Seven Core Benefits of Qi Gong
From the outside, it’s not entirely obvious what the benefits of Qi Gong are. In fact, a lot of people aren’t even familiar with Qi Gong, so let’s start there…
Qi Gong is a practice for less stress and more energy. It’s based on the understanding that every living being possesses an invisible, life-force energy known as Qi.
The word Gong means “to work with.” So, Qi Gong is the practice of working with your internal life-force energy in order to experience elevated states of being. The practice generally uses slow, flowing movements coordinated with meditations and the breath.
There are many reasons people practice Qi Gong. Some are drawn to it for emotional balance, others for a specific health ailment, and some find that it helps with their sleep. Many people start practicing for one reason but decide to continue for an entirely different reason.
While it’s impossible to truly quantify the nourishing qualities of Qi Gong, below are seven reasons people practice Qi Gong.
1. Reduces Stress
Who doesn’t want less stress in their life?
Not only does stress reduce your emotional wellbeing, it’s one of the root causes of various health ailments. It doesn’t matter if you’re an overwhelmed parent or a busy retired person, stress affects everyone.
One of the most powerful characteristics of Qi Gong is its ability to reduce stress.
Qi Gong blends the relaxing qualities of meditation with the activating nature of movement. This means Qi Gong can immediately transform tense energy into a feeling of peace and calm. Even just a few minutes can have a dramatic effect on your entire nervous system.
Qi Gong also helps you identify self-defeating thought patterns.
Since thoughts and emotions are closely linked, practitioners naturally let go of negative stories. This further reduces emotional stress.
If there was such a thing as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Qi Gong benefits, the reduction of stress is probably the foundation. It helps make all the other benefits possible.
2. Elevates Mood
By letting go of stress, you create spaciousness in your body and mind for new states of being. This allows you to overcome negative thought patterns and elevate your emotional wellness.
Improving your mood helps you to feel more energized and alive throughout all of life’s activities. So instead of relying on external resources (e.g. frequent coffee breaks) to get through the day, you find energy within yourself to stay inspired and move forward.
3. Improves Sleep
Just as Qi Gong can help you to feel more energized, it can help you to transition into a restful state that helps you get deep, healing sleep.
Part of this is based on the Qi Gong’s ability to help you maintain a healthy balance of Yin and Yang energy. Instead of being tired during the day and restless at night, Qi Gong can help you concentrate your Yang energy during the daytime hours and your Yin energy during the night. This leads to more energy during the day and deeper relaxation at night.
Many Qi Gong practitioners have a regular evening routine to help them let go of the day’s events and prepare for sleep. In addition to maximizing the quality of sleep, an evening Qi Gong routine is a great way to process and integrate all of the experiences you had throughout the day.
4. Activates Healing Energy
At Holden QiGong, many of our most dedicated practitioners first discovered Qi Gong as the result of a personal medical journey.
Qi Gong activates the body’s internal healing potential. Whether someone is struggling with a digestive issue, back pain, serious headaches, or other ailments, there is a Qi Gong practice that can help with healing.
It’s truly profound how transformative Qi Gong can be when it comes to overcoming injury or illness. While it’s important to also consult with medical professionals, it’s clear that Qi Gong is an invaluable tool for helping individuals overcome many different kinds of medical hardships. Not to mention, it’s pretty empowering when you can take an active role in your healing journey instead of just being a passive patient.
Barbara, a 71-year-old Qi Gong practitioner from Florida experienced a significant increase in her blood oxygen level from 93% to 99% after practicing Qi Gong. Another student, Larry, used Qi Gong to help him lose 125 pounds. And Rebecca, a Qi Gong practitioner of many years, credits Qi Gong for helping her quickly recover following surgery to remove a brain tumor.
5. Helps to Clear Pain
Just as Qi Gong can help with healing, it can also help you to let go of pain. By addressing the true origin of discomfort and suffering, Qi Gong can transform many unhealthy energy states and relieve pain.
When students walk into the classroom with chronic ailments, it’s not uncommon for them to report significant reductions in pain after just a couple of Qi Gong classes. In one case, Eos, a Qi Gong student, used the practice to eliminate migraines without needing to take medications.
Sometimes, students didn’t even consider the healing benefits of Qi Gong before giving it a try, but as soon as they discover how powerful it is, they become dedicated life-long practitioners. Often, these are the people who discover Qi Gong for one reason but continue practicing for another.
6. Boosts the Immune System
It’s widely known by both eastern and western medical professionals that stress can reduce the strength of the immune system. Therefore, letting go of stress improves the immune system, and that is exactly what Qi Gong can help you do.
Unfortunately, stress has a nasty habit of preventing people from experiencing happy and healthy states of being. It’s obvious when stress is preventing someone from feeling relaxed, but many people may not think about the physiological effect that stress can have on the body.
Stress activates the body’s sympathetic nervous system, which is the “fight or flight” response.
While it’s important to be poised and ready for action when facing a tiger in the jungle, this heightened state of being doesn’t help fight off sickness and disease. Qi Gong activates the body’s parasympathetic nervous system which allows you to direct your energy (Qi) towards boosting your immune system and healing.
7. Helps People Connect to Their Higher Truth
Qi Gong is a wonderful way to expand your consciousness and connect to the world and universe around you, regardless of your faith. Whatever your beliefs, the practice helps to cultivate the universal truths of love and compassion.
Many practitioners feel that Qi Gong leads them to a feeling of deep connection with the world around them. It reminds them that they’re a small part of a much bigger universe, and that their body is a miraculous vessel of limitless Qi.
This leads to a feeling of spiritual clarity and connection in all aspects of life. By tuning in and learning the language of energy, we can become students of the earth, nature, and cosmos.
30 Day Challenge
At Holden QiGong, we’ve put together a 30 Day Challenge that includes 30 unique Qi Gong practices. Each of the lessons are just seven minutes long, making it easy to find time to practice each day.
One of the amazing things about Qi Gong is that you can experience its positive qualities immediately. Click here to learn more about this opportunity and start practicing today.
