Bagua Classes in Bedfordshire by Mir Ali
I always find watching students of the internal arts develop, grow and eventually graduate to becoming instructors as a source of encouragement in my own practice. It’s particularly rewarding when those new instructors are your students albeit humbling since however much you may give of yourself as a teacher, ultimately a student’s accomplishments are a product of their own efforts—hundreds of practice hours and effectively using the tried and true methods of the neigong system. My friend and long-term student, Mir Ali of...
read moreBagua Walking Techniques for Health + Fitness
To elaborate on yesterday’s post on bagua walking methodology, I’ve got more on how to really get your bodily fluids (blood, lymph, interstitial, synovial and cerebrospinal fluids) to circulate strongly throughout your body. Since the fluids are responsible for delivering nutrients to and removing waste byproducts from the body, boosting their circulation is one of the key ways that the internal arts (bagua, tai chi and hsing-i) can foster incredible health from the inside out. In hsing-i, movement is initiated from the hands and...
read moreBagua Zhang Walking Techniques: How to Create a Concertina
Bagua is first and foremost about the feet and legs, so any good training starts with learning and developing stepping techniques. In the monastic bagua tradition that I teach for health, fitness and stress relief, there are two kinds of stepping: heel-toe and mud walking. Regardless of which type, you don’t want to bob up and down like you’re on a boat at sea. Mud Walking for Beginners In mud walking, the classic bagua stepping technique, when you put your foot down in front of you (to take a step), you want to ensure it lands...
read moreQigong + Bagua, Brighton
9-12 August 2012 Energy Arts Qigong + Bagua Zhang Palm Changes Courses. Senior Energy Arts Bagua Teacher, Paul Cavel—I will teach Qigong on Thursday and Friday evenings from 7-10 pm (6 hours) and Bagua Zhang Circle Walking Meditation on the weekend, Saturday and Sunday (10 hours). Heaven + Earth Qigong Energetics Heaven + Earth Qigong consists of a single external movement that stretches all the muscles, tendons, ligaments and fascia, opening your body from the inside out. In this qigong exercise set, the pulse (open and close) is also...
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Bagua + Qigong, Kӧln
11-13 November 2011 | Twisting & Coiling: Gods Qigong was developed millennia ago to relax the body and mind, reduce stress and anxiety, and systematically build health and vitality from deep inside the body. Walking meditation, including Circle Walking and the Bagua Single Palm Change, amplifies all of the positive benefits of Gods Qigong with the purpose of boosting energy and increasing flexibility. In Köln, Paul will teach various techniques for optimising the efficiency of the vascular system, weeding out deeply rooted tension and...
read moreWalking Fast whilst Remaining Sung
July 2010 Walking Tip Most internal arts practices are non-aerobic exercise. They can make you healthy, but you won’t get the aerobic workout you would from Western exercise programmes. Walking fast—using the techniques I’ve been describing for the last three months—combines internal power generation with aerobic exercise. It can upgrade your internal systems and make you super fit! Fast Walking: Preparation Is Key One of the challenges with walking fast is that it brings up a lot of energy and blood into the head. Any stress or...
read moreCircle Walking to Maximise Your Walking Practice
June 2010 Walking Tip The last two months I’ve written about releasing the nerves, creating a sung body and deepening the internals of your walk. Now it’s time to walk in a circle to supercharge your chi. First and foremost, I want to make the statement that I’m not specifically teaching the movements of bagua albeit incorporating aspects associated with bagua. Even still you can use normal heel-toe Circle Walking to generate chi. The Enemy of the Internal Arts Circle Walking, whether heel-toe or mud walking, will give you a method for...
read moreBuilding Internal Content in Walking
May 2010 Walking Tip Last month I wrote about walking with a sung body. If you’ve been practising, you’ve probably realised the important role of your alignments at this stage of the game. Proper alignments are important regardless of the activity, but they’re especially noticeable when you try something new. The Tailbone Drives the Nerve Release Your alignments must be good, so with your weight on one leg, let the pressure go through the back of your knee into the arch of your foot as you start to walk. Once you put the foot forward and...
read moreWalking to Reduce Stress & Tension
April 2010: Circle Walking Training Tip For the launch of my new blog, I’m posting several monthly training tips on the subject of walking. Anyone who is serious about training is always looking for ways to get in a little extra practice in a day. Addicts like myself look for ways to practice in their normal activities—imbuing them with internal content. Normal, heel-toe walking is one of my favourites! Photo © iStockphoto.com/YanC Walking: Start with a Sung Body The first point is to keep the spine erect and the rest of your body sung....
read moreSeparate & Combine in Qigong, Bagua & Tai Chi
Separate and combine is an ancient principle for deep learning that has been used for millennia. The principle states that once a basic movement, set or form has been absorbed or established the practitioner seeks to tease out the individual components before moving on to study that movement, set or form as it is practised with all its other components. The ancient Chinese found that this was the most effective and efficient method for learning any new skill and stabilizing it in the body. Separating Component Pieces in Bagua & Tai...
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