For all human activities a certain life-energy is required and Qigong is a path towards cultivating, strengthening and refining your own life-energy. The basics of this more than 2000 year old ancient art are based on the Traditional Chinese Medicine and consists of breathing exercises, physical exercise and mindful imagining. In ancient China, Qigong was also referred to as “the Art of Life-Care”.

Qigong is a way of healing, an art for developing inner power and a form of meditation, which in the long-term creates a state of mind of inner tranquility, peacefulness and clarity of mind. Qigong is also a modern way for energy-management. Practicing Qigong improves vitality and self healing power, provides the body with flexibility and resilience, brings about an improvement of energy-flow and leads towards a gradual dissolving of tensions in body and soul.

What is Qi?

Translated literally Qi means Life-Energy. According to the Chinese notion, all living creatures, nature and the whole cosmos, are embedded in this life-power. Qi is that which separates a human from a corps. It is the power, which we want to refill when we go to sleep at night and which we miss so badly when we are exhausted or sick.
If we are active and vital, filled with ideas, then we are also “filled with Qi”. If we are feeling down, tired or if we feel “like an empty bottle”, then there is a lack of Qi.

What is Qigong?

All Qigong-Practices are based on three basic principles:

1. The breath guides body movements, or movement changes breathing. Indirectly this leads to moving and harmonizing Qi.

2. The mind guides Qi.

3. The mind abides in silence and Qi harmonizes and centers itself.

 
In essence we can distinguish two forms of Qigong:

1. Moving Qigong and

2. Silent Qigong.

Moving Qigong:
Generally Moving Qigong is easier, because we don’t need mind-power. This is why most beginners start with Moving Qigong: they learn a form consisting of around 10-20 movements, which will be repeated in a smooth and harmonic sequence.
In Moving Qigong the breath guides the movement, or the movement changes breathing. This causes the Qi to move, leading to a flow and harmonizing of the life-energy and thus, to an improvement of health.

Silent Qigong:
In general Silent Qigong is regarded as more valuable and harder. In Silent Qigong there is no movement. We can distinguish two levels of Silent Qigong:

1. The Qi is directly guided by the imagination. So only the second basic principle applies  “The Mind guides the Qi”. Thus the energy can penetrate deep into the body: into the inner energy-center, spinal marrow, brain and even into the bone marrow. No sport exercise can ever attain this effect!

2. The mind focuses on a “point” – e.g. the lower abdomen or the center of the brain – and becomes more and more quiet. The Qi increases, refines and itself becomes quiet. The Qi will flow to the places where it will be used. This second level of Silent Qigong basically supports the cultivation of the mind. Now the practitioner gets insights into the structure of the “I” and into the deeper principles of life, which are unrecognizable at the level of the soul-world. Often special abilities such as clairvoyance are revealed, especially when the practitioner is not striving towards it!
In China, Silent Qigong is one of the highest arts, because after many years of practice, one can develop many mental abilities and inner powers.

What is the Essence of Qigong?

There are several Qigong-practices and even multiple Qigong-schools. What then is the essence of Qigong?

What do all the schools and practices have in common?

1.      Relaxes you.

2.      Gathers life-power in the lower abdomen.

3.      Opens your heart, empties the mind and strengthens the inner power.

4.      Unites with the powers of nature.

The Area of Qigong

Qigong works in several areas:

– physical level
– emotional level
– mental/ intellectual level
– the level of special abilities
– level of the mind (Intuition, Wisdom)

What distinguishes Qigong from Taiji?

Practicing Taiji, the Chinese shadow-boxing, consists mainly of learning a Taiji form: a long sequence of various slow and animal-like movements, which were initially designed to be used in battle.

Just like Qigong, practicing this form in the long run, leads to harmonizing and strengthening life-energy and to the improvement of health.

Qigong works through using the mind and the breath directly with the life-energy Qi. There might be movements in Qigong, but not necessarily. If movements are being used, these serve to regulate the flow of energy and to strengthen the inner organs. In general they are easier to learn than Taiji and were never designed to be used in battle.

Because Qigong is not about learning a martial art, all exercises are developed to have a direct medical and also psychic influence. In most Qigong practices we consciously “beam” or activate various acupuncture-points.