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December 26, 2005
Can Qigong Alleviate Asthma?
I have a student in my qigong class right now who has had a long history of asthma. He has had little luck with acupuncture but asked if there were specific qigong techniques that might help him.
Generically, qigong should alleviate asthma because of its general healing impact on the body’s whole system.
Specifically, it would make sense to concentrate on qigong systems that work to strengthen the Lung energy in particular.
The single most complete program I know that targets the Lung energy is Shamanic Tiger Qigong which we now have available on DVD from our new author Zhongxian Wu.
Try this specific qigong method also:
Put your attention in your lungs, inhale and expand your attention to the outer reaches of the universe, with a sense of dispersing and releasing stuck energy. Exhale, sending fresh healing energy into the lungs.
Yes, it will seem counter-intuitive to “exhale into the lungs”, but give it a shot!
Holding the breath and sending your attention to a problematic area is considered healing by some qigong teachers. Practicing breath holding will also strengthen your lungs although I recommend you check with your physician on how far you should take this.
Here’s another resource I recommend you check out:
Dr. Ted Cibik has a book called Air Passages: Surviving Asthma Naturally, plus a video called Asthma Qigong.
Cibik has black belts in Kung Fu, Jiu Jitsu, Judo and Karate and two doctorates as a Naturopath and Doctor of Chinese Medical Qigong from China.
He has also personally had to deal with asthma for forty years. His website is www.inner-strength.com
If any of you are asthma sufferers and have found a particular qigong method beneficial, feel free to email me at dragondoor@aol.com.
See all of John Du Cane’s qigong resources.
Posted by james at 10:51 AM | Comments (1)
December 19, 2005
Qigong To Help the Eyes
Our eyes take a beating in the new computer age as we spend hour after hour fixated on our monitors. Many of us lock in on the screens, creating a condition of chronic eye stress, which subtly translates into stress throughout our system.
Stopping our fixation every half hour or so and doing a minute or two of eye exercises can go a long way to remedying this problem.
For instance, practice changing the focus of your gaze: choose a spot in the distance and another spot much closer by. Then switch your focus backwards and forwards between the two spots.
Or: without moving your head, look up to the upper left diagonal and then down to the right diagonal. Switch directions.
Qigong uses the power of the hands to send healing energy to where it is needed in our bodies. The eyes are no exception.
In this method, we first exercise the eyes, then deeply relax them:
After doing a qigong practice to energize the hands in particular (there are plenty of good techniques on both my Bliss Qigong and Qigong Recharge DVDs), cup the hands over your closed eyes and hold them there for from one to five minutes.
Begin by rolling your eyes through 360 degrees in both directions, traditionally done for either 24 or 36 rotations each direction. Then simply relax while the palms send healing energy into your tired eyes.
We abuse our eyes and as a result often suffer from headaches and other indicators of destructive tension. I encourage you to use your qigong to release and restore your eyes. Regular eye-qigong can only add to the quality of your life and general sense of well being.
See all of John Du Cane’s qigong resources.
Posted by james at 6:44 AM | Comments (1)
December 12, 2005
Using Qigong To Handle Anger and Anxiety
I have just had a tough few days at the office, dealing with some business flare ups, including a phone conversation with one of the most obnoxious gentlemen I have ever had the misfortune to encounter. I do my best to remove these people as quickly from my life as they show up, but I still have to deal with the emotional fallout from the initial exposure(s).
The emotion that is potentially very destructive for me is anger. It shows up extremely fast, is hard to remain conscious with and easily puts me out of balance. While I believe in the value of anger to fire up my resources to respond to a threat, all too often a small blaze can ignite into a forest fire.
Qigong has been a tremendous help for me personally, in helping calm down from anger attacks but I consider it an ongoing challenge.
