Qigong in the News: find the right kind of meditation

The right kind of meditation for you; Mantra, mindfulness, zen, and qigong visualization are different ways to relax

New research suggests you could be missing out on all the health benefits of meditation by simply starting out with a technique not well matched to your personal tastes.

NY Daily News : Wednesday, July 11, 2012, 11:32 AM

Did you give meditation a chance and decide it's not your cup of tea? New research suggests you could be missing out on all the health benefits of meditation by simply starting out with a technique not well matched to your personal tastes.

Adam Burke, director of San Francisco State University's Institute for Holistic Health Studies, suggests trying another method to see which one is best suited to you.

"If someone is exposed to a particular technique through the media or a health care provider, they might assume because it's popular, it's the best for everyone," he said. "But that's like saying because a pink dress or a blue sport coat is popular this year, it's going to look good on everybody. In truth, different people like different things."

Burke and colleagues recently conducted a study of college students new to meditation and their preferences among four meditation techniques -- mantra, mindfulness, zen, and qigong visualization.

The participants learned all four different techniques, with 31 percent rating mantra as their preferred choice and another 31 percent choosing mindfulness. However, 22 percent said zen was their favorite, and 15 percent voted for qigong. Participants who opted for mantra and mindfulness said they thought the techniques were easier to practice, more calming, and less complex.

Partly accounting for the differences in tastes, the researchers note, is age, with older participants opting for zen, while younger participants preferred mindfulness. The results of the study appear in the July 7 issue of the journal Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing.

Another type of mindfulness meditation known as integrative body-mind training (which focuses on breathing and posture awareness) has recently been a hot topic in the media with a new study that found that the technique can have a positive physical effect on the brain, boosting connectivity and efficiency. The study appears in the June issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Meditation shopping? While it may seem strange, it is perhaps the best approach to finding a technique that works for you, at least according to a new study from San Francisco State University's Institute for Holistic Health Studies.

Published on July 7 in the journal Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing, the findings reveal that by finding a form of meditation that works for you, you are less likely to quit. The result of sticking with it? Research-backed benefits of reduced stress, lower blood pressure, and help with addiction problems.

While meditation styles vary, you'll want a comfortable, quiet room, perhaps a cushion to sit on, and anywhere from five to 20 minutes for beginners.

Here are a few traditional seated meditation techniques used in the study that you may want to try:

Vipassana (or mindfulness) - This meditation dates back to the times of Gautama Buddha and translates to "seeing deeply." You can start out by breath awareness and then advance to stages of being mindful of your perceptions and thoughts at any time, regardless of what you are doing. Some people attend 10-day Vipassana retreats, or "bootcamps," to delve deeper into the practice.

Mantra - This style involves the repetition of a word, phrase, or sound, or repeatedly envisioning a specific image. In the San Francisco State University study, participants imagined a ball of light in the area of their heart. For sounds or words, basically every sound-vibration you can think of is a potential mantra, but one of the most popular ones is Om.

Zen - Zen is similar to mindfulness in its focus on presence of mind, but it involves a more general awareness, rather than a focus on something specific. The practice typically asks you to silently focus on breathing and posture with eyes open in a quiet place and to dismiss any thoughts that pop into your head, essentially "thinking nothing."

Qigong visualization - This Taoist practice utilizes several techniques to help restore health and balance to the body, including the Inner Smile, visualizing "smile-energy" penetrating your internal organs; Moon on Lake, visualizing the moon's reflection on a lake; and Holding Heaven in the Palm of Your Hand, imagining the energy of the galaxy in the palm of your hand. Other simpler techniques, such as those used in the study, involve imagining a beam of light running along the spine.

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Or you can join us FOR FREE at MIT every Monday for soft natural Yiquan Qigong taught by Coach Jim Roselando from ApricotForestHall. All the benefits of meditation, yoga, and taiji in one simple exercise!! 

Tonight, we meet in the basement of the prestigious Kresge Auditorium from 7-8pm. See you there! To join our email list for updates on locations and special events, click here: http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/qigong

Free Qigong All Summer Long at MIT!!

MIT QIGONG with Coach Roselando

Every Monday Night: 7-8pm

7/16: Kresge Rehearsal Room A (Basement W16-033)
7/23: Coffeehouse Lounge (3rd Floor, MIT Student Center)
7/30: Coffeehouse Lounge (3rd Floor, MIT Student Center)
8/6: Kresge Rehearsal Room A (Basement W16-033)
8/13: Student Center (Rm 306)
8/20: Outdoors (TBD)
8/27: Outdoors (TBD)

Last Monday's Workout Routine:

5min Gathering Qi

5min Left Crane

5min Right Crane

5min Gathering Qi

10min Cow Post

10min Universal Post

5min Turning Cow

10min Leg Qi

5min Seal

Wash

Sit less, Stand more

Sit less, add more years to your life
The Times of India ||  Jul 10, 2012

Restricting the amount of time spent seated every day to less than 3 hours might boost the life expectancy of adults by an extra 2 years, a new study has revealed.

