241 Yoga Snack | Qigong Practices For Stress Relief: Episode By Chris McDonald

This is a yoga snack episode, so a little bit shorter so you can fit this into your day and the bonus. You don't need to be flexible or spiritual, just curious and open to get the benefits. Tune in and reconnect to the wisdom of the body on today's episode of Yoga in the Therapy Room Podcast.

So whether you're here to expand your skills, enhance your self care, or both your in the right place, join me on this journey to help you be one step closer to bringing yoga into your therapy room.

Welcome. To the yoga in the Therapy Room podcast, the non-traditional therapist guide to Integrating Yoga into your therapy practice. I'm Chris McDonald, licensed therapist and Yogi joining you today. I have a fun episode for you. Today we're gonna be talking about Qigong, which is one of my favorite practices to integrate with yoga.

It's spelled Q-I-G-O-N-G, if you haven't heard of it before, and is a beautiful mind body practice. And it can be such a powerful tool for stress relief, which is what we're gonna do with some practices today, some nervous system regulation, and it can help you reconnect with your body's natural rhythms.

If you are someone who has felt stuck in your head or maybe burned out, disconnected in some way, Qigong offers a simple, accessible way to move energy. Quiet the mind, come back to yourself. And the best part. You don't need to be flexible. You don't need experience to do this, and you can do it standing or seated so it can be an accessible practice for you and your clients.

It is cultivating the life force energy, and to me it's about a moving meditation. If you struggle to sit on a cushion with your spine straight and drop into silent meditation, you may wanna consider using a moving meditation. And to me, Qigong fits the bill. It's rooted in ancient Chinese medicine from thousands of years ago, and it's characterized by coordinated body movements, using breath.

It's a little bit different than some other yoga practices. It is connected to Taoism and Buddhism as well, and they're also designed to stimulate the acupuncture meridian. How cool is that? And their associated organs to promote self-healing. Think of slow, smooth, and gentle movements. When we think of Qigong, I remember I first discovered it when I went to a local Buddhist temple and I was so excited.

And I remember thinking, wow, this is their actual service that they're doing, which includes a Qigong practice. And I was like, this is wonderful. And as we did that, I was like, I wanna do more of this. I wanna learn more of these practices, and it led me on a journey to discover more Qigong instructors on YouTube.

People remember the Qigong practices more and seem to like them more, maybe because it is a moving meditation. Hardly sure, but I know for me they're some of my favorite practices. I'm gonna share three of those in a moment. Three of these my favorite practices, Sue, in this episode, so that you can experience them as well.

They're just so powerful. So what are the benefits? And here's the coolest part of all of this. It is research based. There is a lot of research on Qigong in Tai Chi and the benefits on psychological wellbeing as well as reducing symptoms. Of anxiety and depression. Amazing. So if you ever wanna go down that rabbit hole of researching this, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

To me, it's like that grounded, centered space of homeostasis and Qigong can be one of those practices to help you. It also can help with focusing the mind. I know I taught one of these Qigong practices with Kimberly Hager. If you haven't listened to that episode, I don't have the number right now in front of me, but that is another coaching episode, and in that I teach a focusing Qigong.

Now gonna go through that today, but I found that is also a favorite of clients. So it basically can balance your nervous system and turn on that parasympathetic. So if you have clients or yourself who is often in that fight or flight response, you need more of that parasympathetic energy, and that's what Qigong can do.

It's gonna make a huge difference to building that inner resilience. Are you wanting to bring more of a somatic approach into your therapy work, but find yourself hesitating? You've had some yoga training and you aren't sure where to start, or maybe you worry about staying within your scope and are unsure how to actually.

If you're ready to move from feeling stuck and uncertain to confident in Align, go to HC podcast.org/. Yoga consultation. That's HC podcast.org/yoga consultation. You can also find the link in the show notes, so let's get to you to practice. And we will be doing this standing and see if you can find a quiet space for yourself where you won't be disturbed.

