Sitting QiGong Exercise for Light and Energy
QiGong practice isn’t about pretending to be energy; it is about feeling what we really are, which is energy. Actually, the entire universe is energy. Sitting QiGong will allow you to actually feel the nature of your energy and how life energy, or Qi, feels as it flows through your body. Here’s how you do it.
Note: When you see spaces between text divided by an ellipsis (…), give yourself a few seconds to assimilate and feel the experience with your eyes closed before reading on. This exercise is broken into sections, so you can open your eyes to read a section and then close them for a few moments to let yourself experience, or feel, the responses.
This exercise is best done sitting upright in a comfortable chair that supports good posture.
- Begin by placing your feet flat on the floor so that you have solid contact. Rest your palms flat on your legs. Let your eyes close comfortably and naturally. Sit with your feet flat, your palms flat on your thighs, and your back straight but not rigid.
- All T’ai Chi or QiGong exercises begin by simply becoming aware of the breath. Notice how your lungs fill and empty. Let your chest and back relax so your lungs can fill from the bottom all the way up to the top. Notice how, as you release the breath, your lungs empty from the top, or the chest, and then empty all the way down into the abdomen as the abdominal muscles pull in slightly.
- Let your mind relax as the muscles in your head, neck, shoulders, chest, and back relax. As the body relaxes, the breaths become not only deeper, but also more effortless. Allow your awareness to relax and ride on the rhythm of that breath, as if the whole body was being breathed by the air. Let the whole body relax as you release each breath.
- As you feel the body let go of the breath, feel the brain let go of your thoughts and worries of the day. Just as the deep exhales or releasing yawns allow the muscles to let go, the exhaled breath can let go of mental tensions. Likewise, the muscles within and around your heart can hold on to fears or emotions. So as you release each breath, yawn, or sigh, allow the heart to release emotions, the body to release the muscles, and the mind to let go of worries. Each breath is a deep letting go on all levels.
- Notice that as you let out each breath, it feels as though the atoms of the body are actually expanding away from one another. That’s because they are! When we get tense, the body’s atoms actually squeeze together, tightening us up. So as we breathe and allow the body to open, the atoms and cells relax away from one another … feeling as if the wind could blow right through you.
- Now think of the sun directly above your head. Just by thinking of an orb of lightness above your head, you may experience a subtle lift or lightening throughout your mind, or your presence. This Qi, light, or subtle energy vibrates at a higher, more silken rate than the body’s vibratory rate. Therefore, you may experience a feeling of lightness, or loosening, and a deep letting go throughout your entire being.
- Let that sun open and release a shower of clear, washing light, or silken energy, to pour over your head and body, and through your feet down into the earth below. Let go of that image and open to the feeling of deep release as you are washed by that silken energy. Like a water hose spraying through a screen door, just let the body open and be washed through, as you release each sighing exhale.
- Be aware as a feeling of lightness expands through the tissues of the body. Notice the light spreading through the muscles in the top of your head. As the cranial muscles relax, they release their grip on the skull, allowing that permeating lightness to expand through the scalp. Expanding through the sides and back of the head, the entire scalp is lighted, as light flows out through every follicle and every hair on the head. Feel the scalp relaxing around the root of every hair.
- Now allow the light to expand into the muscles at the base of the neck, then down and throughout the connected muscles in the shoulders and upper back. As they let go of their grip on the bones, experience the airy lightness permeating between muscles and bones … a deep letting go.
- Feel as the energy expands up the back of the head and over the sides … feel the hinges of the jaw relax.
- Now allow this energy to expand over the forehead, over the brow, down the bridge of the nose, and into the temples. Don’t try to feel anything or make anything happen; just effortlessly observe as the light expands into the left eye socket … and then the right. Experience all the tiny optical muscles letting go.
- Perceive the illumination expanding through all the soft tissue of the face, nose, mouth, and lips.
- Experience an airy radiance expanding up through the nose into the deepest recesses of the sinus cavity. Feel that opening release as the sinuses fill with light.
- Now into the ears: feel the deep skeletal muscles in the sides of the head let go as the silken energy expands into the inner ears, allowing a deep letting go in the sides of the head.
- As the inner ears relax, the Eustachian tubes open, allowing the soothing energy to flow down into the mouth. As the mouth fills with light, the upper palate, upper jaw, gums, and even the teeth seem to lighten, loosen, and let go. And now the lower jaw.
- As you become aware of any saliva gathered in your mouth, swallow it and experience the energy expanding down your throat, through the neck, and into your chest, shoulders, and back.
- The heart itself can begin to lighten. If you catch yourself trying to feel or make something happen, let all that go. Be willing to feel absolutely nothing as you passively observe the lightness expanding through your heart and chest, permeating all the fibrous tissues of your lungs.
- This allows every beat of the heart to carry lighted oxygen to all the extremities of the body; in fact, every cell begins to be lighted as the energy moves through the liquid systems of the body. Let the body open to that lightness, even in the tightest places.
- Allow the light to expand through the abdomen, lighting the stomach … the liver … intestinal tract … kidneys … and lower back.
