Classically based Qi Gong can be an invaluable aid in breaking down habitual restrictions and mitigating other tensions without directly confronting them. For example, to ease one’s anxiety and dissolve embodied fear experiences, smooth and circular motion development during practice indicates a naturalness in movement and all things. Your purpose for practice is essential; the purpose ( to want to relax and sleep better ), for example, rises to a clear intent for your movement and will impact the results experienced. By working with your body and developing your interoception, you do not have to confront your demons head-on; instead, you work with your felt sense.
No promise can be made about what you can get out of Internal Body Practices; underlying tensions are present in all of us and must be experienced for what they are without judgment to allow for change to occur.
If you are practising, you will, at some point, go through a deepening of relaxation that will act as a catalyst to allow suppressed and even repressed tensions to appear in your conscious mind. Having allowed your body to let go, you have moved in a way that brings out the pain without the ego’s capacity to censor what is coming into conscious awareness.
Various methods of moving are the mechanism of how classical Qi Gong can help alleviate suffering by bypassing your egocentric bodyguard. The Ego Body ( Character Armouring ) maintains familiar patterns of tension that are so entrenched and habitual that we unconsciously resign ourselves to a sense of permanence that cannot accept change.
Qi Gong practice, therefore, is not some random movement performed passively, which would be another distraction leading you away from the potential of inner understanding instead of toward it. It is a method to unblock any inner tension restricting bodily function and frees up energy that powers life and rational thinking.
The central point is that all exercise, no matter how it is presented and advertised, is often a distraction from health and not a contributor to it.
Consider your priorities: looking good to others or possessing a healthy mind/ body.
(c) Copyright Chris Ray Chappell Jan 2024
