The Wall Test is one of my favorite “breathing hacks” – a simple, fast exercise you can do to get feedback on how well you are breathing. Check out this instruction in this video and try it for yourself:

This breathing exercise is taken from a live breathing class I taught last week. In the class, we looked at several different facets of training your breathing, including: The difference between nerves, fluids, and chi when you practice.

Join me for “To Breathe or Not To Breathe”, a webinar where we will explore the challenges and big payoffs that come from doing your breathing practice correctly. Perhaps more than any other technique, cultivating a breathing practice presents an interesting training paradox: how do you change something your body does automatically 20,000 times a day, that is so intertwined with your mind, emotions, and internal energy?

In this webinar, I will take you through the major issues around developing your breathing practice, whether your goal is to smooth out your breath (and thereby your nerves), increase your breathing capacity to have more energy, or use breathing as a gateway practice to relaxation and meditation.

This June, my qigong teacher Bruce Frantzis will be offering a two-week Dragon and Tiger Qigong instructor training on Maui. Over the past 10 years, I’ve attended most of the instructor trainings that he has offered, as well as many weekends and week-long retreats. Being in an intensive learning environment at these events is great for your personal practice. If you’re thinking about teaching this material, though, you have to be smart about how you approach these trainings.

One of the major goals of standing qigong is to develop a strong downward flow that clears stagnant energy out of your system and strengthens your natural restorative abilities. When you begin to work on this process, though, it’s natural to wonder how strict you need to be able sticking with the downward flow and what to do if you start to notice other things happening in the body. Recently, I got this question via email that nails the exact issue:

In this case study, you’ll see how Kevin improved his Cloud Hands and Swings through video feedback. While you can follow a guided practice for the standing qigong portion of Energy Gates, doing a follow-along for the moving exercises doesn’t really help you improve your practice, so feedback is key. Going through the process of not only getting a correction, but watching yourself before and after, helps you internalize the new movement pattern.

Just a quick note to let you know that if you missed Sunday’s webinar on the Three Swings from Opening the Energy Gates, you can check out a replay here.

I’m sure you’ve spent time looking around YouTube for qigong and tai chi videos. According to their website, people upload 24 hours of video to YouTube every minute! No doubt you’ve seen some crazy stuff. So how do you sift through all of it and more importantly, are there any qigong videos on YouTube worth watching? The good news is, of course there are. And I’ve put together a list of 5 good ones to get you started.

The Three Swings from Energy Gates are some of the most challenging exercises to do well in the entire Energy Arts curriculum. You have to relax, maintain good alignment, and coordinate stepping and turning while moving faster than most other qigong exercises. Let’s talk a little bit about why the Three Swings are important and what you need to integrate to do them well. Getting Started with the Three Swings