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Synopsis: A Qigong Routine for Healthy Breathing
Preparation to Movement: Establishing Qigong Stance – Technique/Energy Focus:
Movement Technique: Circling the Arms
Circling the Arms – 1st Circles – Up the Front/Above the Head/Down the Sides
Circling the Arms – 2nd Circles – Up the Side/Above the Head/Down the Front
Optional Second Breathing Routine – the Accordion Breath
Closure: Qigong Sequential Release (Qigong’s Savasana)
A Qigong Routine for Healthy Breathing – Detailed Instructions
(Image of Stance)
Preparation to Movement: Establishing Qigong Stance – Technique/Energy Focus:
Establish your Qigong Stance, including Energy Focus, beginning with your feet.
Feet and Legs: Stand, feet and legs hip distance apart, parallel, your weight distributed evenly on your feet, front to back, side to side.
Focus: Ground your being, sensing your roots going deep within the earth upon which you stand, and open your body/mind to receive the nurturing yin energy of the earth.
Knees: Keep the knees released, legs slightly bent to open the knee joint.
Pelvis: Lower the tail bone to tuck slightly under to help you ground.
Abdomen: Release the belly, the abdominal area, so that it feels soft and moves freely with your breathing, rising with the inhalation, falling with the exhalation.
Focus: Lower Dan Tian: Focus into this navel area of the body, called the Lower Dan Tian, the home for our Original Qi/Jing Energy, the center of our physical gravity, and most significantly, an energy center offering a transformative elixir, bringing new life.
Though they call it by differing names, both the yogis and the qigong masters recognize the power within this subtle space, tucked in the center of the body, beneath the navel. Honor this space. Open into it.
Chest and Ribcage: Allow the chest and rib cage to expand and contract naturally with your abdominal breathing. Keep the chest in a neutral position, neither slumped forward nor thrust back. Your neutral positioning here helps you with the flow of qi as you move it up and down your body.
Focus: The Heart, the Middle Dan Tian: Focus into the Heart, the energy center called in qigong the Middle Dan Tian. Some refer to this space as the sea of qi, for it holds our respiratory organs and houses our kidneys; some say it is the seat of the soul. In the language of healing, the Heart center is our Christ chakra, the energy space wherein we come to know and express unconditional love.
Honor and open the Heart.
Shoulders: Release the shoulders down, away from the ears.
Allow the arms to fall away from the shoulders, the hands away from the arms, wrists, elbows soft and open. (None of the joints are locked in qigong; all are released, open.)
Focus: The Brow/Third Eye, the Upper Dan Tian: Take your mind’s eye into the crown and focus between the eyebrows into the space wherein our Shen (Spirit) resides. Qigong calls this area the Upper Dan Tian. The yogis and esoteric healers know this same space as the Third Eye, our space of inner vision, our window into our causal body or soul.
Open into and honor the Third Eye Upper Dan Tian.
Focus: The Crown: Open the crown, feel the mind/body extending, to reach towards the heavens, our yang qi, honoring the space of our lotus chakra, the pinnacle for which we reach energetically while journeying through this life.
Open now the Crown. Breathe.
The Practice: With your Stance and Inner Focus established, you are ready to begin the movement in your practice. Remember, as you practice this routine, allow your movement to lead you in your breathing, for the body can help you understand the natural process of breath. As you raise your arms, the diaphragm drops down, and the in-breath comes automatically. Lowering the arms, you feel a normal release, a letting go in the body, with which your exhalation feels comfortable. Until you have the ease and length in your breathing to inhale up, exhale down, just allow the body to breathe and watch the process. You will find what is natural becomes easy and practice will make your breathing smooth, deep, and long – all of which is relaxing. This routine will help you find and feel healthy breathing within your own body.
Peace is in the practice.
Relaxing as you practice, honoring your body and your breath,
you acknowledge a gift you are making your own.
Healthy Breathing helps you relax. Relaxing helps you have Healthy Breathing.
The practice is as follows:
The Movement for Healthy Breathing – including Focus:
Images – Sequence of images here or individual small ones in text
Circling the Arms – 1st Circle Technique – Up the Front/Above the Head/Down the Sides: Raise the arms up the front of the body, visualizing earth’s nurturing yin qi drawn upward by the palms, filling the body/mind. The elbows release down, so that the hands, palm down, lead the movement of both the arms and the qi.
When you are above the head, arc the hands over the crown. In this space above the crown, turn your hands palm up for a moment to connect with the heavenly yang qi.
Move your hands, palm down, out to the side of the body, bringing with you this pure heavenly qi, to flood, pass through, and heal your body/mind as you lower the arms.
With the hands descended back down to be beside your legs, connect once again with the mother earth, and rest for a moment in this position, hands down relaxed beside your body.
In this moment of rest, allow all toxins, all discomforts, all dis-ease to move down and out of the body. Breathe.
Repetitions: Make this 1st circular movement, Up the Front, Above the Head, Down the Sides, including the healing visualizations, 3 times.
Tips for Mind Body Power: With each circle, observe any changes to the breath, any feeling of easing in the body.
Going up, you are gathering, bringing in, filling.
Going down, you are releasing, relaxing, letting go of toxins, stagnancies, discomforts. You are healing.
Images – Sequence of images here or individual small ones in text
Circling the Arms – 2nd Circle Technique – Up the Sides/Above the Head/Down the Front: Reverse the direction of your circle, with the arms now moving up the side, going above the head and descending down the front of the body.
Float the arms up, out to the side, palms faced down, elbows lower than the hands, wrists released, lifting the arms to extend beside the head. Arc the relaxed arms to form a circular shape above the head, palms turning naturally upwards, reaching in your mind’s eye above the crown to touch the heavenly qi. Allow the arms to again descend, hands palm down, moving down the front of the body, shoulder width apart, returning to connect with the mother earth, the yin qi.
Repetitions: Circle Up the Sides, Above the Head to the heavens, Down the Front to the earth, making your movement three times.
Tips: You know the visualization, the moment of rest, the healing release.
When you have finished, pause with the hands placed in the navel area of the body, one on top of the other, breathing, observing how you are, in breath and in comfort.