All Gain, No Pain

Every Qigong master I know gently emphasizes the importance of regular practice. I knew about regular practice from my classical dance training, but it wasn’t exactly gentle. Many of my old-school teachers instilled the insidious goals of suffering for our art, rising above pain, transcending misery to emerge victorious! I bought into that for a long time; but as I grew older, wiser, and more injured, I sought a smarter, gentler, kinder path. Enter Qigong.

Qigong (energy cultivation) as a regular practice is a very different discipline than the grueling habit of pushing through pain and suffering to achieve an abstract goal of perfection. As our Qigong group is discovering, working with less effort and more clear, compassionate focus brings fantastic and often immediate results. It feels better, too. Qigong is like a big sigh of relief. That’s why we all feel so relaxed, even borderline giddy at the end of class. This takes practice, however--regular practice-- since most of us are still programmed to believe growth and achievement requires suffering.

Energy can be blatant, but it is also subtle. The more regularly you do Qigong, whether on your own or with a group, the more refined your perception of your own energy will grow. When things begin to tighten or stagnate, you’ll be able to notice and make necessary adjustments before a small problem becomes a chronic health, mobility, or emotional roadblock. As it says in the Tao Te Ching, “What is recent is easy to correct; what is small is easy to scatter; prevent trouble before it arises.”  (Verse 64)