What is Qi Gong?
“Qi” (sometimes spelled Chi) is the vital life-force energy that animates and flows through every living thing – the invisible, intelligent current behind your heartbeat, your thoughts, and your ability to heal. “Gong” refers to the practice of dedicated and skillful cultivation of this vital life-force energy.
Together, Qi Gong is the art of activating, nurturing and balancing your own energy so it can flow freely, thus circulating and carrying away tension, pain, and fatigue while restoring flexibility, strength, clarity, and quiet joy. Unlike strenuous exercise, Qi Gong works from the inside out.
A few minutes of practice daily can help lower blood pressure, ease chronic pain, reduce anxiety, deepen sleep, and lift mood – effects now confirmed by hundreds of modern scientific studies. Yet the feeling is never forced; students often describe it as “moving as medicine,” “mindfulness in motion,” “prayer in motion,” or simply “coming home to myself.”
Whether you are young or in your later years, perfectly healthy or working with illness or injury, Qi Gong meets you exactly where you are. There are forms you can do standing, sitting, or even lying down. The practice grows with you over a lifetime, revealing deeper layers of peace and power the longer you walk the path. In short, Qi Gong is both the empowered medicine you already carry inside – and the gentle key to unlocking it.
What are the Five Elements?
Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Wood ~ describe, in metaphor, the dynamic harmony and cyclical quality of the natural world. These elements also describe characteristics within the cosmos, the seasons, the directions, and within the human body, mind and spirit.
They were named early in ancient Taoist descriptions of the workings of the universe and were central to the formation of Chinese medicine. Integral to the Holden style of Qi Gong practice, they work in powerful harmony to help us reduce accumulated stress and to activate the circulation of Qi though out the mind, body, and spirit. Yes, the elements remain very much alive and relevant to this day and you will learn much more about them in class!