Qi gong is a form of gentle exercise that moves the Qi Energy in the body, ascribing to Traditional Chinese Medicine understanding of how the body functions optimally. It can be done by anyone at anytime, with no experience, and there is a broad range of benefits. The exercises below focus on the benefits of the nervous system, the lymph system and the digestive system, which will have the most benefit for all at this time.
These are a simple series of Qi Gong moves.
Breathing into Abdomen: Place your hands on your abdomen, give a cheesy grin, and take a few deep breaths.
Qi Shower: Inhale and float the arms up and spiral the hands to face the sky, then exhale your arms down the front of your body
Shake the Tree: Shake out your hands, shake out your shoulders, and begin to bounce into your heels and the whole body. Relax your shoulders and keep your neck straight. The more you relax into the shaking, the longer you can sustain this movement. It is very helpful for the lymph system. Shaking and smiling are one of the fastest ways to let go of stress!
Feel the Qi: Stop at any point in this practice to just feel your energy. Close your eyes and scan your body from head to toe.
Spinal Cord Breathing:
Make a light fist, inhale, look up and arch your back
Exhale, round your back and draw your elbows together
Squeeze and tilt your pelvis to move qi up and down the spine
This flexion and extension of the spine brings blood flow, oxygen and qi energy up throughout the spinal column which connects to all functions of the body.
Qi Massage
Knock on your kidneys area all the way down to the sacrum and tailbone.
Knock on your hips and down the outside of the legs down to the outside of the foot.
Wrap around and come up the inside of your leg.
Move around to the Sitz bones and knock down the back of the legs, calves, around the foot and mov up the inside of the legs.
Knock on Abdomen
Knock on right side, liver
Knock on spleen, left side
Knock on heart
Knock on lungs
Knock down inside of arm
Knock up outside of arm
The fountain: Disperse your hands out to the sides then draw the back of your hands up the midline of your body then circle around. Inhale as the hands draw up and exhale and circle around. Observe a slight movement of the spine as you draw the energy up and bend the knees as you go down.
This pose is about gentleness. Move your body like water.The slower you move, the easier it is to feel the energy (qi) of your body
With each breath, see if you can relax just a bit more. Feel the fluid movement of your body fluid, flowing as if everything is moving as one smooth unit. Let that life force energy move through you.
Qi Ball
Bring your hands together – palms facing each other in front of you. Pretend you have a ball in between your hands. Inhale as the hands move apart, exhale as the hands come together. Notice how your palms feel. See if you can feel the space between your hands. Like a magnet. Use your elbows to guide the movement and use your hands to feel the energy. Imagine your hands come together around a ball of energy that you’re holding right in front of you. Softly pulse the ball three times like a magnet pulsing around a sphere. Rotate the ball and pulse 3 x. Rotate the ball 3 x. The energy in your hands is your unique life force energy. Imagine the energy is becoming brighter and brighter. Now bring the ball back to the center and imagine the light expanding in your arms.
Centering: Drop your hands down in front of your lower abdomen. Circle the right arm up over your head and down the midline to your center. Circle left hand circles up as you inhale and down the midline as you exhale. This is called centering and is a wonderful thing to do at the end of any qi gong practice
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