by janicetucker | 23 Aug 2016 | Qigong, Qigong Routines
This video from me, Janice Tucker, at http://spacetorelax.com/ explains a simple and quick Qigong (Chi Kung) method to get rid of the “icky, yucky” feelings that you might epxerience at the end of the day. These feelings may be tiredness, aches/pains, irritability, grief, sadness, anxiety, etc. The Qigong (Chi Kung) method featured here is particularly useful when practised just before going to bed. You will sleep like a baby after this!! 🙂
I am a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Medical Qigong. I am also the founder of the Space To Relax online programme of Qigong video lessons. My passion is helping people to improve their health using simple Qigong (Chi Kung) methods which can be easily integrated into their day. You can practice most of these in 5 minutes or less so they are perfectly suited to fit in to our busy lives!
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel by clicking the red “Subscribe” button above so you can view my regular videos which are full of useful health enhancing tips. Also please give this video a “Like” if you found it informative.
Watch and follow along with the short demonstration of the Qigong (Chi Kung) method called “Discharge Waste Qi With Vibration”. This video is available on my Space To Relax website as part of a FREE 3 part video series which you can sign up to receive by e-mail.
Principle
For this exercise you think of any waste energy (Qi) that you might have accumulated during the day. This can be physical (ache, pain, stiffness), mental/emotional (sadness, grief, worry, anxiety). Bring waste Qi from deep within the body up to the skin surface. Your action of a simple vibrating movement and breathing is what gets rid of the waste Qi.
Method
-Stand with the feet shoulder width distance apart and be soft in the knees. Vibrate the body by bouncing gently up and down on the knees. The whole body should be loose and relaxed.
-Think of using the vibration of the body to bring up any waste Qi from deep inside the body to the skin surface.
-Breathe out and think of sending the waste Qi away from the surface of the body. Think of it as raindrops flying off the surface of the skin and away into the atmosphere.
-Continue vibrating the body, tilting first to one side and then the other.
You can practice this exercise for as long as you want in order to feel that waste Qi has left the body.
Effects
By discharging waste Qi in this way you will feel:
-much more energised
-relaxed
-able to sleep much better at night
This Qigong (Chi Kung) method feels almost like you are “taking a shower on the inside”. The removal of waste Qi from deep down makes you feel much cleaner on the inside.
This is a short extract from the full exercise of “Discharge Waste Qi With Vibration”. If you are interested in learning the full exercise then click on my Space To Relax homepage. At the top of the page you can sign up for a free 3 part Qigong video course which will be delivered to your e-mail. The exercise featured here is Exercise 3 in the FREE course. The first exercise shows you how to breathe much more efficiently so that your mind becomes instantly calmer and more focused. The second exercise shows you how to quickly increase your energy levels in the space of only 5 minutes!
Also, if you head over to my free group on Facebook, “Space To Relax Free Group” you can leave any questions for me there and I’ll be happy to answer them.
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel by clicking the red “Subscribe” button when you head over there. When you do that you will receive my videos which are packed full of useful health enhancing tips. Also, please give this video a “Like” if you learned something new here today. Got questions? Just pop them in the box below and I’ll be happy to answer.
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by janicetucker | 5 Aug 2016 | Qigong, Qigong Meditations & Breathing, Qigong Routines
Most of us of heard of meditation but what specifically is Qigong meditation and how can it help us in our lives? This video from Dr Janice Tucker explains Qigong meditation for you and highlights some of the many benefits of Qigong meditation for your health and day to day life.
Please don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel by clicking here so you don’t miss my regular videos which are full of useful health enhancing tips. Also please give this video a “Like” if you found it informative.
Janice Tucker is a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Medical Qigong, and the founder of the Space To Relax online programme of Qigong video lessons.
What is Qigong Meditation?
Qigong meditation is a meditation which can be still or moving. It involves the breath, posture and often simple, gentle movements. Qigong meditation helps to quiet your mind, make you feel tranquil. It also makes your body feel as though it is merging with the environment!
Qigong meditation focuses on relaxation so that you can calm the scattered thoughts in your mind. The movements and breath allow your Qi to flow much more freely, in an unimpeded way, around your body. When the Qi is doing this you feel much more relaxed, clearer, calmer and also energetic. Through regular Qigong meditation practice you will actually improve your state of health.
