I highly recommend the Huff Puff Qigong that Jeffrey Yuen teaches because of the multiple health benefits for those with a range of challenges from hypertension to chronic illness to cancer. It is really fun and easy to do and the benefits are immediate. The article below is very thorough and as an added feature, it gives you an email address to send away for your own Huff Puff Qigong DVD. Enjoy this practice!
http://ashevilleacupuncture.blogspot.com/2009/06/huff-puff-qi-gong.html
For those who have some interest in TaiChi and Push Hands practice, I recommend looking at Ian Sinclair’s excellent lesson (lesson 4) on TaiChi Tuishou or Push Hands. He is a patient instructor with a relaxed sense of humor. Check it out for yourself.
Tai chi has been shown to be effective for many things, bone density, cardiovascular health and brain functioning, among other things. Here is an article and a study that supports this and confirms what I have always suspected.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/22/tai-chi-brain-functioning-memory_n_1612276.html
In a recent class, I covered sword fingers and several people wanted some links to practice this technique. So I am offering one that is closest to how I was taught and hope you enjoy it.
Here is an interesting link for an article about a Tai Chi master who was studied for his ability
to control his body through Tai Chi. The research was done at Stanford and seems very solid.
Other studies at Stanford and elsewhere have shown that adult practitioners gain balance,
musculoskeletal, cardiovascular and immune benefits.
http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2008/05/tai-chi-master-studied-for-power-to-control-body.html
The Institute of Integral Qigong and Tai Chi (IIQTC) is dedicated to mobilizing citizens of all ages, professions, economic and social status to accept the responsibility for personal health promotion and self-care.  They are a great resource for information about Qigong and it’s benefits as a healing practice.
http://www.instituteofintegralqigongandtaichi.org/qigong_tai_chi_research/
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You can also visit the Qigong Institute for more information:
STAND STILL, BE FIT – Zhan zhuang – Narrated and demonstrated by Lam Kam Chuen, with interviews by his teacher Professor Yu, you learn to stand like a tree.
For those of you who don’t like or think that standing meditation is important, these are the videos for you. A series of 10 separate videos on standing meditation, they comprise warm up and cool down exercises after the standing practice, with lots of information about the whys and importance of standing meditation. Makes it easy and accessible.
Content retrieved from: https://seniorqigong.com/stand-stillbe-fit/.
One of the loveliest practices to do is Swimming Dragon Qigong. I do this practice almost every day and have found a lot of benefit from doing it. I personally prefer the one done by Dashi Chu Kocica, because of her grace and slow speed as well as with hers, I see and feel the dragon coming out of the water. But both of these are great videos to practice with. Enjoy!
For many years we have known that mindfulness meditation has a positive effect on the brain and in the link below is another study to support this. Â According to Sarah McLean in her book, Soul Centered, in the January 2011 issue of Psychiatry Research Neuroimaging, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital found that after only eight weeks of meditation for an average of 27 minutes a day, new meditators showed beneficial changes to their gray matter (the physical structure of your brain).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/15/mindfulness-meditation-brain-integrative-body-mind-training_n_1594803.html
Mindfulness is when you are engaged in and fully attentive to what you are doing at the present moment. Â So you can practice this anytime, by giving your full attention to when you are brushing your teeth or washing the dishes, for example. Â Jon Kabat Zinn has written extensively about this in Full Catastrophe Living as well as his other books.
Qigong is an ancient Chinese health-care system which is over 5,000 years old.  It is a system practiced for health maintenance, healing, increasing vitality, and spiritual cultivation.
Visualization
In order to understand how Qigong achieves it’s effects, imagine a garden hose – water flows freely if there are no obstructions in the hose. If there is a kink or constriction in the hose, water (Qi) doesn’t flow. You get excess (Qi) on one side of the kink and deficiency on the other. The stretching, movements and breathing of Qigong elongate the hose and release the blockages caused by trauma, stress, poor diet, medications, hereditary conditions, environmental factors or excessive emotional issues. This balanced even flow of energy or Qi assures the health of your organs, nerves, glands and cells by stimulating the body’s natural ability to heal itself.
Qigong synchronizes chakras, connects to acupoints and is both a science and an art.
Breathing
The visualization, breathing techniques, and physical postures of Qigong promote relaxation and reenergize the body.
