Medit at ion In Mot ion By Robert Michael
If you want to be healthy and live to one hundred, do qigong. I
magine an activity that takes only a few minutes each day to perform but can help to focus the mind, relax the body, revitalize energy, and give a sense of overall well-being. The practices of qigong and tai chi chuan can do just that. Qigong is an ancient Chinese health care system
practiced by individuals primarily to improve their own health. It is an exercise that integrates focused intention, coordinated breathing, and gentle movements to strengthen and circulate the life energy. Qigong methods have been used in China for more than 4500 years to maintain and improve health, and were introduced to the Western world only in the past fifty or so years. The word “qigong” (also chi kung) is made up of the Chinese words “qi” (pronounced “chee”), which refers to life force or vital energy, and “gong” (pronounced “goong”), which means accomplishment or skill cultivated through steady practice. Together, qigong refers to any practice whose intention is to restore, circulate, balance, and/or en- hance the personal life energy. Anyone can practice
qigong. There are qigong exercises suitable for people of all ages and physical condi- tion. Qigong can be practiced while standing, sitting, or lying down. Most standing exercises can be modified to be performed while seated or
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lying down. While many of the various types of qigong practices are performed using external movement of the arms and legs to affect the body, some use only imagery and visualization and others use a combina- tion of the two. One of the oldest qigong methods still practiced today is the Five Animals Sports (Wu Xin Qi). Created about the year 200 A.D. by the Chinese physi- cian Hua Tao, it uses movements of animals to teach people how to increase their qi circulation. The Eight Pieces of Brocade (Ba Duan Jin) was created almost 1000 years ago by Marshall Yueh Fei to improve the health of his soldiers. Both of these healing exercise sets are among the more popular practiced today in different variations. Tai chi chuan (also taijiquan) is perhaps better known and more popular than qigong. Although tai chi chuan is a mar- tial art, today it is practiced primarily for its health benefits. The relaxed, circular movements are effective in stimulating the immune system, opening joints, toning and strengthen- ing muscles and providing a gentle cardiovascular workout. The movements of tai chi chuan mimic martial tech- niques that smoothly transition from one to the next, view- ing the body as a whole instead of as a collection of inde-
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