Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Qi Gong can be simply described as an exercise for health. Tai Chi is a form of Qi Gong utilizing Qi Gong principles to cultivate qi. Although Qi Gong is more than just exercise I would like to focus on this simple aspect regarding Qi Gong exercise for health. Qi Gong can be basically translated as Energy Work or the Study of Energy particularly in regards to the human body. Qi or energy is defined as the vital life force that permeates all things in the universe. This concept is an Eastern concept and has been challenging to understand for a Western mind. Defining what qi is can be better understood by defining what qi does. Qi flows. Qi flows like water. Bruce Lee explained the characteristics of water very well in a famous interview - “Empty your mind. Be formless, Shapeless, like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend.” The quality and quantity of qi defines optimal health. Good health is about good circulation. Think of a river flowing and providing sustenance to the surrounding landscape. If water (qi) is obstructed this will adversely impact the landscape. We are looking for balance. Too much or too little qi can cause imbalances so quantity is important. Using the analogy of electric circuitry, if there is too much electricity you can overload the circuit and if there’s not enough electricity you won’t be able to power the circuit properly. Back to the analogy of a river, if the water stays within the rivers banks the momentum will be sufficient to move the water along. If it overflows its’ banks now the focus of the flow has been dispersed. In contrast, if the water is deficient and the river has been reduced to puddles trickling into one another than the force of the flow is weak and can be easily obstructed. The quality aspect of qi is equally important but not apart of the focus in this article.
Like the river or electrical circuit analogies previously outlined, the pathways of energy flow within the body are defined as acupuncture meridians. These meridians or channels course along the body. There are 12 primary channels and 8 extraordinary vessels. The channels are like rivers and the vessels are like reservoirs. I grew up in an old mill town in Rhode Island – birthplace of the industrial revolution in the USA. Mills were built on the riverbanks, which were utilized as a source of power. Before dams were built to regulate the water flow the rivers were inconsistent sometimes running low or overflowing its banks. This made the river unreliable as a consistent source of power. Building dams and reservoirs created a system that could uptake excess water from swollen rivers in the spring as the snow melted and supply water to rivers that would run low or go dry during the dry summer months.
The 12 acupuncture channels have been translated from Chinese to English and have been given names that correspond to organs although the Triple Burner is an exception but not the focus of this discussion. Liver (LIV), Lung (LU), Large Intestine (LI), Stomach (ST), Spleen (SP), Heart (HT), Small Intestine (SI), Urinary Bladder (UB), Kidney (KI), Pericardium (PC), Triple Burner (TB), Gall Bladder (GB). This naming system has some discrepancies but don’t get lost on this issue. What I want to highlight is the fact that these channels are not representative of the organs. The channel is a system and the organ is only a part of the system. I like to refer to acupuncture meridians as lines of influence. For example, the Urinary Bladder channel begins at the inner canthus of the eye at a point called Jingming / UB 1. It then ascends over the head and descends down the back and legs ending at the fifth toe on a point located at the lateral corner of the base of the nail - Zhiyin / UB 67. 67 acupuncture points along the UB channel influence all aspects of the body along its path including the bladder organ.
The UB channel thereafter intersects with the Kidney channel, which continues along to intersect with each of the 12 channels making a complete closed-loop circuit. Good health is about qi flowing through these pathways unobstructed. An abundance of qi is gathered in each of the 12 channels for two hours cycling through a 24-hour period known as the Midday-Midnight cycle - Liver (1-3AM), Lung (3-5AM), Large Intestine (5-7AM), Stomach (7-9AM), Spleen (9-11AM), Heart (11AM-1PM), Small Intestine (1-3PM), Urinary Bladder (3-5PM), Kidney (5-7PM), Pericardium (7-9PM), Triple Burner (9-11PM), Gall Bladder (11PM-1AM). When patients have health concerns that occur during a specific time of day this gives insight to an acupuncturist in diagnosing and identifying an imbalanced channel.
In Qi Gong one focus is to promote qi circulation evenly throughout the body. This takes awareness and the ability to feel qi. Through practice and time you can begin to identify the feeling of qi. You can feel were qi is stuck or depleted or excessive. Full feelings, deficient feelings, excessive sensitivities or lack of sensitivity, body dysfunction and pain are some examples of feeling qi. Being aware of when these feelings occur, what causes them and what makes these sensations improve is a starting point to regulating qi flow in your body for optimal health. Paying attention to lifestyle cycles and promoting consistency can bring awareness in health for example – activity and rest cycles, diet, mental-emotional state, posture or even cycles in breathing just to name a few lifestyle concerns.
There are different types of Qi Gong. Qi Gong can be categorized as hard/external or soft/internal. Hard is more physical. Soft is more mental. You need both to engender balance. Hard physical exercise causes muscles to contract. qi accumulates and feeds the muscles causing them to get bigger over time. Conventional exercise that focuses on breaking down muscle, with a no-pain-no-gain mindset neglects the internal-soft conditioning. Internal refers to many things but lets keep it simple and say organs. Question: Who exercises to condition their organs? Answer: Qi Gong practitioners do. There is a Four Seasons Qi Gong set that strengthens and attunes the body’s qi to seasonal change for health. In soft-style Qi Gong practice you limit muscle contraction, which allows you to be more aware and sensitive and also encourages qi to flow. Contraction blocks qi so qi can accumulate in a local area. Using your mind to guide your qi, sensing imbalances and promoting a smooth flow of qi that is felt evenly throughout the body is key. The sensation can be described as an opening as opposed to contracting or closing. The mind is key to creating the potential difference that causes qi to flow especially in soft-internal qi gong practice. Understanding Qi Gong is essential to good health and is also a coveted and secretive practice underlying martial arts – something that is often unknown, or overlooked. Such neglect, in the end, leaves a hard-style martial artist weak, stiff and perhaps arthritic because the balance of yin and yang or soft and hard was not cultivated.
Look for more articles on Tai Chi, Qi Gong and Acupuncture to further explain qi and cultivate optimal health for you.
“Be water my friend” ~ Bruce Lee