Evening Qigong: Gentle Cleanse

Simple and short Qigong (mindful movement) sequence, especially well-suited for the evening. The intention of the practice is to gently wash or cleanse your energy. We use gentle practices to release anything unhelpful from the day, wash our whole system with fresh, healthy energy, and reset our energy to a balanced state. Give the practice a try and notice how you rest tonight.

You can also draw on this practice at any time of day when you feel the need to reset your energy, gently releasing anything you picked up and bathing your body in fresh energy. It is appropriate for any season, any level of experience (including complete beginners), and all phases of life.

Note: Here, I guide the practice standing. I also released a guided seated version of the same practice.

Transcript

Standing with the feet shoulder-width apart, Let the knees soften. We'll begin by massaging our hands, Warming them up. And when your hands feel sufficiently warm, Placing them one over the other on your lower belly, Below the belly button, Connecting to the center of your energy. And just noticing what you sense here, The quality of the energy in your center, Its brightness, Its movement. We'll activate this energy a little bit for the purposes of this practice to help us cleanse some energy we may have picked up from our day before we retire for rest. So circling with a gentle massage on the belly, And we'll circle the other way. And change direction one more time. And coming to rest again. Noticing how you connect with your center now. Feeling the breath beneath the palms of the hands. Sensing the expansion of the energy in your center in all directions as you inhale. And a gentle relaxation, A folding back in on itself as you exhale. Allowing this expansion and condention to occur naturally with the pace of your normal breath. Like a little light pulsing in your center as you inhale, The light gets brighter in all directions. And as you exhale, The light gathers back into the center. We're going to expand this brightness a bit more through the whole body now. So as you inhale, The arms lift, The energy expands through the whole body. Exhaling, The energy returns back to the point in the center. Of your belly. Inhaling light expanding from the center, Illuminating your whole body. Exhaling, The light returning back to its source, To the center. A few more at your own pace. Letting the energy now pulse through your whole body, Gently illuminating and washing your body. And then coming to rest again at its center. We'll leave the arms by the sides now and expand this a little bit further in your center. Into the field around you, Into the space around your body. So as you inhale, Letting the energy expand in your belly, Expand through your whole body, And expand into the space around you. Exhaling, The energy returns back to the center in your belly. Inhaling energy, Expanding, Illuminating your whole body and the space around you. And exhaling, Energy returning back to its source. A couple more at your own pace. Caring for the energy in the center, In the whole body, And in the energy field around you, Which is part of your energy system. And releasing this practice, We're going to sink further towards the earth, Bending the knees gently a little more. Inhaling, Bringing the arms up. At the top, Pointing the fingertips towards the sky. And then exhaling, Letting the arms descend. Bending the knees again, Pointing the fingertips towards the earth. Again, Moving with the pace of your breath, We now wash our whole body, Our whole energy system with fresh energy from the earth, Letting it come up through the feet, The legs, The torso, The head. And then pointing the fingertips, Letting it release towards the sky. And then we allow sky energy to pour down through the whole body as well, Releasing it towards the earth at the bottom. And then washing our whole system with fresh, Healthy energy from both earth and sky. Helping to release, Again, Anything that we may have picked up in our day that will not serve to take into our sleeping night. And at the same time, Bringing fresh, Healthy energy that will support the work of the body through the sleeping night. We take one more together. Coming back to the center, We'll bring our hands to our kidneys in our lower back. Hopefully the hands are nice and warm now, So resting them here for just a moment, Connecting to the kidneys that are the source of the base of our energy. And noticing how the energy moves here with your breath as well. Maybe you can sense that pulsation of expansion of the organs as you inhale. And a relaxation back inwards as you exhale. We'll start with a little massage here as well. Gently activating the energy just a little bit. Carrying and supporting the kidneys. So massaging with the intention to nurture and care for. And then we're going to tap down the outsides and the backs of the legs as far as you can reach. If you can, Coming all the way down to the feet, And then tapping up the insides of the legs. Continuing up the front body, Down one inner arm towards the palm. Flipping the hand from the back of the hand back to the shoulder and across to the other arm. And then coming over the face, Over the top of the head, To the back of the head, Down the sides of the neck, The shoulders, And then coming back to the kidneys. A couple more circuits like this at your own pace. Being relatively gentle and soft with the tapping here. Our intention to distribute this beautiful fresh energy that we cultivated in this short practice. And letting it soak into all the tissues. And if there are any remaining spots of tension or stuckness, You can also help them release in this way. Again, Preparing the body for a restful night of sleep. And the next time we come to the kidneys, We place the hands there again. We'll take the same circuit, This time sweeping the hands across the body, Smoothing the flow of the energy. We'll take three circuits like this as well. Letting the fresh energy flow smoothly, Unimpeded, Through our whole system. And pausing at the kidneys again. Reconnecting to the way the organs are pulsing with your breath. So gentle inhalation expands the kidneys. And gentle exhalation relaxes them back in, Allowing the kidneys to breathe with you. Once more to nourish them and to invite any of your energy or some of the energy that we cultivated to replenish your reserves. And then when you're ready, Bringing the palms one over the other to the lower belly again. Connecting with the center of all your energy. And letting the energy settle and store here. Thank you.