Qi Gong

Religion

Health & Happiness

Taoism

Movement

Resilience

English

Qi Gong Flow to Reduce Stress and Boost Immunity. To avoid illness it is important to reduce stress. This set will relax your energy to help you strengthen your immune system. You will focus your mind by working with your qi energy ball and flowing into flexibility and power. 

Note: This is a recording of a live class.

Qi Gong To Release Stress

 It's so important to ground. That's what happened last week. I was very scattered, which is common in the spring. We get scattered so easily because our bodies mimic the weather, where we have this up and down of temperature, incredible winds and storms like we saw. And that's going on internally as well. Qigong helps us balance and even when you're a regular practitioner, it can just feel overwhelming at times. And that's normal. That's why we gather and come together as a community to let go. We'll begin just by feeling our feet coming into our strong Wuji position. The knees will have a gentle bend, not like a deep bend, just a soft bend, so energy can flow up the front and insides and down the back. The pelvis also tucks forward, almost as if you have a very heavy tail wading down all the way into the earth. You can imagine it like a long dinosaur's tail even. And the spine elongates up so the shoulders can be pulled down by gravity. The shoulders and arms are heavy and the head is light, almost like a balloon filled with helium. And from the lengthening of the head up and the dropping of the arms and shoulders down, your neck feels very long. Begin your gentle breathing in and out of your nose, letting this grounded energy flow through you. Inhale, the arms float up, bring the hands overhead, and then exhale, turn the palms down, floating them down through center. Inhale through the nose, exhale, bring the palms together, hands to heart center, gazing at your fingertips, breathing gently in and out of your nose. Separate the hands, one hand in a loose fist to greet the palm of the other, and set the intention to calm the storm within. If your minds feel frazzled, bring them back to your breath and your movements. And we'll begin by focusing on the breath, bringing your hands right to the lower abdomen. We'll do some deep abdominal breathing to really begin to move our chi and focus our mind. As you inhale through the nose, relax the abdomen, let it drop down and out as the diaphragm moves down. And as you exhale, at the very end, squeeze the diaphragm back in. Inhale, relax the lower abdomen, let it completely let go. And then exhale from the top down, and at the very end, squeeze the abdomen in, feeling your hands moving in and out with your breath. Try to inhale for at least four counts, and exhale for at least four counts, tuning into the natural waving movement of your breath. Your gaze is soft into the distance, but your mind is focused on your abdomen, on the movement of the breath in and out, the coordination of the muscles as they relax down and out. And then squeeze in, feeling energy drawing up through your feet, through the legs, into this lower dantian, this lower energy center of the lower abdomen. And with each exhale, let stale chi flow into the earth. And on the inhales, you also picture energy moving in from the top of your head through the heavens, all the way down your torso into the lower dantian. And again, stagnant energy exhaling out your feet into the earth. We'll do one more breath here. And now rub your hands together vigorously. We're going to be working with our chi energy ball. Separate your hands about the size of a grapefruit if you're beginning and new to moving your energy, or about the size of a volleyball if you've been moving your energy longer. And we're going to inhale, open the hands a little bit wider, almost as if you're pulling taffy. You should feel strands of energy between your palms. And then exhale, float the palms back towards each other, feeling resistance like magnets not wanting to connect. Inhale through the nose. And you can keep moving your hands as far apart as you can, as long as you feel that energy. And then exhale back to the original size. You may be one of those people that doesn't feel the energy, that kind of expanding and contracting energy. That's okay. Just keep your gaze between your palms as you move. Everyone actually keep your gaze between your palms. As you inhale, open. Exhale, bring the palms back to start. If you lose the feeling of the energy, you can rub your palms again. Some people see colors. Others have a smell or words that come to mind. Still other people feel vibration between their palms or just a warm glow even. This time as you bring the hands in, bring one hand underneath the other, creating the ball shape top to bottom. And then inhale, lift the top hand. Exhale, bring it back together, feeling that expanding, that pulling of the taffy as you separate, and that resistance as you press down. Inhale, lift. Exhale, keeping your gaze between your palms. We feel stressed when our mind is bouncing every which way. As you focus the mind, you let go for that time and bring your mind and body to a state of calm. And this time gently rotate your ball to bring your other hand on top. And we'll inhale, lift. Exhale, lower the hand, continuing to focus and calm our physical, emotional, and spiritual energy, using the power of focus to release stress. And this time bring your hands back side by side and we're going to begin rolling the ball. You might want to step your feet out about shoulder width. And there's no right or wrong way to do this. The goal is to always have the palms facing each other. So I like to bring my top hand back and then my bottom hand comes forward and they shift and I'll move from side to side. And you can start even bending your knees, shifting the weight. But again, the only goal is to keep the palms facing each other as you roll. Think about also really releasing tension in the back of the shoulder blades, between the shoulder blades as you reach and draw back. If you're holding your breath, make sure you just have a nice gentle breath in and out your nose, moving your body, moving more importantly your chi, focusing your mind between your hands as you keep your gaze. Where the eyes go, the mind follows and the chi follows the mind. You can expand, make your movements bigger. We'll do a few more. Each side. Last one. And bring your feet back hip-width apart. Close your eyes and go within a moment. Notice any gentle awakening. Sound, smell, sensations of feeling, energy, a buzzing, tingling, a groundedness perhaps. Your body rooting down, your mind rooting down. Take one more breath here. Open your eyes and we'll do a push hands exercise. I saw it frequently in China, people doing it with a partner in the park, but you can do it by yourself. Turn one foot out at a 90-degree angle and I'll turn to the side so you can see me. You can face forward and then step forward with the other