Qi gong

I remember going for an easy jog outside the gates of Northeastern University in the city of Shenyang, China. After the long trip to get there, and moving into our small room in the foreigner’s dorm on campus where we would reside for the next year, it seemed like a good idea. I’m certain that every Chinese head turned to watch this tall, white man whizzing by them. I happen to be around five foot eight inches high, relatively tall amongst Chinese people. My face, hair, body type all surely made me stand out, though I was somewhat used to that after traveling in Asian countries. I soon realized that it was the running that really surprised them and maybe scared them. I think many looked behind me to see what I was running from and that maybe they should be running too.

I’m adding some humor here to show the different perspectives on exercise that I witnessed in China. There was a lot of bicycle riding, though this was in order to get to where one needed to go rather than for exercise. What I saw most commonly for exercise in China was tai chi chuan. This is very gentle, slow, and controlled movement that is based in martial art. I was fortunate to study tai chi myself each Sunday morning while in China with a teacher who couldn’t speak English. Aside from pushing my Chinese language skills, it was an interesting experience just riding on the bus across town to meet my teacher in the park and then gradually learning the slow and soft movements by following him.

Exercise Can Be Gentle

When returning home to pursue a master’s degree in Chinese Medicine in Portland, Oregon, the school that I attended began from the start teaching the students qi gong. It was explained that Traditional Chinese Medicine has various branches or therapies, and one of those was exercise. Based on my experience in China, I wasn’t surprised to learn that we would be taught gentle exercise that has been practiced for thousands of years throughout Chinese history. Qi gong is less based on defensive martial art as is tai chi, and is more focused on the cultivation of our life energy. I remembered that there were various wings of different therapies when observing in the hospital in Shenyang, one being for acupuncture, another for massage, another for surgery, and one for qi gong. So I was excited to be learning a gentle exercise used to cultivate life force and to ultimately employ this to support other people’s bodies. Qi gong coordinates gentle movements of the body along with guidance by the mind.

After almost twenty years of practice in central Vermont, I’ve gotten to observe how we each go about exercise. For many, it’s quite a struggle, as it may be uncomfortable and we may lack the motivation. What I’ve come to think is that we’re designed to use both our bodies and minds to accomplish tasks. However, our culture has become less and less dependent on actually using our bodies for survival, as it has been for most of human history. Whether that was hunting, gathering, planting, or building, we depended much more on our bodies to do what needed to be done to live. Partly because of technological advancement, we’ve learned how to survive in different ways, becoming more dependent on our minds. Now that we’ve created engines, plumbing, refrigeration, computers, to begin a list, most of us don’t need to walk a distance to the river, come home carrying heavy buckets, or chase after our food. In Vermont, many of us heat with wood, hunt, keep a garden, requiring physical effort at times of the year. But the general trend in our country is imbalanced in the use of our minds compared to our bodies. So we are advised to go to the gym, walk, run, ski – exercise.

Do Exercise That You Enjoy

It is important to do exercise that you enjoy. I find that gentle, qi gong movements really satisfy my body during breaks in my day. My wife and I take a half-hour vigorous walk with our dog, a part of most days that I really crave. I also try to find time to do those activities that are truly fun for me. That happens to be tennis with a friend or a ski with my sister whenever these can happen. And moving firewood from here to there somehow occupies more than one season. I hope each of you finds exercise that you enjoy in your day, something that you find you crave. Maybe it’s climbing up and down your office stairs, or taking a run in the evening, walking through the woods, getting in the kayak, pulling up weeds, raking leaves, qi gong practice, or a long bike ride.