Bett works on making programs which focus on wellness, health promotion, and lifestyle change based on Expressive Arts and the teaching and practice of traditional mind-body exercise systems, such as Yoga, Tai Chi, and Qigong. Recently, she made an instruction video on a form of Adaptive Qigong called Terra Ch’i, her own invention. Here’s a video:

She says, “In Adaptive Qigong we tailor time-honored exercises to each person’s situation. In this process we draw from various therapeutic movement modalities including Yoga, Feldenkrais, and the Alexander Technique. We partner with you to encourage your discovery of what you can do. In this way, together we engender an empowering atmosphere in which you can gently and enjoyably maintain or regain function.

As in physical and occupational therapy, we put the emphasis on your learning how to move in ways that increase your tone and range of motion. Individualized Adaptive Qigong movements and self-massages are carefully constructed to aid you in creating and sustaining your own balanced and centered body state.”

More on this at http://www.possiblesociety.org/

Is this your mindfulness based stress reduction program?

If you are looking for the mindfulness based stress reduction program by Jon Kabat-Zinn for the University of Massachusetts Medical School, this is not a review for it. But wait. If you are looking for techniques for mindfulness based stress reduction, you are right on track.

Jon Kabat-Zinn outlines the basic principle of mindfulness based stress reduction as being in a state of non-judgmental awareness every moment. He likens mindfulness to a guesthouse where you invite the feelings and thoughts of life. As they come in you stay in awareness of them… which is almost the opposite of the questioning approach.

As a program, mindfulness based stress reduction focuses on acquiring mindful awareness of mindfulness. These ideas find root in the earliest Buddhist teachings but the program is not religious or esoteric.

But I take off from here into another ancient Chinese practice that works upon the psychological theory of the mind, wherein mindfulness is central. And that is Qigong.

Qigong is a five thousand year old technique which predates Buddha but rests on a similar characterization of mindfulness in the sense of its dispassionate, non-evaluative and sustained moment-to-moment awareness. As one involved in qigong meditation one would be in a state of complete mindfulness even while carrying out routine tasks of daily living.

What’s mindfulness based stress reduction for?

Not only is this mindfulness a huge catalyst for stress reduction, it is a process that eliminates the problem from the root by saving time; the lack of which causes stress in the first place. It can be self-taught with expert help from masters of qigong online. And by learning qigong techniques you will actually assimilate from the root upwards… which makes it pure compared with the University program or even Buddhist techniques for that matter.

To learn qigong online is not a difficult task. Plenty of resources are available free of cost for you to evaluate the ground. A few great masters with 30 years experience can be reached and they stretch out online with proven communication systems that have helped millions of people worldwide in the comfort of their homes and offices.

After all mindfulness is an acquired skill and qigong makes the acquisition a paint-by-numbers game. The consequent stress reduction helps save time and build more productivity into one’s working day.

Mindfulness based stress reduction need not be achieved by a packaged program alone

So mindfulness based stress reduction need not be achieved by a packaged program alone. It is available to anyone and has been open knowledge to all since centuries. The thing to do is act upon what you know now!

No… no… no am I depressed quiz

Qigong meditation and qigong healing are easy and direct ways to move your own life energy into the right orbit. Qigong is a practice of harnessing our own energy and it was discovered by the ancient Chinese. It is the mother of taichi and most forms of martial arts. But in its native form, it is nothing but a proven means of getting a balance in your mind, body and spirit.

By practicing qigong mediation I don’t guarantee you will subvert manic depression symptoms, but you will certainly know how to change your aura to keep yourself healthier and happier.

How does this work?

Let’s take it from the top. Do you agree that we have a form of energy inside us that gives our life potency? Do you agree that energy in any form can be released and modified? For example heat energy can be changed to sound energy when a firecracker explodes…

Now Qigong is about harnessing your life energy which manifests inside you and in your aura… which is the covering around your body about six inches deep. It is harnessed by a number to styles and techniques that can be learned from an experienced practitioner and can be performed in one’s daily schedule without much diversion.

That’s why, if you feel that depression might be setting in on you, you might like to explore Qigong meditation techniques for a permanent solution.

Qigong healing works on the principle that any problem in the physical body is but a manifestation of an energy block in the affected part. If you have arthritis in your knees, the energy flow through your knees is not correct. Thus qigong techniques will provide the solution for you by releasing the energy block and getting you going.

