Beginning a Qi Gong Practice - Beginning 13th May

Qi Gong helps with balance, calms the mind and eases the kinks out of the system to benefit overall health. Makes you look younger too!

This workshop is for all ages as it does not require physical strength to practice it. It can be done standing or seated so your current mobility is not an obstacle.

Qi Gong means “to work the qi”. Although qi is often thought of as energy, it is much more. In Chinese, Qi is incorporated in the character for Wind, Electricity, Lightning, vapour and many other words. In the body, we may liken Qi to the motive force behind many of our more active aspects. Qi moves the blood and fluids in our bodies, brings us to awareness in the morning, facilitates the opening and closing of our pores and many other processes.

A body is healthy when the qi is present appropriately in our body. i.e. not too caught up in one place, not too active at the wrong time and place and present throughout every aspect of the body. A lack of the proper amount of qi can lead to a void and inactivity at the spot. Too much qi in an area can lead to pain or heat.

Qi Gong is a set of movements to first stretch, lengthen and move our body in order to regulate the channels (think of channels being like long ditches longitudinally where things flow most easily)  and stretch the tendons. This is quite simply done by expressing natural movement through rotation, spiralling, compression and expansion in as relaxed and centred fashion as possible. Once we start to remove some of the old blockages, things (what we call qi, fluids and blood) start to flow more easily to our peripherals and back again. This tunes our body, allowing it to regain a more natural form and allowing more tone and refreshment throughout.

The second stage of Qi Gong is to start to move into a much quieter state and become very aware of the Qi movement throughout the body and then exemplify this in a very intentional manner. This stage is usually only introduced and practiced after a few years of practice.