Zen Talk

Why Qigong

Most people never heard of it, actually when someone ask me what’s Qigong (pronounce Chigong) I end up telling them, “it’s a bit like Tai Chi.” Another perception that people have is that Qigong is for old people, lol, they are not wrong but they’re not right either, meaning that people of a certain age can actually start these exercises and it will improve their health, focus, and many areas of their body, but the fact of the matter is, Qigong is not about age but about energy and how to harness it.

So what is it exactly? Basically it’s a series of simple movements aimed at cultivating Chi (vital energy) through the body. Unlike Tai Chi that originated as an ancient Martial art, Qigong comes from, or based on Chinese philosophy. See it as a moving meditation practice if you will, movements, breathing and focus are the 3 main component of this ancient practice that date back up to 5000 thousand years, there is stories that the earliest records of Qigong comes from Wu Shamans, but hey everything originated from something and as something else so let’s try to keep it younger and jump back to the 70’s where the resurgence of Kung Fu and Bruce Lee, because to me and a lot of people Bruce Lee was the one that introduced Chinese philosophy to westerners and not Confucius lol. Qigong is also known as dao yin because it was deeply rooted in Daoist traditions which I know nothing about. But everyone seems to agree that most of the Brocades (we’ll get back to this word later) comes from animals like the Dragon, the Bear, the Tiger, also using elements, like Water, Fire, Earth. 

Ok all this is nice, but what is it good for? Unlike war, it’s good for a lot of things. Let’s see some of the benefits of Qigong: Lowers blood pressure, reduce anxiety and depression, improves focus, overall well being, it helps relieve chronic pain it strengthens the immune system. Your overall health will be better in many ways. Are there specific moves for specific areas? Absolutely and that is where the word Brocades comes in play. Brocade is a series of movements just like a Kata in Karate, at the exception of perfectness of the movements. There are 8 Brocades and then some, meaning many movements were created thereafter to help amplify healings.