Worldwide there are millions of people practicing Qigong today, mainly due to its number of applications to prevent disease and get better health. The most widely known application is Medical Qigong, as a complementary healing-system. It is suitable for all ages and for the majority of health conditions.

It is a very effective and soft therapy, and it has been observed that practitioners recover from illness quicker, with fewer side effects than those observed when using allopathic therapies. However, the most important point is that practitioners learn specific skills that improve constantly their immune system with a very positive long-term effect.

External Qi Healing is a second application of Qi Gong and means an ancient method of transmitting Qi without touching. In meditative or spiritual Qi Gong, a third application, the practitioners focus on developing a clear and tranquil state of mind. There are basically two categories of meditative Qi Gong, Buddhist Fo Jia Gong and Daoist Dao Jia Gong, reflecting Buddhist or Daoist philosophies.

Finally, there are Martial Qigong (Wu Gong) applications and these refer to Wu Shu (Chinese Martial Arts). It includes exercises to improve martial art techniques, to strengthen the body in general, to improve coordination and flexibility, and to build up Qi. The most widely known martial art Qigong is Tai Chi.

Qi Gong, Qi Gung or Qi Kung, is a 5,000 year old holistic Chinese self-healing and meditation system evolving practice that includes healing postures, breathing techniques and self-massage. Qi Gong is suitable for everyone, every age and all physical conditions. The Qi Gong practitioner learns to control the Qi flow and use his/her mind to guide the Qi to all parts of his/her body to achieve a complete energetic balance. In dynamic, exercising Qi Gong, the entire body moves from one posture to another. In passive, meditative Qi Gong, the body is still and Qi is controlled by concentration, visualization and breathing.

The roots of Qi Gong
The roots of Qi Gong are very old and the principles can be found in native tribes’ philosophies and practices around the world. The oldest signs of cultivating life energy as a key to healing and spiritual power come from the Australian aborigines, around sixty thousand years ago. They concentrated life energy on a zone located four inches below the navel.

This same area is called the Dantien in Qi Gong and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Another example of ancient Qi Gong practices comes from Hawaii. The powerful Hawaiian healers were known as “Masters of the Breath”. They used movements like a dance and deep breathing exercises to accumulate Qi and project it through their hands to other persons. The most important roots and closest parallels for Qi Gong we know today come from India. There are actual remarkable parallelisms between Yoga and the Chinese Yin-Yang theory .

Different sources show that Yoga is older than Qi Gong and Buddhist monks from India have influenced some Qi Gong styles. However, informations have probably traveled in both directions, Taoist’s ancient tales and Indian yogis learned from each other and influenced their teachings until the present day.

After training for over two years, completely isolated from any teacher or group, I was really looking forward to meeting Yingjun. Almost exactly ten years ago, I had already learned from his father Chen Xiao Wang in Germany, and so it was amazing to have this continuation of such incredible teachers. Yingjun started Tai Chi at 8 and had trained since then under his famous father. I guess it is not easy being compared with a living legend, but Yingjun seems to handle this in a very relaxed way.

During a lunch break, we talked about training and focus and Yingjun told me that he had been fully dedicated to Tai Chi training for the last few years. ‘Now I am almost ready to teach’, he said. Let’s get this right; Yingjun skills are already world-class. His movements and his power are so far developed that it is hard to imagine that there is any improvement possible. At least this is what I thought. ‘I still have to improve a lot; there is so much more possible’, said Yingjun, as if he had read my mind.

I was still thinking and looking at this smiling face. Here I was sitting beside a young, extraordinary man, who represented the exact opposite of our fast and superficial world. In his world, there is neither space for pretending to know something nor for people with a big mouth. You can either do it or not— you can’t fake tai chi. ‘I needed to work on my foundation, strength and perfect my skills before I start teaching’, Yingjun continued. ‘Tai Chi is like real life; without a good foundation, your skills stay weak, whatever you do. Focus on one skill at a time and train hard until you achieved it, then your skills will skyrocket’, he said.

This single conversation alone was worth the whole weekend. I realised that I needed to go back to basics and concentrate on one project at a time. Running several projects in parallel can dilute your progress and is also very energy-draining. This single aspect is perhaps the most important skill we all need to master for the next few years; to learn not to get distracted by all the opportunities and overwhelming energies which appear every day.

We need to learn to focus on a single activity, at least for some time each day. When was the last time you took the time to dedicate yourself to one single activity without any distraction? If you can’t answer this question, then it is time for you to go back to basics. You can start with a hobby you loved to do; something you spent hours and hours on when you still had the time.

During this weekend, I discovered again my need to go back in time and reactivate an activity I loved to do. And this is Standing Meditation, which I stopped two years ago, because I thought that it was a kind of waste of time.

Now, I will stand again for thirty minutes every day and there will be no time wasted. And do you know why? Because these thirty minutes of Standing Meditation will increase my focus, grounding, energy flow and awareness. And with this advanced state of awareness, I will be able to make up far more than thirty minutes a day.

What is your grounding activity, waiting to be reactivated?

