Qi Gong and Movement Resources

There are a range of movement practices that support meditation and the transformation at the heart of contemplative practice. These practices also have a range of other benefits for health and wellbeing.

As the body ages, it’s natural to feel more stiff, tight, contracted, or tired. What’s more, if our work requires that we spend long hours sitting at a desk or staring at a screen, it is common to feel fatigue, mental and emotional stress, apathy or unmotivated. How can we reclaim our sense of vitality and motivation? How do we move through the world with a sense of freedom, ease and flexibility? How can we find more energy and aliveness in our days?

Awareness through Movement

The human body was designed to move. Health experts recommend that we walk between 5,000 – 10,000 steps per day. In fact, certain bodily systems (like the lymphatic system) depend on movement to function! For me, learning various forms of movement practice have been an essential part of my own contemplative path.

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Movement practice can help us integrate awareness into our daily lives, open up the breathing space of the body, release energetic and physical blockages, and ground the insights of meditation in our felt experience. Over the years of my own practice, I’ve found great benefit through the following forms of movement:

  • Hatha and Anusara Yoga

  • Hanna Somatics

  • Alexander Technique

  • Feldenkrais

  • Qi Gong

Frustration is natural: be patient

Feeling awkward, uncomfortable or frustrated are all a natural part of learning anything new—especially in the body. Western culture in general is disembodied. As we grow up, we often become disconnected from our bodies. The dominant society values rational, intellectual knowledge over other forms of knowing, like emotional or somatic intelligence.

Yet the body has its own wisdom, its own deep knowing. The body knows how to move, how to balance, how to heal. Movement practices help access embodied wisdom, and provide an essential foundation for meditation practice. The Buddha called embodied awareness “The First Foundation of Mindfulness.”

Qigong Resources

Qi Gong (alternately spelled “chi gong” or “qiqong”) means “cultivation of life energy” and originates in China and all involve a coordination of mind and body that supports relaxation, increases awareness, and enhances the flow of the body’s natural, vital energy. All Qi Gong involves learning how to guide and direct our energy through a coordination of bodily movement, breathing, and awareness/intention.

The best way to learn Qi Gong is from an experienced teacher in person. I encourage you to search for a local class or martial arts center. If you’re lucky enough to have more than one person teaching Qi Gong in your city or town, drop in for a class and train with whomever you feel most comfortable.

There are many, many kinds of Qi Gong: as a martial art, as an internal art, medical i gong. There are also hundreds of forms of Qi Gong: Five Animal Frolics, Six Healing Sounds, Primordial QiGong, Eight Brocades, the Twelve Treasures, Wild Goose, Soaring Crane, and more. If you’re unable to find a teacher in person, here are some online resources and books that I highly recommend.

Trauma healing Resources

Learning to feel your body, to care for it well, and to move with awareness is both innate to the human organism, and a skill that can take time, patience, and dedication to cultivate. Martial arts, qigong, and other forms of movement like yoga and dance, can all be vehicles to help us reconnect with our bodies.

There are many other practices like Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais method, or Somatic Experience that support healing in the body. Below are some additional books I recommend for those interested in exploring this aspect of contemplative practice. If you are looking for a trauma healing therapist, check out my referrals page or search the Somatic Experiencing Practitioner Directory.

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