Chapter

10

Moving QiGong (Dong Gong)

In This Chapter

The Sitting QiGong presented in Chapter 9 is a prerequisite for the simple yet powerful Moving QiGong exercises in this chapter. Remember, “mindfulness” is the act of observing, experiencing, and perhaps enjoying, rather than analyzing the world around us or within us. Sitting QiGong’s effortless mindfulness of truly experiencing yourself from the inside is a big part of how Moving QiGong works its magic.

In this chapter, you will experience how Moving QiGong can help treat illnesses and organs. QiGong can enhance immune system responses by cleansing the bone marrow of stress.

The following Moving QiGong exercises promote elegance and grace in your movements, while also promoting a calm and peaceful state of mind. The very helpful Web Video Support for this new, fourth edition includes a video exhibition of Tupu Spinning-Stretch, an example of Moving QiGong in this chapter.

Mindful Movement vs. Mindless Exercise

Like Sitting QiGong, the goal of Moving QiGong is to let the mind initiate physical, mental, and emotional releases throughout the body. The more we let go, relax, and open, the more easily and healthfully the energy flows through us.

Much exercise is not very thoughtful. We strain and pound our joints and tissue running on pavement or in other high-impact exercises without paying much attention to the toll it can take on the body. Nor do we give much thought to the toll this takes on our mind, as we often listen to loud music or watch the news while scurrying through our exercises. Studies have shown that loud noises and excessive TV watching can actually elevate damaging stress responses. Don’t get me wrong, I like TV, so I’m not necessarily urging you to renounce modern life. But taking time to let the world go on a daily basis to let the Qi flow through and untangle you, can make TV much more enjoyable when you do watch it.

Moving QiGong, like T’ai Chi, is different. When you practice these exercises, let yourself take a break from the rat race, the noise, and the endless demands of the day. Practice QiGong in silence, hearing only your breath and the motion of your body. Let your mind be filled with the experience of letting go of everything.

Bone Marrow Cleansing

Some Moving QiGong exercises, such as the Bone Marrow Cleansing, have specific purposes. As you go through these gentle motions, the energy is encouraged and allowed to flow through the body, even the bone marrow, to cleanse this tissue of frantic energy. The tissue can function at a higher, clearer level when not burdened by old stress.

I recently got a phone call from someone new to T’ai Chi who’d read this book, and reported that the Bone Marrow Cleansing exercise had been introduced to him as part of his cancer for Leukemia rehabilitation therapy. He’d seen his test numbers improving since he’d begun the exercise, and attributed his success to the Bone Marrow Cleansing. The Australian News reported on a melanoma patient who’d found benefit from practicing QiGong in addition to his vegan, organic, non-GMO (non-genetically modified) dietary changes. In all my T’ai Chi and QiGong classes I now recommend a popular new documentary titled Forks Over Knives to my students, which explains how a whole-foods diet can further reduce stress on the body. The more stressors we relieve our body from, the more energy we have for immune system and other important tasks inside us. It’s simple mathematics.

SAGE SIFU SAYS

What follows are the instructions for a Bone Marrow Cleansing QiGong exercise. These instructions are broken into sections. Each section is followed by a photograph that captures a key step in the exercise.

1. Bone Marrow Cleansing begins with the feet about shoulder width apart and the knees slightly bent. Your hands are relaxed at your sides.

2. Bring your hands up in front as if lifting a 1-foot ball to chest level, and then letting the hands come together at the sternum.

3. Lower your hands now back down to your sides and then slowly raise your arms out to the sides.

Hands at chest in prayer position.

4. Turn the palms outward. Think of opening the body to absorb the energy of life from the universe. Allow the body and mind to become open and porous.

Arms out to sides, palms turned outward to universe.

5. Allow your arms to slowly descend to your sides.

6. One hand now floats up and outward away from the body until eventually it is above your head, with the palm turned down toward the top of your head. Meanwhile, the other hand drifts to settle so the back of your hand is on the small of your back.

One hand overhead with palm down, and the other hand with back of hand on small of back.

7. As the palm above your head turns palm down, allow the energy to pour over and through the head and body. As the hand descends down in front of the body, the body fills with energy, washing through the bones and bone marrow, cleansing the body of any toxins, which are carried right down into the earth through the feet.

8. Repeat this on the other side, each hand now doing what the other did before. Repeat on both sides three times.

9. Then, with both arms relaxed at your sides, begin lifting both palms up toward the sky.

10. Push your hands up toward the sky above your head, and then turn the palms over to face downward.

Palms above forehead down, similar to Grand Terminus. See Web Video Support’s Grand Terminus excerpt for a wonderful taste of this QiGong breathing and deep stress-cleansing experience.

11. As the palms float down in front of the body, let the energy pour through the bones and other tissues, carrying any impurities or dense energy right out through the feet into the earth.

A T’AI CHI PUNCH LINE

Mulan Quan Teaches Elegance

Mulan Quan warm-ups incorporate several lovely Moving QiGong exercises. These promote elegance in movement and carriage but have healing effects as well. My teacher told us that elegance, or moving elegantly, isn’t about how you look to others, but rather is a state of mind and body that occurs as you nurture a loving and self-accepting relationship with your body, which Mulan is specifically designed to promote. See Web Video Support’s Mulan Styles’ Montage of Elegance.

Spread Wings to Fly

Spread Wings to Fly is a Moving QiGong exercise that specifically helps with upper limb disorders and loosens tightness in the shoulders. This is a wonderful exercise to perform during breaks at work to release job tension.

OUCH!

1. Begin with your hands out in front of your chest. Relax your shoulders and breathe naturally, with the tip of the tongue lightly touching the roof of your mouth.

Hands out in front of chest.