T’ai Chi Ch’uan is a soft style (internal) martial art but is also called “art of moving meditation” and it is characterized by relaxed and soft movements. T’ai Chi theory and practice is formulated in agreement with many of the principles of traditional Chinese medicine. The slow, repetitive work involved in that process gently increases and opens the internal circulation (breath, body heat, blood, peristalsis).

T’ai chi, taiji, t’ai chi ch’uan and taijiquan are different spellings for the same discipline and the words mean literally “Supreme Ultimate fist”, or “The way of supreme harmony”. Tai chi is a shortened name and is generally related to health, relaxation and spiritual development. Taijiquan is used for Tai chi as an internal Martial Art. We use normally the shortened name but refer to all aspects of Tai chi, health and Martial Arts.

The term “Tai Chi” refers to the ancient Chinese cosmological concept of the interaction between the polar opposites of Yin and Yang, where Yin is represented by night, cold, negative, soft, earth, intellectual, feminine, and Yang by day, warm, positive, hard, sky, physical, masculine. “Quan” literally means, “fist” and denotes an unarmed combat method. Tai Chi as an internal martial art is based on the principle of subduing the hard with the soft by adapting and sticking to the opponent’s movements.

The origins of Tai Chi
The origins of Tai Chi have been traced to the seventeenth century. The royal guard and experienced warrior Chen Wangting created the Chen style Taijiquan in Chenjiagou Village in Wenxian Country. Chen Wangting studied Daoyin (leading and guiding energy) and Tu-na (expelling and drawing energy) and has been influenced of Taoism theories on consciousness guiding movement. He was the first who combined the different concepts of Daoyin, Tuna and Taoism with Martial Arts and created a unique synthesis as a base of all Tai Chi styles.

Originally, the Chen Style Tai Chi was only taught to members of the Chen clan until a young outsider named Yang Lu Chan was accepted as a student in the early nineteenth century. After mastering the Art, Yang Lu Chan was the first who taught Tai Chi outside the Chen family. He modified the original Chen Style and created the Yang Style, which is the most popular form practiced in the world today. Other styles derived from the Yang Style are the Wu and Sun style.
Tai Chi for young and old

In today’s quick and stress-filled environments, Tai Chi offers an extraordinary way to quiet the mind and relax the body for all ages and levels of physical fitness. Most of the Tai Chi styles are performed slowly and gently, with deep natural breathing for health benefits. The Yang style Tai Chi allows a unique combination of mental and physical activity and harmonises the mind, body and spirit. We recommend therefore the Yang Style for older people or for mediation and relaxation purposes.

The Chen style Taijiquan in particular incorporates in its forms (movements) fast and explosive fajing (emitting energy) elements as self defence applications practice. The variety of movements and rhythms in Chen Taijiquan makes this style an excellent choice for people who are bored by the repetitive nature of many other exercise systems and are looking for a powerful and effective internal martial art.

Currently most of the Tai Chi schools worldwide focus on the health benefits. They are not incorporating the fighting aspects anymore. The traditional Tai chi, and specially Chen Style, belong to the most powerful and effective self-defence systems. The outstanding advantage of Taijiquan is the usage of natural and spiral movement, strength and reactions and a highly effective combat strategy, “moving a thousand pounds with a force of four ounces”. This allows the “weaker” to control a much stronger and heavier opponent. However, it is fair to say that effective self-defence abilities requires a solid Tai Chi foundation.

External Qi Healing is a second application of Qi Gong and means an ancient method of transmitting Qi without touching. In meditative or spiritual Qi Gong, a third application, the practitioners focus on developing a clear and tranquil state of mind. There are basically two categories of meditative Qi Gong, Buddhist Fo Jia Gong and Daoist Dao Jia Gong, reflecting Buddhist or Daoist philosophies. Finally, there are Martial Qigong (Wu Gong) applications and these refer to Wu Shu (Chinese Martial Arts). It includes exercises to improve martial art techniques, to strengthen the body in general, to improve coordination and flexibility, and to build up Qi. The most widely known martial art Qigong is Tai Chi.

Chen Style Taijiquan is a very powerful effective internal martial art due to the use of spiral movements and the principle of the soft overcoming the hard. The great emphasis of the soft overcoming the hard is placed upon borrowing the opponents’ incoming force and using it to disturb his/her inner stability.

Tai Chi belongs to the schools of the “internal” or “soft” martial arts. The training is focused in cultivating a relaxed, flexible and sensitive body with a calm and focused intent, but also in building up inner physical and energetical strength. Tai Chi allows absorbing and neutralizing incoming force with natural and spiral movements, joining with the opponent by sticking to his center, and issuing force at the appropriate time and angle with the power of the entire body. This includes the ability to “stick, adhere, continue and follow” as a vital application, mostly grappling oriented.

The techniques also include pushing, pulling, wrapping, bumping, sweeping, locking, knocking down and throwing and several striking and kicking techniques. Bare Hand forms’ training is designed to develop the ability to control oneself; Partner Training (push hands) trains the practitioner to apply the techniques to someone else in the most efficient manner.