Energy is not created but it can be transformed! Qigong means working with your body’s energy. The key to self-healing is knowing that your body is designed to heal itself. When you are not feeling well or sick and your energy is out of balance, how do you heal? It’s necessary to bring balance back into the body and Qigong is an effective, enjoyable way to do this.
If you’ve been doing the 3 simple self-massage techniques in my last newsletter, you have discovered there are no secrets to self-healing, only working with your own energy patterns. But, you need the KNOWLEDGE. You must TAKE ACTION and PRACTICE the techniques.
After all, when you get a minor cut, you clean the wound and it heals. Even a cold goes away. Medical intervention is a huge plus, but even without it your body eventually heals itself. Just look at some of the mummies recovered from ancient sites, there is ample evidence of broken bones and worse which healed. How much more powerful to initiate the flow of energy so your BodyMind can heal itself?
There was fantastic news this week with results of a ten-year study which found that one type of brain training has potential to decrease your risk of developing dementia by 48%. Wow! That’s significant to my mind.
As a Qigong and BodyMind Wellness Instructor I have personally been doing brain training for many years. It’s part of my philosophy to exercise and develop all my faculties. But I started brain training in ernest because my brain got lazy. I wasn’t using my memory, my smartphone remembered it all. I heard fifty and sixty (and younger) year olds joke about loosing their memory – and mind, as if that was natural and acceptable. NOT to me! My lazy brain needed a workout!! So I made a commitment to change my mind. For 6 plus months I exercised every morning, then gave my brain a workout too. I used the computer plus exercised my whole body with crossovers, self-massage, tapping and other techniques I have learned over the years to enhance my brain. Well, my scores went from pathetic, even my 7 year old grandson bested me in some of the games, into the higher percentiles. Progress varied with the challenges, but there was significant change in all of them. It is empowering to feel and witness improvement.
Recently, I’ve felt a need to sharpen my mental skills and am again on a more regular brain game training regime. Plus I am working on completing a new brain fitness video series. I am an ardent believer that balance must be cultivated within as well as without our whole person. Health includes my body, mind, emotions, spirit, relationships and work. I may be able to balance on one leg but “Grasshopper can you do that for several minutes with eyes closed?” Not yet. 
If our journey in this life is a spiral path, we naturally revisit, even makeover, much of it over time. My dear husband and I just celebrated thirty years of marriage. As many discover, marriage and any partnership, is an evolving relationship, a continuous dance where partners experiment with, as well as innovate, new tempos, beats, rhythms and roles.
In my sixty plus years I gratefully know that I am not a a finished product; but a being in process, still evolving, opening; YES, even blossoming with healthy aging so that I can better contribute and give more back to this precious human existence. It’s wonderful to share the journey with friends.
Here’s a link to the Dementia study: http://eepurl.com/b-ZDOz
Just in case you missed it, here’s July’s newsletter with self-massage techniques.
Want to Improve your Circulation & Boost your Immunity?
Doing Qigong improves your blood and lymph circulation, plus boosts your immune system. Healthy Qi ( vital life force Energy, Chi, Prana, Ki) flows effortlessly throughout your body and mind. However, to stay healthy, you need to cultivate healing Qi. How? By keeping your Qi energy effectively and efficiently moving with qigong breathing, stretches, exercises, flows and self-massage. Tradition states that illness is caused by Qi energy blockages in your body. Blockages may also start in the mind with stress, anger or depression. Over time symptoms can physically manifest in your body, you don’t however develop chronic illness overnight so addressing this problem requires consistency and commitment. Fortunately, qigong practitioners often feel results much sooner, a big motivation to continue.
Let’s imagine you avoid standing on your tiptoes or fully extending your limbs to stretch and reach. Over time, major joints and large muscle groups, perhaps even your fingers, feet and toes, will begin to loose some of their range of motion and may even freeze up. Your feet may develop hammer toes, a neuropathy makes it difficult for you to stand up for any length of time, or bunions freeze your toes.You can’t reach behind you or into the back of your refrigerator. How do you get your flexibility back?
Vibrant health originates in your core and with your feet. Full range of motion includes flexible feet and toes that are not curled or frozen; as well as shoulders, elbows and wrists that are not swollen, painful or frozen, excluding serious injuries caused by accidents. Qigong stretches, exercises, and flows with gentle range of motion movements will loosen and keep your joints flexible.
The youthful vitality of longtime practitioners may partially be the result of stimulating these energy channels and tapping on key acupressure 
points along meridian pathways. Try self-massage because keeping Qi flowing in these energy channels positively results in radiant good health.
Here are 3 short self-massage routines you can do anytime throughout your day.
- Massage down the inside channel of your lower leg from below knee to ankle with the heel of your other foot; seated or standing, 3 or more times. Change legs and repeat on your other leg. This works three separate meridian channels: boosts your immune system, aids digestion, stimulates essential bone health, and feels great.
- Drag the bone knob of your outer ankle down the outer channel of the opposite leg from knee to ankle. Do at least 3 slow repeats. Feel the deep massage on outer leg meridians, aids sinus, ear and eye health and helps calm your whole system.
- Seated, lay your left shin across your right leg. With your right hand grasp the outside of your left foot and massage up and down the outer area of that foot between the 4th and little toe. Tenderness suggests you need to work that area( see the photo), helps chest, lungs, sinuses and upper back.
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Keep Fit, Stay Flexible and Feel Fabulous at Every Age!
Cynthia
