What Beginners Learn at Qigong, Tai Chi + Bagua Classes
After 16 years of teaching the Energy Arts System of courses, I’ve learned that it can actually be quite difficult for a beginner to get in the game because there is just so much material and practices from which to choose. Also, it can be difficult to understand which classes are appropriate for beginners, and how a new student might join an on-going class or jump into training a subject matter that advanced students are also studying.
Qigong, Tai Chi + Bagua Classes for Beginners
Paradox of the System
Although it may sound counter-intuitive, new students learn almost exactly the same material as more advanced practitioners because internal martial arts training is more about what is being emphasised and at what depth than the particular exercise itself (e.g., a qigong set, tai chi style or bagua palm change). So typically, courses begin with all practitioners together for learning theory and fundamental practices that underlie the more complex material to come.
The primary difference is that whereas beginners learn body mechanics that develop chi, experienced practitioners learn energetic techniques that develop the body. It’s two different angles on the same game.
Qigong, Tai Chi + Bagua for Beginners
Learning Form Movements
When I teach any movement, set or strand of internal-power technique, the information is tailored to those present.
Beginners learn the choreography of any given movement set with an emphasis on the:
- Correct body alignments
- Structure of the form
- Movement method
- Quality of motion.
Developing Internal Power for Health + Healing
As a practitioner progresses in the system, I add depth to their movements by introducing layers of internal content. Some of the basic internal mechanics and more popular topics I cover since they positively affect overall health and vitality so profoundly include:
- Where and how to stretch to release the muscles and fascia.
- Where and how to twist the soft tissues and in which direction.
- When and how to open/expand versus close/gather.
- When and how to release the nerves for deep relaxation and meditative movement.
In some classes, I focus more on the cardiovascular system or nervous system, whereas in others it’s more about energetic development.
As the group practises component exercises to get deeper into the internals, I watch for when beginners are “full” and have enough to work on. You cannot continue pouring water into a glass filled to the brim. Students either practise on their own or in groups, as it makes sense in the moment. For larger classes, a Certified Energy Arts Instructor in that subject will typically assist by giving you additional feedback.
At this point, I work with the more advanced practitioners to give them an upgrade because up until now, most of the material has been a review. Even so, again, it’s generally more about how deep they are practising and the particular piece of material on which they focus rather than how many pieces or external movements are present. This is because the benefits—improved vascular activity, a more relaxed and softer body, detoxification or increased immune response and more—all become activated based on the depth of your practice. Some techniques can be learned in the moment whereas others might take weeks, months, years or even decades to fully embody and perform accurately.
For example, there are many techniques to improve vascular activity, but if you do one really well you will get a better result than if you do many techniques poorly. In the beginning, you will learn methods at whatever depth you can handle. In time and with practise, you can begin to take any given technique to its next and ultimate level.
When people start an internal art, such as qigong, tai chi or bagua, they often experience a lot of benefit. This is because they actively open up the vascular beds that flood the body with nutrients and dispose of waste material. But there is a big difference between beginning the work and taking it to its full potential.
After the vascular beds are active and can be directly opened up at will, you can increase blood (along with oxygen/nutrient) flow, which can have a profound and positive effects on your overall health with a little consistent effort.
However, everyone has stuck places in their body that are clamped shut, which, to open, takes time, patience and dedication. Often times, when the practitioner finally clears these old stuck and restricted spaces that sap our energy, they find that their overall health and vitality rise dramatically, as well as a deeper sense of internal space and freedom.
The Spherical Nature of Learning Internal Energy Arts
Internal arts training is about developing and integrating components of internal power for health and healing. Again, these components are known as neigong. Neigong training has no beginning and no end. Since it’s not a linear process, there isn’t a single or best starting point, although all practices have foundational and advanced aspects that cover an array of movement sets, forms and modalities.
The neigong exercises I teach can be practised in five modalities:
- Sitting
- Standing
- Lying down
- While moving, or
- As partner exercises.
In any given class or retreat, we will explore one or more modalities to help you learn techniques in the fastest time possible and integrate them into your daily life because this is where you can multiply potential health benefits. It’s great to relax in your practice, but it’s even better if you can maintain that relaxation while performing your daily activities, and especially when stressful events take place that can shift your baseline.
Content-based Courses for Beginners
Regardless of which practice you choose—a qigong set, tai chi or bagua—there are about half a dozen internal threads that are present in all internal practices that you will absolutely want to learn.
These essential threads include:
- Breathing techniques
- Biomechanical body alignments
- Bending and stretching, and twisting the body’s soft tissues
- Sinking chi and dissolving blockages
- Opening and closing (also known as “pulsing”)
- Manipulating the wei chi and etheric field
In which order you learn these techniques and through which modality, is not set in stone. You may be drawn to one thread or another (e.g., breathing, pulsing or dissolving techniques), or take a class in whichever one or ones are being offered at a time and location that is convenient for you.
In all classes, whatever the title or subject matter, I cover one or more aspects of this foundational work to help students into the realm of internal practice. So you typically learn a bit of choreography along with internal content that can be further developed within that exercise set.
Once you’re in the door and you gain a certain level of understanding of this Eastern approach to exercise and health, I can guide you towards the practices and emphasis that will help you achieve your specific goals—whether it’s a particular health issue, an interest in one aspect of the work or another, or high performance in your business, sport or life in general.
The range of possible directions is infinite since internal arts practices can help you develop every aspect of your being. Learning in a spherical way means you can choose which aspects to focus on now to build up your foundation and, later, you can change course by absorbing different aspects of the work according to your needs and growing understanding of how the material influences your life for the better.
Internal Arts Practices along the
Exercise Therapy + High Performance continuum
Whatever your reason for training, internal arts practices are positioned along a continuum. It’s not so much about what you practice, but how you practise it. If you are ill or injured, you would choose practices that best lend themselves to the healing properties you require. You would also ensure that all exercise was gentle while incorporating motions that are simple and repetitive to deepen internal aspects and associated benefits. If, conversely, you are extremely healthy and generally feel good in body-mind-chi, then you might focus on more intense, complex or progressively intricate and precise neigong techniques that have been used to transform human beings into their ultimate potential for at least four millennia. The practices might be the same, but the way you approach them would be entirely different.
If being very weak and sickly is at one end of the spectrum, then being the pinnacle of health in body-mind-chi must be at the opposite end. Of course, most of us lie somewhere in between these polarities, and throughout our lives may slide along the continuum on one or more levels either towards being healthier or less so. The aim in the internal arts is to make you as resilient, vital and malleable as possible, so that you can withstand change and move closer to being exceptionally healthy in the totality of your being.
Learn more about the system of courses I teach by clicking here.
