The Wellness Center I recently joined offers Qigong (pronounced chee-gong) in addition to many other mind and body disciplines. Fay McGrew is the instructor and this is how she describes Qigong:

The practice of Qigong is used for stress reduction, to enhance the body’s natural healing abilities and to increase vitality and awareness of internal energy that furthers the mind and body. We do breathing techniques and very gentle movements to relieve the energetic and physical stress on the body. You don’t need full mobility to benefit from Qigong. You need the mind’s intention.

The movements are all very gentle, and she constantly reminded the class not to push ourselves, and that at the first sign of discomfort we should release the position. I was able to follow her every move although I was not nearly as smooth and could not hold some poses as long. I did not feel graceful, but I felt good. I could actually feel the tension leaving my upper back, shoulders and neck.

The breathing we did was controlled and meditative. I was so incredibly relaxed at certain points in the hour that I found myself doing the movements with my eyes closed. A few times, for very brief moments I felt weightless.

At the end of the session the top of my head and the bottoms of my feet were tingling. I did not know if this was good or bad, but when Fay came up and check with me to see how I liked Qigong and I told her about the tingling, she clapped her hands and jumped up and down like a school girl. I guess I had really tapped into my Qi! We were both pleased.

I will certainly be taking her class again. I mentioned how relaxing it was, and that I felt a discernible release of tension in my upper body, but I also felt energized and clearheaded after the hour. It was a great experience and I highly recommend it.