The above video shows practicing the Tai Chi Meditative Movements in water. This is an intermediate set of Qigong moving meditations from the book Chi – Discovering Your Life Energy.
Qigong (Chi Kung – Pronounced Chee Gong) is a form of motion and/or still meditation in order to cultivate and flow your chi or life force. One of the principles in Qigong is that of reaching a state of relaxed tension throughout the body. It is similar to the feeling of buoyancy that one feels when moving through water. So practicing Qigong in water, in a pool, pond, lake or the ocean, can help achieve that feeling of relaxed tension in both motion and still Qigong meditations. This can help you better activate and flow your chi. Performing Qigong in water is also relaxing and fun!
Practicing the Tai Chi Meditative Movements in water can help you attain the feeling of relaxed tension by using the buoyancy of the water. These intermediate Tai Chi Meditative Movements have more vertical motion than Baduanjin so you get an even better benefit from the water. You can also drop lower than normal when doing the movements in a pool to maximize your use of the water’s buoyancy.
As in all Qigong exercises work on your “belly” breathing. Breathe in by relaxing and releasing your belly to draw air in deeply by dropping your diaphragm rather than by expanding your chest. In these Tai Chi Meditative Movements breathe in as the movements expand and breathe out as they contract. Focus your mind on feeling your chi expanding with each motion as you breathe in and feel your chi contract as you breathe out.
The video shows ten repetitions of each movement for about one minute on each movement. If you have more time you can do more. Whenever I have the time I do fifty repetitions of each movement for about five minutes on each. As in Baduanjin, I often hold the chi ball at the end to feel the activated chi when done.
If you know a full Tai Chi form such as the Yang 24 Step Form you can also do that in water as well. It’s a little more difficult than in the air but the buoyancy does help you achieve the relaxed tension that’s necessary. Stay tuned for more on the Yang 24 Step Form in and out of the pool in future posts.
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The Tai Chi Meditative Movements are based on those in Chi – Discovering Your Life Energy