One of our forum contributors recently posted a question for me about another strong emotion, anxiety:
“I have been doing qi gong for a little less than a month now and I have been having anxiety problems from outside events and god knows what else. When I'm doing qi gong I focus on breathing as one should however I sometimes get that butterfly like feeling in my stomach and it seems to interfere. Sometimes I can control it with breathing and sometimes I cannot. I want to know how detrimental this can be to my workout, and if there are ways around this obstacle. I know that qi gong can be beneficial to stress and such but can it help anxiety?”
Here was my answer:
Qigong is not a panacea for problems like an excess of anxiety, however consistent, extended practice will likely reduce it.
From a qigong perspective, there is nothing wrong per se with anxiety -- it serves a necessary messenger function in the body. However if compulsive thinking feeds an addiction to a particular emotion, then you will fall out of balance.
I recommend three processes to do regularly to help reduce anxiety, in this order, before and beyond whatever other qigong you are doing:
Five or more minutes of vigorous shaking of the whole body.
100 Wall Squats performed slowly and with good form.
At least five minutes of a spiraling qigong method.
I would be very surprised if this doesn't quickly start taking the edge off your anxiety.
If you follow lively qigong with more internal processes that require careful attention you will find yourself getting "out of your head", more into your senses and general awareness -- and will find yourself less controlled by compulsive thinking.
If you haven't already, read through some of my qigong blogs for more advice that would apply to your situation.
Finally, relax every time you get the butterfly feeling and don't try too hard to control it with your breath -- that could make it worse. Better not to fight it: better to relax into then out of it with a sense of acceptance.
So, the greatest remedy for emotional imbalance is the practice of awareness. My experience is that qigong methods make it easier for you to achieve and maintain that state of awareness.
See all of John Du Cane’s qigong resources.
Posted by james at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)
December 5, 2005
Don't Sabotage Your Qigong Practice By Not Sleeping Enough
One of the ways qigong benefits us is by helping restore depleted energy. Personally, I find it easy to get into the mindset that qigong can be my magic guardian against any and all health challenges, however else I lead my life.
It’s kind of like a spoiled rich kid who knows their Dad is always going to bail them out…
But of course, there's only so much qigong - or a rich Dad - can do to bail you out, if you consistently continue to make unhealthy choices in any part of your life.
One of the areas I get most complacent about is getting enough sleep.
I was reminded of this the other day when I read my favorite copywriting newsletter from John Forde. John’s Copywriter’s Roundtable is the only marketing newsletter I always open and always read completely, because it is always highly informative and very interesting. Don’t feel you have to be a professional copywriter or marketer to benefit from John’s great stuff – check him out at www.jackforde.com
In his issue # 234, How to Write Copy With Your Eyes Closed he discusses the huge impact good sleep can have on your creativity and general intellectual capabilities.
John includes this research reference:
“In a 2004 study from the University of Luebeck in Germany, 106 volunteers showed they could do three times better on a simple test than those who had piled up LESS than 8 hours of sleep.
Sleep, it turns out, gives your brain time to ‘repack’ the day's collected memories for longer- term storage. In the process, your powers of creativity get a boost. The researchers don't know exactly why that happens….”
John then offers some suggestions for ensuring you get more and better sleep. For the full detail read John’s newsletter, but they include:
Skip TV, skip late-night internet surfing, avoid late-night sugar and caffeine, get a handle on your workaholic late hour frenzies, do abdominal breathing exercises just before bed (hmmm, sounds like qigong to me), and get up at sunrise.
Sound like no-brainers, don’t they? Well, funny how often I personally seem to disregard what’s in my best interest…
Sometimes, of course, it’s great to make the deliberate choice to set fire to your whole candle and watch it melt away to nothing. You take the trade-off: live large and deep tonight, take the hammering to your body and brain later and accept it as a willing sacrifice.
But consistent lack of sleep will reduce you in all the areas your qigong is so good at helping you with: your physical vitality, emotional stability, mental clarity and spiritual tranquility.
So, do yourself a big favor and get more sleep! Your body, brain and spirit – not to mention your friends, family and coworkers – will thank you for it, big time.
See all of John Du Cane’s qigong resources.
Posted by james at 2:52 PM | Comments (0)