Qigong: 6-breaths to inner calm
Who doesn’t have time for that?
“But I don’t have time to do Qigong”
…is something I often hear. To be honest, I often hear it because I say it to myself!
It may be accompanied by feelings such as overwhelm, resentment, exhaustion, frustration and general avoidance.
Which, as it turns out, is the ideal time to do some Qigong.
When we are acting on a belief that our busy lives mean that self-care, nourishment and support are unavailable to us, its all the more impactful to step outside of that. Use this ‘6-breaths’ practise to explore an alternative experience of the present moment. If only for a moment or two.
How long does it take to ‘do’ Qigong?
Many of the standard-as-taught Qigong routines take 15–45 minutes to work through. And if you are serious about cultivating a daily practise, that’s not a bad place to start.
However, Qigong is not actually a set of routines or formulas. The word Qigong is made up of two elements: Qi, meaning the essential living energy of the universe, and Gong, meaning an intentional, conscious practise.
Therefore, Qigong is simply the intentional practise or cultivation of your essential life energy.
And that means that Qigong, in its essence, can be done anywhere, at any time, for as long or as short a time as you need.
Qigong: 6-breaths to Inner Calm
In this article, I present to you a simple protocol for connecting to your breath, aligning your body and centering your mind.
Bring these three elements into coherent alignment is the basis for everything that comes after. And on any given day, particularly one of ‘those days’, this is entirely sufficient.
And when I say ‘I present it to you’, I am equally presenting it as a reminder to myself. This is the practise I find most beneficial in the midst of an intense activity or phase of life. So long as I actually remember to do it.
The idea is to take 6-breaths, working through a few simple, grounding physical and mental alignments. End to end, this can take 1 minute or less. When do you really not have 1-minute for this? I promise you that 1-minute spent this way will pay off almost instantly in terms of improved clarity, focus and calm.
Classically, this is an activity done standing. Standing can be the easiest way to quickly sense the alignment of your body, and your connection with the earth. But you can do this is any position, seated or lying down, whatever is available to you in the moment.
Let’s get started:
- It’s good to start with your feet on the floor, parallel to each other and between hip and shoulder width apart. Take an expansive breath in, feeling your lungs fill completely and then release and sigh it out. Feel the support of the ground under your feet and allow your body to settle.
- Breath in to your lower abdomen, feeling your tummy soften and expand. Let your knees soften to a slight bend. Feel how this allows your sacrum to relax and sink a little, and the lower back softens into its natural shallow curve.
- Breathing out, softly connecting to the earth through your feet. Feel your weight is grounded and evenly balanced between ball of the foot and heel. If it’s in your practise right now, become aware of the hollow in the centre of your foot that is the ‘bubbling spring’ energy gate (Kidney-1 acupuncture point).
- As you breath into your abdomen, feel energy flow into your body through the soles of your feet (‘bubbling spring’). As you breath out, feel your body is light and expansive, and the crown of the head lifts, as if drawn upwards on thread.
- With your next breath, check in with your shoulders - is there space now to let go of any tension? Perhaps raise and drop your shoulders. Feel your arms become loose and heavy. Palm and fingers curl open and soften. Feel your chest become open. Breathing into the back of your chest as well as the front. And then fully release and let go of your exhale.
- Bring your next breath into the lower abdomen, softly and fully in and out. Continue to sink your weight into the earth, breathing energy in through your feet. Feel your body as light and expansive with the crown lifting.
- Continue to breathe into your lower abdomen, softening and opening. Feeling grounded to the earth below, and open to the sky above your head. Continue for as long as you like, or as your situation allows.
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