Qigong Basics: Preparation for practice
These notes are geared toward practicing the Liu Zi Jue Healing Sounds, as this is the main method we have focused on for the purposes of protecting our health in the time of Covid-19. However, the following information is not just for one qigong method, or for beginners to these methods; it applies to preparation for the practice of all types of methods of qigong, whether still or moving, and for all levels of practitioners. In qigong, it is always the case that the most simple methods and most basic instructions are the most profound and must be returned to, consistently, no matter how advanced a person’s skill or experience, or how many methods or forms a person has learned.
There are three guiding principles as a preparation for entering what is called the “qigong state”. Furthermore, these principles are adhered to throughout all qigong methods, to bring yourself into a deeper state while practicing. The deeper the qigong state, the stronger and more freely the qi flows, and the more open you become as an organism to the subtleties and sensations of this flow.
The first of the three principles is:
1. Regulate the Body.
Before beginning your practice - whether it is a moving, standing, sitting or lying down method - it is essential to be deeply, physically relaxed. When we speak of relaxation in Qigong, we mean not only the body, but primarily the Qi itself. Relaxation means opening the Qi, allowing it to achieve a better flow in the body, to better penetrate and reach all areas of the body. Of course, this relaxation has to start at a relatively superficial level of the body - the level of the tendons, muscles and interconnective tissue. This is the starting point and, consequently, you learn to relax at even deeper levels. This requires more practice.
Moving from this superficial level inward, the large joints begin to relax - the shoulders, hips, knees. With more relaxation, the smaller joints loose tension and relax - the jaw, top of the spine where it meets the base of the head, the elbows, wrist joints, the upper spine and rib cage, the base of the spine where it meets the top of the sacrum (which sits between the back of your hip bones), the ankle joint.
When scanning through the body as a technique of relaxing from the outermost to the innermost, level of the body, and through the largest to the smallest joints of our skeletal framework, it is best to start at the top, and work down to the bottom - from the head through the neck and shoulders, the arms through the hands and fingers, the chest and upper back, the abdomen and lower back, the hips, buttocks and pelvis, the legs through the feet and toes.
As you are able to relax the smallest joints, areas of the face and scalp noticeably loosen and relax. Relaxing the tiny joints of the fingers and toes, the tailbone, and all the vertebrae of the spine will allow a more full and open flow of the qi and blood from the tips of the fingers and toes to the face, head, the brain and throughout the whole body.
Our vital organs are all located near the spine, so it is especially important to develop your technique of relaxation so that all the vertebrae and, at a deeper level, the spinal cord hold no tension (here it becomes obvious that we talk about Qi and its flow through the spinal cord). Even with underlying conditions, such as arthritis, back or joint injury, it is possible to reach this deep physical level of relaxation that opens the flow of qi and blood, and strengthens the entire structure of the body.
With any outer tension in the body, or inner tension of the emotions or thoughts, the rest of the body reacts - if you make a tight fist, it creates tension in the body; if you are tight in the shoulders or jaw, it creates tension; if you try too hard to have perfect movements, or bend lower than your muscles are used to, or in any way push yourself to go beyond your current physical limits, you create tension. Any tension in the body is reflected as tension in the mind, and vice versa. If you hit your thumb with a hammer, your body tenses and your emotions react as well. If you think you can’t stand the cold, your shoulders hunch and the body becomes tight and literally freezes.
The body is a solid, visible form; it is the structure of our existence that transforms through the life stages of growth and decline slowly. The mind and emotions are formless, invisible and without substance; thoughts and emotions move quickly, coming and going, connecting our outer and inner existence, transforming and creating our perceptual reality. The mind and the body work together to integrate the deepest levels of human existence with the most outermost boundaries of physical form.
That part of our existence which is both visible and invisible, which has a physical and a non-physical quality, is the breath. It is air, it is moist; it energizes and moves qi and blood throughout the body; it arises when we are born, and ceases when we die.
So, when learning to relax at the deepest levels needed for the practice of qigong, it is important to allow the breath to release tension in the body (and the mind). By simply breathing naturally, easily, and with a smooth and continuous flow between in and out breath as you take time to relax through all the large and small, innermost and outermost parts of the body, you will develop your skill in any method of qigong.
Regulating the body is useful as a first step in the practice of all qigong methods. But it is also a useful method in itself for our normal, daily activities - to remain relaxed in the body is to always ensure we remain comfortable, no matter what situation we find ourselves in, and do not waste our physical energy on holding tension within our bodies. To be comfortable in the body means we have a greater ability to remain comfortable in our minds, which is certainly a benefit to our health and our ability to enjoy life!