Because it is such a tranquil, quiet practice an interesting thing can also happen; you can be sitting for hours and it feels as though only a few minutes have passed by. For example, when I teach a Qigong meditation in my workshops that takes 15 minutes, my students often say afterwards that they feel as though only 5 minutes has passed by!
Qigong mediation alters your perception of time because you are so relaxed and enjoying being in the moment to the extent that you don’t feel the time passing!
How Can Qigong Meditation Help Us?
By allowing the free flow of Qi:
you feel calm and focused
scattered thoughts in your mind become more grounded
overwhelm is reduced
the stresses and strains of modern day living are easier to cope with
you feel much more able to take things in your stride
you feel much more energetic, with an underlying calmness
The result is that you become a nicer person to be around! People notice the difference in you when you are practising Qigong meditation regularly. This only has to involve an investment of a few minutes each day. You will notice that your relationships start to improve because you are giving off a much more “serene vibe”. People really will pick up on this!
When you achieve a calm mind:
1. Your sleep improves – we cannot sleep unless our minds are calm. If you have lots of thoughts whirring around in your mind it is almost impossible to sleep.
2. You are able to focus and concentrate much better during the day.
If you are interested in learning some free Qigong meditation then click on my Space to Relax homepage. Scroll to the bottom of the page where you can sign up for a free Qigong mediation called “Calm Your Busy Mind In 8 Minutes“. You can download the meditation to your laptop, tablet or phone. You can take it outside with you and practice in your favourite place in nature. You will notice in the very short space of time practising this meditation how much calmer and relaxed you feel so I invite you to try it!
Also, if you head over to my free group on Facebook, “Space To Relax Free Group” you can leave any questions for me there and I’ll be happy to answer them.
Please don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel by clicking here so you don’t miss my regular videos which are full of useful health enhancing tips. Also please give this video a “Like” if you learned much more about Qigong meditation by reading this article.
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by janicetucker | 24 May 2016 | Qigong, Qigong Practice Guidelines & General Information, Qigong Routines
Today I’d like to tell you about the 3 top tips that I use in order to start my day, one of them being my morning Qigong exercise. These are the things I do first thing in the morning in order to start the day on a really positive note.
My name is Janice Tucker and I’m a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Medical Qigong. I’m also the founder of the Space To Relax online programme of Qigong video lessons.
So, what do I do at the beginning of the day?
1. Morning Qigong Exercise
Usually with Qigong in the morning time I practice exercises that involve moving or stretching. Moving Qigong methods are good as part of a morning Qigong exercise routine in order to energise the body and loosen it up once you have got out of bed.
2. Drink a Glass Of Water With Lemon Juice
This helps to rehydrate and refresh the body at the start of the day. We can lose a lot of fluid overnight through sweating in bed and exhaling water vapour. Therefore, it is very important to hydrate your body first thing in the morning. Do this before eating.
3. Go For A Walk
I’m very lucky because I live in the south-west of Ireland near the beach so I love to go out walking with my dog first thing in the morning. If I can fit in a beach walk, if there’s not a howling gale or horizontal rain as there often can be in Ireland in the winter, then I head out with the dog. Even if it is raining I wear the waterproofs and go out anyway! I do this to get fresh air into my lungs and breathe in a little bit of really good Qi (energy).
I find the above 3 tips really helpful for me.
However, what I would say to you is that when you are thinking about your morning ritual or routine to get things going, it doesn’t have to be the same thing as I do. What is most important with your morning routine, to set up your day in the most positive way, is to DO THINGS THAT MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD! Do something that makes you feel good on the inside, something really positive. Adopt more of these things so that you start the day on the best possible note.
The best way to start your day is not to check your e-mails or to look at Facebook to see what everyone else is doing. Instead, spend a little bit of time with yourself, doing something that you really like to do, for yourself. This is the biggest tip I can give you: find something that you love and do that!
If you want to start your day with a some morning Qigong exercise then head over to the Space To Relax homepage. At the very top of the homepage you will see that you can sign up for a free 3-part video series where you can learn Qigong. The lessons are only 5 minutes long and very quick and easy to practice. There are two lovely moving exercises in the series which you will be able to practice as part of your morning Qigong exercise if this is something you decide to integrate into your day (and I highly recommend that you do!).
