Qi gong practices for fall
Qi Gong practices to align with the natural flow of the season, nourish, and give thanks to your body
Like the leaves of the trees, this is our time to sort out what we can let go of and allow to to transform. The fallen leaves that once gave life to the tree now serve another, the soil and local ecosystem, eventually feeding back to the very same tree that released the leaves.
Like this, what we are no longer utilizing can move on - and this natural process can support our health by giving time for important emotions associated with letting go like resistance to change, grief and trusting the flow of life. These emotions need to have their time to be felt and perhaps expressed - this is a transformation of chi.
This transformation and letting go is also a beginning.
Fall is a great time to start something new.
With the closing of summer who brought us so much yang energy, the desire to be busy and get things done, there is a new charge in the air. As fall brings cooler weather and perhaps a shift towards our inner self, I invite you to begin journeying into the richness of these seasonal practices.
In this practice we honor the movement of Chi and one of the teachings for Autumn is, it is better to move it when it is time, than to hold on and keep accumulating unnecessary energy.
WUJI PRACTICE
In this practice we will be focus on movements that can allow us to dance with our vast spaces within.
In Qi Gong it is called Wuji, the void, or the source of all potential!
YIN YANG PRACTICE
Life can become in a moment unbearable.
Life will keep giving us things to hold on to for security, to let go of in grief, to learn and grow from, to distract us from the pain of living and sometimes a life vest when we think all hope is lost.
Today I can see that this unbearable dance is all so beautiful really.
Tomorrow I may not see any glimmer of beauty and that is the gift of life, we get to experience it all, through enough of ups and downs we begin to appreciate all the ups when we have 'em.
This yin and yang is part of the same whole.
Never separate.
A PRACTICE
In Qi Gong, Yin and Yang gives us a framework from which our body, all substances and functions develop from and depend on.
When we nurture both sides we tend to our wholeness.
Sit down, close your eyes, drop into a quiet inner peace and hold your own hand.
Receive the weight of your right hand in your left hand. Fully support your right hand with your left.
Let go of gripping, your hand is not going anywhere.
Give soft support with your left and really let your right side go and be supported.
Relax your low back and soften your lower Dan Tian.
Like dominos, allow the letting go and the soft support to ripple through your whole body.
The right is associated with Yang and the active doer.
The left is associated with Yin and the receiving.
The hands are connected to the heartmind.
You can switch sides and experience what wisdom is right here in your hands.
SLOWING DOWN…
Autumn is the time that our Yang Qi (active energy) from summer transforms to Yin Qi (slowing down energy). You can see this in nature and us humans are changing right along with the rest of the natural world all the time.
I love Qi Gong for this, to remind us busy city folks to take a pause and attune our body, mind and spirit with the qualities of the season.
