fragility – Crisbie Coach

Awaken Your Inner Harmony: The Ancient Art of Qi Gong

Qi Gong, an ancient practice rooted in China for over 5,000 years, is more than a physical exercise—it’s a journey into self-awareness and balance. Influenced by the spiritual philosophies of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, Qi Gong evolved through centuries, adapting elements from martial arts along the way. Today, more than a thousand variations of Qi Gong exist, each shaped by the unique touch of its teachers, yet all founded on a common goal: maintaining balance in body, spirit, and energy for holistic health.

Chinese medicine includes well-being hinges on the free flow of energy, or “Qi,” throughout the body. Qi Gong serves as a vital practice to ensure that this energy remains unobstructed, promoting health and preventing illness. As practitioners engage with Qi Gong, they begin a transformative process of inner exploration—one that uncovers not just physical harmony but emotional and spiritual equilibrium as well.

Discovering Balance in Movement

Practicing Qi Gong is not merely a physical act but a meditative journey. Through its deliberate movements and focused breathing, you learn to detect subtle shifts in your body, both in moments of stability and imbalance. When transitioning from one foot to another, for instance, you become aware of your vulnerability—your own fragility. Conversely, when standing firmly with both feet grounded, you embody strength and resilience. Each motion in Qi Gong is a step toward understanding yourself.

The pursuit of balance does more than just stabilize your body; it lightens your spirit. There is an undeniable sense of freedom that comes from aligning your energy with the world around you. Moreover, this practice extends its benefits to your body’s internal systems. As Qi flows through your meridians—the energy pathways—your circulation, digestion, and respiratory functions improve, deepening the connection between your body and mind.

Body Awareness: A Gateway to Self-Understanding

Qi Gong teaches that the body is the core of our relationship with ourselves, with others, and with our environment. The first step to deepening this connection is through mindful observation. By paying attention to muscle tone, posture, and balance, you tune in to the language of your body. Listening to your body’s cues allows you to respond to your needs, promoting a greater sense of harmony.

At its heart, Qi Gong is a practice of finding balance—not just physically, but energetically and mentally. The more you pay attention to your movements, the more you notice a shift in your thoughts. This growing awareness fosters a sense of inner peace, offering a refreshed perspective on life and the world around you.

The Transformative Power of Qi Gong

Qi Gong is more than a wellness technique; it’s a lifelong practice of self-love and connection to the universe. As you engage with it, you begin to see that by caring for your body, you also nurture your mind and spirit. The search for balance in Qi Gong becomes a metaphor for a balanced life, where you feel connected to yourself and the world in a deeper, more meaningful way.

Have you ever tried Qi Gong, or are you curious to begin this practice? How do you connect with your body and spirit in your daily life?

Thank you for reading! Please sign up for my blog crisbiecoach so you don’t miss out on any posts!

Listening to Your Body with Qi Gong

Qi Gong is an ancestral discipline born in China about 5000 years ago. It has been influenced by various philosophies, such as Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism.

After having developed within religious and spiritual fields, Qi Gong has been contaminated by fighting techniques becoming in this way also part of martial arts.

photo a man and woman doing martial arts — Photo by Craig Adderley on Pexels.com

Today, more than a thousand forms of Qi Gong are known. Actually, each teacher develops his own technique observing though the same principles and purposes: to stay healthy by keeping the body, spirit and energy in balance.

According to Chinese medicine, good health is the result of a good circulation of energy in the body. Qi Gong is considered a prevention measure.

The search for balance, the precision of intention (Yi), the fluidity of gestures represent not only a path towards self-knowledge but also the pleasure of encountering oneself. With Qi Gong, we learn to love ourselves, to open up to the universe, to live in harmony with everything around us.

In the search for balance, you will experience moments when you focus and moments when you rest. Feeling too much or what is missing, for example when you go from one foot to the other, allows you to become aware of your own fragility. When, on the other hand, you stand on two feet, well anchored to the ground, you feel then balanced, and stronger.

Working on balance brings a feeling of lightness and freedom, without forgetting that through the movements and stimulation of the meridians (energy circulation paths), organic functions improve (circulation, digestion, breathing).

The body is at the centre of the relationship with oneself, with others and with the environment. Body awareness passes through listening to your body at first, by observing muscle tone, tensions, balance, posture and the direction of movements.

Qi Gong can be considered above all as a search for energy balance and harmony between body and spirit. By paying attention to the gestures, we realize that our way of thinking also changes and we get a more peaceful look at the world.

Have you heard about Qi Gong before? What do you think about it?

silhouette of person raising its hand — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

How to Overcome Difficulties with the Ganbatte

The Japanese people have an incredible ability to recover from catastrophes of any kind. After World War II that left the country in ruins, in just thirty years Japan became the second largest economy in the world, becoming leaders in the electronics sector in the eighties and nineties. How could the Japanese economic miracle happen? The answer has to do with an expression that we should use too: “ganbatte” which means “try your best”.

Here lies one of the differences between the fragility of the Western culture and the resilience of Japanese culture: how they deal with crisis’ situations.

In Japan, when they have to take an exam, they say “Ganbatte kudasai“, which is the best way to tell others to do their best. In this case, there is no external factor on which the outcome of your exam depends on. According to the Japanese, if you try your best, you will get a result, which even if not the best ever, it will be the best for you, because it represents your maximum effort.

Another Japanese saying, also very useful to all of us, is: “if you want to warm a rock, sit over it for a hundred years”, which means that to overcome great difficulties you need to be patient. However, this doesn’t mean sitting down and waiting for circumstances to change, it means actually working to create new situations and opportunities.

The “ganbatte” is present in the individual and collective activities of the Japanese, and it is very much linked to the Ikigai, that is simply the priority around which everything else (often unconsciously) turns.

In 1995, when the disastrous earthquake happened in Kobe causing enormous damages, the slogan that circulated in Japan was: Ganbaro Kobe. The meaning of the message was: strength and courage from all of us; united and with efforts we will get out of this situation.

Later on, in 2011, on the occasion of another great earthquake that caused the nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima, the slogan that encouraged all Japanese was: Ganbaru Nippon! This encouraged all Japanese to join in the collective effort to help all those involved in the catastrophe. A collective effort was required, and this spirit manifested heroically when retired workers from the nuclear power plant, volunteered to control it. The reason presented by those people was that it was better for the radiation to affect people who had already lived a good part of their lives rather than young people with a future ahead.

A good lesson for all of us in these difficult times. We could try to do as the Japanese do by following these four practical tips.

Do and not complain. Don’t complain with your arms crossed: do something. Value your actions, even if they seem of little importance to you, in reality everything you do is important. As the Kaizen philosophy says, modest but continuous progress ends up in a great transformation.
Hope instead of despair. An attitude of hope focused on day after day rather than on “when this will end” helps to keep morale high.
Don’t waste energy. Don’t venture into endless arguments, which get you nowhere. It is necessary to keep all your strengths (mental and physical) to keep moving forward.
Seek the company of enthusiastic people. We are friends by affinity. This does not, however, exclude that we can surround ourselves with people with a ganbatte spirit, who strive to improve rather than seeing only the negative side.

Do you think ganbatte can help you with facing difficult situations?