The participants who came to this year’s second summer course were full of expectations and looked forward to practising our exercise Xing Shen Zhuang, which is the second step of Zhineng Qigong. This was the third summer course in which we taught and practised this exercise.
Now that we have practised Xing Shen Zhuang for two years and our qi-field has got even stronger, a considerable improvement can be noticed in the quality of our training. The participants experience a stronger feeling of qi, a better flow when practising the exercise and they also find it easier to do the different sections according to the standard. Another effect that can be seen is that many participants have got a better understanding of the qi-field and therefore are better able to use it, in the first place at courses and the weekly training groups but also when practising at home.
The social part of practising together is very important and a highly appreciated one by those who attend our courses. As always the participants showed gentle smiles and had good fun when they met their qigong-friends. Since we started the summer courses, many have witnessed how easy it is to make new friends when attending a course like this. The feeling of joy usually peaks at the evening of the cabaret, when many of the participants get on the stage in order to entertain the others with song, dance, music, poetry and theatre. During the cabaret the smiles get even bigger and the performances generate many positive memories for the rest of the year. This also produces an elevated spirit that improves the training for the rest of the course as well as the private training at home.
As usual we conducted a short survey before and after the course. This year, the survey showed that 74 % the participants felt less stressed when the course had ended. 66 % felt their energy level had increased and 65 % that their physical status had improved. The figure below illustrates theses results.
Directly below you can find a selection of the participant’s comments regarding how they have experienced the course and which results they have reached from practising.
17 years of tiredness all gone
My back is straighter. I’m more relaxed in my hips and shoulders. I’ve been walking around with a gentle smile and have enjoyed being here. I’ve been able to relax and focus on the training. I’m more alert both physically and mentally. I’ve only slept for about five or six hours every night but have still been waking up rested without any pain in my body. Usually I have body pain when I wake up. After seventeen years of tiredness it feels good not to be tired anymore.
Great calm
Thanks for a great course. I’ve never been as calm as I was after the last practise session.
Big health improvements
I can walk without my stick or holding on to something. I have better control of my arms. My kidneys are ok. My sleeping problems are gone. My wheat and milk allergy are gone. My left heal can now touch the ground when I stand. I have a better balance, I can practice la qi with my eyes closed.
Alert and relaxed
In the mornings and evenings, it feels wonderful to be here. It’s as if someone is holding me as I stand here and practise. The feeling of togetherness has been nice as usual. You get little sleep but are still alert. I need very little sleep when I’m here. I have become calm and relaxed and have better energy, maybe a little better concentration. I have received very good corrections in both courses. Hold qi up feels different, more powerful in some way and in xing shen zhuang I like movements are better and better. I have the ability to kind of work it all out, I think. It feels more fluid now, I think. Previously, it was more like doing one thing at a time. Now I have a more steady flow in xing shen zhuang. So it will be fun to continue practising at home.
The arch of the foot rising
My feet got stronger again. This is the third summer course. During the first summer course, I had so much pain in them. I did not understand what it was, until I noticed that the arch of my foot had begun to rise. I have been very flat-footed and I did not recognise my footprints in the shower. And now it has continued. I feel that, yes!, it is getting even stronger. At the beginning of the course, I stood more on the inside of the foot and now it has lifted again. It’s really nice. And I can feel it when I practise at home, I have enjoyed practising xing shen zhuang so much.
Deeper breathing and improved singing voice
Physically, during the first course, my stomach felt so empty all of a sudden. As if there were a lot of air in there, but there was no air in my stomach. When I did dun qiang, I found out that it was my breathing that suddenly went all the way down into my abdomen. I always thought that I have been able to breathe with my abdomen, but I have obviously not, because this was much deeper. Many things have happened in my chest and bone structure, or skeleton, they have changed. My chest was turned a bit inwards before and I could feel all the protrusions, but now it has simply curved out and become rounder and smoother. I do not know why. But it is probably good. And when I sang in the cabaret of the second course, it was the first time that my voice was not altered when I was singing in front of others. It was just like when I sing alone. And it certainly has to do with my breathing, maybe also because I can keep the calm I feel when I sing alone. It’s very nice.
