Taking time to expand – banishing the myths of Qigong

The body cannot live without the breath, obviously. We breathe air into the lungs, and the lungs fine-comb the oxygen from it; the oxygen goes into the blood, travels deep, is carried by the vascular system into every cell of which the body comprises. It combines with glucose to give us energy; it repairs damage, it regenerates, it infuses us with life, strength and vitality. But sometimes the way we live is like a rock laid upon on our chest, our breathing becomes laboured, impaired, curtailed, defensive, we become oxygen starved.

The ancient Chinese were the first to surmise it was the lungs that took something out of the air by the action of the breath. They called this Qi, and reasoned that the more efficient our breathing, the more Qi we’d extract, and therefore the more life, the more vitality we would have at our disposal. They developed techniques for improving the efficiency of the breath, and these techniques worked, improving health, longevity and a sense of well being. The techniques are what we call Qigong – the translation for Qi being, loosely, “breath”, Gong being “work”. Qigong, in spite of all the mystique attached to it, is simply breath-work. Qi is (in part) Oxygen.

Qigong techniques vary in style, and their degree of mystique. There are thousands of techniques, and tens of thousands of teachers. But we must be careful when teachers earn their living by teaching Qigong, because it’s in their interests to market their own methods as being superior, secret, mysterious, and more powerful than the methods of other teachers. Lineage also plays a role – the syndrome of “my master is better than your master”, and so on. But at their root all Qigong methods focus upon the breath, and there is only so much a teacher can pass on in this respect. Ultimately it is up to us to practice. We can learn the basics from a book, or a Youtube video – the less mystical the better. As a rule avoid the ones that talk of astral travel. A teacher or a class helps with maintaining regular practice, but can be dispensed with if one is sufficiently self motivated.

The mystique of Qigong is unfortunate, also the misinterpretation of Qi as a mystical and subtle energy form, because Qi-mystique is off putting for those who do not share those beliefs. It can render us suspicious of the method because of the dubious language and reasoning that surrounds it. Yet it’s long been known in the West that exposure to high concentrations of oxygen promotes the healing of wounds, and the regeneration of tissue, indeed that all degenerative diseases have at their root the phenomenon of oxygen starvation at the cellular level (hypoxia). Healing of chronic conditions and injuries can be improved by spending time in Hyperbaric chambers which create artificially oxygen rich-environments at high pressures. But these treatments are expensive and not widely available.

Qigong does the same thing, does it gently, and over long periods of time. Indeed we must practice Qigong every day for it to have an effect, breathe deep and slow, into the belly first, then, when the lower lungs have stretched and filled to their limit, only then do we expand the chest. Breathing this way we take in twenty times more oxygen than by breathing the way most of us normally breathe. It feels odd at first, but this is the way the body naturally breathes when we are born. As we age we breathe only with the chest, and we breathe faster to compensate for the deficit of oxygen, but it cannot compensate properly. In short most of us no longer get the oxygen we need. It is as if we become shy or too time pressed to take the time to fill the lungs properly.

Life suffocates us.

But Qigong practice retrains the body so it remembers how we used to breathe as babies, how we should be breathing still. Mucky, traffic poisoned towns and cities, stuffy houses literally sealed tight because we cannot afford to heat them,… all of these things lead to oxygen depleted environments. No wonder then a day in the more oxygen rich countryside, or the mountains, or the seaside can markedly affect our sense of well being.

Mystical Qigong comes out of tradition and myth; it forms a way of thinking that is very important to its practitioners, but whilst being respectful of “belief”, it is not necessary to share in it. Qigong induces measurable physiological effects in the body, and we need look no further than these for an explanation of its workings.

There are other aspects of Qigong – it is a complex system, too complex for a brief blog article. Imagination plays its part, also the effects of gentle movement and stretching, the stimulation of neuro-vascular nodes, and the kinetics of the lymphatic system. The nervous system becomes active and is experienced as feelings of tingling and fullness in the fingers and the limbs. And there is relaxation; the body comes back to a state of homeostasis – chemically, electrically, and emotionally balanced. These things I understand less well, and they provide ample material for future study and interest, but stripped of the myth of mystical Qi, they at least become accessible to the rational mind.

So when in doubt think this: it all comes back to breathing – in and out, deep and slow. We begin to see and feel our world differently, feel better about it and ourselves in it, when we take the time to breathe properly.