Free Advanced Qigong Exercises

by Cynthia L. Marcolina, LPC

Qigong is hundreds of years old. Qigong is Chinese healing energy and some mindful movement. There are fun routines like the "animal frolics" and certain poses or stances that we take as we focus on breathing from the belly. The Chinese believe that we have a healing energy in our body "Qi" and certain spots along our body the "dontien" where we can harness our chi for healing power. Most of the following Qigong exercises are based on the teachings of Pema Chodron and Jon Kabat Zin.

Let's stand and do some mindful movement and hopefully make some new connections with our bodies. Today we will learn about Chinese healing movement or 'Qigong'. We will stand at the stake. Please have your feet about shoulder distance apart. Make sure your weight is balanced on both feet and image yourself standing on the core of the earth. Next tuck your tail bone and hips under slightly (like this, make sure no one is leaning back) so that your back bone is straight and elongated nicely. Relax the belly muscles. Place your hands in front of you w/fingertips facing each other, like you are holding a beach ball. Hold your hands at the dontien position. Elbows are up and hands relaxed. Our hands and arms will be above heart level for max benefit. Relax the shoulders. Imagine that there is a silver thread going through your head and up to the heavens and the hair is long and flowing. Breathe in through your nose slowly and fill the abdominal cavity. Pause slightly and exhale out slowly through the mouth. Checking in with your stomach muscles from time to time to make sure that they are relaxed. You can feel when you're holding your stomach. We Westerners have a tendency to suck in our guts. Here we keep them relaxed. Go back to focusing on your breathing or 'the breath'. The knees are slightly bent in case I haven't said so already. If you want to, you may bend the knees even more and sink lower to the floor. You may also adjust your posture from time to time. You may lower your arms slightly. If a thought enters your mind label it 'thinking' and let it float by like a cloud in the sky and return to focusing on the breath. Pema Chodron likes to say 'riding the breath'. So shall we ride the breath together? We will time ourselves for 5 minutes.

5 minutes goes by. Slowly lower your arms and continue to focus on the breath. Let's try an 'animal frolic' today. I like to do the 'one legged crane' after standing at the stake. So remain standing and have your hands at waist level. As we squat down we will exhale and bring our arms around our knees as though we were hugging them. As we inhale we will slowly stand up and shift our weight to one leg and bring our hands to our chest. We will cross our palms over our chest. So our palms will be facing our chest like this (I demonstrate). On an inhale raise your right leg just slightly up off of the floor. Bring your arms up over your head in a circle and back down to your sides. They are extended out at our sides laterally with our shoulders. Hold. Let's do it 3 times on each side.

Once you're done you may sit down mindfully on the floor for sharing.

Cynthia L. Marcolina, LPC

Cynthia Marcolina's highest credential is a Masters degree in counseling from Arcadia in Glenside, Pennsylvania and sheI holds a license in the same state. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor, (Therapist License Verification). She has been doing counseling for over 15 years. She has worked with children, adolescents, adults, and geriatric clients individually, as a couple, or as a family. She also has done group therapy and psychodrama. She is a professional member of The American Counseling Association. She keeps current in my field by doing continuing education (home study, seminars, conferences) and by reading periodicals and books on counseling). She uses an integrative approach combining techniques from the Cognitive-Behavioral, Humanistic, and Existential theories.