foot. And we're going to go ahead and bring the palms on top of each other. On the back hand, the fingertips are pointing up and on the front hand, the hand is at a horizontal line. So you're going to be pushing into that hand. So we're going to exhale, push forward, look down, make sure your knee hasn't gone over your toes. And then rotate the hands. So the front hand, the palm will still be horizontal but the fingertips are pointing down at the back hand. And inhale, you'll draw back, shifting your weight back as well. Rotate the back fingertips up as you exhale. Really feel resistance in your hands. Inhale, drawing in. Exhale, press forward, resisting. Not only strengthens the muscles but it works on opening the chi and blood flow. Exhale, shift forward and press. Inhale, shift back. And much like our trees, growing our tree, this shifting calms the mind. It lets us press forward when needed and be flexible enough to draw back when needed. Exhale, inhale. Breathe gently. If these long exhales and inhales are more challenging, but it's good to expand our lung capacity. One of the greatest ways to stay youthful and stress-free. We'll do one more here and as we step back we'll bring the foot that was forward back, turn it to the side, bring our hands down, step forward with the foot, other foot, check the knee, and then exhale, press forward. Inhale, draw in. Remember the palms of the back hand, the fingertips are up as you press forward. Rotate, turning the fingertips down as you inhale. Exhale, feel that resistance again. We're strengthening our physical, corporeal body as well as our energetic body. If you can't shift as far with as wide a stance, you can have a more gentle stance. You can just do your upper body. You might feel your heart pumping as we use our lower body and the resistance. We move our heart energy, our blood, in a very gentle way. This moving and calming of the heart, energizing of the heart, reduces stress by helping clear stagnant chi. We'll do one more. Exhale, inhale, bring the feet back hip-width apart. We'll sink the chi one time, having it sink down into our lower dantian. Now we'll do a thrusting fist. We've done this in many of our practices. You can do it in the traditional wide leg if you want to have a little extra energy this morning, or if you want to focus on just bringing the fist forward. The hands are in loose fists by the hips, and when you thrust the fist forward, you're going to really squeeze tightly on that front fist. Then open the hands, fingers together, thumbs spread wide, and inhale, draw in. Exhale, turning the thumb down at the end, and then open the hand wide, fingers together, thumbs spread wide, inhale, draw in. Exhaling through the nose, inhale, open and draw in. We're often stressed because we can't find the words or courage to say what we need to say. This move empowers you to find the right words and the confidence to use them, and the ability to grow. Exhale, thrust the fist forward, really tight squeeze. This releases stagnant chi in the hands as we open the hand and draw back. It's also great for the joints and all the channels of energy that flow to the hands and fingertips. Really feel the chest open as you draw back, just that opening as you move the shoulder blade. We'll do one more each side. Good. We're going to come out wide again, about one and a half times shoulder width, and actually maybe like one little just over shoulder width. Let's get that chi energy ball again. Gaze between the hands, and we're going to inhale, lift, exhale, lift our energy ball up, keeping your gaze between your hands when you're ready. Then we're going to inhale, drawing energy down to the center, and then inhale, lift up, just to about a little over shoulder height on the other side. Inhale down, drawing in, exhale lift. This extends our focus on our chi energy ball into our aura, cleansing and balancing the energy around us and within us. Inhale, drop down, bend those knees, exhale lift. Keep the spine nice and straight. Keep that tailbone tucking down as you lift. Notice what you see between your hands. Is there a glimmer, a swirl of colors? Just keep the focus soft. Exhale up, inhale drop down with the hands and knees, and then inhale up to the other side. We're also pumping energy along the legs as we bend and lift. Clearing stagnation along the hips and the joints of the knees and ankles and toes. Feel this flow of calm flowing through you all the way from your head to your toes and through your arms and hands into your aura. Inhale, draw in, exhale lift. We'll do one more time each side. Bring the feet back to hip or shoulder width apart for Master Wong Sweeps the waters. We're going to work on our spinal energy now doing a twisting motion. Imagine that you're standing in a pool of warm water to your shoulders and your hands come to the side, palms face forward, rose petals are on the surface of the water. We're going to go ahead and inhale, exhale rotating at the waist, slowly to the other side. We sweep our hands across the waters, inhale, change your hands, and exhale sweeping back to the other side. Picture gently moving the rose petals across the surface of the water as you exhale. Inhale, turn your palms forward again and exhale gently rotating back to the other side. Feel the warmth and support from the water. Feel the glistening movement of the water through your fingers. This time we're going to lower the hands down by your lower rib cage, feeling the resistance as you move through the denser, deeper water. Last one. Bring your feet side by side. We'll close with the centering, flowing movement. The palms are face up, one hand under the other, below your navel and above your pelvis. With the lower hand, drop it down gazing at the palm and inhale. Bring that hand overhead, keep the shoulder relaxed down and exhale, draw the thumb through center as the palm faces the opposite wall. Inhale, lower the other hand gazing at the palm as it floats up and over, bringing it to center and then exhale, drawing your thumb down as the palm faces the wall. Back to the first hand, inhale, lift up, gazing at the palm as it comes overhead. Exhale, float down. Continue to breathe and flow as you center your energy, releasing any last bits of stagnant chi or emotions into the earth. We'll do one more each side. Bring your hands to your lower dantian, that energy center behind and below your navel. One hand touches the lower abdomen, the other palm touches the back of that hand. Feet are still side by side. If you're able, if you're too wobbly, you can step apart a little bit. Close your eyes and just allow the body to rock and sway. Breathing gently, you might even just want to take one last long deep inhale and exhale through the nose, but just rock and sway, letting go. One more breath here and release. Thank you for joining me, for bringing your energy to this incredible community. I hope you feel calm, a little less stressed and ready to move on with your day.