Give me 3 minutes and I'll explain why 98% of Qigong practitioners are wasting their time...

Remember, Qigong is the art of deliberately managing your vital energy or Chi/Qi. Vital energy is the 'juice' that keeps you alive and allows you to do everything you do.

Qigong is similar to Yoga, but less strenuous
It's like Tai Chi, but easier and quicker to learn
It offers proven health benefits and requires zero athleticism.

There are 5 main aims that people practicing Chi Kung/Qigong exercises want to achieve:

Improve Health and Increase Vitality
Longevity
Develop Internal Force
Mind Expansion
Spiritual Cultivation

But I'd say about 98% of qigong practitioners today are wasting their time because they do not practice the 3 core skills of Qigong.

If you want to succeed with Qigong you need to practice, practice, practice these 3 core skills.

So what are these 3 core skills that hardly anybody knows about?

1) Entering a QSOM - think of it as a higher state of consciousness. It's about being relaxed and focused.

Listen if you can't relax, you can't do qigong. Even though many people start practicing qigong to be able to relax, and that's a really good reason by the way, relaxation is just the start of qigong.

To enter a QSOM you have to be able to relax physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

2) The second core skill is - Energy Flow - more poetically known as 'flowing breeze, swaying willows'

It is one of the most closely guarded, jealously kept secrets of qigong and that's a real shame because energy flow is what makes qigong such a powerful tool for health and vitality.

If energy flow is not part of your qigong practice then you're missing out on at least 75% of the benefits of qigong.

3) Standing meditation - this helps to consolidate your practice and that's all I want to say about it here, otherwise we'd be here for hours.

Seriously if these 3 core skills are not part of your daily qigong practice all you're doing is low level exercise and if that's what you want to do you might as well do the washing up, because at least you're getting something useful done at the same time.

Whether you're practicing medicinal qigong, dynamic qigong, qigong for marital arts, or super hardcore qigong like small or big universe, you need to be practicing the 3 core skills of qigong to gain maximum benefit from the time and effort you invest in your practice.

If you're not you're leaving most of the goodness of qigong on the table.

In my 22 week Qigong Secrets Home study course I cover these 3 core skills in great detail - but the truth is, the best way to learn these vital core skills of qigong is directly from me or from a teacher who knows and practices them.

Because Qigong is an art it is the skills that are important. Certainly more important than the number of qigong exercises you know. It is mastery of these 3 core skills that allows you to get more benefits in just 15 minutes of daily practice than most qigong practitioners get in an hour.

They are that important.

Author's Bio: 

Marcus Santer is Author of 'Shaolin Chi Kung - 18 Exercises to help you live a longer, healthier and happier life'. Founder and chief instructor of Qigong15.com the home of Qigong goodness here on the Internet.

He is committed to the spread of 'fluff free' information and getting the word out about how brilliant qigong is.