Chi Gung

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. The goal was to “fill up your chi” before you start doing the movements, so that the body is awake and engaged and each movement is more alive and more connected. ...

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. At the training, there were three distinct types of training sessions we would go through each day. In the mornings, we would practice in our groups. Most of the day, from 10am to 5pm was reserved for class time with Bruce. In the evenings, we would be free to practice again, ideally training the pieces of what we did in class that day. ...

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. You’ll have to watch the video to find out which one. ...

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? What was that like? Did the fruits of that period last a long time? Use the comments section below and let me know what it was like for you (or shoot me an email, but other people are probably curious too!).

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. ...

I asked my friend and fellow qigong practitioner Catherine Chenoweth to talk a little bit about her experience using qigong to manage a chronic health condition. Here’s what she had to say: When I was released from the hospital in 1996, it was after three months, and with a diagnosis of LAM (Lymphangioleiomyomatosis), a rare, progressive, untreatable and often fatal lung disease. I asked a friend who was well versed in alternative treatments what I should do for my health, and his response, immediate and emphatic, was “You need to do qigong!” ...

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. ...

In 2005 I started running Brookline Tai Chi. It was a big jump in responsibilty and workload, so I needed a practice that would match the new intensity. In turned to Xingyi for energy, drive, and focus: