Stress, depression and pain
I joined a beginner’s course in 2007 and practiced alone for one year, almost every day, but then I somehow lost the habit. The last year has been extremely chaotic with 4-5 different jobs, freelance, a difficult living situation, moving and relationship tangles. No stable point to hold on to. I got a great depression and because of jobs that burden the shoulders and neck very much I got a extreme tension headache. I slept until my work began and I went straight home and fell asleep after. I could not cook or do anything. I had a hard time handling people in general and was in terrible mood due to pain and fatigue. Everything was a chaos. I have had stomach problems since I was seven, but only in 2008 I realized that I had gluten intolerance. I have had pain in the body as long as I can remember. The pains in the neck and back are related to that I have played the violin a lot.
Extreme neck tension gave severe headaches
In November, when I moved to a horrible apartment everything fell apart completely. I had a terrible headache all day long. Painkillers did not help. After two months, a doctor said that I was extremely tense in the neck. He said that I could get time with a physiotherapist in about a month. I thought that I would not survive another month.
The headaches disappeared after three workouts
But then I came to a qigong group training and tested that. In three sessions – three times forty minutes – I was relieved of the headache. It started changing during the first training session. It was then I started practicing every day and practiced a lot throughout the season. I joined a Shenxin course in February and a Hold Qi up 2 in May. As early as January things started to turn. I started to be happy. Since February, I have not felt the headache at all unless I skipped the training. It was noticeable almost at once, which led me to become very good at practicing. During this spring I have felt that I have had better quality of life than I have had in a very long time. I have been more alert, slept less, gotten the initiative back and I have felt it as pleasure to meet people again. So it has been a huge change. When I came to my first summer course, I felt pretty good already. The chaos of everyday life was behind me, the housing situation is just as bad, but it doesn´t affect me as much anymore. Gradually I become less and less affected by external stressors, and I see it as a transitory period, which it is because I used the qigong thinking way and managed to get me a permanent position despite intense competition.
Great improvements on the summer course
In the summer course, I have felt the effect and I feel calmer, more grounded and not so dispersed. I’ve been told I’ve got a deeper voice and more range both upwards and downwards. I have become much more relaxed. It’s awesome to have so little need for sleep during the summer course. I sleep a maximum of 5 hours a night, compared with 10h in the fall when I felt bad. My attitude has changed and I feel happy, light in the body and a ease of movement that I cannot remember that I have had since I was a teenager. On three occasions during the summer course I have tried to eat gluten. Before I used to get really sick, now it has been a little stomach ache in the morning, then nothing. It feels like my stomach is about to heal. I also feel that I have received positive mental improvements. Willpower has improved and thoughts that previously would have got me completely out of balance, I have met with calm. I have taken over the power over what I want to let affect me.
Qigong as a support in my profession as a musician and violin teacher
I am a musician and violin teacher and have realized that in order to continue working with it I need to continue practicing qigong. I’ve tried to play a few times during the course, and each time it felt different- in a good way. I got insights into how I can work with nervousness, stage presence and timing. The last few years I have had problems with a stiff arm and not gotten the arm up properly, now it’s not a problem anymore, and the play has become much more relaxed, although the sound has been affected positively and I know clearly how to keep posture that does not strain the body.
Lina Nordin