The Benefits of Practicing Qigong

One of the benefits of meditation is the ability to slow down your thinking to the point of being able to ‘see’ your thoughts, which will give you the ability to change your life via the Law of Attraction. However, there are other traditions that can bring about change and enhance the spirit.

An aspect of the Chinese medicine and a martial art is Qigong or
chi kung involves coordination of a variety of breathing patterns with physical postures and movements of the body. In qigong, most believe the body has a form of energy field that is generated by respiration, which is known as qi meaning breath. This energy
is produced by normal breathing.

Qi is breath or gas in Chinese. Gong is the applied discipline level of the technique, which basically means that qigong translates into breath work. Breathing in qigong works to achieve and maintain good health and to expand energy mobilization and the endurance of the body along with the physical process of respiration.

Qigong is associated with spirituality and is often placed in the realm of religious practitioners. The link is much stronger then with other traditional Chinese medicine. Taoist and Buddhist monasteries practiced qigong almost exclusively as a partner to martial arts training.

In some qigong practices, practitioners are taught that nature and humanity are inseparable and any other belief is a two-dimensional view of life. Access to higher energy along with health benefits that is provided by the higher states is made possible through cultivating virtue, which is a process where one comes to understand that we are never separated from the primal state.

Qigong uses breathing techniques, meditation, visualization and
gentle movements to circulate, strengthen and cleanse the life
energy. Qigong is generally applied to four different areas.

1. Healing qigong (Yi Gong) is a preventive and self-healing aspect.
2. External qi healing (Wai Qi Zhi Liao) is a kind of health assessment where the practitioner taps into the healing energy of nature and guides it throughout the body.
3. Sports qigong (Wu Gong) is developing the key
components to sports or martial arts which are; strength,
coordination, stamina, speed, flexibility and resisting injuries.
4. Spiritual Qi Gong (Fo Gong or Tao Gong) is the practice
of developing self-awareness, tranquility and living in harmony with nature.

In the U.S. there are two types of qigong techniques; the soft
qigong refers to the technique that enhances the spiritual, mental and physical health through meditation and gentle movements. The hard qigong is the exercises done in martial arts to strengthen and learning to protect the body from hard blows.

In China, qigong is practiced in either the still or moving technique. Still is the quiet and motionless form of meditation that focus on the breathing and quiet contemplation. Moving requires the movement of the limbs and body.