Have you ever seen a group of people in a park, moving in slow motion with a flow like the breeze? Then you might have encountered Qigong practitioners.

Qigong comes from Tibet and China and is practiced on the same fundamentals as Chinese Medicine, where each motion corresponds to an organ and its meridians, together with a natural element and an emotion, that we seek to balance. Qigong can both be practiced to invigorate ourselves and to relax after we have released stress. It’s said that some practices were invented in the Shaolin Temple and therefor is the foundation of Martial Arts. After some practice, you learn to feel energy in your hands and can even direct energy or withdraw, if you’re very advanced. Some old practitioners have even used Qigong as part of surgery techniques in the Philippines. I have both received healing and given healing. It’s simply a matter of removing stagnant energy blocks and invite more energy to flow. Nowadays, there are tons of videos online that shows and teaches Qigong, but as always, the best way is of course in person with a renowned master. The master takes on adepts or students that he teaches. Eventually, they will continue the master’s teachings and achieve mastery themselves in initiated lineages. So, always ask who the teacher’s teacher has been!

I was first introduced to Medical Qigong in 1995 through a co-worker I had a brief relationship with. He noticed my stress and anxiety and took me first to get acupuncture. I received this weekly for a couple of months by a Chinese doctor, working together with Master Marcus Bongart in the south of Sweden. He has been taught his qigong in direct lineage with the Wu family. Soon, I was recommended to start practicing and learned the program called Six Secret Words. This is a series of motions that each target one of the organs and I soon learned it enough to be able to practice it at home too. I did this, as well as tried Luohan, regularly for 20 years! At the first instructed workshop however, my Kundalini began rising when Master Marcus stimulated my spine and I had a strong reaction, where I felt I needed to defend myself and suddenly felt like I was 12 years old again. This only lasted for half an hour or so, but it would take some weeks for me to gain trust enough to feel good about continuing. Luckily, I could talk about it with both my co-worker and my teacher, so I pushed through. But it wasn’t until I felt my inner child returning in Portugal 2019 that I understood what had transpired and was behind my reaction. 

I also learned how to meditate by doing the Microcosmic Orbit, that aims to move energy up the spine and down our front through breath and visualization. I had never meditated before and the first times, I could hardly sit still for more than 10 minutes, less focus on my breath as long. But with time, this became easier and I could increase my concentration, at least sometimes! I began adding affirmations to my gather of energy to become instead of a mantra, with focused breathing.

While Qigong is founded on Taoism and not directly opposed to Christianity, I began to feel awkward about it and stopped for a while. In 2015, however, I found Lee Holden Qigong online and decided to try his 7 minutesroutine. It provided me with immediate relief and with no strings attached in relationships, or anything feeling like power dominance, it became better for me to let go of the other series and try his programs instead. I have done this off and on since then, that is, for another ten years, making my practice experience now come to 30 years! I also practice 8 pieces of Silk Brocade since 2023, which feels wholesome and like a good resource.

Practicing Qigong to me, is like taking an internal shower, a mental and emotional reset with a physical clearing. 

Once when I lived in Honolulu in 2011, I prayed and directed energy, blessing and placing my hands on the kidneys of a young woman, scheduled for a transplant and was calling the ambulance. I continued until they came and surprisingly to all of us, she came back to the YWCA already the next day, with a placed shunt, and no need for a transplant any longer! Several months later, she was still healed.

If you’d like to watch me practice some Qigong, you can see that on Instagram. To learn from Lee Holden, find him on holdenqigong.com and his Master Mantak Chia at mantakchia.com

To listen to this blogpost as a podcast, find The Source Podcast on YouTube, Apple and Spotify.