Foundations of QigongIntroduction to Qigong-1. What is Qigong

Week One Establishing Your PracticeObjectives :Establish a regular routine of qigong practice that you will be able to maintain throughout this course. Learn to quiet your mind, direct your attention, and basics of breathing for qigong.

Outline: Beginning your qigong practice Introduction to meditation and mindfulness Qigong Breathing Meditation One: Breath Awareness Meditation Two: Sensory Awareness Meditation Three: Directing the Intention

Notes:The main focus of this week is to establish a regular routine of practice and also developing some basic skills with breathing and awareness.

Week Two Posture and AwarenessObjectives:Learn simple routines for opening and closing your qigong practice, continue with development of breathing skill. Learn principles of good posture for qigong. Practice energy awareness exercises.

Session Example: Breathing Exercise Four: Accentuated Natural Breathing 5 min Warmup exercise (joint rotation) 5 min Horse stance 5 min Energy awareness exercise one 5 min Energy awareness exercise four 5 min Cool down exercise (energy massage) 5 min

Notes:This week as well as continuing with your breathing exercises you will be introduced to some of the postures commonly used in qigong and you will also begin to practice some opening and closing exercises for your qigong practice and some energy awareness exercises.BREATHINGThe breath is considered so important to energy that the Chinese character for qi (energy) is often translated simply as breath, so it is well worth putting in the time and practice to improve your skill with this. The exercises in the first two weeks of this course will help you to deepen and strengthen your breathing. Never breathe more slowly or deeply than you are comfortable with, rather go to a level that you can manage easily and then gradually slow and deepen your breath as you continue to practice. Later in the course when you learn the twelve exercises for the meridians and organs the speed you do them at will be largely determined by your breath capacity. The deeper you can breathe, the more slowly you will be able to do them and more benefit you will gain.If you are interested in learning more about your breathing and developing greater skill with it, the Release the Power of Your Breath course goes into much greater depth in this area.POSTURE EXERCISESThe time allowed for the posture exercises during your sessions this week is five minutes each session. This is not a long time, traditionally teachers would often have their students practice various posture for times ranging up to several hours at a time, but still a beginning student will likely find it challenging.The best thing to do is practice going into the posture and stay there for as long as you comfortably can. When it becomes uncomfortable, stand up to give yourself a rest, give your body a shake to loosen it off and then go back into the posture and hold it again for as long as you can. Repeat this until the five minutes are up.This type of training will make it easier for you to have good posture during your qigong practice sessions. There are also many other benefits. The Between Heaven and Earth course goes into these types of exercises in much greater depth if this is an area you would like to explore further.Videos 1. Warm Up Exercises Joint Rotations Follow Along https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMBAOjrD47M#t=632. Cool Down Exercises Energy Massage Follow Along https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG0I1LXYN2I3. Introduction to Energy Awareness Exercises scroll down on page http://longwhitecloudqigong.com/online-courses/qigong-foundation-practices/qfp-week-two-posture-and-awareness/

Week Three Following the Movements

Objectives:Become familiar with the twelve health exercises by following along with the videoVideo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_OSiu-2cXs#t=21

Practice SessionsSession Outline: Breathing Exercise Four: Accentuated Natural Breathing 5 min Warmup exercise (joint rotation) 5 min Twelve health exercises complete set 15 min Cool down exercise (energy massage) 5 minYou will follow this same session outline each day for the whole week.Week Four & Five Remembering the Movements

Objectives:To learn each exercise so that you can do them without referring to the book or videoOptional reading:Chapters 7 and 8 of the QFP bookVideos:There are 12 short videos that break down the 12 movements here that is week 3 video broken down (you can just watch week 3 for full video of 15 minutes) http://longwhitecloudqigong.com/online-courses/qigong-foundation-practices/qfp-week-four-five-remembering-the-movements/

Practice Sessions Warmup exercise (joint rotation) 5 min Learning individual exercises 15 min Twelve health exercises complete set 5 min Cool down exercise (energy massage) 5 minThis will be the structure of your practice sessions each day for week four and five.

