Chinese Culture >> Chinese Medicine Health
Benefits of Practicing Qigong
One of the benefits of meditation is the ability
to slow down your thinking to the point of being able to 'see' your
thoughts, which will give you the ability to change your life via the
Law of Attraction. However, there are other traditions that can bring
about change and enhance the spirit.
An aspect of the Chinese medicine and a martial art is Qigong or chi
kung involves coordination of a variety of breathing patterns with
physical postures and movements of the body. In qigong, most believe the
body has a form of energy field that is generated by respiration, which
is known as qi meaning breath. This energy is produced by normal
breathing.
Qi is breath or gas in Chinese. Gong is the applied discipline level of
the technique, which basically means that qigong translates into breath
work. Breathing in qigong works to achieve and maintain good health and
to expand energy mobilization and the endurance of the body along with
the physical process of respiration.
Qigong is associated with spirituality and is often placed in the realm
of religious practitioners. The link is much stronger then with other
traditional Chinese medicine. Taoist and Buddhist monasteries practiced
qigong almost exclusively as a partner to martial arts training.
In some qigong practices, practitioners are taught that nature and
humanity are inseparable and any other belief is a two-dimensional view
of life. Access to higher energy along with health benefits that is
provided by the higher states is made possible through cultivating
virtue, which is a process where one comes to understand that we are
never separated from the primal state.
Qigong uses breathing techniques, meditation, visualization and gentle
movements to circulate, strengthen and cleanse the life energy. Qigong
is generally applied to four different areas.
1. Healing qigong (Yi Gong) is a preventive and self-healing aspect. 2.
External qi healing (Wai Qi Zhi Liao) is a kind of health assessment
where the practitioner taps into the healing energy of nature and guides
it throughout the body. 3. Sports qigong (Wu Gong) is developing the key
components to sports or martial arts which are; strength, coordination,
stamina, speed, flexibility and resisting injuries. 4. Spiritual Qi Gong
(Fo Gong or Tao Gong) is the practice of developing self-awareness,
tranquility and living in harmony with nature.
In the U.S. there are two types of qigong techniques; the soft qigong
refers to the technique that enhances the spiritual, mental and physical
health through meditation and gentle movements. The hard qigong is the
exercises done in martial arts to strengthen and learning to protect the
body from hard blows.
In China, qigong is practiced in either the still or moving technique.
Still is the quiet and motionless form of meditation that focus on the
breathing and quiet contemplation. Moving requires the movement of the
limbs and body.
About the Author
Conrad Raw is an expert in practical techniques for personal and spiritual development. He is the author of "Forbidden Secrets Of Personal And Energetic Development." He travels the world to learn and teach and is the founder of Greater Human Potential, a website devoted to bringing you easy to learn techniques to increase your human evolution