Qigong Healing
Qigong healing has been practiced for thousands of years as a tool to help improve one’s health and increase strength and vitality. In this vlog let’s talk not only about this ancient practice but how it is relevant as a healing tool in this day and age. Try the vlog above to experience qigong healing and incorporate it with your daily practice.
What Is Qigong?
Qigong is the practice of healing through movement and meditation. It has been around for thousands of years, and has been used to heal and strengthen the body. By using techniques incorporating the body, breath, and intention we cultivate energy by releasing blockages and stagnation as well as nurturing our energy. Qigong literally means “Working on energy”. Through qigong we help our body heal and realign to its natural state.
What are Qigong Healing Benefits?
Qigong Healing benefits are all-around. It helps improve body functions that benefit the body, breath, and mind.
Qigong Healing Benefits in the Body
Qigong healing helps the body gain strength, vitality, and endurance. Through qigong, we use dynamic movements, postures, and body structures that best fit the human body. It best fits the human body because it follows the natural alignments of the body. There are a lot of physical exercises that are popular nowadays. The problem with some of these exercises is that it works the body, and it also exhausts the body. This leaves the body drained, rather than energized. We want to look good, but also we want to feel good. Qigong is a great body exercise because it is balanced.
Improve Vitality through Qigong Healing
We can achieve the body’s vitality through qigong healing. When we do qigong, we help our body release toxins and help our body systems to function better. Through qigong movements we compress and relax the body, this serves as a pump leading both qi and blood to flow more freely in the body. When our body has stagnations and blockages, it cannot function well. Blood cannot carry nutrients to distribute in the body well, information cannot circulate very well among the body’s internal systems, and qi cannot flow to energize the functions of the body when there is stagnation and blockages in the body. When we have stagnations and blockages our body cannot reach its fullest vitality and health. Through qigong healing, we have a balance exercise that helps our body and our systems to function best.
Improve Strength and Endurance through Qigong Healing
Qigong also helps the body have more endurance. Through qigong, we can reduce the possibility of illness and the body can have more resistance to certain illnesses and diseases. When we do qigong healing, our organs reach the highest vitality, therefore can function best. This strengthens our immune system and our body’s endurance. Qigong also helps not just the body’s endurance to illnesses and disease but also injuries. Through qigong, our body becomes more aligned and we train proper posture. Through this, it becomes easier to reduce the possibility of injuries because our body is more often moving properly.
Qigong Healing Benefits in the Breath
The breath component of qigong practice gives a lot of benefits. This gives a lot of aid in qigong healing. The breath has a direct effect on the physiological systems of the body. These physiological systems include the Autonomic Nervous System and the Central Nervous System.
Breath and the Autonomic Nervous System
The Autonomic Nervous System controls physiological functions as we live our daily lives. It is also responsible for how our body responds to particular stimuli. It regulates our heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, digestion, and other important body functions. This system is divided into two: The Sympathetic Nervous System and Parasympathetic Nervous System.
Sympathetic Nervous System
This system is responsible for the fight-or-flight response. It activates when we need to be on the go, or when we are stimulated. When our body is in constant fight-or-flight mode we don’t give our body enough time and space to rest for our bodily functions to be balanced. This may lead to high blood pressure, high heart rate, chronic stress, lower immune system, and many more.
Parasympathetic Nervous System
This system is responsible for the relaxation state. When we are in the Parasympathetic state our body is more relaxed, such as when we are resting or eating. The Parasympathetic Nervous System is important to maintain as during this state our body can regenerate and restore.
Qigong healing works through qigong breathwork, so we can find a balance between the Sympathetic Nervous System and Parasympathetic Nervous System. A healthy balance between these two systems is what is necessary for proper body and physiological functions.
Breath and the Central Nervous System
The Central Nervous System consist of the brain and the spinal cord. It collects information from the entire body and sends this information to other parts of the body. The process of the Central Nervous System helps the body to maintain balance through processing the information we receive from stimuli through our sense organs, and our physiological responses. Isn’t it amazing how our body works? While we are busy interacting with the environment, our body is working 24/7 to maintain balance inside our body.
Breath works to help this system in our body function well. These physiological systems become less responsive when we are suffering from chronic stress and when we are constantly running in a fight-or-flight state. Therefore, making the body lose better function to maintain balance or homeostasis.
Qigong healing helps the body maintain these functions through breath. Qigong breathwork techniques can help us regain balance in our physiological systems through different processes. Some breathing techniques such as Unity Breathing helps us reach the resonance frequency of the heart rate and the breath. This helps in balancing blood pressure and heart rate. This helps us reach higher Heart Rate Variability which then, allows healthy heart functions and helps physiological systems to function well.
Qigong Healing Benefits in the Mind
The mind is the experience of the mutual interaction of the body and the brain. It is both the signal coming from the brain to the body and the body to the brain. Along with this, the mind is also the process of how humans interact and react to its external environment. The mind is not separate from the body and the brain, it is embodied in the mind and the brain. It also links cognition and breathing as it also connects to other parts of the brain responsible for cognitive processes, emotion, focus, and attention.