Please click here to subscribe to my YouTube channel. I post videos with helpful tips on a regular basis so if you subscribe then you don’t miss out. The videos help you to learn more about Qigong and Chinese Medicine and how to improve your health.
Also, please hit “like” and leave me a comment. What do you currently do as part of your morning routine? Do you think you will integrate any of the tips above into what you are doing already?
by janicetucker | 29 Apr 2016 | Qigong, Qigong & Emotional Issues, Qigong Practice Guidelines & General Information, Qigong Routines
Stress is a word that’s so bandied about the place. It’s such a common word because it’s such a common problem. Watch this short video to learn some shocking statistics from a study on stress and how to relieve stress with Qigong.
My name is Janice Tucker and I’m a Chinese medicine practitioner and a practitioner of Medical Qigong. I’m also the founder of the Space To Relax online program of Qigong video lessons.
Something I came across when I was looking into stress was a very interesting study by the British Acupuncture Council. This study was carried out in 2015. They interviewed five thousand people and found that:
• half admitted that they had stress and that they resorted to junk food and alcohol in order to make themselves feel better
• a third admitted to comfort eating
• a quarter of them admitted to drinking alcohol
• one in five said that they had put on weight as a result of stress
• 70% said that they were aware that prolonged stress affected their lives. Half of these said that they just put up with it and two-thirds of stated that stress was an unavoidable part of their life
So stress is obviously a real problem. The problem with living in our modern society is that people find that they get very stressed. They then resort to unhealthy actions (drinking or eating unhealthily) in order to deal with that stress, or to avoid it. Consequently, we can become very unhealthy as a result.
A much better way to deal with stress would be to do something more preventive. I teach you how to relieve stress with Qigong methods to “head it off at the pass”. These simple methods can be easily integrated on a daily basis into your life. Qigong helps to reduce stress levels, relaxing both the physical body, the mind and the emotions.
If you’d like to learn more about how to relieve stress with Qigong and how to approach it in a much healthier way (other than eating junk food or drinking alcohol and putting on weight) then please head over to the Space to Relax homepage where you can download a free meditation and also a free three-part Qigong video course. These methods are very straightforward to follow and they take around five minutes to practice. I deliberately made them very easy to integrate into your day because often when we’re stressed it is because we’re really busy and feeling overwhelmed. I don’t want to give you more things to do!
If you’ve got any ideas or anything that you do to relieve your stress then please share them by leaving a comment below this video or leave a comment in the Space To Relax Free Group which you can join on Facebook. I’d love to hear what you all do to relieve stress because when we share with each other than we all learn something.
by janicetucker | 21 Apr 2016 | Qigong, Qigong & Emotional Issues, Qigong Routines
Do you know what relaxation really is? I’m going to turn your idea of relaxation on its head and explain to you exactly what it is in Qigong terms. You will find out how you can use Qigong relaxation techniques to very quickly and easily improve your ability to relax. This means that instead of feeling stressed and overwhelmed, you feel calm, focused and in control.
My name is Janice Tucker and I’m a Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner and practitioner of Medical Qigong. I’ve observed in face to face clinics and in Qigong workshops that most people don’t have a clear idea of relaxation.
Many people think relaxation is sitting down watching TV, having a lie down, going to the gym to work out or doing some form of vigorous exercise. However, from a Qigong perspective, when we think of relaxation we are thinking of anything that allows the smooth flow of Qi (energy) around your body.
Therefore, sitting down and watching TV is not relaxation. This is something people often do when they are exhausted at the end of the day. The visual stimulation from TV and other screen activities is not relaxing. It does not promote the smooth flow of Qi. Being in the gym or exercising vigorously is not relaxing either as it often puts pressure on the body. It is obviously beneficial for us all to exercise but bear in mind that vigorous exercise is not true relaxation.
In Qigong we know that the state of our Qi determines the state of our whole being (physical, mental, spiritual and emotional). The ability of our Qi to flow smoothly around our bodies and exist in abundance has a massive impact on our health.
When our Qi comes under pressure it is affected in one of two ways:
1. The Qi becomes obstructed or blocked;
2. The Qi becomes deficient or exhausted.
When this happens various health problems can then develop such as aches and pains in the body, an inability to sleep peacefully, mental exhaustion, physical exhaustion, anxiety and overwhelm.
