“ Qi ” means the body’s life force or energy.
“ Gong ” means the cultivation of skillfulness
So Qigong is a practice to help you to become skillful in managing the health of your own body’s life force energy.
I like to describe it as “gentle movement incorporating breath and visualization”. The perception of energy flow and the different qualities about this energy gradually becomes bright and palpable to the practitioner and I find it endlessly interesting as well as relaxing and energizing!
Qigong can be an at home on your favorite rug or in your favorite park every morning kind of personal practice or it can be received as a therapeutic technique where you lay on the treatment table and have a trained Medical Qigong Practitioner remove stagnant, blocked and unhelpful energy. He or She then tonifies or energizes the organs or systems that need refreshment using the limitless sources of energies from Heaven and Earth and will then help to regulate and integrate the flow of all this fresh energy into your being in a harmonious way.
My experience of learning qigong and having medical qigong sessions done for me has been an amazing journey into awareness and care of the energetic parts of Self on the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual levels.
Health and vitality is felt when the body’s energy or Qi is flowing harmoniously. Dis-ease is felt when there is stagnation of Qi creating a turbid or toxic environment for the vital organ systems, muscles and nervous system which has not so nice effects on our emotional, mental and spiritual clarity.
Turbid and toxic qi is created when there is unresolved tension from shock or trauma in the physical, emotional, mental or spiritual levels of being. This causes qi flow disturbances or deviations that cost us peace and harmony.
The scar tissue and tensions remaining after impact injuries to our physical body that limit healthy qi flow can be understood easily.
On the emotional level there can be stress induced contractions and restrictions energetically that affect our physical body. For example when we are young and experience strong emotional situations that are beyond our comprehension we store these difficult energies internally until the time when we are mature enough to resolve them (unless we are lucky enough to have mature adults around to Love us and explain, helping our young minds and hearts return to peace).