Components of Qigong – Breath

The core principle of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) is that a balanced supply of qi (bio-energy) is essential to good health. Too much or too little qi overall, or an imbalance of qi between the organs results in illness. TCM also finds a direct correlation between breath, qi and blood flow – qi moves the blood. Looking to Western Medicine we also find correlations between breath, blood and the body’s energy fields. It is the breath that oxygenates the blood and ultimately causes an electromagnetic response based around the iron content of the bloodstream. Breath is a vital component of energy work.

It can seem counter intuitive, but there are a lot of ways to breathe. These “different ways” reflect varying combinations of awareness, body dynamics and qi flow along with the inflow and outflow of air. Look through any of the popular texts on qigong and you can easily find over a dozen different breathing patterns.

Wild Goose takes a straight-forward approach to breathing. In the initial forms of the system, we are told simply to breathe naturally. Breathing naturally means to make use of the body’s innate abilities to absorb the air. Unfortunately we can sometimes condition ourselves to breathe unnaturally.

A full natural breath will utilize both the intercostal muscles of the chest and the large diaphragm muscle at the bottom of the chest cavity, to expand and inflate the lungs. These muscles, when used correctly in conjunction with a supportive posture, create an efficient breath. Sometimes, with a combination of age and inactivity (compressed/collapsing posture), we can begin to rely too much on the intercostal muscles in the upper chest. The result is that we adapt ourselves to a less efficient breathing process. This is “chest breathing” where you can notice a short and sometimes rapid rise in just the upper chest as each breath is taken. This problem is easily corrected by using abdominal breathing when you begin qigong training.

Simply put, abdominal breathing directs us to draw down with the diaphragm, so that the abdominal area (and even the sides and back of the body) swell outward with each in-breath and collapse on the exhale. (Note that this breathing takes place in an unrestricted cylinder, created by correct posture.) When we use abdominal breathing on a regular basis we feel more relaxed and stimulate a healing response in the body’s parasympathetic nervous system. I incorporate abdominal breathing into the Eight Pieces of Brocade routine taught in my Introductory Classes. This allows folks to reacquaint themselves with a full in-breath – actually reestablishing the way we breathe as babies. Once this natural pattern is rebooted, the Wild Goose admonition to just “breathe naturally” can then be followed.

Another aspect of basic breathing is to both inhale and exhale through the nose. Using nasal breathing stimulates the nitric oxide sensors in the nasal passages. The resulting increase in nitric oxide in the blood stream causes the blood vessels to dilate and this dilation causes a drop in blood pressure. My own experience has been that I can see a 20 to 30 point drop in systolic pressure using just nasal breathing. (Those with chronic low blood pressure or on blood pressure medication should take note.)

As with all training elements, it takes some initial focus to reestablish a more efficient breathing pattern. Once that is done, the new more efficient pattern becomes intuitive. The full efficient intuitive breath then supports the normalization of stress throughout the body. In practical usage, the efficient breath supports energy applications for both healing and hurting.

Next up in this series of posts on the three critical aspects of qigong - Mental Intent.

Components of Qigong – Posture 1st

My main area of study is the 1700 year old Wild Goose system. One of the interesting things about traditional systems like Wild Goose is that they do not start with applications, but rather begin with principles of healing. Healing principles are the foundation of the entire system and in this case the method used is qigong .

The word “qigong” translates as “energy work” or “energy skill”. Qigong encompasses every kind of energy from the gross physical to the finest levels of bio-energy (qi), including mental, emotional and spiritual energy. This broad range of energy application places qigong practice at the root of most internal healing and martial arts.

There are three components that are critical to qigong practice – posture, breath and intent. Each of these pieces plays an important part in both preparing/conditioning the body and in the application of technique. All three work together, with the ultimate goal of unifying the individual on all energetic levels. This post explains some important points about the most physical of these three components - posture.

A balanced posture is appropriate for conditioning the body’s energy flows. If you think of the body’s energy channels as plumbing, then correct posture helps align and clear all the pipes so the energy will flow freely. Some postures may be used primarily to absorb energy and others to project, while others may do a combination of both. Postures are also specific to types of energy. The foundational posture of many qigong routines is the wuji posture. Of the five elemental energy types – fire, earth, metal, water and wood, the wuji posture enables earth energy. It takes its name from the wuji or “empty state” defined at the beginning of Taoist cosmology. Those familiar with martial arts may recognize the wuji posture as a “ready stance” or a shoulder’s width “horse stance”. Wuji is itself a very functional posture and also serves as a starting point for developing other postures (stances).

The wuji posture can be thought of as “stacking the structure”. Skeletal components are aligned one atop another, just like you would stack a group of dinner plates, with each component resting comfortably on the one below it. This stacking creates an alignment between the crown-point (Bai Hui), the central body point (wuji point), the base of the perineum (Hui Yin) and the center balance point of the foot. The pelvis is a critical part of the equation too and is held in a neutral position. If the pelvis was a bucket of water, the water would not spill out the front, back or sides, but remain level.

The body is relaxed so that only minimal muscular tension is required to remain upright. Muscles are only part of the equation in the internal arts. Much attention is paid to using the body’s fascial elements – the tendons, ligaments and connective tissue that permeate the entire body structure. We are to relax into this supporting fascia.

The Taiji classics describe the body alignment of this posture by advising us to hang the crown point – as if the top of our head was suspended by a thread. At the same time the head is suspended, the body is “rooted” through the feet. To be rooted means that the body weight is settled down through the legs and into the earth. There is also an energetic connection between the body and the earth. This energetic connection extends into the earth, just like the roots of a tree.

The feet are parallel to each other at about a shoulder’s width distance. The ankle, hip, shoulder joint and the ears are all in the same plane and everything relaxes into the skeletal, muscular and fascial body structure.

If you consistently practice the body alignments and principles of the wuji posture, those principles will in turn support all the other healing and martial postures. Next post – breath.

Wild Goose Weekend

I spent the past weekend (11/4-11/6/11) at the annual Wild Goose camp at Shane Lear’s facility in Delphos, Ohio – the official Wild Goose Headquarters for North America. It was a great weekend, martial arts on Friday night followed by Saturday and Sunday classes that covered the Wild Goose system from all angles, both healing and hurting.

As I was watching the students and other instructors, I was reminded of the breadth and depth of this system. Friday evening included a discussion of structure, throwing techniques, joint locking and energy flow. Saturday’s class covered acupuncture point usage, qi flow and form specifics for Meditation, Meridian Patting, 1^st & 2^nd 64 Action and Dayan Palm forms. What made this unique in my experience, was the way all of these component pieces fit together - healing and hurting, each supporting the other and all based on healing qigong. A healing based system is the exception in today’s martial arts offerings. This is such a logical approach – heal and unite the body, before you undertake martial training.

In The Power of Internal Martial Arts, Bruce Franzis writes that the internal arts of TaiChi Chuan, Bagua and Hsing-I all originally included both healing and hurting components, with the healing side predating the hurting. I think this what we can see reflected in the Wild Goose System. With its 1700+ year history and relatively recent unveiling to the public, it has retained its original intent. This makes it a valuable gem in today’s offering of martial and healing systems.

So, what is Wild Goose? It is easier to classify, once you know that it predates the “modern” internal arts of TaiChi Chuan, Bagua and Hsing-i. You can see elements of all these arts in Wild Goose. To me it represents a synthesis of the root principles and applications of all these arts.

If you are in the Southern Indiana area and are interested in Wild Goose classes, please check out my web site at www.TaiChiArts.org. For a directory of Wild Goose instructors in the US, visit www.DayanArts.com.