A new way of movement and connection

 

In the last post, I talked about awareness. Here I introduce some practice to gain better awareness.

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a Qi Gong training in north NSW delivered by Master Liu (Deming) from China. The theme of the training is called Qi Gathering, and I call it a new way of moment and connection; or a way to awareness.

The essence of this new way is Relaxation creates Space, Space creates Qi, and Qi creates Movement.

We know usually movement starts with an intention. We want to walk up hill, we want to stay upright, or we want to jump. This intention creates muscle contraction, to prepare us and to propel us to move. Then bending a knee and raising a foot to walk uphill,  or contracting muscles of the back to stay upright, or bending the knees to push upwards.

In Qi Gathering, movement starts with relaxation but not an intention. I called it a new way of movement. It might NOT be new to some people, but will be to many. This involves emptying the mind and relaxing the body, which allows a space to be created, but not to be occupied with an intention, a thought or a desired outcome. In this space, Qi is created and so is the movement. This is similar to the breeze passing through a room when a door or window is open. This form of passing through, like breeze, is the movement.

Experiment this. Now stay upright with your usual way and close your eyes. Now feel where you feel the tension and tightness. You might feel it in the low back, in the neck, in the abdomen, in the legs or in the feet. Now try again, only this time, you envision you feet planting on the ground, you relax your whole body and you relax your breathing. As you relax, you create an awareness of a space above you. This space creates Qi with a gentle uplifting force. This Qi guides you to stay upright. Now check yourself again. You will find you are staying tall and upright. Yet you do NOT have any tightness you felt the previous time.  Instead you are staying upright, tall, effortless and light.

This is the foundation of Qi Gathering. Regulating Qi is the foundation of acupuncture or Chinese medicine. If you can feel what I describe here, then congratulations. This means you have a great awareness of your body, and mind; and the great ability of letting go. If you could not feel what I describe here, then please do not get worried. If you want to experience this effortless movement, you may want to start some Qi Gong training with a teacher.

This form or concept of movement will help reduce injuries and bring agility into your movement. More important, it will bring awareness into our body as we go through our daily movement. This is mindful movement.

One could easily apply this principle to relationships with oneself or with others. The essence is letting go creates connection. We can expand this in future blogs.

Please have a look at these two short videos about Qi Gong in Geelong.

Basic Tai Chi Standing Posture

Tai Chi / Qigong Gentle Warm Up