When you set out to develop your internal energy using standing postures, there are two main ways you can go about it: by feel or by form. Now, there will be a lot of overlap in these two broad approaches, like aligning your body with gravity without collapsing internally and progressively releasing and relaxing as you stand, but when it comes to the role of the mind, form and feel can be very different. ...
Next month, we’ll be starting a new Energy Gates course at Brookline Tai Chi, focused on Outer Dissolving and working through the Gates of the body. When you work on dissolving the gates, you will inevitably be fighting the urge to: visualize instead of feel “chase” energetic releases, untethered from the physical body wonder if you are really feeling anything at all In this episode of Qigong Radio, I’ll give my recommendations for avoiding these pitfalls and for setting up the conditions for actual energetic resolution. ...
We tend to think about our energy level like the money we have in the bank. You wake up in the morning, look in your energetic wallet and say, “I’ve got a lot of energy today” or “Man, I need 7 cups of coffee.” Or, to put it another way, thanks to this New Yorker cartoon: In qigong, we think about “having energy” a little bit differently. Often, it’s not just how much or how little, but how well is your energy circulating? ...
Dan standing in New Mexico, not Vancouver (yet!). Do you live in or near Vancouver? Are you willing to travel to refine your Energy Gates practice? At the behest of a few eager Vancouver locals, I wanted to reach out and see if any of our Northwest-oriented readers would be interested in a spring 2014 Energy Gates seminar. Date and exact location haven’t been nailed down yet, but if there’s enough demand, I would love to come out and do some Energy Gates with you. ...
You know how you can be banging your head against a wall, trying to figure something out? Then, you sleep on it, take a shower, or go for a walk and suddenly a solution pops into your head. Have you ever wondered why this happens or how it works? So have I…and I don’t know HOW it works, but I do know that we are practicing the exact same skill in qigong. ...
I was thrilled to receive such a positive response to my last post on Standing Qigong. And it wasn’t just support, even though I confessed that now I have to climb back up the mountain on the way to 2-hour sessions again. You guys asked really great questions about standing qigong. Instead of answering them in the comments of the last post, I decided to turn the questions into a post of their own. So here we go! ...
The biggest question people ask me about standing qigong, especially when they hear about the 2-hour project, is “what do you do, just stand there?” There is actually a really delicate balance between “doing” and “feeling” when you stand. You learn lots of different techniques, like breathing, sinking, dissolving, and pulsing, but how you apply them internally when you are holding a static posture is a tricky topic. ...
A few months ago we talked about the signs of progress in your qigong practice. For so many of us, the issue of “progress” is central to qigong or Tai Chi practice, since we are driven by the desire to get it right, to solve a problem like a health issue, or to reach an amorphous and elusive spiritual goal. But what if we completely abandoned the idea of outcomes and perfection in practice? Instead, what if you started each day with a “doing” mindset in your qigong practice? ...
In his new book, the Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi, Dr. Peter Wayne lays out the “8 Active Ingredients of Tai Chi” to help us understand the interface between traditional Tai Chi practice and the Western biomedical paradigm. As the Research Director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, jointly based at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and the founder of the Tree of Life Tai Chi Center, Peter blends more than three decades of teaching experience with ongoing inquiry into what makes Tai Chi an effective medical intervention. ...
I was talking to a friend last night about standing qigong and different meditation traditions that we had both tried. When we say “meditation” in this context, we were including all practices like breathing for relaxation, Tai Chi, qigong, and sitting practices too. Part of what I’d like to hear from you (see below) is how you define “meditation” in a way that’s practical and part of your everyday life. ...