- Now think of the sun above your head again. Think of it opening and releasing an even greater flow of light over and through the body. After you think the thought, let go of it and experience the feeling of expanded release … as the bones themselves begin to lighten, the deepest skeletal muscles begin to release their grip on the bones.
- As the skull becomes permeated with light, the soothing energy expands right into the brain, illuminating the left frontal lobe and then the right frontal lobe, and expanding into the forebrain, above and just behind the eyes, into the midbrain and temporal lobes, and on into the brain stem, or old brain, in back.
- Experience as all the billions of brain cells open to that silken effortless radiance. It’s as if the brain were a muscle we’ve held clenched very tightly for a long, long time. And now as we allow the light to expand through the brain, we are finally allowing that muscle to let go, to expand open, and to light.
- Now let the energy expand through the spine to the entire nervous system. Any nervous tension on the frayed nerve endings can now be released into that silken healing lightness now passing through all the nerves to the farthest dendrites in the skin.
- Experience the light flowing down to the tip of the tailbone and radiating out, filling the pelvic bowl and expanding on down through the legs and feet. Now think of the feet opening to allow this river of cleansing energy to pour right through into the cleansing pull of the earth.
- Let the whole body open to be washed through as the feet release any loads or heavy tensions down into the earth’s cleansing pull.
- As you allow yourself to be washed through by this radiant cleansing shower, you may become aware of blocks in the flow. Tight spots, tensions, anxiety, feelings of restlessness, or thick drowsiness may appear. Any discomfort you feel is due to a block in the flow of energy. Note where you may feel those blocks or discomforts. Take a deep breath, and as you close your eyes, let the breath out. Think of the light expanding in the center of that tightness or blockage. Experience the opening release.
- This enables the light to expand in the center of the blockage, allowing that area to open. Release the blockage into the cleansing shower that pours through you to wash away the blockage and release it out through the feet into the earth. Breathe and release yet a bit deeper with every exhale, as if the bones themselves could let go of the load they carry.
- Sit in this cleansing downpour for a while, enjoying the release. As any thoughts, worries, or tensions surface in your mind or heart, release them into the cleansing shower of washing light. Breathe, release, and enjoy.
- Now think of the feet closing. Instantly that happens, with no effort. By closing the feet, you may experience a sensation of back-filling energy on the soles of your feet as the light fills the feet and the field around, like a silken cocoon of light, coming up over the feet, ankles, knees, legs, and torso, and spilling over the top of your head to fill the field around you.
- With the eyes closed, lift your hands in front of you, as if you were holding a giant beach ball between your palms (see the following figure). Think of the palms and fingers opening, and effortlessly the back-filling energy in your body now flows out through your palms and fingers.
- Take a few deep-cleansing breaths to release all the muscles in your upper body, even though your hands are raised. It’s the letting go that allows the energy to flow through more powerfully. Be sure to let the upper body relax, even though the hands are raised. Slowly move them together and, with eyes closed, open to experience the sensations of Qi in your hands.
- Slowly begin to move the palms of your hands toward one another, opening them to the experience of the energy you’ve begun to gather, not only within and around you, but between your palms as well. Move them toward one another until they are almost touching … and experience.
- Now slowly move your hands apart until they are about 3 or 4 feet away from one another, feeling the difference as they move apart. (Repeat moving the hands in and out two more times.)
- Now gently place your palms back down on your thighs. With each releasing breath, let all that go, relaxing a bit more into your chair with each exhale.
- As you let go of that experience, reopen yourself to the down-pouring light washing over and through your head and body. With the feet closed, the body is saturated with light. Allow it to spill over the top of your head, quickly filling the field around you.
- Soon it will feel as though you are floating within a limitlessly expanding ocean of light. With every exhale, allow yourself to be floating more effortlessly within it. Sit back and enjoy this feeling.
- In doing so, you can begin to feel any remaining loads or heavy energy squeezed within the muscles or other tissues being magnetically lifted up and out of the body in all directions.
- You can literally begin to feel burdens being lifted up and off of the shoulders just by breathing and being willing to let go. Any worries and concerns are lifted off the temples or brow, again just by being willing to let go and then observing the release. The deep facial muscles release tensions they’ve held on to throughout the day.
- Now any heaviness or angst around the heart begins to be lifted up and off your chest. As the body continues to release these loads, you become aware of your entire being filling with a limitless permeable lightness, refreshing and absolutely effortless.
- This process of release, cleansing, expanding, and enlightening will continue throughout the day. Even when you’re not consciously aware of it, the rhythm of breathing and the willingness to let go will allow you to be lifted into the lightness of this ocean of silken energy. Here your stresses and loads can continually be released into the cleansing light, and your cells and surrounding field will be bathed in its effortless healing.
- Let yourself sit within this ocean of light, assimilating and soaking in the light. Let go. There is no need to hold on to the light, for the more we let go, the more there is.
- After assimilating the light for a few minutes, very slowly and very gently, when you’re ready … open your eyes.
Congratulations on completing your first QiGong exercise! Do this exercise as often as you like, for a great de-stressor and pick-me-up. Have a great day!
From The Complete Idiot’s Guide to T’ai Chi and QiGong Illustrated, Third Edition, by Bill Douglas