Qigong healing also helps the mind. We are all aware that the brain sends information to different parts of the body. One of the important connections we need for essential body function is the connection between the brain and the body. The brain and body connect through neurotransmitters, hormones, and chemicals. Through these connections it is necessary for our body to control essential functions such as breathing, digestion, feeling, and other responses that the body needs. Qigong healing helps the mind through the balance and harmonization of movement and breath.
Vagus Nerve
One of the most important nerves in the body is the vagus nerve. The Vagus Nerve is responsible for allowing information to flow between the brain and the internal organs. It starts from the brainstem and then connects down to the entire viscera (Heart, Lungs, Spleen, Kidney, Stomach, Intestines). 80% of the fibers of the Vagus Nerve goes from the body to the brain, and 20% goes from the brain to the body. Through the Vagus Nerve, we can control heart rate through breathing. Through the balance and harmonization of movement and breath in qigong, we allow these functions between the brain and the body to be sufficient.
What can Qigong Healing Heal?
Lowers Blood Pressure
One of the benefits of qigong healing is lowering blood pressure. Lowering blood pressure can be achieved through the breath. When we exhale, the body relaxes, and the blood pressure lowers. Doing qigong breathing techniques in qigong healing is essential for maximum benefits. When we know how to use our breath, it becomes a very convenient tool that helps us perform better in our everyday lives.
Through slow, long, and controlled breaths we also help to activate the body functions, and systems in the body to slow down the heart rate and blood pressure.
Increase Production of Chemical and Hormones
Qigong helps in relaxing the body, as well as the mind. As we unite and harmonize movement and breath, we tap into a more relaxed state, which in turn relaxes the mind. When the body is relaxed, the brain releases chemicals and hormones such as Serotonin which associates with feelings of happiness and calm, and Dopamine which associates with feelings of motivation and reward processing.
These chemicals serve as natural pain killers. When these chemicals are released, they help the body heal on the cellular level.
Improves Digestion
Qigong healing benefits also include improving digestion. Qigong exercises such as the Rabbit Springs from the 8 Trigram Qigong helps improve digestion. This qigong has a gentle massage around the colon allowing smoother release of waste in the body. It also uses the Lion’s breath which helps build more fire in the body helping and improving digestion even more effectively.
Other qigong exercises such as the Snake Qigong from the 5 Element Qigong helps us release emotions such as worry and anxiety which connect to the function of the spleen and stomach. Have you ever noticed that when you feel anxious and worried your digestion is also poor? Doing this qigong will help you release the emotions of worry and anxiety, and therefore, improve the digestive function of the body.
Qigong breathing techniques also help in qigong healing. When we do qigong breathing such as Abdominal Breathing, 3 Stage Balloon Breath, Cleansing Breath and others, it helps the digestive tract improve its function.
Helps Have Better Focus
Doing qigong helps us improve focus. This helps in calming the Monkey Mind. In this fast and changing world, we cannot help but think and do many things at a time. Multi-tasking has been one of the tools of modern people to adapt to the fast and changing world.
However, this also makes our system always in fight-or-flight mode. Some people rarely have time to relax and give their body time to heal at the end of the day. This means that their mind is always going through different things almost 24/7. This can be a helpful tool in some ways, especially if you are the type of person who has multiple tasks a day. It is difficult to find separate times to do work, care for the family, do errands, run business, and many more. However, when the brain is in constant monkey mind, we cannot even do focused work on any single task.
Qigong helps us strengthen focus through repetitive movements. These repetitive movements helps us maintain focus for a longer time. For more advanced practitioners, they may even reach flow state. Flow state when applied in our daily life helps us flow through our tasks more fluidly, rather than in a more stressful and frustrating manner.
Improves Emotional Balance
Through medical qigong systems such as the 5 Element Qigong, we learn how we can release excess emotions stored in the body as toxins. We also also learn how we can balance these excess emotions or negative emotions with their antidote emotions. For example, we release excess fear, and bring in courage when we do Dragon Qigong. In Chinese Medicine it is known that our emotions and organs connect. When there is imbalance in the organ, there is also an imbalance in the specific emotion related to it. In the same way, when there is imbalance in our emotions, it can also influence imbalance in the specific organ related to it. Doing qigong, such as these qigong healing systems, helps us balance our emotions, as well as the organs.
When we do qigong, we do not only do movements, we also become more aware of ourselves by listening to our body. This helps us recenter ourselves, allowing us to tune in within, listen to our body and allow unrecognized emotions to surface. When we know which emotions need healing, this helps us in knowing how we can specialize our qigong healing routine.
Through Qigong breathing techniques, we also help calm stress and anxiety by activating the Parasympathetic Nervous system which is responsible for our relaxation state.
Timeless Qigong Healing
Qigong healing has been around for thousands of years, and it is still used today in many modern hospitals in China. It has been proven as an effective way to heal. The knowledge of this practice may be ancient but today, modern science is only catching up to what this ancient practice has already held for thousands of years.
Qigong is a very optimal healing tool. You don’t have to have illnesses, disease, or pain to do qigong. Qigong is the best tool to help your body maintain great body functions and systems to help you reduce the possibilities of getting illness and diseases. Doing this practice regularly and constantly is the best way to reach qigong healing benefits.
