Qigong
A more general Blog about Qigong, and associated practises in Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Some subtle reflections on the flow state accessed through slow mindful movements and awareness of breathing in the art of Qigong, as we go deeper into our practise and journeys:-
Truest Life
It’s in the small moments we find life, the ones that often catch us by surprise, and largely go unnoticed despite their repeatedly calling our name, not the grand gestures or life events, but the subtlest tiny everyday small ones;
A daisy gently pushing up from between the cracks on a busy pavement, unseen, neglected, but oh so here; a spiders web glistening in the autumn morning dew, every tiny thread contributing to the entirety of its structure; the gentle wave of distant bells gliding on the breeze along the flood plain meadow upstream through the evening river valley.
With increased awareness, the small unnoticed things will become stage front and no longer in the bleachers. A joyful existence will emerge from the shadows of a dull mediocrity and distractions of a busy world thats become like a small child vying for our every attention.
When life gets too busy, life itself passes us by, so quickly. In these brief moments we steal back, awareness riding on each slow breath, and we truly know life beyond the superficial ways that we are conditioned to believe is living, but to the most part is slumber.
Entering flow state through however we access it (Qigong is pretty damn good here !) is a simple returning to that which we always knew, what every baby human, calf or deer knows, sees.
A world beyond, before, the deceptions and constructions of the cunning creations of the conceptual mind took control. Beyond incessant thought, outside of inner narrative and hedonic judgemental tone, escalating into a multitude of subsequent emotions.
Relax into it with no struggle, free from effort and meet it with no agendas, wu wei, doing-non doing, no forcing, simply being. Just allowing.
Simply be still and know.
Peace Love and Qigong
Mark (MSH)
Following on with the more subtle aspects of Qigong as we go deeper into our practise and journeys, building upon the last writing on flow state, for those interested, now here looking at aspects of inner balance, addressing both body, mind and spirit….
Balance and Harmony
Without the correct balance of yin and yang, masculine and feminine, we tend to go crashing through the world, often destructively, out of harmony with the natural flow of things.
If we are like ‘a cloud on a string’ bouncing all over our lives, we can ground ourselves more through the yin aspects of practise, entering flow state.
Lifestyle habits such as avoiding alcohol and drugs, coupled with slow flows and various meditations can ground us suitably and bring our feet to the earth.
We tend to look to externals here unsuitably, like expecting others to give us this complimentary balance, however this subtle harmony must come from within, from ourselves, to succeed into fruition.
If we are very much caught in the body, the sensory aspects of life, grosser indulgences and pleasure seeking, we can move the internal energy from Jing Qi (essence, body) through to Shen Qi (spirit, soul), through practises such as the microcosmic orbit, san boa, the three marvels, using the Du and Ren meridians.
Often we look to externals to bring us what we feel we are lacking, or is not in harmony, from acquiring possessions, experiences, keeping very distracted through busyness, or entering new relationships.
As both a psychotherapist, practitioner and in personal experience and observation, this trap is seen too commonly.
Frequently just moving from one relationship straight into the next quickly, simply projecting our feelings and emotions on to the next poor soul, rarely genuinely communing but simply transferring what we feel we require onto them, dissatisfied at them when they do not deliver our agenda.
As we have not achieved the inner balance and harmony, or made any deeper lasting changes, this too inevitably after the giddy fix of serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin along with public declarations of our love, being on our ‘best behaviour’ and together forever-ness, all mistaken for deep connection and genuine love, falters and we are left worse off and all the more needing our next hit.
Unless we can stop and break the cycle, which when builds such momentum is harder to exit, it escalates. The world tells us that this is the way we must live, contrary to our personal deeper knowing which we tend to ignore or neglect.
Occasionally we meet someone we connect with outside of all the noise and trapping and you often can tell in a clarity of eyes when merging. Chances are they are meditators, deeper contemplators, or practitioners who have been developing their connection and inner landscape over many years. This can be disconcerting for many who are more comfortable in their discomfort and not yet ready for real change.
The beauty of Qigong here is in balancing all inner aspects through practise. Largely the subtle benefits seep into us gradually and unnoticed, much like walking in a fine mist and slowly becoming saturated only realising when the changes are made.
For those wishing to go deeper into an infinite practise we can deliberately cultivate and foster such aspects of change also.
More on yin yang, and accompanying aspects of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to follow in coming writings.
Peace Love and Qigong
Mark
Reflections
The beauty of Qigong practise is it is a life reset practise too.
As those who now know me know I’m a BIG expounder of the benefits of Qigong. It has become the very core practise of my life personally, building upon years of practise and meditation in various spiritual traditions (Buddhism, Advaita, Taoism plus professional work and study in Psychology / Psychotherapy), to the extent that have even previously jokingly been called ‘the monk’!
Personally, after such an unanticipated extremely busy year, (including gladly fully supporting a dear one and their family through many unforeseen difficulties and their life events, amongst other things), it has been nice these last couple of months over summer to really slow back down, get out in nature, quietly, go deeper into Qigong practise (too with our lovely growing community at the park) and again simply be and reflect on life and regain deeper perspective of what is truly important to each of us.
We need these times of quiet contemplation and living, essential in remaining true and not getting caught up and fully pulled into the next dramas of the world. We need them too to make good choices and be our best ‘selves.’
