Qigong, translated from Chinese as “energy skill,” is a system of knowledge and practice that focuses on energy flows and transformations. It has been practiced and passed down from generation to generation for more than 5,000 years.
Qigong is the skill of sensing, moving, cleansing and cultivating vital energy and the ability to work with that energy. It has medical, martial and spiritual applications. Medical qigong focuses on mind-body practices that improve our mental and physical health by integrating postures, movement and exercises, breathing mechanics, meditation and relaxation techniques, energetic cleansing and charging, highly focused intention, and healthy life style changes, among others. Qigong is the energy medicine.
I can further demystify qigong by explaining that qigong practices and treatments result in shifting a person into parasympathetic state and bringing the body into a state where it can heal itself. Regular energetic “cleanse” allows to remove toxic energetic structures minimizing the chances that those structures materialize into physical illness. Qigong focuses on removing the cause of the problem, not just the symptoms, and is a great complement to dealing with health-related issues in the Western tradition.
According to the Traditional Chinese Medicine, all diseases have an emotional and energetic root. Suppressing the symptoms will result in the root manifesting itself again in either the same or a new way. Qigong offers a set of tools that allow to not only identify and eliminate the root of a disease but also prevent the formation of toxic energetic structures, i.e. roots, that may compromise our health.