I had searched for a long time for a way to feel better when I started with qigong. I was carrying around a vague feeling that life could be richer and more beautiful, even though I had everything I could have wanted; a wonderful family, a motivating job and a cosy home. I felt a bit worn-out and tired and I hadn’t even though the thought that I could be totally healthy or totally without any pain.
Haven’t questioned the pain
A certain amount of pain, headaches and problems with my neck and back, had been a part of life for me and I haven’t questioned it. When you have given birth to four children and have carried them, one at a time, on one hip and doing something else with your spare hand, it’s natural to have some shoulder pain. I believe that most of us have some ailments that we try to come to grips with by taking painkillers or with visits to the doctor’s and no-one questions that fact. The realization about the worth of life and the importance of preventive health care measures are missing. Some people go to the gym and eat healthy food, but it might be more due to that we are expected to be beautiful, slim and fit than that we respect life in itself as a gift to be cherished.
Trivial problems
It is easy to believe in this Qigong method. You see all the personal stories and meet all the people that have got a lot of help. Yet it has been hard for me to believe that practising Qigong will reduce my pain. My problems are so trivial and I’m so used to them. But of course the pain lowers my quality of life and I’m not going to allow that any longer. My confidence that this method works also for me has grown strong from being a bit sceptical in the beginning.
Inner peace
During my first Summer Course I realized that Qigong can help me to create inner peace and become master over my own life. Out society is filled with rubbish that is marketed with power and that we are fed through all senses. Listening to your body and following your own way to a meaningful, rich and healthy life isn’t easy. Qigong gives me the strength to make the choices that I know benefits my well-being. I only partly had this strength before. Now I know that my life force increases and the quality of my life improves and through practising daily.
Increase wisdom
The purpose of Zhineng Qigong, to increase wisdom and enhance the ability to understand and control your life, is exactly right for me. It’s amazing that I can do that through regular, daily practice. It would of course be easier to take a pain killer or go to a masseur and continue life as usual, but then I just fool myself and only get a temporary ease. When I practice I get a real change that is in my own hands. Other side effects that I’ve got from Qigong are much more nicer than the medicines: greater calm, more supple body, better sleep, less need to sleep and increased alertness and happiness.
Elisabeth Helenelund