30/06/2023
Taiji (tai chi) and qigong are so much more than exercise.
Awakening is nothing but becoming aware of your body, mind, and spirit.
It is becoming aware of their connection to each other, and of your connection to everything around you.
The simple practices of Spring Forest Qigong can help you to do all of those things.
Just like clapping your hands stimulates six major energy channels, so does stomping your feet. There is even a point on each foot called “Bubbling Spring,” which connects to the kidney energy system – the body’s main source of vitality. There are stories of people clapping their hands, stomping their feet, and laughing to heal severe health challenges. Now you can begin to appreciate why!
So you see, it is simple to reconnect to your body and see all the gifts it offers you. Connecting to your body like this, you even learn about the energy of positive emotions like happiness.
From the Qigong perspective, the energy of happiness helps to heal the liver-system. The liver transforms 70% of the toxins in the body. So, in a very real way, laughing, smiling, and feeling happy can save our lives!
As happiness grows, it leads to joy, which benefits the heart and its energy system.
Joy’s fullness leads to peace. That benefits the spleen, pancreas, and stomach energy system (which also includes the joints and muscles).
Out of peace arises contentment, which nourishes the lung energy system.
Contentment gives rise to gratitude, replenishing our kidney energy system, which you know now is the body’s main source of vitality.
Gratitude feeds happiness. That means, living like this, we find ourselves in a continuous, healing cycle of positive emotions.
So, by using Qigong to connect to the body, we can also reconnect with the kinds of emotions we value and desire the most. This, in turn, helps the body.
And out of all these gathering benefits – with a healthy body, with health-nourishing emotions flowing through us – arises a calm, quiet mind. How can the mind be disturbed in an environment like that? So, the mind can be at ease, too.
Then, with a calm mind, balanced body, free of the inner tyranny of disturbing emotions, we find we have created the most fertile soil for the growth and expression of our most beautiful spiritual qualities.
As we awaken to the nature and the expression of these spiritual qualities – to our soul and its purpose – we really begin to walk an awakened, awakening path.
Living our soul purpose is a journey in itself... but that is a story for another day
Many Blessings,
Chunyi Lin
