Daily Qigong/meditation – working in

In the western world, training is mostly related to training our skeletal muscles to grow bigger and/or srtonger. But same as our muscles, our inner organs also need daily training to keep doing their job the best they can. This can be done through deep and slow belly-breathing, which is one of the components of Chinese Qigong and of course meditation too. (btw, try to incoporate this same breathing in your everyday life too, besides other good things it will also enhance digestion)

In these days, most of us are stressed out with their jobs or studies (or both), in this case, strenuous trainig or working out, only leads to more stress for the body, especially if it is not compensated with relaxation and recovery techniques. Qigong and mediation can play a vital part here. I’ve been practicing Qigong almost every single day for a couple of years now and don’t want to miss the feeling and well-being I get from it. I’ve also recently started to incorportate some sitting meditation from time to time.

Many forms of Qigong also incoporate some form of joint mobility training, therefore they are also a perfect thing to do on recovery days or days you don’t really feel like training hard. I’ve also found that while practicing such things (especially meditation and to a lesser degree Qigong), you will notice that there will suddenly be answers to questions you couldn’t answer before, or you will be more certain on some decisions you couldn’t decide on.

I will link a video of a very basic Qigong form called “Little Nine Heavens” done by Steve Cotter. I think everyone who tries it will immediately feel some benefits. You can do it every morning afte getting up or right after your workout, or whenever it is most convenient for you. I strongly encourage you to start some form of Qigong or meditation! For meditation, there is a very nice blog post at whole health source, check it out: http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/06/meditation.html