I’m not a yoga teacher, although back in 1978 I did teach yoga for a couple of years.
One of the aspects of both yoga and qigong is to enhance your potential. If we always move in ways in which we are ‘comfortable’, certain parts of us remain static whilst other parts of us elasticate and ‘grow’, or at least remain more fluid. Perhaps that’s a bit like only oiling the engine on the car but not bothering to grease the bearings? If the engine works too well, it might be at the expense of the bearings which can’t take the strain. Enhancing your potential applies to both qigong and yoga.
Qigong falls into a couple of categories: Static & Mobile.
In the static postures you get into a position and then, whilst maintaining it, you work within it, your aim being ultimately to increase your levels of qi (one of those expressions that means little to most people). I’ll get to that in a moment… In these static postures you aim to relax, but this isn’t a soggy-relaxation experience, it’s more dynamic. You are aiming to do more than just empty the body of tension, you are also aiming to add what I can only describe as ‘educated’ tension.
‘Educated tension’.
To give an example of this: Hold out your arm in front of you, the palm facing you as though you’ve wrapped it around someone’s waist (see the right arm in the photo). Completely relax it in that position. The first point is that, even though you relaxed it, it didn’t drop; all that happened was that you disengaged the muscles that were unnecessary to keep it there. Now imagine someone is gently pushing your forearm towards you; imagine that you can feel the push but do nothing with the arm. Then imagine that someone is attempting to pull your forearm away from you; once again, imagine that you can feel the pull but do nothing with the arm. Now try doing both the pull and push sensations simultaneously.
Is this a form of almost-relaxation or of almost-tension? It’s usually referred to as ‘educated force’, although I think that ‘educated relaxation’, or even ‘educated tension’ as above, would serve just as well. This isn’t something that you will come across in yoga.
Moving Qigong takes you into and out of postures continually. It aims to stretch and twist the body in unusual ways in order to increase the body’s potential. It often works with acupuncture channels, fascial stretches, and the lymphatic system; this is also true of static qigong although the latter is less obvious and direct. This might be unintentionally similar to yoga (‘unintentionally’ because yoga tends not to refer to acupuncture).
‘Increasing your levels of Qi’.
Factor 1
In order to have better levels of energy, you need to avoid wasting it. Energy is easily wasted. Using the plumbing analogy – if the pipes are furred, if the joints leak, if the fluid (whatever it is) leaks on the way to the outlet, your system is compromised. If the body holds tension or stress, the muscles contract, the bore of the piping is reduced, the pressure increases, the pump has to work harder, etc.
This analogy refers to the blood flow, the lymph flow, the functioning of the nervous system, the ability of the body to breathe, the heart to pump, and the ability of the digestive system to clear toxins… in fact any body system you can think of! All of the body systems need to work to the best of their ability. If they don’t, the body has to work harder, which burns more energy, and has to combat the various forms of inflammation that will likely result from the system’s inefficiency.
Factor 2
We live in a world that is powered by energy. It’s a self-propelled, self-regulating, self-regenerating system. It works, although we don’t understand how or even why. What we can say is that it produces and uses energy; you only have to watch a plant growing against the force of gravity to witness that. Qigong aims to allow us to gather and harvest more of that energy, so that as mobile plants, we flourish.
The Kidneys & ‘ancestral’ qi.
One other point worth mentioning is Chinese medicine’s view of the functioning of the Kidneys.
Apart from their standard physiological functioning, Chinese medicine see the kidneys as housing what they call your ‘Yuan qi’ (or ‘source qi’), which can be defined as the qi that you get from your ancestors. This is what a westerner would describe as your ‘constitutional strength’, i.e. your ability to fight illness, as well as your susceptibilities to illnesses passed down through the family line.
Qigong aims to increase and repair your Yuan Qi, although it is openly admitted that to do this is very difficult, and is only possible in a limited way.
This does not apply to Yoga.
Does yoga aim to increase levels of Qi? In my limited experience – yoga does not aim to increase levels of qi, but 1978 is quite a long way away, and I was quite young at the time. The only other yoga classes I’ve attended since those days haven’t altered my opinion of this either, the classes often being filled by those with an unusually hyper-extensive ability (perhaps I chose the wrong class). The hyper-extensive practitioner is most definitely not aiming for qi-expansion! ________________________________________________________________________________________________ James Drewe teaches Taijiquan and qigong in both London and in Kent. Details of weekly classes can be found on the website, and there are classes for 2-person Taijiquan on one Saturday a month.
CONTACTS: http://www.taiji.co.uk http://www.qigonghealth.co.uk Email: taijiandqigong@gmail.com Phone: 07836-710281 or 020-8883 3308 _______________________________________________________________________________________________