harmony – 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?

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Why Unplugging Your Mind Is Important to Find Yourself

When e-mails, text messages, conference calls, Webex, Whatspp, FB, Instagram, Tweeter, Google and anything else from your partner to your boss invade your lives, it becomes necessary for your survival to stop for a while and be silent. That’s why unplugging your mind is crucial.

Our always connected minds take us away from the best of ourselves and our creative potential.

Referring constantly to what one or the other has said, we forget to connect to our essential being, which is unique and precious.

We have become individuals driven by technological change that moved away from ourselves, from our awareness of being human, from the first component of Emotional Intelligence (EI). EI is recognized today as a condition of success in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) world, as it is the one we live in today.

Refocusing, looking inside, listening to silence and our inner voice. In the depths of ourselves we find an enormous amount of resources and our most authentic creativity: it is our treasure, a unique, rich and colorful, magical place where everything is open and possible.

In this space, we can find synchronicity, messages and insights that will enable us to make the right decisions for our lives. Real relationships can arise, authentic relationships between sincere people who are now masked by the ego that continues to rule us.

What to do then?

Give yourself moments of silence! Be for a while without your mobile phone. Go out for a walk without it, walk with no direction in nature and feel, look, listen, use all your senses to the maximum.

Be present in this unique moment and let yourself be pervaded by the harmony that surrounds you.

Practice your favorite hobby, and if you do not have it, think about finding one. Quietly cooking at home, knitting, painting, drawing, gardening and all the other activities that you may be passionate about.

Stop for a moment and stop moving from one activity to another, from one piece of information to another. Your brain can not take it anymore, it also needs a rest. Give yourself time to deepen the reasons for your choices and discover the reason for your being, your purpose.

People feel lost. Most probably they are really lost: they have disconnected from themselves to live in connection with the social networks.

Therefore, unplugging your mind is very important for your wellbeing. Learn to find some space for yourself and your deeper needs. And live your life fully. You deserve it!

Can One Person Make the Difference?

We live in a time of political uncertainty and perpetual conflict. While it’s easy to give up and say that you can’t change the world, that one person can’t make a difference, the inspiring life of Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) proves us wrong. Gandhi is the living embodiment of the values of democracy, and he inspires us to do good without ever giving up.

The Father of the Indian Nation

Leader of the Congress Party in 1921, Gandhi led national campaigns to reduce extreme poverty in India, give more rights to women, establish peace between hostile ethnic and religious groups, and gain the independence of the people. Perhaps his greatest legacy is the way he used non-violence to combat oppression, a belief adopted today by thousands of followers of peaceful resistance around the world. Indians often refer to him as the father of the nation. He owes his exceptional leadership to his way of building bridges between different communities: upper and lower caste Hindus, Muslims, Christians. Gandhi believes in the goodness of people, regardless of their religion, social class or gender. For him, no religion surpasses the pure force of true faith.

Strength of peaceful opposition

Eternally optimistic, Gandhi always believed in the ability of the human being to evolve towards a higher level of consciousness. This is what he demonstrated by leading by example into old age, turning every crisis and conflict into an opportunity for spiritual growth. “I never stopped being optimistic,” he said. « Even in the darkest moments, I always cultivated hope.».

Gandhi advocated religious harmony, he wanted equal rights for Muslims in India. When violence broke out between Muslims and Hindus, he resorted to fasting, repeatedly threatening to let himself die. He intended to be judged on deeds rather than words and firmly believed that his personal suffering would prompt men to lay down their arms.

Strengthened by this moral philosophy, his public and private life are closely linked. “Only the service of others makes it possible to apprehend the truth and discover the true nature,” he confides. He clearly showed us the power of peaceful opposition in the face of oppression, injustice and brutality.

However, non-violence is not about abstaining from any real struggle. It took a lot of courage for him to confront the violence and strengthen his convictions. “I oppose violence,” he once said, “because when it seems to produce good, the resulting good is only transitory, while the evil produced is permanent.”. Tragically, the irony is that Gandhi’s life ends in violence. He was assassinated on January 30, 1948 by the Hindu nationalist Nathuram Godse. Nearly 70 years after his death, the legacy he left us continues to live on and remains a true source of inspiration. In 2007, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2 October, Gandhi’s birthday, the International Day of Non-Violence.

Leading by example

Gandhi’s life served as a shining example to many political leaders including Martin Luther King, Václav Havel and Nelson Mandela, all of whom fought for social change. Their powerful message to us is to respect human dignity and reject intolerance. This is something we should all think about, especially considering the current political climate, where so many countries seem deeply divided in their way of thinking, that it would seem that there are two nations instead of one. While it is tempting to read the news and conclude that you cannot change anything about this sad situation, it is enough to remember Mahatma Gandhi and how he embodied the change he wanted to see in the world to convince yourself otherwise. One person can make a difference; our best hope for the future is to look to those men, women and movements that have positively acted in the past.

Do you think you can make the difference with your behaviours?

one black chess piece separated from red pawn chess pieces — Make the Difference – Photo by Markus Spiske on Pexels.com

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?