Qi Gong Tips #1

By drandrewcolyer | July 3, 2007

Welcome to our Qi Gong Tips column! This is where I will be posting Qi Gong tips and class notes on an occasional basis.

If you aren’t familiar with Qi Gong, the original meaning of “Qigong” was Energy Skill, or Energy Cultivation. Qi Gong consists of different postures (some are static and some are moving) combined with specific breathing exercises that cultivate health, energy flow, and longevity. In addition, it prepares and coordinates one’s body, mind, and spirit to be functioning at the highest level possible as a human in harmony with Nature.

There are thousands of different types of Qi Gong being taught in the world today. We are fortunate to have Hawks as one of our primary teachers here in the Hudson Valley, New York. Our teaching lineage can be traced back directly to one of the oldest Taoist lineages in China, the ancient Shaolin Temple, at least 2500 years old. More to come about that in future blog posts.

There are many things that Hawks says that are applicable to anything and everything in life. That’s because Qi Gong relates to everything in life.

Here’s one from today. “If you do anything every day, over time it makes a difference. That’s because one thing leads to another.”

Where can you apply that in your own life?

I am going to be sharing many of the principles of Qi Gong here. They apply to both the standing and sitting static postures, and movement sets that we practice.

One of today’s Qi Gong Principles relates to the coordination of the body with the arms and shoulders.

Qi Gong Principle: Your shoulders go up by sinking your body down. Your arms go up by having your spine & pelvis go down. If your spine and pelvis go down and your arms don’t go up, then the upper half of your spine and head go up.

Qi Gong Principle: The energy in the inside spirals. Everything else on the outside looks like triangles and squares.

Standing Posture: There are many different Qi Gong Standing Posture sets that we learn. One of the sets that is good to practice in the summer and the winter is one of standing with arms out in front, and palms facing upward. There are two variations: “Elbow Side Center”, and the “Bowl”. Both of these postures form an energetic triangle out in front of the body, with the two palms forming the base of the triangle, and the top point being out in front of the forehead, stimulating the “Third Eye”, or the Pituitary Gland. The Pituitary Gland is the master controller gland for your endocrine/hormone system in your body. With the Elbow Side Center, the “energetic triangle” is formed somewhat vertically, more out in front of the body; with the “Bowl” posture, the “triangle” is more at a 45 degree angle, with the top point of the triangle being closer to the forehead.

Movement Set: One Hundred Footing The importance of this practice is about coordination with 3 limbs = all at the same time. The learning of 2 arms/hands and 1 foot/leg moving perfectly all at the same time. We are learning how to stand and sink and have balance and coordination and move = all at the same time.

“We are destroying and ridding ourselves of the Fool’s Brain. We are replacing it with the Enlightened Brain. It is often hard to tell the difference between the Fool and the Enlightened One. The Enlighted One knows why he does things. The Fool does not. The Enlightened One wants to be like the fool without being a Fool.” —Hawks

For further information, here’s the Wikipedia link for Qi Gong.

The actual precursor to our Qi Gong practice is called Tao Yin. Here’s the Wikipedia link for Tao Yin. More on that in future blog posts.

Thank you.

Dr. Andrew Colyer

Technorati tags: [Qi Gong], [Qigong], [Qi Gong Tips], [Qigong Tips], [Dr. Andrew Colyer], [Tao Yin], [Shaolin Temple]

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3 Responses to “Qi Gong Tips #1”

Wudang Martial Arts and Culture Says:
July 14th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
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Life, Health, Music, Consiousness, and New Media

Qi Gong Tips #1

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