Week Six & Seven Refining the Movements, Awareness of the Organs and MeridiansObjectives: To learn and practice the finer points of each exercise and gain an understanding of the effects on each organ and meridian.Videos: watch all video on this pagehttp://longwhitecloudqigong.com/online-courses/qigong-foundation-practices/qfp-week-six-seven-refining-the-movements-awareness-of-the-organs-and-meridians/

Practice Sessions Warmup exercise (joint rotation) 5 min Individual exercises refining the movements and developing awareness of the effect on the organs and meridians 15 min Twelve health exercises complete set 5 min Cool down exercise (energy massage) 5 min1. Dragon Clears A Path Lung Meridian2. Bending The Body And Swinging The Head Large Intestine3. One Arm Raising Stomach Meridian4. Crane Looks Behind Spleen Meridian5. Wild Goose Beats Its Wings Heart Meridian6. Punching Wind Small Intestine7. Black Tiger Straightens Its Waist Bladder Meridian8. Bow and Arrow Kidney Meridian9. Turning and Gazing Pericardium Meridian10. Two Hands Push The Sky Triple Warmer (San Jiao) Meridian11. Tiger Stretches Its Back Gallbladder Meridian 12. Four Body Movements Liver Meridian

Notes:At this point you should be quite familiar and comfortable with the exercises. You should be able to do them all in order without referring to the book or videos. There may however be a few finer points that you have not mastered yet.This week you will focus on understanding the massaging effect of each of the exercises on the organs and meridians of your body. Choose two or three exercises to focus on each day and review the organ and meridian video for each of them, then practice those exercises seeing if you can notice the massaging effect of the exercise on the organ and stimulation of the meridian. Ideally when you are performing the exercise correctly you will notice a stretching and compressing massaging feeling in the area of each organ and possibly a warming/relaxing feeling in that area, much as a muscle would feel when it is gently massaged. You will also feel a similar stretching and compressing stimulation of the meridian. If you do not notice this feeling, see if you can adjust how you are doing the exercise a little until you can feel it. This acts as an excellent feedback mechanism, you will know that you are doing the exercise correctly when you can feel stimulation through the entire meridian and massaging of the organ while you do it.This massaging effect on the organs and stimulation of the meridians is one of the major benefits of these exercises and what separates them from just doing stretches or push-ups or some other type of exercise which is focused entirely on the external part of our physical bodies. These exercises will benefit not just your muscles, but your internal organs as well.Week Eight Emotions, Posture and Organ FunctionObjectives: To become aware of the relationship between emotions, posture, organ function and meridians.Videos:watch all videos here http://longwhitecloudqigong.com/online-courses/qigong-foundation-practices/qfp-week-eight-emotions-posture-and-organ-function/

Practice Sessions Warmup exercise (joint rotation) 5 min Individual exercises experimenting with emotional postures 15 min Twelve health exercises complete set 5 min Cool down exercise (energy massage) 5 minNotes:This week you will gain some insight into how your emotions affect the functioning of your internal organs, and how in turn the functioning of your organs affects your posture and the movement of your body.We each have characteristic ways of moving and holding our bodies when we express different emotions. These are natural ways for us to deal with what we experience in life. If we become stuck in these postures though, they have a prolonged effect on the functioning of our bodies and can cause long term health problems. On the other side of this, when we have illnesses or problems with various organs this can also cause us to adopt the same postures, which can eventually lead to us feeling those same emotions in our life.These exercises are very effective at freeing your body up and getting it moving well again and in so doing helping to clear blocked emotions and improve the health and functioning of your organs. The information about this on the videos is by no means comprehensive the connection between the emotions, functioning of the organs and movement of the body is a broad area of study and practice, but the information you will cover this week will give you the beginnings of understanding this connection.The organs in our bodies are paired together into Element groupings in the Chinese medical system. For each of the five elements there is a solid or Yin organ and a hollow or Yang organ, the triple warmer and circulation/pericardium are and exception and in a way relate to the functioning of all the other organs, this is referred to in the videos.The emotions are categorized according to their element, more so than their individual organ.Week Nine Exploring the Movements, Yin and YangObjective:To better understand the exercises by performing them at different speeds and with different levels of tension.Videos:Learn more about yin/yang here http://longwhitecloudqigong.com/online-courses/qigong-foundation-practices/qfp-week-nine-exploring-the-movements-yin-and-yang/

