Qigong for Longevity and Self-Healing
by Deborah Davis

The re-emergence of qigong’s healing methods is particularly relevant for women, since Western medicine has no protocols for maintaining agility and grace as we age.

The most powerful tool for healing lies within you—your breath.

Qigong is a system of self-healing that has been used in China for thousands of years to achieve health and longevity. These gentle yet powerful qigong exercises combine three elements: abdominal breathing, slow movement, and visualization – to harmonize the body, mind, and spirit. The slow movements (similar to Tai Chi) are both relaxing and invigorating. They provide numerous health benefits, such as balancing hormones, reducing stress, and regulating blood pressure. Qigong is easy to learn, less strenuous than yoga or Pilates, and is accessible to people of all ages and fitness levels.

For the past few decades, Westerners have turned to the East to glean ancient wisdom, especially concerning health care and spirituality, and qigong is emerging as one of the hidden jewels of immortality and self-healing. Around the world each morning, millions of Chinese perform qigong in parks, along with its cousin Tai Chi. Where Tai Chi is a martial art founded on self-defense, qigong’s main purpose is to cultivate the life force energy within you, to optimize health and well-being. Practising these simple movements increases your vitality, enhances immunity, builds stamina, develops mental acuity, and revitalizes sexuality.

There are four main schools of Qigong that have migrated to the West: martial, medical, Buddhist, and Daoist (Taoist). I teach medical qigong which is a part of Chinese medicine and is used to prevent and also treat disease and pain. In China, many hospitals have qigong departments complementing Western medicine, acupuncture, and herbal prescriptions. There are clinics that exclusively utilize qigong for treating terminal illness, especially cancer, with remarkable success. Madame Guo Lin is famous in China for healing herself of terminal cancer by practising qigong and then going on to teach her system to thousands in China. Guo Lin therapy is utilized worldwide along with other forms of qigong walking (which I will teach at the August retreat) to treat chronic illness, depression, and cancer.

According to numerous ancient Chinese texts, the human life span is 120 years, but today only a minority of people live to become centenarians. Although the life expectancy in the West has risen, our quality of life is burdened by poor diet, stress, and our preoccupation with incessant busyness. We have become divorced from our natural body rhythms and unaware of the reservoir of energies that lay untapped within us. For thousands of years, the Chinese have been accessing these powerful resources and qigong is one of the most ancient methods of energy medicine.

There are many accounts of Chinese qigong masters who have learned to use their energy to dissolve cancerous tumours with a wave of their hand, heal patients long distance with focused intention, or make their body so weightless they can stand on suspended rice paper without falling through! These incredible and mysterious abilities are accomplished by disciplined qigong training that enables them to control both their mind and body. The good news is that you don’t have to be a qigong master to experience the innumerable benefits of this ancient healing art.

The re-emergence of qigong’s healing methods is particularly relevant for women, since Western medicine has no protocols for maintaining agility and grace as we age. Women go to doctors twice as frequently as men, yet many of their complaints are not “curable,” according to allopathic medicine. Conditions such as PMS, menopause, depression, fibromyalgia, and fatigue are most often controlled by pharmaceuticals, but studies now reveal that many of the standard drugs for these imbalances (such as Premarin for menopause) are fraught with deleterious side effects. Women are searching for economical and accessible solutions in healthcare for themselves and their families. With only a 15- to 30-minute daily qigong practice, you can take responsibility for your own health as well as increase vitality, slow aging, regulate hormones, and maintain inner balance.

Deborah Davis is an acupuncturist, qigong instructor, and medical intuitive. She authored Women’s Qigong for Health and Longevity with accompanied qigong DVDs and teaches women’s qigong internationally. She resides in Ashland, Oregon. www.womensqigong.com. She will lead a qigong retreat for women
at Ancient Spirals (near Saskatoon) August 22-25. Please contact Monté Gagné at peaceofprairie@gmail.com for registration and also see the colour display ad on page 32 of the 19.1 May/June issue of the WHOLifE Journal.