What is Qi Gong? (Part 2): Ways to Practice and Focus

It's like, you see, whenever there is some area of your body that you're not using for a long time it simply in a way gets rusty and then we start to have some problems, it's making noises, you have pain when you move it. So the main idea is have some type of mechanism, have some type of ritual in your lifetime. How to make sure that everything you are able to use, everything you are able to move from the body, do it on a regular basis. And if you take for example the badminton gym, number one until number eight, you can almost make sure that all areas, all joints, all bones, all muscles of the body have been used, have been stimulated. There's not much you need to know. So we normally join a class, try to observe the teacher as good as you can, what type of movements is he doing, and the first stage is just imitate. So he lifts the left arm, you lift the left arm. He lifts the right arm, you lift the right arm. So the first stage is really, there's nothing you need to feel, there's nothing you really need to imagine or visualize, just copy the movements. This is like the first step that I would say, no thinking needed, just copy until you're able to make all the movements without watching. This is number one step. Now after a while, and this is very different for some people, that we learn very quickly, maybe it only takes one month, other people it takes two months, but sooner or later you don't need to copy people anymore, you don't even need to copy the teacher anymore, because you start already to feel the movement for yourself. You don't need to see it anymore, but you can feel it, you know already what you need to do now. So that means the second stage has already started to arise, which is that you can feel what you're doing. So that means suddenly now this movement, this exercise, this routine now is coming from you. Before you just copied something, so that means what you were doing came from the outside. When you practice long enough and you don't need to see anymore and copy anybody, well then it means it comes from you, it comes from information that you have stored inside of yourself and now bring it out. Okay, but just because you start to bring out some type of movement, doesn't necessarily mean it's good. It only means there is some type of information that you have saved now, but whether it's good or bad we don't know yet. That's why now it's important to not just do the movements coming from yourself, but also pay attention to what's going on inside of yourself. We do it, yes, but we also pay attention to and what is the effect in myself when I do these things. Am I creating more tension with it or am I releasing tension with it? And that's why at this stage, for example, it makes a lot of sense when you slowly start to also understand a little bit now what is the real purpose of the Qigong. Because then you can like start to compare how do I feel when I make it and what should it normally do, the exercise. Before that it's not necessary to have any type of theoretical knowledge too much. Just copy first. When you realize that okay now all these different exercises you know already and you can make it, now you can go a little deeper. Before that it doesn't make sense to pay too much attention on details. The first phase of learning in a way is about understanding the movement, copying the movement, reproducing the movement and afterwards then comes the refinement. First of all it's really just the raw frame. Just get the raw frame first and then the longer you practice, the more you practice, the more aware you start to become of yourself, the more refined you become about yourself, the refinement starts to come anyway. It's very very helpful and it's much more beneficial that when you are practicing, concentrate on the practice, which means try to not think about any kind of problems that you have. So take yourself the time and say okay now I want to invest half an hour in doing something for me. This half an hour can be just sit down, be concentrated, calm down whatever you have and just watch the video. Already by watching there is some information you can get from it if you watch it immediately. Now but if you watch the video and at the same time you're writing an email on the other side, you're like still cooking some food and you run around here and there, you're going to miss some type of information for sure. And that's why I say take yourself half an hour or 20 minutes, how long you have and concentrate. Because I don't want people are getting distracted by the music. You must create these states by yourself without the addition of help or aid of music or anything like this. A certain type of body awareness. The next step is that you not only become aware of what you think is related to the body. So don't just pay attention to what you think is inside of you. Meaning closing the eyes when you're making the Qigong practice. Now I normally encourage everybody who practice the Qigong to keep the eyes open. It's not necessary to close the eyes. Because then sometimes people will ask should I pay now attention to what's going on inside of me? Also yes. But at the same time you should also not forget about where you're standing and what's going on outside. It's the same story over and over again. Don't pay too much attention only to the things that are surrounding or that you are surrounded with. Meaning paying attention only to what you see around you, what you hear around you, what you smell around you. That means you are paying too much attention to external aspects. At the same time don't close yourself down and lock yourself down so much that you're only starting to pay attention to things that are like related to what you think is you. You make it only to yourself. When we look at the series, when we look at the concepts where all Qigong practices are based upon, they are based upon the principle of Yin and Yang. The principle of balance. Which means we don't spend too much on the outside. We don't spend too much on the inside. There is not even inside or outside. There's one type of experience that you have. And this experience, that state of the mind, doesn't make a difference if you are inside or outside. It's the same mind which experiences. Now, chances are very high that this sounds very, very weird. I really think that through all the Qigong practice, we answer the question. And this perspective probably will come where you understand what I just said. The refinement of something. Now, what can you do in the moment that you are becoming more fine? Fine in what? You become more fine in order to feel in what state are you yourself finding yourself. Now, what state? Let's just take the two most common states. One state you are too tense. There's too much tension. And the other state you are too relaxed. You are too soft. One side you are too hard, other side is too soft. If the string is too hard, it will break. If the string is too soft, we cannot play. That string must have the right tension in order to bring out the proper frequency, to bring out the proper sound. So what is the regulation about? It is to realize am I now too tense or am I now too soft? So what does the Qigong make for you in the very short term? It's just simplified like this. During the day you are having a very busy job. And you are a lot under stress. Under stress means you are a lot under tension. There's a lot of activity going on inside of you. And in a way we will describe in this state of there's like too much fire inside of you. But too much fire means that somehow it's going to burn you out. Okay? So how does the Qigong help you? It helps you because it starts to regulate the excessive fire that you're keeping inside of you and raises or helps you to learn how to more release things from yourself. So a person who is too tense, he practices Qigong, he's going to learn how to release. And with the tension and the relaxation or the release then somehow you try to regulate your life, regulate the way how you feel in order to be balanced again. You can only fix a problem if you know there is a problem. So first of all you need to realize something is not right, a line, something is not correct there. And this is one thing the Qigong can give you. More body awareness. In the beginning in order to somehow get on the journey, it's important to have some guide. Music can help. Visualization can help. Having a teacher can help. Watching at the screen and like copying can help. But at the end all of this must go. I appreciate very much if you like trust the instructions that I give you. You must take yourself and your sensitivity of feeling as the ultimate guide. So the purpose of all the Qigong is like this. I'm telling you, if you make it correct, if you listen carefully to the instructions, if you try to put all the knowledge also into your practice within a short time, physically, mentally, emotionally, you can feel very very good.