I learned everything I know about practicing qigong from my wife. Or I should say, from watching my wife make magic in the kitchen! If you saw us cooking together, you’d see her doing everything right and me doing everything wrong. When I started to practice qigong the way she cooks, my whole qigong world changed. Let me tell you how.
What I do: I read every recipe word for word and line by line.
What she does: She reads recipes like poetry and gets layers of meaning from the whole thing.
Qigong Lesson: At first, you need to learn your forms and the basics of your qigong set, but eventually, you have to get a feel for the whole, or you’ll never get truly energized from the practice.**
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What I do: I race back and forth from the counter to the cook book, thinking, “was that a lemon or a lime?”__**
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What she does: She stops and imagines a taste, thinking “what kind of citrus will compliment these other ingredients? Maybe I’ll use an orange instead”….and she’s usually right!**
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_Qigong Lesson: You need to develop a feel for your energy flows so that you know what kind of practicing you need to do on any given day or any time of day. _**
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What I do: I freak out when the timer goes off, because the recipe said 10 minutes, but it’s been 12 or 13 and I can’t tell if it’s done yet.**
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What she does: The recipe calls for a specific cook-time? She knows those are vague guidelines and she’ll sniff, pinch, or push on the food to know exactly when it’s ready.**
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Qigong Lesson: The exercises you practice all have prescribed times and reps, but they’re just there so that you learn what “done” feels like energetically.**
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So, if you want your qigong practice to be as nourishing as a delicious, healthy meal, practice like my wife cooks: go a few layers deeper than your thinking mind and access your intuition. Learn to practice by feel. Otherwise, your practice will always be like reading out of a cookbook. When was the last time you got full from reading a recipe?