Try throwing off your shoes and socks today at the park. Stand in the grass, and face North (remember moss grows in the north on trees). Try some Qigong…

• Position your feet directly under your hips.
• Bend your knees only to where it’s comfortable. Make sure your knees are pointing over your second toe.
• Engage your feet—draw up your arch while engaging your toes…toes (slightly) grip the earth. Dig in.
• Stack your spine so that your back is straight. Chin tucks towards your spine.
• Arms reach out in front of you—looks like you’re embracing a tree, index fingers about eye height, palms toward you, pinkie to thumb extended and engaged.
• Eyes soft gaze outward.
• Breath from your belly…exhaling all your breath from the naval to the spine.
• Smile deep and internal: know that very powerful, happy people have challenged themselves in this way before.

Try it for a couple minutes. Focus your attention on something simple around you and regard it lightly, like the drone of a bee, or the sound of a child laughing. Or notice the wind while you take in the colors around you.

Breathe deeply and stand in stillness.

Since I can remember, I have followed my dreams and my heart. My passion for life and for inspiring others fuels me to do wonderful things.

I’ve gone on adventures in the wilderness, taken leaps with my music, and I have challenged myself physically. Amidst the study and practice of Qigong, I have attained a stillness that is quite new for me. I used to never be able to stand still. My adventures have turned inward.

I can stand still for 25 minutes in a pose, very still, with my belly rising and drawing towards my spine, breathing.  Before I started practicing this work, I would get overwhelmed, but I would remind myself…

All you have to do is breathe.

It is my birthright that I had forgotten.

One important thing I have learned in studying the Internal Martial Arts is the importance of being proactive in developing vitality, martial skills, and hence promoting serenity and longevity. The philosophy of Taoism promotes eating pure natural foods in the proper mix and season.

As I have been more proactive in learning and applying these principles, I have experienced greater vitality. I have seen how these approaches to health focus more on the whole, and can attest to the power of taking care of one’s health from a holistic perspective.

Aligning with Health

Despite an increasingly high incidence of maladies that seem to be overly attributed to “genetic predispositions”, a growing group of individuals see the power of whole natural food diets and practices that align with these Taoist philosophies of healthy living. I plan on expounding on a future blog entry, the specific benefits I have experienced with these practices.

Health freedom promotes and allows to thrive among many this ability to be proactive and hence experience the benefits associated with these natural health practices.

Unfortunately, it seems there are elements within society that would just assume that everyone would have no choice except those proposed for their own profit. This is obviously not to say profit is a bad thing. I believe it is a great thing when both parties truly benefit. Unfortunately, I believe we have reached a juncture in our own nation in which profit is less and less tempered with moral responsibility.

Dangerous Science

Currently, the FDA stipulates that only drugs can cure disease. Any one that makes a claim to the powers of natural whole foods is threatened with lawsuits. This recently happened to Dr. Weil.

Science has proven in large measure the power of this holistic approach. It seems however that those within the pharmaceuticals would tyrannize peoples health by creating captive markets and eliminating choice.

Consider the so called swine flu pandemic. The following video points to several anomalies and facts that the pharmaceutical sponsored media is not disseminating regarding the so called pandemic ( “pandemic” has recently been redefined by the World Health Organization) and H1N1 shot. The video is in six parts. For those that are not “religious”, don’t let the habit dissuade you. The nun in the video is an experienced MD whose specialty was internal medicine. She does not talk about religion.

An Interview with Teresa Forcades

Click here to view the embedded video.

Freedom for Health

In the end, I believe being proactive for our health requires that we research beyond the channels of conflicting information mouth pieces. Once armed with the right information, we can act proactively and stand for our freedom of health.

The internal martial arts promote the idea of balance. In achieving that balance, sometimes proactive action is required. When we are proactive on all fronts, we will not only maintain our freedom to treat our health as we see fit, but will be more empowered to experience this greater vitality that natural living and the internal martial arts can afford us. For related topics refer to www.mercola.com and www.healthfreedomusa.org .

According to Chogyam Trunpa, there are Rising-Sun and Setting-Sun individuals. Rising-Sun people bring light to the people and their ideas; Setting-Sun individuals bring darkness to the people and their ideas. When we don’t do and live what we love, we may have a tendency to bring more darkness than light.

Picture your interactions with others. Do you bring light or darkness to the table?

There is the Yin and Yang side to us; we need both.

In Qigong, we become energy enriched, because we spend time playing with it. We actualize ourselves every time we stand our ground. This is an inspiring practice because it gives us energy from ourselves. Qigong enhances physical and mental strength, so we can meet the day with an inner Qi smile and change the world, one kind interaction at a time.

We become Rising-Sun people.

Standing still gives me the courage to face and neutralize my internal enemies with stillness. It gives me the time and fortitude to forge new paths with

• wellness
• awareness
• self regard
• empathy
• power
• fun

Because I’ve experienced these things, I know that life for my family and I can be this way.

When one stands in their own power, there is no room for excuses. There is no time to engage with inferior influences. Enemies help us grow, you heard the saying…

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

—Michael Corleone in the Godfather

It’s true. Enemies challenge you to wake up to yourself.

With Qigong, breathing is deeper and athletic. It’s an awesome workout too. All the muscles in the body are engaged, totally hooked into the  core. When standing in Qigong, there are subtle micro-movements going on all the time: small, settling shifts throughout the body, because we are alive.

In Qigong postures act as a catalyst to make life more manageable. By standing still,  physical and mental injuries are very apparent; they are however, more manageable. My enemies are right there, and distractions are for the moment, limited. They face me straight on and I have nowhere to run, because I’m standing still. I must face them.

My Internal Enemies:

• Procrastination—just do it. I know I’ll feel awesome when practice Qigong.
• Thinking I don’t have enough time, this is a combination of lassitude and overwhelm, this is a habit I created somewhere down the line that shuts down all activity and creates anxiety. Qigong is great for this, because I can just get up and take a pose.
• FEAR or False Evidence Appearing Real: such as waking up injuries as I stand and trusting that my energy is healing them.

By being grounded in reality I can trust my process, and leave my illusions…and my enemies…behind.

Standing provides all the fitness most people will ever need. You’ll train your structure, subtle-micro-motions, and breathing. For the rest, it offers ground and substance, enhancing all your other sports, activities, and fun. But at first, standing still…

• It’s tough.
• It’s tough when you use the proper posture.

Mainly: bend your legs until your knees hover over your toes. But press your weight into your heels, not your toes.

That position makes a big difference.

It’s tough on the mind, mostly.

It seems like it’s tough on the body…and at first it may be…but your body can take it. It’s your mind that waffles and flip-flops.

When your mind settles, you’ll see new visions and find new delight…

Standing Still.

Qi is a Chinese term used to describe energy. Though it can be used to refer to precise kinds of energy, typically the use of Qi refers to internal, magnetic or electrical energy.

Gong is a Chinese term that means method or work. It might refer to specific, specialized exercises or it could generally refer to a method, a martial art, or a meditative process.

Ch’i Kung is an older Romanization system, called Wade-Giles, for the Mandarin language. Qigong is Pinyin. According to Wikipedia:

or more formally Hanyu Pinyin, is the most commonly used Romanization system for Standard Mandarin. Hanyu means the Chinese language, and pinyin means “phonetics”, or more literally, “spelling sound” or “spelled sound”. Developed by a government committee in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the system was initially approved by the Chinese government on February 11, 1958. The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as the international standard in 1982, and since then it has been adopted by many other organizations.

So we use the modern version: Qigong.

Qi Foundations shows the best building blocks for developing proper Qi through Qigong.