Crushed elbow became pain free
I started practising qigong because of a bicycle accident in the late 1990’s. My right elbow was completely crushed and I still have a metal triangle that holds it together. At the time when I started practising qigong my elbow functioned as a weather barometer and the doctor said that I will have to live with it. But I don’t. It has not ached for years.
Qigong instead of physiotherapy
Later I fell once more on the arm of the damaged elbow and got problems with my shoulder. Then I got it working again thanks to qigong. In 2011, I fell and injured the shoulder of my previously healthy arm. It was terribly painful and I was urged to go to the doctor and get it properly investigated. Encouraged by the local contact person, I went to the group training sessions, although I could not do the exercises properly.
According to the X-rays nothing was broken but I was prescribed strong pain medications and 15 hours of physical therapy. I showed some of the qigong movements to a physiotherapist who said, “Oh, what good movements! Keep it up! You do not need any physiotherapy.” I practised qigong, and through that my arm gradually improved and after a few months I could lift my arm properly again. Nowadays, it hurts only when I make certain movements backwards.
Help to manage retirement
I had a few years left until retirement when I started practising. I would very much have liked to continue to work and was very sad because of that, but with the help of qigong, I could balance the sadness.
Varicose veins disappeared, better posture
I also noticed in other ways how good qigong is. For example, I have had quite a lot of varicose veins in my legs that have disappeared by themselves. My posture has also improved a lot and I am very pleased.
The summer course a powerful experience
I have joined many courses and each time I have thought that it was the best course ever. And it has been like that every time. Last year I attended my first summer course. Before the course, I had had a very tough period of strenuous commitments and my friends in the local group saw that I needed a summer course in order not to fall apart. It was a powerful experience to be there. Only then did my body start to understand at a deeper level what practicing qigong is about. Qi-regulation and the qi-field are examples of concepts that I for a long time found difficult to understand, and I thought they sounded strange. But despite the fact that the brain did not understand, the body understood how good qigong is.
Kari Appelgren