Pains and palpitations gone
Since last summer I injured my back another two times; this affected my back, neck and head, balance, gave me pain in my left wrist and limited my movability. Now the pain is gone and my mobility is almost back to normal. For a long time I haven’t been able to sleep on my left side due to palpitations. During this course I could do that without getting palpitation, but my shoulder didn’t like it.
New, beautiful knees
It turned out that I have been walking around with osteoarthritis of the knees. Here you see now my beautiful new knees. Smoothly rounded. I have always thought that it’s my kneecap sticking out the top and bottom. So I’ve had been very self-conscious about being so small, frail and skinny that even my kneecaps protrude. But that problem disappeared when we did all those dun qiangs. But then the osteoarthritis has been 95% dissolved. Just a small piece left here.
Equally long legs
There has been a lot of lovely people in the course. This opening of our hearts and giving to each other, I have really felt it. And suddenly one leg became equally long as the other. It was absolutely incredible. I am not quite accustomed to it yet, so I still feel a bit off balance.
Without pain after 20 years
Right now as I sit here, I have no pain in my back at all. And no pain in the rest of my body either, it’s quite nice after about 20 years with pains in different places.
My young son enjoys my training
During the spring I have been alone with my child. Someone told me to practise when it was bedtime for my child. I told him I would tell a bedtime story and then start practise. He is two years old but I think he understood. Now he says, “mommy tell a story, then gong mommy feeling good”. He lies there in the bed and watches me for a while and then he falls asleep. He wants me to practise la qi, he says the password for la qi.
Without melantonin for a year
I attended my first summer course last year. I then forgot to bring enough medicine, melatonin, for the whole course. I didn’t have medicine for the last three days of the course. Since last year I haven’t taken any melatonin at all. I recovered very well from an injury in my left arm, I can play my violin and handle my work.
Constant improvements
This was my eleventh summer course. A lot has happened and still continue to happen. It has been a wonderful course. I have been allergic for my whole life. Now I’m not allergic anymore. To be able to get better when you are sixty years old is fantastic.
No pain anymore
When looking at this in a longer perspective I can say that I do not have pain anymore in my back and neck. Before I had a lot of pain. That is the miracle that has happened in my life. I can live my life without pain.
Discovered the qi-field
I have started to notice the Qi-field and be able to stay in the Qi-field. I have decided to take control and to think that I am in the Qi-field and not about my trip home and so on. I decide that, but not the other things that I can move. I have had it wonderful. During the evening after the cabaret I had some fantastic practicing here. It is the first time I have thought: “oh no it’s 1 AM already”.
Got my strenght back
This is my tenth summer course. During my first course I had a lot of problems with my right leg. I have had MS in 23 years. I got MS when my father died in cancer. I got better in my right leg during the first couple years. 2010 my mother died and I got worse. I got partly paralyzed in my right side and half my muscle strength twined in my lower leg. Some has returned during the summer courses, but not completely. My physiotherapist said that getting back that kind of muscle is very very hard. Qi did not care about that, during this course the muscle strength is back. When I gave birth to my daughter 17 years ago I got a several cm big difference in the height of the right and left side of my hips. During this course it has become normalized. That is fantastic that I get both this results during the same course. I have also had more energy. During the first courses I was lying down during all the breaks, but not at this course. I have so much energy that I have been around at all the cafes in town!
Easier to get in touch with others
I can feel that I get a more open mind after I have started to practice. It is easier for me to meet and talk to people I do not know. An example of this is when I came here there was this old lady that started to talk to me about her life and anything else just for no reason. When I took the bus there was a man there that started to talk to me too. It has to mean that I do not look so dangerous, but instead looks like an open person that can listen. Before it was terrible for me to meet new people that I did not know from before. I did not know what to say and things like that.During mingle parties I just hid in a corner and waited for it to be over, but I don’t have to do that anymore.
No elbow pain anymore
A colleague from the museum thought that I need to practice qigong because of my elbow that got shattered during a bike accident. I have no pain nowhere anymore. The doctors told me that my elbow would ache when the weather would change, but I have no pain now and I take no medicine.
Tearcher:
Su Dongyue