So we now get the idea that it’s very important to not put our Qi under too much pressure. We need to stay as relaxed as possible for the majority of the time. This is not always an easy thing to do in our modern day, sometimes chaotic, time-pressured lives, but that is the aim!
When we practice Qigong relaxation techniques like breathing and meditation or physical Qigong exercises we enter a state of relaxation. Our conscious mind lets go of thoughts and events from the day. Our muscles begin to relax. The channels of Qi flow around our bodies begin to open up so that the Qi flows more smoothly. The knots start to loosen.
The practice of Qigong relaxation techniques also increases our awareness of where we’re at health-wise. The smooth flow of Qi enhances our ability to heal ourselves. It also increases our energy, leads to peaceful sleep and promotes harmonious balance in our bodies (physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally).
If you want to learn some Qigong relaxation techniques which will significantly help you to reduce stress and improve your health then go to the Space To Relax homepage. Scroll to the bottom of the page to download a free Qigong audio meditation called “Calm Your Busy Mind in 8 Minutes“. This will quickly and easily improve your ability to relax and calm your mind.
Also at the top of the homepage there is a free Qigong video series that you can download. This shows you three effective Qigong exercises which will significantly help you with relaxation. Each one is less than 5 minutes so they are very convenient and easy to practice.
If you are on YouTube please click the red button below the video to subscribe to my channel. If not then click here to subscribe and receive my weekly videos by e-mail. Also hit the “like” button if you learned more about relaxation from this article.
Now it’s your turn! Leave a comment below and let me know what you are currently doing to relax. Do you think what you are doing is truly a relaxing technique and promoting the free flow of Qi? If not, what will you do differently in the future? 🙂
by janicetucker | 15 Apr 2016 | Qigong, Qigong & Emotional Issues, Qigong Meditations & Breathing, Qigong Routines
In this blog I’m going to explain how, in Qigong, you can use your breath and your mind together to inhale really good stuff and exhale really bad stuff that we don’t need in our bodies or in our minds. The essence of Qigong is to use your breath and your mind together. You can therefore “get rid of the negative” with Qigong breathing exercises.
My name is Janice Tucker. I’m a Chinese Medicine and Medical Qigong practitioner. I’m also the founder of the online programme, Space To Relax, where you can learn Qigong lessons in order to better manage your health.
Think about this quote from Thich Nhat Hanh, the famous Vietnamese Buddhist monk:
Breathing in, I calm my body and mind
Breathing out, I smile
Dwelling in the present moment
The only moment.
What this means, from a Qigong perspective, is that, as you breathe in be calm and clear. As you breathe out, relax and smile. The only thing you are doing during this breathing is concentrating on your breath and observing where you are in the present moment. This is something that no many of us do on a regular basis.
Another, more humorous, quote to consider is:
Breathe in the good shit
Breathe out the bullshit!
This is not quite such a serene way of thinking about things as the first quote but it certainly gets to the point.
To summarise, when you are breathing in, think of breathing in good, clean, fresh energising air (Qi). As you breathe out, think of getting rid of anything you don’t want. This could be an ache, pain or other physical feeling. It could also be something more emotional or mental in origin, for example, anger, frustration, sadness, grief, fear, anxiety.
You can use your breathing to help dispel anything negative from your body or mind. Very importantly, visualise the negative thing actually leaving your body, leaving your nostrils as you breathe out. You can imagine the negative thing floating away from you and up into the sky so that it moves well away from you.
Simple Qigong breathing exercises like this can make a massive difference to your day to day life. All you have to do is stop for less than a minute, practice these exercises and be mindful of your breath. Breathe in the good stuff and breathing out the bad stuff while staying in the present moment. During the course of the day this can make very fine, positive adjustments to how you feel as your day goes by.
If you would like to learn more Qigong breathing exercises and meditation techniques then head over to the Space To Relax homepage. There you can download a free Qigong meditation which will calm your mind in 8 minutes. You can also sign up for a free 3-part Qigong video series where you will learn more about the Qigong breathing exercises and a couple of other great methods to help get rid the negative stuff from your mind and body.
For more videos like this you can subscribe to my YouTube channel here (and please also give this video a “like”).
I’d love to hear from you so why not head over to Facebook and join my Space To Relax Free Group. Leave a comment there to let me know how you got on and tell me what you do to get rid of negative feelings in your mind or body during the course of the day.
