life and without it, we feel frustrated, failed, and lost.
Qigong is the ancient Chinese technique that has played an important part in healing, spirituality, and martial arts. It is like taking mastery of your own energy. A practice that involves controlled breathing and meditation also has many other steps to make you fully aware of yourself and your surroundings. Today we are going to learn how to do Qigong meditation for complete mindfulness and awareness.
How to do Qigong at home
Several practices are involved in Qigong that can only be properly learned by a Qigong therapist. We can do a beginner qigong exercise at home that will benefit us in many ways. It is important to start at home and see that we are ready for the entire learning or not. Let us begin with important things we should know before we begin Qigong.
- If you have joint pains, circulation problems, diabetes you should consult a doctor before you start. Usually, for people with such problems, a doctor will advise sitting qigong meditation.
- Always select a quiet area to practice qigong. It will help you to be calm and concentrate. Stay away from chaos.
- Don’t choose a confined small space. Choose a place wide enough to move.
- Clear your mind of everyday work thoughts. Try to ignore all those scheduled alarms that are in your mind and think only about healing.
Now that you are ready. Let us begin with the basic steps of Qigong.
- For a beginner, you should start with Nei dang, a sitting qigong meditation technique that involves guided imagery and visualization. Wei dang involves physical movements and concentration and is not advised for beginners.
- Now that you are seated try to focus on your normal breath. Close your eyes and try to visualize the energy that you are drawing inside you. Your breath is the way to connect your mind and body.
- As you move further, try breathing deeply. It should be calm and measured.
Moving through Qigong postures
- Do a little stretching. Stretching will help you loosen your muscles and get you ready.
- Do the MaBu balance. MaBu is the horse stance. In this stance, your feet should be shoulder length apart with your feet parallel. It looks like you are about to sit in an imaginary chair. If you are unable to do this, try practicing by sitting on the edge of a chair with only the end of your buttocks.
- You should start with 5 to 10 seconds and then slowly increase. This will increase your strength with time.
- Now practice the GongBu technique. This is the Bow stance. Your posture looks like an archer just before he is about to draw the bow. Start with your right feet forward, your left feet 45 degrees away from the right. Slide your right foot in such a way that your feet are shoulder-width apart. You will see that it looks similar to warrior pose. Your shoulder should be forward.