Practice SessionsSession Outline A: Warmup exercise (joint rotation) 5 min Twelve health exercises as softly and slowly as you comfortably can 15 min Energy awareness exercises, your selection from one, two, three and four 10 min Cool down exercise (energy massage) 5 min

Session Outline B: Warmup exercise (joint rotation) 5 min Twelve health exercises as hard and fast as you comfortably can 15 min Energy awareness exercises, your selection from one, two, three and four 10 min Cool down exercise (energy massage) 5 minWeek Ten ReviewObjective:To review and refresh the aspects of qigong that you have focused on in the previous weeksVideos:the videos for this week appear on theweek oneandweek twopages of the course material. refer to them as needed.

Practice Sessions

Session 1: Meditation One: Breath Awareness 5 min Breathing Exercise One: Abdominal Breathing 5 min Breathing Exercise two: Daoist Breathing 5 min Breathing Exercise Three: Developing Skill with the Breathing Muscles 5 min Breathing Exercise Four: Accentuated Natural Breathing 5 min Breathing Exercise Five: Loosening the Back 5 min

Session 2: Meditation Two: Sensory Awareness 10 min Breathing Exercise Four: Accentuated Natural Breathing 5 min Warmup exercise (joint rotation) 5 min Horse Stance 5 min Cool down exercise (energy massage) 5 min

Session 3: Meditation Three: Directing the Intention 10 min Warmup exercise (joint rotation) 5 min Bow Stance 5 min Iron cross 5 min Cool down exercise (energy massage) 5 min

Session 4 and 5: Warmup exercise (joint rotation) 5 min Twelve health exercises complete set 15 min Energy awareness exercises, your selection from one, two, three and four 5 min Cool down exercise (energy massage) 5 min

Notes:This week you will review all of the material you have covered in this course. Take the opportunity to go back through the book and videos to refresh your memory of what you have learned and to spend some time practicing the different exercises you have experienced. You have covered a lot during this course over a relatively short space of time. This review will help to consolidate your knowledge.Practice Sessions Your choice of the qigong practices you have done in this course 30 minNotes:Over the past ten weeks there has been a lot for you to learn. Each week you have had different things to focus on, practice, learn and revise. For the last two weeks nothing new is introduced. It is your opportunity to simply enjoy what you have learned. Each practice session choose what you feel like doing from the exercises you have learned. You may like to work on some areas that you dont think you are particularly good at, or you may just want to do some of the exercises that you particularly enjoy.Going forwardsThe exercises you have learned are very sophisticated. If you continue to practice them regularly , there is a great deal more that you will learn as you pay attention to your body and what you experience as you do them.I hope that you have enjoyed your experience learning theseQigong Foundation Practices. I hope that as a result of your practice you have noticed that you have become stronger, healthier, calmer and more able to enjoy every aspect of your life. I hope that this experience will encourage you to want to continue to practice qigong regularly.Further CoursesIf you wish to learn more about qigong, Long White Cloud Qigong offer a variety of courses that will give you a solid understanding of qigong principles and many enjoyable exercises to practice. Long White Cloud Qigong also offers a certification program for those who would like to become qualified to teach qigong themselves. This course forms part of that certification program, so you are already part way there if this is something you would like to pursue.You can find out more about these courses and certification atwww.longwhitecloudqigong.com