Chinese Healing Exercises

What the I Ching can teach us about peaceful equanimity in a rapidly changing world

“…Modern people, surrounded by situations perceived as stressful, have come to accept shallow chest breathing as the normal state of affairs. They no longer breathe naturally and deeply (Kohn, 2008, 22‐23).Being addicted to the stimulus of flight or fight emotional responses can impede the development of patient understanding. Furthermore, Kohn's Daoist inflection indicates the effects upon the body such stress brings about and how the Daoist practice of Qigong regimens can help rebalance such energies.…”

“…Modern people, surrounded by situations perceived as stressful, have come to accept shallow chest breathing as the normal state of affairs. They no longer breathe naturally and deeply (Kohn, 2008, 22‐23).…”

“…As Kohn relates, for many people in today's busy world, “deluded thoughts never cease, passions and desires inflame each other, and their minds are defiled by myriad karmic causes. Their spirit does not have peace or tranquility for an instant” (Kohn, 2008, 187). Awareness of the effects of one's emotional ups and downs is invaluable in maintaining good health and healthy relationships.…”

“…Living with nature, ancient people in China understood the yearly, monthly, and daily cycles of changes in nature and within the body (Wong, 2000, 28). They found comfort in knowing that the seasons change—spring generates, summer grows, fall collects, and winter stores and that people change with the seasons (Kohn, 2008, 40). Within traditional Chinese philosophy, a healthy person “both embodies and interacts with cycles – daily, monthly, seasonal, and lifelong” and “the workings of the body are associated with each of the five seasonal cycles of birth, growth, ripening, harvest and decay.” (Beinfield & Korngold, 1991, 33, 39).…”

24 Field, Focus, and Focused Field: A Classical Daoist Worldview

“…"In fact, the perfected breathe all the way to their heels, unlike ordinary folk who breathe only as far as their throats." 26 These deep breathing exercises circulate the material-energy (qi 氣) throughout the body, changing the way a person controls the desires, knowledge and action by focusing attention on the dao of nature. The meditations and breathing exercises help people focus on their actual place in nature, freeing them from the limitations of the desires, knowledge and behavior generated by biological-processes or by society.…”