In its simplest form, Eastern principles believe that Qi is life force that is in everything. It is energy. It is the central principle in Chinese medicine and Chinese martial arts. Both tai chi and qigong have many different practices and many various forms. You may have seen images of a group of people performing tai chi in a park moving their hands and feet in gentle fluid synchronous motions. Both practices help to cultivate qi and move it through the body. Thos practicing Eastern medicine believe that if there is stagnant areas or blocked areas, qi cannot move through the body. I know many people who do both forms of qigong and yoga and have no problems at all. I, have in the past, taken up both both Tai Chi and yoga and during the practice I have become extremely sick. I determined that it must be because of blockages of Qi. So at this lifestyle change, I also invited acupuncture into my life to see if that would help me not to be sick. I started my practice by, once again, finding forms that would help me with what I was after. I found instruction on Dragon and Tiger, medical qigong that is supposed to help no matter what condition. You can do it if you are bedridden or healthy as a horse. I purchased some materials and took to studying the seven movements of Dragon and Tiger. I also added some specific movements that I found on the internet that were targeting lungs.
I pampered myself. I had a yoga mat. Over 30 years ago my mother gave me a meditative cassette tape. Yes, it was that long ago that it was I cassette. I used it for focusing on the breathing during the birth of my child. I believe my daughter used it for the birth of her child. Try as I might, I could never find a replacement to the cassette, but I did manage to put it digitally onto a thumb drive, stick it into the back of my tv and now, whenever I want to meditate or do yoga I just turn the tv on to media and let it play. I have loved this. It was a simple thing to do, but making that thumb drive was a loving gesture to myself and my new lifestyle change. I used it during my massages as well. I created space to make my practice special. At first, my poses took about 15 minutes, out of my day, but over time I have added more poses.
The other thing about the practice of tai chi and yoga is that it can be meditative, and focuses on the breath- two other things on my list of things to practice regularly.
I have suffered from either bronchitis, asthma, or other breathing problems for a couple of years now. It seems that I start to get better and then I’m down coughing once more. I have to do something different than what I have been doing. My usual route is to go to the doctor, she takes xrays, and then sends me home with a script for antibiotics and steroids. There has got to be a better way. The other thing that concerns me is that I can’t breathe. I mean I have been breathing shallowly for so long. Breathing deeply makes me want to cough so instead I have trained myself to breathe shallowly. I started doing yoga and qigong, and also meditating all of these work with breath, but it is hard for me to focus on my breath. If I focus on my breath, I get scared. Something is going on. Maybe Eastern Medicine can help me.
Breathing while looking toward the east,
Pusche