Find a quiet place to sit.
Do what you can to prevent distractions.
Cross your legs if you can,
Or you can sit in a chair.
Create a nice straight back and make a note to maintain this posture throughout this meditation.
Qigong is a Chinese word that means life energy cultivation.
It's a body mind exercise for health,
Meditation,
And martial arts training.
It usually involves slow gentle body movements,
Inner focus,
And regulated breathing.
Traditionally,
It was practiced and taught in secrecy in the Chinese Buddhist,
Taoist,
And Confucianist traditions.
In Taoist philosophy,
Connecting to the way through meditation means that we're getting in touch with the generation,
Transformation,
And circulation of inner energy,
The energy within the body.
The purpose is to quiet the body and mind,
Unify body and spirit,
Find inner peace,
And harmonize with the Tao.
To understand more of Tao,
I'd recommend its main text written by Lao Tzu called the Ta Te Ching,
Dating back to 6th century BC.
To understand more about Qigong and the harnessing of Qi in the body,
We must learn how to do it.
Let's begin the practice of seated Qigong meditation.
You should already be seated in a comfortable position,
Making sure your body is balanced and centered.
Traditionally,
Men sit cross-legged with their left leg outside and women with their right leg on the outside.
Men put their right thumb in their left palm.
Women left thumb in their right palm.
We turn inward,
Allowing our eyes to rest and close.
Relax your whole body,
Muscles,
Nerves,
And internal organs.
Feel relaxation flow through your whole body and surround you.
Now visualize your body surrounded in a purple orb of light.
It's creating space for you to be allowed to feel safe,
Comfortable,
Strong,
Free,
Creative,
And open.
Feel the relaxation from the inhalation through to the exhalation.
Allow all the Qi from the cosmos to flow gently into your body,
Into your lungs,
Into your heart.
Open your senses.
Observe the stimuli that surround you without participating in them.
Acknowledge smells,
Sounds,
Taste,
Touch,
Temperature,
Sunlight,
Bodily sensations,
And thoughts.
In fact,
You can be grateful for all of this.
You can simply observe them and not participate in them.
You can acknowledge their existence and then return to the breath.
Allow yourself to feel a sense of goodness from simply being able to sense the world around you.
Being healthy,
Being alive,
Being present for the infinitely awesome now.
Now allow the energy in the air you breathe and filter with your body to warm your heart.
Feel your heart swell as the lungs fill up with conscious air.
Feel the connectivity your attention can have with your heart.
Create a stronger and more clear highway for your heart to be received by the awareness without your thoughts,
Emotions,
And the patterns in which you've learned throughout your life.
Feel the air as it enters your nose,
As it enters down your throat and into your lungs.
Try doing it slowly enough so that you may feel it enter each part of the body separately.
If it helps to visualize,
Go for it.
Otherwise,
You can feel the chi circulate throughout your body.
Feel how the air is cooler as it enters your nostrils and then it's warmer upon leaving.
With each inhalation,
You feel your heart become warmer.
Your lungs expand and your heart swells with goodness with the sensation of being alive,
Of breathing,
Of breathing in relaxation,
Breathing out stress.
Let's take in a deep inhalation together.
Breathe in one,
Two,
Three.
Breathe out one,
Two,
Three.
Continue doing this for the next few minutes and be conscious of the breath.
Feel the air coming in slowly into the body and how your heart swells and is connected to the rest of your body.
Allow your attention to rest on the breath and the heart.
Let's take a deep breath.
Breathe in.
You can also be mindful of how the chi fills in your body to simply notice how the chi is generated by breathing,
By conscious breathing.
And this chi begins to circulate,
Begins to build.
And you might notice it building in a certain location of the body.
It's commonly perceived to be built in the dan qian,
Which is in your lower abdomen.
It builds with each breath.
Your heart is warmer and warmer with each breath.
To be conscious of the chi is a gift that can be used for many good things.
We need just to sit with it for a while and give it a chance to grow.
Feel the chi activate your heart and warm your heart up with each breath.
Breathe in,
One,
Two,
Three,
And breathe out,
One,
Two,
Three.
Allow your breath to be natural.
Allow your breath not to be forced or contrived.
Simply connect with it in its natural state.
You don't need to make it longer or deeper.
Connect with the sensation of breathing and how this simple act generates energy within you.
Allow it to activate your heart,
To warm your heart.
Now,
You may be asking yourself at some point during this meditation,
What is the purpose of doing this?
What do I get out of this?
Why should I make this a part of my daily life?
If you feel any different at the end of this meditation,
It's possibly because you've connected your breath,
Your chi,
And your heart.
You've begun to feel this connection.
You've begun to know what it's like to play and be still with this simple act,
With this exercise.
I will explore these questions and how this can be applied in another meditation from this series entitled Harnessing the Chi Within.
Join me.
And until then,
Namaste.