The findings also suggests that cutting down TV viewing to less than 2 hours every day might extend life by almost 1.4 years.

Numerous previous studies have linked extended periods spent sitting down and/or watching TV to poor health, such as diabetes and death from heart disease/stroke.

The researchers used data collected for the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) for 2005/6 and 2009/10, to calculate the amount of time US adults spent watching TV and sitting down on a daily basis.

The scientists trawled the research database MEDLINE, looking for published studies on sitting time and deaths from all causes, and pooled the different relative risk data from the five relevant studies, involving almost 167,000 adults.

The database was then reanalysed, taking account of age and sex.

They combined these data and the NHANES figures to come up with a population attributable fraction (PAF) - an estimate of the theoretical effects of a risk factor at a population, rather than an individual level - to work out the number of deaths associated with time spent sitting down.

The PAFs for deaths from all causes linked to sitting time and TV viewing were 27 percent and 19 percent, respectively.

The results of life table analyses indicates that cutting the amount of time spent sitting down every day to under three hours would add an extra two years to life expectancy.

Similarly, restricting time spent watching TV to less than two hours daily would extend life expectancy by an extra 1.38 years.

The researchers emphasise that their analysis assumes a causal association rather than proving that there is one. But they point to the evidence showing the detrimental effect of a sedentary lifestyle on health.

And they also caution that their findings should not be interpreted as meaning that someone who leads a more sedentary lifestyle can expect to live two or 1.4 years less than someone who is more active.

"The results of this study indicate that extended sitting time and TV viewing may have the potential to reduce life expectancy in the USA," the Daily Mail quoted them as writing in their study.

"Given that the results from objective monitoring of sedentary time in NHANES has indicated that adults spend an average of 55% of their day engaged in sedentary pursuits, a significant shift in behaviour change at the population level is required to make demonstrable improvements in life expectancy," they concluded.

The research was published recently in the online journal BMJ Open.

Qi: One Energy - Two Expressions (3 of 3)

Qi Magazine - September 2007
By Adrian Chan-Whyles, PhD
http://www.chandao.co.uk/

Internal Force

Internal force - or that force which is cultivated and produced in the internal martial arts of China (Xingyi, Bagua and Taijiquan, etc.), has its basis (like external force) in the philosophy of ancient Chinese medicine and the science of Qi. Simply stated, internal force is that power which is produced within and around the bone.

The musculature, in this instance, becomes secondary as it is no longer required/used as a prime producer of energy but continues to fulfill its function for defense and mobility. Internal power generation is essentially dependent upon postural alignment. The basic Qigong exercise for the development of alignment trains both the body and mind. The bones must be anatomically placed so that they 'sit' squarely upon one another. The shoulder girdle sits squarely over the pelvic girdle and the pelvic girdle sits squarely over the ankles and heels. 

The hips and connected to the shoulders by a naturally 'S' shaped spine and connected to the feet by slightly springy knees. The feet are approximately shoulder width apart and the head sits squarely on the shoulders with the back of the neck extended and the chin tilted slightly forward. The mind focuses upon full, deep breathing, utilizing the full lung capacity. For this to occur, muscular tension in the torso and chest (which prevents full deep breathing) must be relaxed. Initially, tension is relaxed with the focus of the mind upon the tense area. 

Tension is acknowledged with the inward breath, and literally expelled from the muscle with the outward breath. An aligned posture does not require muscular tension to stay in place. With deep, full breathing, the heart beat slows down whilst having more oxygen available per breath, per beat of the heart. Tension would normally prevent oxygen transference around the body - but when tension is relaxed, oxygen and energy may flow freely.

When the skeleton is aligned, gravity acts upon the body mass - creating body weight which is pulled downward into the ground. The unhindered body weight travels downward through the center of the bone gently massaging the bone marrow. The bodyweight hits the ground - thus 'rooting' the practitioner like a tree. In this state, it is difficult for an external force to move the body. As the weight hits the ground, an opposite and equal rebound force is created, that travels back up the body, through the bone marrow, again massaging the bone marrow in the opposite direction.

This gentle massaging of the bone marrow, ensures that the bone is both robust and yet flexible, two essential components of a healthy bone structure. Over time the bones toughen. At this point it must be pointed out that an aligned posture is a rounded posture. The bones of the legs, torso and arms assume a rounded posture that forms what is known as 'Internal Iron Vest.' The rounded posture absorbs, deflects and reflects incoming power. As a blow strikes the aligned posture, the incoming power is automatically reflected back into the attacking limb, causing damage to that limb at the point of contact. With the concentration of the mind through deep breathing and postural alignment, the mind brought to a single point - concentrating and relaxing the energy of the mind. As the intellect relaxes, the intuition comes to the forefront and is experienced as an expansion of awareness that goes beyond the physical limitations of the body. Over the years, this expansion deepens and matures - this is Qigong of the mind. 

From this still position, the rudiments of internal power are both acquired and cultivated. The next stage is to be able to maintain and produce internal power whilst moving the physical body around through time and space. The structure of the sequential forms of the internal arts exist to exercise and manifest this internal force whilst on the move. 

