Beginning Qigong students often have a problem understanding the Qigong Sitting Posture. The questions usually come when students think hear that Qigong is a "movement art". There are two ways to answer this question. In the first place Qigong truly has exercises for everyone. A person struggling to recover from a serious injury or illness might not be able to summon the strength or balance to stand and move. Qigong gives these students a starting posture that will help train them in the basics of matching their movements to their breathing and learning the principles of meditative movements.
The second reason why Qigong Sitting Postures are important is that one must learn to crawl before learning to walk and run. Sitting postures is also one of the best ways to improve your qi circulations and correct uneven posture. Sitting posture allows you to focus your attention on one half of the body at a time, observing the difference in symmetry between a standing and sitting posture.
- Qigong is a voyage of discovery. Sit in an erect position, shoulders relaxed, palms flat on thighs. Center your focus on your midsection.
- Moving around your upper body, check the symmetry of the body, from the shoulders, down to the hips.
- Slowly raise the arms to shoulder width, inhaling slowly. Feel the movement as you move in a vertical arc.
- Move your arms to the side and slowly raise them above your head, feeling the movement of the shoulder and movement of the muscles surrounding the spine.
- Feel each point in the movement, checking for twinges and blockages, checking range of motion.
We create imbalances in our bodies all day long when we go through out daily activities. Carrying a laptop backpack around campus all day on one shoulder, working on our hands and knees in our garden, all can throw us out of whack. Qigong sitting position allows us to find all of the kinks, imbalances and energy blockages throughout our bodies.
Qigong Sitting posture is classified as "active sitting" as opposed to "static sitting" which keeps the body rigid, and involves movement for the purposes of assessing the body. These sitting postures are now being widely used by physical therapists in western medicine with extremely successful and many patients are continuing training with regular Qigong or Tai Chi classes after their therapy, moving from sitting postures to standing postures rapidly, expanding their movement ranges with each successful stage.