You don't need any equipment for this. That's the beautiful thing, and we'll get to it. For the standing practice. You may notice a difference in sound. I've switched my headset so that I can stand and you can still hear me. For this Qigong practice, go ahead and stand with feet under hips. See if you can shift your weight from left to right to ground yourself before we start.

Release the stress and push your toes into the floor. Feeling solid, feeling rooted, feeling grounded. The invitation is to bring arms out to the side, hands facing forward. Inhale, bring arms up towards the sky, biceps towards the ears. Exhale. Bending at the elbows, fingertips, pointing together, palms facing the earth, clearing in front of you.

You can see this as clearing out maybe a gray or black energy of that stress. Anything that's holding you back, keeping you in that fight or flight response. Keep going and you can let the breath go if it's too much for you. That's always an invitation to use broth for these practices. And also see if you can go even a little bit slower.

Our tendency in fight or flight is to go fast. Keep going. Once we can slow down, that tells our brain the limbic system that we're safe. And do one more inhaling. Arms up bending at the elbows. Nice and slow. Slower than you wanna go. And when that feels, complete hands at your side, still in standing position.

Are they stuck in a loop or more settled? And then check in with emotion. What's coming up for you? And breath? Is it feeling a little better since we started, or about the same? This time we're gonna place hands on the lower abdomen, palms facing up towards the sky. Thumbs out. And when you're ready. Inhale.

Exhale as you slowly part the clouds, letting the arms back down to start. Inhale, palms facing up in front of the body, sliding up in front of the body, and then flip the hands so you can reach all the way to the sky and pause, visualize those clouds and parting those. And coming back in that circle. Do about three more at your own pace.

That's just an option. You don't have to do that

getting taller as we part the clouds between your hands, bringing arms back down and center place, hands on, lower belly below the belly button, one hand on top of the other, and let's just gently sway again, side to side. Check in. Notice how that feels in your body after. Take your hands in front of you, bending at the elbow, so palms are facing together.

So all we're doing is switching right hand on top of left. You can make shapes with this ball. You can make it like taffy bringing the hands out to the side, but they're still palms still facing together. Back and forth in a pulsing motion. If you're not sure what I'm saying, just have your hands in front, see you notice the tingling sensations of the Q Energy energy goes where we tell it to.

Contract this time we're gonna put the left hand at the bottom, right hand on top with enough space for the ball. Whatever size your ball is is okay. Inhale. Exhale, gently turn and twist the body until you look over that left shoulder. And then we're gonna switch the left hand from the bottom to the top, top hand, right hand to the bottom, and exhale and turn to the other side.

Looking over the right shoulder. Same thing, switch the bottom hand with the top hand and continue a few more times going from left to right. Every time that you look over one shoulder, as you're standing, you're gonna switch to the bottom hand and the top hand. So the bottom goes on top. Top goes on bottom.

You can just turn the torso just a little bit. Do what feels right for you and your body, and then pause at center where we started with a chi ball between your hands. When you're ready, inhale, bring the arms up. Overhead, get taller. Exhale. Bring that ball into your energy. Bring it into your body. So sliding hands from top of the head, down the face, neck, shoulder, and failing you with that.

Just notice how you feel. See if you can take this feeling with you the rest of the day, and I hope this gentle practice gave you a moment to breathe, move, and or reconnect. And just remember these small, mindful movements can create big shifts in your nervous system and in how you feel. Remember to keep being gentle with yourself, and that's gonna really help you.

Whether you're just starting out or maybe refining your approach, or you wanna bring in a case study, we can tailor a plan that works for you, your clients, and help you find a way to bring more yoga into your therapy room. Learn more at HC podcast.org/yoga consultation. That's HC podcast.org/yoga consultation.

The link is also in the show notes. And once again, this is Chris McDonald sending each one of you much light and love. Until next time, take care. Thanks for listening to today's episode. The information in this podcast is for general informational and educational purposes only. It's given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher, or the guests are giving legal, medical, psychological, or any other kind of professional advice.