Countering the ‘am I depressed quiz’ syndrome

Depression is a mental block. A helplessness. Incapacity. Confusion. Overwhelming. A few minutes with qigong meditation and you’ll be up and running again. This is also why I recommend you stay away from an “am I depressed quiz” of any sort online. It will only make you more depressed because these are designed to perpetrate a negative emotional cycle which eventually ends on a psychiatrist’s couch. Instead explore qigong meditation and take your mind into your own control… with masterly guidance.

Your doing so will not only give you an instant solution but one that is permanent as well. The one precaution is to not confuse yourself with the truckload of information available online on qigong! Be guided by someone you can trust.

Qigong Healing is an Ancient Art

The whole subject of energy medicine is in its infancy and qigong healing, though centuries old, is coming into the mainstream only now with scientific awareness through quantum physics.

The underlying principle of energy medicine is that we are all essentially composed of wave patterns and the waves represent different energy forms, the frequencies of which can be altered to result in a changed physical condition.

3 Forms of healing other than Qigong healing

Reiki is one form of energy healing that calls upon a channel to deliver it to the affected party. This channel is a person who has been indoctrinated to receive and transmit Reiki. Using the cups of their hands the channels can draw energy from the universe and concentrate it on the areas that need healing. Reiki specifies 25 points in the body where it acts holistically, but the transmitter may localize the transmission to the affected part only. Depending on the severity of the ailment, Reiki could take multiple sessions over varying lengths of time (usually less than ninety minutes at a go). To abide by the principle that calls for an equal exchange of energy for any transmission to work, money (as a form of energy) must be paid to a Reiki practitioner to benefit from the treatment. This is an energetic exchange rather than a commercial one.

Pranic healing is similar to Reiki with an important difference in the role of the channel. But they’re very different from Qigong healing. A Pranic healer herself transmits energy and replenishes it from the universe. Therefore the channeling process is more acute and involved and could be rather extenuating for the healer.

The transmission process of Sahaj Marg involves a preceptor who communes with the living and past masters of the method and reaches life force energy to recipients eager to cleanse their spirit. This system operates more that the soul level than at the body level. Sahaj Marg followers are therefore not necessarily physically fit but have very robust well-healed souls if they have been following the prescribed meditative processes.

So what’s Qigong healing?

Qigong healing is the mother of taichi and other meditative techniques from China which involve harnessing life force energy. This is an aura based technique which does not require another person to administer. It involves exercises that free the spirit and enable life energy to flow without constrictions or bottlenecks throughout one’s body system. As the flow is natural and smooth, bodily healing takes place and practitioners live long and healthy.

Having spent twenty years in a corporate work environment as a consultant I pretty much understand the pressures you would be facing right now as you read this article. You are probably working against false deadlines, dishonest commitments, uncooperative colleagues, insecure bosses and worse still, a gender- or culturally-biased environment.

Such circumstances tax any good worker way beyond what can be or need be tolerated as an occupational hazard. But what does one have in one’s hands to deal with the situation anyway? Usually little.

But for you, there’s more. Because you are reading this article – on 3 proven tips for dealing with stress in the office… and I urge you to even circulate it for friends and colleagues to benefit. So here goes…

One, don’t draw lines about what you can do and what you cannot. The more rigid we are; the more lines we create; the more stressed we get when we feel someone is crossing the line. Instead, adopt an approach wherein you would observe all that is being done to stretch you beyond limits and then bargain for what you will and will-not deliver.

For example, let’s say you are in the stores department and are called upon for a purchase meeting when you have actually slotted the time for an inventory listing. Purchase is not your responsibility but they want you in that meeting just so they have a scapegoat from stores. You know that at a later date they will claim that you were present when the decision to buy something that would cause dead-stock was taken. So you have two options. One, to fight about not crossing the line; stress up everyone and not go. Or two, to send a mail to your boss with a copy to the purchase head specifying that you are diverting your time for activities that you have no role in. Imply that you have their consent unless they revoke the memo to you. Now you have passed the buck. Go enjoy the meeting. Refer to the mail if anything unexpected happens later.

Fundamentally, this is about being in the present and enjoying it. Also about involving everyone and not being a solo-artist. And not worrying about things that might never happen anyway.

The second and third tips concern your ability to cope. And these hinge on your wellness, both physically and mentally. Physically, if you are devoting 15 to 30 minutes to simple bending, stretching, walking and presses (a few reps everyday) you will gain hours of extra productivity because your body will not sag under stress.

Mentally if you engage in meditation, again for 15 to 30 minutes a day, you will have a sharpened focus on whatever you do for the rest of the day and thus will extract more from each hour.

So it is a good bargain. Invest an hour and get many extra hours of stress-free productivity. What holds us back is inertia. The unwillingness to make a change. The need to conform. But the good news is, you can snap out of it in an instant with a decision right now.

