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
There is no other book I return to more for my qigong practice than Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body by Bruce Frantzis. It’s the one I consistently recommend to students and anyone who emails the school to inquire about starting a qigong practice before they have access to a teacher. Here’s how to get the most out of it, whether or not you have someone who can give you regular feedback on your practice:
Stability and flow seem to be at odds with each other. Stability can mean rigidity, or at least, it seems to conjure up something fixed, sturdy, and unmoving. Flow isn’t any of those things. It’s fluid and changing. So how does Energy Arts Senior Instructor Craig Barnes blend the two so seamlessly?
Recently, Craig taught a workshop about awakening energetic sensitivity, drawn from principles of Dragon and Tiger Qigong. We worked a lot on the opening of the set.
So, I know I’m writing this on vacation where the most pressing decision we make each day is whether to hike, kayak, or swim, but I’m going to go ahead anyway and recommend that you practice twice a day. Here’s why…
What I Learned from a Month-Long Tai Chi Intensive After a month in England, practicing 10 hours a day at the Short Form Instructor Training this summer, I have a renewed appreciation for daily practice rhythm.
This post is the first in a series of student practice questions that I’d like to answer on the blog. The question is, “given that I know and practice several different qigong sets and the tai chi form, how do I organize them into a coherent practice?” For my answer, check out this video, where I will either explain how learning which sets to practice, in what order, is like learning to taste wine, or I will actually drink the bottle of wine.
Having the luxury of a full month of training this summer has made me step back and reflect on my own personal practice over the last 13 years. I tried to put together some of what this process has been like for me and sum it up here. I’m curious to know what you think. Have you gone through periods of practicing without a teacher? Have you had times where you’ve made huge strides in your practice?
Nobody moves through life with exactly the same amount of energy. Do you know how much you have to draw on? Do you know how to replenish your reserves? In chi gung, the energetic reserves you are born with are called your “pre-birth chi”. What you cultivate as you go through life, using practices like chi gung, is called “post-birth chi”. You use the combination of what you are born with and what you develop to run your body and your mind.