The rebounding, upward force is used to emit energy from the center of the body outwards, whilst the dropping body weight force is used to absorb incoming power. As this force is not dependent upon the rules of muscular power immense force can be produced with virtually no movement as gravity is at work regardless as to whether one is moving or not. No single muscle group can produce the same amount of force created by the bodyweight. Also, muscles tire and need resting, whereas internal force is constant and never grows tired. On a genetic level, human beings are programmed to see muscular movement and prepare to counter it. However, the ability to produce substantial force with virtually no muscular involvement by-passes the natural human instinct for survival. An internal master literally exists and moves within a perceptual gap. If one is not of equal development, then it is very difficult fo confront and counter the internal.

Yiquan Founder Wang Xiangzhai Poem

Wang Xiangzhai Poem

Integrated with spirit and mind,
With plain truth easy to understand,
It is both interesting and enlightening.
It has no method yet every method,
for in boxing all methods are of no avail.
With profound knowledge it helps you to mold your temperment,
Cultivating you in faithfulness, sense of justice, benevolence and bravery.
Propelled by natural strength,
you are as strong as a dragon.
Inhaling and exhaling naturally and quietly,
You perceive the mechanism of all movements.
Be neither too familiar nor too distant towards others,
Show them courtesy, modesty, and respect.
Avail yourself of the force of the universe,
And bring your instinctive ability into full play.
Stand at the center holding the key,
Act according to circumstances without trace.
Eyes seeing nothing and ears hearing only your breathing sound,
You train your mind and regulate your nervous system.
In motion you are like the angry tiger,
In quietness you are like the hibernating dragon.
Your expression is as awesome as that of a leopard,
Your strength is as powerful as that of a rhino.
Preserving the heavenly wisdom and maintaining the state of meditation,
You are ready to act in response to all possible situations.

Thank you to http://daoyinchuan.com for posting this on their site!

Qi: One Energy - Two Expressions (2 of 3)

Qi Magazine - September 2007
By Adrian Chan-Whyles, PhD
http://www.chandao.co.uk/

External Training

In Chinese medical thinking, any movement that has its origins of power generation on the outside of the bone, i.e. through the muscles, ligaments and tendons, is termed external in nature. This is important and the main way that human beings produce power from an early age.

It is as if we are genetically pre-programmed to produce power only from the musculature, even in our untrained state. External training then harnesses this power in a systematic manner. A practitioner will learn how to control their bodies via their musculature in a well co-ordinated and will timed series of martial exercises. The basic power for this expression is essentially forward or backward motion with an un-dropped bodyweight (i.e. when muscular tension is used to 'suspend' the body structure in a solid sheet, in one orientation, to protect against incoming blows). The 'weight' of the practitioner, (using the body joints as levers), propels the weight forward, through an arm or a leg, in a fast ripple-like fashion.

The hip and shoulder joints are used as a 'hinge' mechanism, as if one were slamming a door. As the muscles tire, so does the power output, and blows start to lose their effectiveness. This is why external styels emphasize muscular development through the practice of external Qigong, or in other words training the musculature to store Qi. This makes the musculature hard and robust when tensed for combat. This is called external 'iron vest' training (Hard Qigong), whereby the musculature acts as a barrier to the possible harmful effects of incoming, external blows.

External training prepares the mind and body for a journey toward transformation. Slowly, over time, the practitioner will develop an ever-increasing awareness of his/her mind and body. The older traditional styles usually have a clear external component, and a clear internal component. However, as the soft and gentle (i.e. Yin) cannot exist without the hard unyielding force (i.e. Yang), we must acknowledge that any style that conforms to ancient Chinese scientific thinking must fully embrace both aspects of the energy spectrum and training will reflect this.

Generally speaking, at the start of the journey, the human body is overly tense and hard. The external training harnesses this state. As the practitioner progresses, the musculature begins to relax. This process may be observed with the analysis of technique. Initially, if a punch was observed, the arm would be extended forward, with much thrusting force and in order to prevent injury, the muscles of the hand would be tensed throughout the entire process, to protect the fist structure from the re-coil of impact.

This tension would also exist in the arm and throughout the body. Any other observed technique would reveal the same dynamic of movement. As the practitioner progresses - tension recedes and more and more of the technique starts to be performed in a relaxed manner. This is the slow path toward the internal from the perspective of the external. Eventually, the practitioner is able to punch with a relaxed hand at the point of contact. How this happens can be understood by the clear investigation of what it means to produce internal force.

Yik Kam Wing Chun - Part 2: Enter the Siu Lin Tau

"Sifu Yik Kam’s Siu Lin Tau is a long set that has four parts 

and many sections in each part. The set is equal to the 

common three Wing Chun sets combined. In fact, the first 

part is very similar to that of other lineages. Basically, the 

four sections relate to Standing (part one), Shift & Move (part 

two), Rotate & Move (part three) and lastly Walking (part four)."

-- Sifu Hendrik Santo from the upcoming Issue #6.