Stress relief games are a fun way to pass time of course. But qigong exercises – which you can learn online – are better. Huh, you say? What’s qigong? Good! Because that’s exactly what I intend to share with you.

Qigong is a proven technique for meditation and healing that was developed in China about five thousand years ago. The word means ‘working with life energy’ and is a composite of two parts – chi, meaning ‘life energy’ and gong meaning ‘working with’.

Qigong exercises utilize one’s own life energy for the purpose of healing physical and mental discomforts by channeling the energy in such a way that it finds no blocks in the passage both inside the body and around its aura. Should there be blocks, with the counsel of a master one is able to clear them out and maintain a harmonious oneness with the universal energy all around us.

Now if you are familiar with any kind of meditation, you would know that the reason you shy from it is that it takes time and that is exactly what you do not have. In fact that is the first reason why you are stressed or looking for stress relief games at all!

So let me ask a question here. Does searching for stress relief games give you more time or less time? Of you are honest with yourself you know searching and then playing these games depletes time. It gives a sense of satisfaction no doubt… and probably gives a fillip to productivity for the following few minutes as well. But it is temporary. Transient. A short term solution.

Now let’s look at meditation, qigong meditation in particular. Just like you are searching stress relief games in the office now you can be reading up and practicing qigong exercises right from your cubicle. However, the time you spend practicing the qigong exercises will be positive time as it will impact your life energy which will be altered bit by bit for life. What does this mean?

This means you will have incrementally created more and more energy to deal with life’s situations calmly and stress will not be your permanent visitor anymore. So you would not need to waste time searching stress relief games anymore and start gaining mastery in qigong exercises instead!

The most remarkable part of qigong meditation is that you can learn qigong online and get a coach who holds your hand all the way! Explore the options now! Understand qigong online here.

A folded piece of silk from the second century B.C., called the Dao-yin Tu, shows four rows of painted figures representing “all major categories of modern qigong: breathing, stances, movement, and self-massage from standing, seated, and supine positions. .Of great interest are the captions that name specific disorders, such as kidney disease, flatulence, painful knees, lumbago, rheumatism, gastric disturbance, and anxiety, suggesting that by 168 B.C. specific exercises were used to treat specific illnesses” (The Way of Qigong, p. 18).

Today, according to Qigong Master Tianyou Hao, there are over 35,000 different forms of qigong exercises. Master Hao says that “A Qigong form is a specific mental and/or physical exercise or coordination of a series of exercises all prescribed to train, develop and condition the mind and body for the purpose of health, healing, longevity, and opening wisdom” (from Master Hao’s Qigong Instructor Training Course).

Although there are so many forms of qigong, the underlying theory, energetic anatomy, and principles of practice are common across most forms. The system taught in the Learn Qigong Meditation Program is a complete system of meditative qigong, along with some simple movements to release tension and increase energy flow. Meditative qigong is called jing gong or quiet form (with standing and seated versions). This is in contrast to moving qigong forms, such as Taiji (or T’ai chi), which use bodily movement to mobilize qi. The emphasis in meditative qigong is the development of mind and spirit through the calm entrainment of body and emotion. This is accomplished by using your mind to relax your body, adjust your emotional attitude, and lead qi along specific pathways through your body.

Qigong meditation develops our ability to feel qi, build and store qi, and circulate qi smoothly throughout the body. The effects of meditative qigong are holistic: they positively affect all four levels of our being. The smooth flow of qi is the key to physical health, emotional balance, mental clarity, and spiritual integration. Cultivating smooth qi flow is a path of personal growth and spiritual development. When we become aware of smooth qi flow we experience a sense of oneness with the wholeness of life.

The term qigong in the sense that we are using it, the practice of cultivating and refining qi or life energy, is a relatively new usage. In ancient China, these exercises were commonly called “dao-yin” which Cohen translates as “leading and guiding the energy”.

This site has been designed to bring you simple qigong concepts in every aspect of qigong practice so that you get the best qigong knowledge to start your journey in this exciting field!

I am Dr Whitefield and I will be your guide. For starters, you could navigate through the top bar and look up a few drop-down menus there as well. Start any place that catches your interest… the journey will take you through the whole nine yards anyway!

Feel free to contact me using the link to the right. Be sure to read the disclaimer before you put into practice anything you read here. I am not trying to scare you or cover myself, but you must know this is a serious science and you have to look upon it with equal seriousness.

That said, I trust you will enjoy your exploration. Always glad to help!