2. Begin a long, slow inhalation of breath as you gently pull your arms back around to your sides (as shown in the following figure) until the shoulder blades touch in back, while simultaneously turning your head slowly to the left.

3. Begin exhaling as your arms slowly circle back down and around (rolling out the shoulder sockets) to the start position in front of your chest, while turning your head back to the front.

4. Repeat the entire process, with your head turning to the right this time.

Arms back until shoulder blades touch.

5. Repeat the process, alternately turning your head to the left and then the right until completing eight forms (four with the head turning to the right, and four with the head turning to the left).

Tupu Spinning

Tupu can be therapeutic for movement limi-tations of the back, buttocks, legs, knees, and ankles. Following are steps for this exercise with more detailed instructions for the Mulan Lesson Example—Tupu Spinning-Stretch on the book’s Web Video Support.

SAGE SIFU SAYS

1. Begin by forming fists held at your waist, with your elbows tucked in and your knees slightly bent. Breathe normally and easily yet fully.

Form fists held at your waist with your elbows tucked in and knees slightly bent.

2. Inhale as you extend the right shoulder forward and as your right hand pushes out in front of your body. Simultaneously, your left shoulder and elbow pull back as you turn your face to look back over your left shoulder. Exhale as you reverse this, pulling your right hand back to square off your shoulders, thereby returning to the start position.

3. Switch, extending your left shoulder out as your left hand pushes, and your right shoulder pulls back as you look back over your right shoulder.

4. Repeat on both sides four times each.

Look left, extend right arm out, left shoulder pulling back.

Bring Knee to Chest

This movement not only feels great, it also helps with any pain in the legs and buttocks and is therapy for functional disorders of the leg involving bending and extending.

1. Begin with your hands relaxed at your sides, your knees slightly bent, while breathing easily and naturally.

2. Now begin inhaling as you step forward with your right leg, shifting your weight to the right leg as your arms swing upward and back in great round arcs.

Hands at sides relaxed, knees bent.

Step forward with your right leg, swing arms backward.

3. As the arms’ arcs begin to swing down and toward the front, the left leg begins to lift.

4. Lift your left knee in front, pointing the toes of the left foot down, and wrap your hands around your knee to help it stretch up gently.

Lift left knee, wrap hands around knee.

5. Now exhale. As the left leg is released, the arms begin to swing down and back.

6. Place your left foot behind you, and shift the weight back onto the left leg as your arms swing from the back over the top toward the front.

7. Allow the right leg to come back even with the left as your hands descend, returning you to the start position.

8. Repeat with the left leg stepping out this time. Repeat the entire process alternating sides (four times on each side).

Left leg steps back behind as arms swing up and over.

Zen Walking Recap

Zen meditations involve a mindfulness that simultaneously allows your mind to let go of the worries of the world while attuning yourself to the world in a clear and healing way. Zen walking is a common T’ai Chi exercise. It teaches us how to let our movement fill our minds, while improving our balance and dexterity. Follow these instructions to Zen-walk like the masters, and remember to breathe easily and naturally when Zen walking. Although instructions in Zen or T’ai Chi Walking were given in Chapter 4, here’s a recap with a few more details. Revisit the T’ai Chi Walking in Web Video Support after reading this.

SAGE SIFU SAYS

1. Place the heel of one foot outward at a slight angle, while maintaining balance over the back foot.

Zen walking is a mindfulness meditation that also improves balance and dexterity.

2. Slowly shift your dan tien, or weight, up toward your front foot, while slowly rolling the foot down onto the ground.

3. The back foot stays flat until your Vertical Axis, or dan tien, is settled over the front foot. Now let your heel lift up, then the foot, and now bring that foot up near your weight-bearing foot before placing it out in front at a slight angle, just like in the beginning.

4. Repeat many times, all the way across your living room or backyard. The goal is to Zen-walk enough that you forget about everything in the world except the soles of your feet, the ground they contact, and the shifting tissue in your body.

Carry the Moon

As discussed in Chapter 2, QiGong can treat specific organs, or systems, in the body. Carry the Moon is great for keeping the spine supple and can also tonify kidney function. It has been said that this may also help reduce premature baldness. This may be because, as with all QiGong and T’ai Chi, it promotes circulation, but in the case of Carry the Moon, especially in the scalp.

OUCH!

1. Begin by letting your hands and head simply hang loosely over as you bend effortlessly forward. Don’t try to strain, as if attempting to touch your toes. Just let yourself hang comfortably, with your hands at about knee level or higher. Breathe naturally and easily, as you enjoy a sense of earth’s gravity pulling the weight of the world out of your hanging upper body.

Leaning over with hands hanging down to about knees.

2. Form a circle using the thumbs and forefingers of both hands. As you slowly rise up, the hands ascend above your head.

With hands above the head, forming a circle between thumb and forefingers, looking through it.

3. Let the hands go up and slightly back behind as you gently arch your back to look up through the circle your hands form.

4. Hold this position as you breathe effortlessly and naturally for a few moments; then let yourself hang forward again, allowing the earth’s magnetic cleansing pull to unload whatever you’ve been gripping onto. Notice that with each releasing breath, no matter how much you’ve let go, as you exhale and the lightness expands through your dangling upper body, you’ll be able to let go just a little bit deeper and hang just a bit more loosely as the earth draws those loads, surrendering yourself completely into it’s pull. Now, begin again, and repeat several times.

QiGong exercises should be repeated as long as they are comfortable, don’t push yourself to do it more times than feels good. Your number of repetitions can increase over time as your mind, heart, and body loosen around the movements. Start your journey with short soothing lengths of exercise, and then as your body relaxes into it you’ll find you can enjoy longer and longer experiences involving more repetitions.