06 Jul Moving Meditation (Yoga in Heston & Hounslow)
I have noticed over the years of teaching meditation and postural exercise that people broadly divide into two groups.
The first group (the mind group) love meditating and can sit still for long periods of time but are resistant to any kind of physical exercise.
The second group (the body group) are physically very active and can’t wait to try any new exercises but they can barely sit still for more than a couple of minutes and struggle to meditate.
Thankfully there is a middle ground where the first group can give their body the movement it needs to stay healthy and functional, and the second group can experience the benefits of meditation despite their inability to be still.
The Chinese practice known as Qigong has developed over time many excellent forms of moving meditation. Qigong incorporates movements that move your body through all three plains of motion while simultaneously developing mindfulness.
Qigong, otherwise known as qi gong, chi kung, or chi gung has its roots in Chinese medicine, philosophy and martial arts. It is traditionally viewed as a practice to cultivate and balance qi (chi), translated as “life energy” or Prana as in Yoga.
Qigong is a system that coordinates posture, movement, breathing, and combines this with meditation to aid and enhance health, spirituality, and martial arts training.
The Qigong practice I do focuses on moving meditation, coordinating slow flowing movements with deep rhythmic breathing in order to develop a calm meditative state of mind.
This engages the parasympathetic nervous system to create a deep state of relaxation in both the mind and body bringing about serenity and sense of contentment.
In this state we can potentially experience what the Daoists call “effortless action” or Wu Wei more commonly described as “Flow” by psychologists.
Many students find Qigong’s gentle focused movements to be more accessible than seated meditation. It’s a great way to get mind focused people moving and exercising while bringing mindfulness to the body group and giving them a meditation practice they can stick with.
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