Active Exercises form a crucial component of many courses at the Spring Forest Qigong Centre. These exercises are not what you might think though. They are as helpful as any other exercises and can do amazing things for your mind and body, but they are so easy to perform and literally anyone can practice them. That’s what makes Active Exercises so special and in this article we’ll tell you why they are an essential part of your daily practice as a Spring Forest Qigong student.
What Are Active Exercises?
If you hear the term “Active Exercises” you might think of something that takes a lot of effort, something that makes you sweat buckets and something that will leave you panting, keeled over and hating the person who put you through it. But that is far from the case. In fact, there is nothing like that in Qigong.
That’s because Qigong is for everyone and not everyone can put themselves through so much physical stress and strain. It’s also unnecessary to go through so much, because if you can regulate the energy flow in your body, then that’s all you need to attain optical health. And it’s that regulation and that constant flow of energy that Spring Forest Qigong aims to achieve.
Active Exercises play a big role in this. These are slow moving, methodical movements, ones that everyone should be able to perform, regardless of age or level of fitness. The purpose of these exercises, as mentioned above, is to control the flow of energy. In doing so, you can heal yourself of a number of issues, including:
- Increased energy
- Decreased fatigue
- Insomnia
- Depression
- High blood pressure
- Stress
- Anger problems
- Kidney stones
And that’s not all. But the main purpose of these exercises is to complete your practice, to ensure your energies are balanced and flowing freely, because when you combine these exercises with SFQ meditations and techniques, only then can you achieve optimal health.
SFQ Fundamentals Active Exercises
One of the most popular courses at the Spring Forest Qigong Centre is SFQ Fundamentals. This has been taken by hundreds of thousands of people over the years and it was the first course that many experts took. This course includes many elements and is a complete practice in itself, with meditations, healing techniques and several active exercises.
These include a trio of exercises that are designed to be taken together, exercises that take just a few minutes (or as long as you want) but work wonders for your physical and mental health. These exercises are:
- Moving of Yin and Yang: Shake up the energy in your body, get it moving up and down your torso and prepare it for the exercises that follow.
- Breathing of the Universe: Open yourself up, embrace the energy of the universe and get ready to accept it, while relinquishing control of energy that you no longer need.
- Joining of Yin and Yang: Complete this set of exercises with one that gives you energy that has been transformed, energy that can work wonders for your body.
They are also incredible easy to follow. Just replicate the movements performed by Master Lin on the DVD provided, and make sure you listen to his instructions as well. By the time you finish these exercises you will feel like a different person.
Where to Find Active Exercises
Active Exercises are included on most of the main courses at the Spring Forest Qigong Centre. The first place you will discover these is on the SFQ Fundamentals course, which is recommended course for all students that are new to the SFQ Centre. If you make it through this course then you can progress to the level 2 and level 3 courses that follow it, including Qigong for Healing and Qigong for Advanced Healing.
Active Exercises are also discussed in many of the retreats that the SFQ Centre stage every year, retreats that are held both at the centre and at conference rooms and other venues throughout North America. These are not always accessible for students down here in Australia, but that’s why the online courses exist.
To give yourself a taste of these exercises, you can also visit the SFQ Youtube channel. Here you will find the exercises mentioned above, as well as a few others. These are short videos and they provide snippets of what you will get on the main courses, but they are a great way to sample what the SFQ Centre can offer you.