We attended a two day practical session of Qi Gong (pronounced Chi Gong) conducted by a renowned local ‘Master’ or ‘Seifu’ who is by profession a gynecologist. He has been practicing holistic medicine for more than 15 years. We had previously attended a full day Health Seminar and this two days practical session was a follow up of the previous health lecture session.
Arrangements for these Health Seminar and practical session was triggered at a tea talk organized by my Retirees Club more than a year ago. The talk, “the benefits of Qi Gong” was given by the Qi Gong Master, and members who attended the tea talk requested for a full session on health and Qi Gong. But the Seifu had his calendar full and it took us more than a year to get him. It was many thanks too to my previous employer, who made all the arrangements and picked up the tab on all expenses for the three days session.
The one day health seminar highlighted to us the advantages of eating right, and the benefits of exercises. We commonly hear of people talking about ‘eating right’, ‘eating a balanced diet’, ‘working out what we take in’, etc. But do we follow it? Do we know what they mean? How to balance our diet? Its all wishy washy and at the end of the day we keep gaining weight and with it all the risks associated with overweight and obesity. According to the Seifu when we are hungry our bodies actually are asking for nutrients. But what do we do when we are hungry. We feed on calories instead of nutrients. On a scale of 1 to 10 we usually take 6 to 7 calories (sometime more) and only 3 to 4 nutrients (sometime less) when our bodies actually need the reverse of that. We continue to do this every time we are hungry and then we wonder why we put on weight. Present day food, wet or dry, and those that we get off the supermarket, are mostly processed or grown artificially or chemically fertilized, such that their nutrient contents are much reduced. Hence calories content are high and nutrients low. If our body gets high nutrients we will get hungry much later.
On exercise the Seifu suggests we harness the elements of mind, body and life forces (qi or chi) within us. We may shed sweat from our body but we are really shedding water and not much calories. Harnessing the elements of mind, body and life forces do help in shedding the calories as well. There is also the benefit of keeping all the health risks at bay. The structured exercises, like yoga, tai chi, karate, tae kuan do, falun gong, salambam (I stand corrected on the spelling for this Indian art), qi gong and others help to lessen the health risks as these exercises do demand a lot of concentration in the mind and movement of the body and exciting life forces within the body. However, qi gong does more. It not only do these but also generate higher life forces or qi around us. It not only prevents sickness and diseases associated with modern living but also help reduce it from our body. One clear example of the benefit of qi gong, when done regularly, is the keeping at bay and also elimination of cancer cells from our body. Medical science has not acknowledged this but the examples of this benefit is numerous worldwide. Medical practitioners know the advantages, while some of them recognize the benefits but science, being what it is, to get proper medical findings and proofs to substantiate its benefits is difficult and reliance simply on the results achieved is not a usual scientific methodology of acknowledgement. We can call it an ‘act of God’ but science needs more than that!! Many cancer patients who practice qi gong have proven to survive for many years beyond the short life-span predicted by their Oncologists on discovering cancer cells in their bodies. In deed many have the cancer cells reduced and eliminated ultimately. It was this fact that influenced the Seifu to take up qi gong, studying under the close tutelage of the ‘Grand Master’ in China some twenty years ago. Thanks to his teachings too many of his patients diagnosed with cancer have since benefited from practicing qi gong.
We learnt breathing techniques in the two days session along with lots of practices in 18 ‘Super Qi Gong’ movements and four ways of ‘Qi Gong Walk’ which we were told are beneficial for keeping cancer cells at bay or eliminating them even, and also for keeping our hearts in good shape. We were also shown techniques for generating or exciting the qi and concentrating on it.
Breathing was to be stomach breathing through the nose, and the breath cycles deep and long. Ideally we should breathe about 10 breaths or less per minute (normal breathing are 17 to 24 cycles per minute). Lowering our breathing cycles has a lowering effect on blood pressure. I have tried it, doing slow breathing cycles for about 20 minutes to half an hour each time once or twice a day and regularly over a period of a few weeks and it did lower my blood pressure quite significantly. I tried this after reading something on the ‘net about controlled and slow breathing having an effect on blood pressure. I cannot remember what website it was but it was one that was selling some gadgets to assist in the slow breathing. Slow breathing relaxes the body, muscles, nerves and blood vessels and prolonged or repeated slow breathing, over an extended period of time, has its benefits on blood pressure and also heartbeats. Notice how your heart races when you are under stress, or when your adrenaline flow your heartbeat gets faster and faster, your breaths gets faster too and so will your blood pressure. It will only get higher. Hence the reverse is also true. When you get stressed its best that you practice slow breathing and relax your muscles to eliminate the stress. It can be therapeutic.
The super qi gong is slow, relaxed, movements of the body each of which has effects on specific parts and internal organs of the body, and the slow movements follow the rate of breathing and vice versa. So also the qi gong walk, the steps and movements are purposely accentuated which demands concentration and regulated breathing. Thus all the elements combined make for a healthy body.
For those interested to know more on qi gong can do a search in the ‘net by using qi gong as the key word or visit the following site: http://www.superqigong.com/ But reading about them only is not enough. Practice it and gain its benefits. Better still, join a group near you where you can have guided practice and do the movements correctly. Even if you do not get or excite the life forces or the qi in you, you get to exercise regularly and in a structured manner. Good luck and God Bless ……………….
MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Petaling Jaya
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment