Stress and Qigong

In the second part of the 20th century, chronic stress and its effects were mentioned as primary or secondary causes in over a hundred ailments.

Traditional Chinese Medicine has recognized, throughout its entire history, the influence of stress, chronic negative emotions and their effects on health problems.

It is interesting that many of the ways of Western medicine to solve stress problems were taken over from Eastern medicine. These include methods such as: breathing exercises, visualization, meditation, progressive relaxation and physical exercises.

The “new” medical therapies are, in reality, thousands of years old!

Breathing exercises

Exercises are used by almost every Western stress therapy program. Qigong breathing therapy is often called “tu gu na xin” or, for short, “tuna”, meaning: “exhaling the old, inhaling the new”.

Among the primary necessities to maintain life, nothing is closer to us than breathing. We can survive without food for months, without sleep and water for several days, but without air we survive only a few minutes. Breath is life.

Our breath is a bridge between our conscious and subconscious mind. It is regulated by the autonomic nervous system. It works whether we are conscious or not, awake or asleep. But unlike most autonomic functions, breathing can be easily regulated by our conscious intention. By controlling the rhythm and quality of breathing, we can cause profound changes in our physiological functions. For this reason, for our health, it is not advisable to learn breathing exercises only under the supervision of a qualified person.

Breathing is also a link between body and mind.

Traditional Chinese Medicine speaks of the three treasures: Jing, Qi and Shen. Qi is in the middle. On a purely physical level, we can talk about the qi of breathing as a link between the bodily essence (jing) and spirit (shen), by shen understanding thoughts and emotions. It is important to emphasize that qi is not reduced to breathing, as many people who hear Qigong in passing mistakenly believe. The qi sensations are distinct from those given by the respiratory sensation.

From the point of view of stress, the ability to influence physical and mental states by controlling breathing is vital. Some Western methods of progressive relaxation, such as autogenic training, use the mind to relax the body. Autogenic training uses mental suggestion, for example “My body feels heavy and warm” (sensations associated with a deep state of relaxation), to relieve physical tension. Other techniques, such as physical exercises or “Active Progressive Relaxation”, aim to reduce mental tension by relaxing the body. 60 years ago, one of the pioneers of Western stress therapy, Dr. Edmund Jacobsen, developed the first series of progressive relaxation exercises to treat chronic stress and tension. He said that “in a relaxed body there cannot be a restless mind”.

In Qigong, the emphasis is not on the breathing technique as such, but on the state of consciousness: due to the concentration on Dantian, the “chatter” of the conscious disappears, the state of silence appears and, as a result, the breathing normalizes, becomes deep, fine, diaphragmatic. The physiological changes that occur, in turn, calm the conscious even more, leading to a further improvement in breathing.

As the link between mind and body, consciously controlled breathing can have a profound impact on mental and physical tension. By carefully guiding and allowing the breath to adopt the qualities it has during periods of deep relaxation (when the breath becomes quiet, deep, flowing, regular and smooth), the appropriate physical and mental states of relaxation can be induced.

Breathing exercises have been proven effective in reducing anxiety, depression, irritability, muscle tension, fatigue, and are used to treat agoraphobia, hypertension, hyperventilation, respiratory problems, and poor peripheral circulation in the hands and feet.

Qigong meditation

Many books have been written, from the point of view of Western medicine, about the beneficial effects of meditation on health. For those who have not studied meditation, one can start with simple techniques such as Dantian concentration, which can be learned quickly and easily within a week during a Qigong class by Master Lin Kai Ting.

Qigong meditation is not limited to a certain posture. Daoists speak of four positions: standing, sitting, walking, and lying down. Each of these postures has its characteristic forms of meditation. Most of us are familiar with sitting meditation, with the moving one from Tai Chi or with the relaxation techniques from Yoga, from the lying position.

Instead, in the Qigong tradition, standing meditation is most important. Commonly called zhan zhuang (standing as a pillar), sitting meditation is especially invigorating and is essential not only for health, but also for accumulating qi to heal others or to strengthen the body in martial arts.

Walking meditation is relaxing and, at the same time, strengthens the body. At the same time, it teaches us how to integrate meditation into everyday life. In addition, it eliminates body stiffness after long periods of sitting, especially after sitting meditation practice or after spending a lot of time in front of the computer or TV. It has certain features in common with progressive active relaxation methods, in that the natural weight transfer from one leg to the other causes an alternation of tension and relaxation in the muscles. This alternation acts like a second heart: it helps pump blood from the legs and assists venous blood to return to the heart.

Meditation in the lying position is very useful for entering the deepest states of relaxation, because it does not require any muscular effort. It is especially recommended for people who are too sick to practice standing or sitting. There are many meditations in the lying position, focused on the interior or on the exterior posture.

There are many types of meditation in all postures. Why are there so many? Different types of meditation work more effectively on different types of personalities. For example, physical or kinesthetic personality types will prefer or excel in energy circulation meditations or those in which attention is focused on bodily sensations; they will also prefer more active meditations, such as walking or standing. For imaginative, artistic, creative and intuitive personalities, visualization exercises will be the most effective. For emotional and affectionate people, meditations based on the transformation of the qi of negative emotions into virtuous qi are more indicated, as indicated in the correspondences of the five elements.

Physical exercises

Active, but slow and relaxed physical exercises are also unanimously recognized tools in stress therapy. Yoga, walking and Tai Chi are three ways popularized in the West. In many ways, active exercise mimics the body’s stress response: heart rate quickens, adrenaline levels rise, pupils dilate, blood circulation to skeletal muscles increases. When we finish an exercise, the body’s natural phase of relaxation and recovery is automatically activated: the heart slows down, the muscles relax and the secretion of adrenaline decreases. This state of inhibition helps to eliminate the stress accumulated by the practitioner.

In China, Qigong and Tai Chi are the most widespread means, prescribed especially for eliminating stress. Deep abdominal breathing combined with slow, graceful movement of the body helps to oxygenate the body, improve blood circulation, move lymphatic fluids and relax muscle tension.

Adaptation by Emil Vinteler