If we do not take such longer breaks from busyness and entering new events, our life just keeps crashing forwards and we stumble through it from one drama and crisis to the next, believing we are on the right course, often merely repeating habits, that blindly wind us up exactly where we tried to free ourselves from in the first place.
We see clearly and deeply and can return to our real meaning and who we can often lose we are.
The Autumn is a magnificent time for really reconnecting with nature and great to get outdoors and simply be.
Looking forward to seeing everyone in the park and practising together over the coming months! We have all made some wonderful friends and meaningful friendships.
Peace Love and Qigong!
Mark
Friday 6th September 2024.
Following on from the previous writings on going deeper into our practise with time, for those of interest, we now explore the levels upon which Qigong benefits our total human condition, physicality, emotionality, mind, and ‘spirit’ or shen.
To compliment our practise sessions, entirely free from such explanation and ‘heaviness’ it is felt beneficial to include writings here on the deeper aspects of Qigong to accommodate everyone’s inclinations.
Please note, it is very much appreciated that such detail is of limited specific interest, but should we be curious to come to fully better understand the incredible potential breadth and depth of this practise, and the universe around us, in us, ….enter here all ye who dare! Lol….
The three forms of traditional Qigong are:-
1.Medical
2.Spiritual
3.Martial
The latter here is of limited interest to us (and though legitimately does still have its place in the modern world, as a fighting art, there are better forms for combat, should the wish arise to bash our neighbour! 😂).
The domain of our focus is of equal balance of the first two. Here spiritual denotes a simple presence of being, an open receptive awareness, a viewing of the world without any conditioned filters or habituation, generally outside of any religious connotations.
Often initially we are drawn to meditative moving practises like Qigong for very obvious and common reasons.
Frequently we initiate practise because we simply wish our body to feel more comfortable and get it moving and stretching. Perhaps we have an injury, such as lower back, and wish to be free from the associated limitations placed upon us by such pain.
Maybe our minds whir too much with incessant inner dialogue, repetitive, unhelpful discursive inner narrative that tire us so and we wish to simply access greater calm and inner clarity.
Perhaps our emotions fluctuate and rule our lives, destructive and tormenting in ways we preferred they did not.
Maybe we wish for more energy, and to be able to perform better and function in our lives and world.
Of course for many of us these benefits are sufficient, as of themselves are no small thing, and reaping such reward phenomenal in changing and even saving lives!
When we are pulled out of our solidity, our grounding, by lifestyle or life events, the beauty of such practise is that it reconnects us to what truly matters, beyond the superficial aspects that can dominate our lives.
However further, as we go deeper into our own personal practise with curiosity, (still reading?! lol) moving beyond the forms, shifting into flow, becoming increasingly aware of the subtleties of energy in our bodies and calming of thought formations, having suitably accessed the prior benefits, we may find we are of inclination to delve deeper into the subtle mysteries of life.
When we touch the deep peace of inner knowing, of inner clarity, this vastness, spacious mind illumines all that we encounter and our outer world starts to shift accordingly.
When from a scientific perspective we appreciate that the entire human population of 8 billion people, can be reduced to the size of a sugar cube, should all inter molecular atomic space be removed; or that every single atom in a human being is entirely replaced over seven years; or that outer space is 99.9999999999…% empty, the delight in realising that reality is not quite as it seems, our interest is sparked and exploration engages.
Here we stand on the threshold, a thin gossamer veneer, telescope looking out, microscope looking in, and can no longer be blind to our part in the reality we perceive.
Ontological questions arise such as who are we truly, not merely who we are when at our calmest unbothered best, but who we truly are who perceives, who operates, who functions – the ghost in the machine!
Much like watching a whirl pool, which we cannot deny, however on the contrary side neither can we confirm exists, as the water producing it remains the same for not a single instant.
Our self, beyond roles, ideas, labels, physicality, is too a fluid phenomena, incorrect to say independently existing but equally inaccurate to dismiss as not. Caught between nihilism and materialism, the true middle way.
The babe we were previously is entirely different to what we are now, but there is a thread (more like stacked pennies) of moment to moment sameness otherness, as things arise abide and cease in continual brownian motion.
The inner work with Qigong, known as Neigong, accesses this aspect of existence through deeper increased capability and capacity in ‘spirit’ (shen) to grow to understand and truly see.
Personally, having practised and seriously studied Buddhism, Taoism, (all the isms!), Advaita and more mystical aspects of Christianity, for almost three decades, along with western psychology, and aspects of both classical and quantum science, Qigong was really initially only encountered and engaged in due to an old lower back weight lifting injury.
In a short time however the infinite possibilities of such a complete practise became seen, complimentary to the above traditions, but in many ways more accessible, even superior for many, and hence why am such a vociferous proponent of Qigong!
“The unexamined life is not worth living” Socrates.
…and if still awake, and our brain hasn’t jumped out through our ear, more to follow over the coming year. This winter, when the world slows down in slumber would be great to have a days workshop, much akin to Lee Holden’s incredible Piercing The Veil one, on meeting the deeper aspects of our reality through the practise of Qigong.
Peace Love and Qigong
Mark ☯
More information coming soon.
Benefits of Qigong
Updates to follow asap.
Info soon….
History of Qigong
Info soon.
By Mark HeathInfo coming soon.
