 
What is Qigong? Qigong (pronounced 'Chi Kung') is a powerful type of health exercise, which has been practised for centuries in Qigong is easy to learn and enjoyable to do. Even a few minutes of practise can have an invigorating and rejuvenating effect. Regular practice brings strengthens the whole body and its internal systems (nervous, digestive, respiratory, skeleto-muscular, hormonal, gynaecological, etc). Its ability to help in healing a large variety of chronic and acute injuries and illnesses has been the subject Some Qigong movements are very gentle, others more vigorous. Some movements are very large and expansive, others are more subtle, almost imperceptible. All are different and have a very specific effect on body and mind. The deeper the practises, the more we understand the purpose of each movement, allowing our Qigong practise to become ever more enjoyable. The regular practise of Qigong has a powerful effect on mind, body and spirit. Benefits include increased general health and well being, reduced levels of stress and a brighter and more balanced outlook on the possibilities in our life. |
of various research programmes led by the Chinese medical authorities. The aim of Qigong is to promote the movement of Qi (energy) in the body. A key point in Qigong practice is relaxation and deep breathing, both of which allow Qi to flow.|
Tai Chi Introduced
T’ai-Chi Ch’uan or "The Ultimate and Supreme Form of Boxing" is a physical philosophy encompassing healing, meditation and self-defence.
In T’ai-Chi the movements are practised slowly bringing attention to the posture, breath. By softening the body through releasing tension in the muscles and joints, T’ai-Chi helps restore the natural self-healing systems that are often suppressed by stiffness and muscle tightness which can have built up over many years of physical, emotional and mental habits. Regular practice helps to relax aching muscles and joints, boost the immune system, strengthen the legs and back, reduce blood pressure and generally improve health; both physical and mental.
T’ai-Chi is a moving meditation that cultivates a calm mind and a relaxed everyday awareness. It helps the practitioner to be awake and attentive to living life in the present and to let go of worry, constant planning and gnawing fears. Gradually through its regular practice the mind becomes calmer and clearer.
T’ai-Chi is a generic name for many different streams of work. Its study has many types of practices, the most well known being ‘The Form’. The beginner usually learns a short form that can take from thirty weeks to two years to learn. The form I study and teach is The Yang Style Short Form and comes to us through the lineage headed originally by the Chinese T’ai-Chi master, Cheng Man Ching.
The form is made up of different postures, each one having its own martial art application. The postures flow together in a slow and beautiful dance, a moving meditation. When I practice each morning, in my garden if the weather is clement, I am aware of having a treasure trove of knowledge contained in every posture. Each day the form enables me to balance and focus afresh. As well as the traditional short form I also teach a short, short form that can be learnt on the one-week retreats I facilitate on Holy Island. For more experienced practitioners there are longer forms which deepen the practice further.
The first three postures of the short form contain the heart of the philosophy of T’ai-Chi. The form does not start at the beginning, it starts two postures before the beginning, in ‘Attention’: a place where the practitioner brings the mind to internal and external awareness. Attention is given to the breath, posture and relaxation. ‘Attention’ calms the mind and balances the body. In this posture we cultivate poise and mindfulness. This posture can be practised at any time, anywhere. Bus stops, supermarket queues, any situation where we have to wait are excellent opportunities to bring the mind to this posture.
The second posture is called ‘Preparation’ – or: “bringing the mind to what is needed in order to tackle the next task”, something that can be applied to all daily activities. This posture is the first step of the form, but the step is not a forward step. It is to the side. We learn to get out of the way.
The third posture finally brings us to ‘The Beginning’. When we meet an obstacle, are in pain or trauma occurs in our lives we have a tendency to push against it or move away from it. Sometimes we even rush right into it an obstacle. ‘The Beginning’ posture does none of these things. It offers the practitioner a sublime alternative. The arms in this posture move in a backward circle that welcomes the attack coming to us to. Thus we get to know what is happening and can than deflect it or dissolve the attack. This ‘bringing toward’ is the essence of the martial art contained in T’ai-Chi. We learn to go into the pain, to not avoid it. By doing this, it can be deflected or dissolved.
The practitioner can use T’ai-Chi purely for physical health and relaxation. The practise of the slow flowing postures help to strengthen bones and relax the practitioner. The moves also help to calm and clear the mind. T’ai-Chi is like ‘waterless swimming’ as the practitioner appears to be flowing weightlessly through the air. This manner of movement requires a lot of strength and control in the lower legs and abdomen. Increased strength gradually builds through regular practice. The movements of the arms are especially useful in helping to develop better breathing habits. A deeper slower breath helps general health as well as instantly calming the mind. And T’ai Chi is renowned for strengthening the back. After even a few weeks, new students report that long-term lower back pain is beginning to ease. The spine is very important in its practice and is referred to as ‘a string of pearls’. The string of pearls is imagined as starting slightly above the top of the head and hanging freely down to the base of the spine. This helps to develop a long wide back with a free neck and relaxed shoulders. The upper chest is softened and hollows into the body and the stomach relaxes and moves with the breath thus massaging the internal organs. This is very helpful in aiding digestive conditions and keeping the other organs of the body healthy. Students gradually grow into their full height through their lengthening, loosening and straightening backs. Stamina grows as general health improves and students have often reported that they breathe far more easily than before they started to practice T’ai-Chi.
T’ai-Chi is very helpful in improving balance. The softening of the belly, shoulders and jaw gradually lower the centre of gravity and over weeks the student will gradually gain more confidence in their bodies. As T’ai-Chi requires single weightedness, (standing on one leg), it is helps to maintain bone density; this is very beneficial for people who have osteoporosis. Working with bent knees whenever possible helps strengthen the lower legs, ankles and feet. This aids the circulation; healthy calf muscles help the all important lower leg blood circulation. Several NHS hospitals now use T’ai-Chi to help patients recover from strokes where their balance and co-ordination have been impaired.
T’ai-Chi is one of the more subtle of the martial arts. The fighting form is based on the soft and weak overcoming the strong and hard. An example: the teeth can bite the tongue but over years the teeth crumble and the tongue remains flexible and firm. Or - which lasts longer, the soft tongue or the hard teeth? The art of T’ai-Chi is based on this principle of the soft and weak overcoming the strong and hard. The T’ai-Chi practitioner meets movement with stillness, hardness with softness and strength with weakness. Ultimately, T’ai-Chi is an investment in loss. And the more that is invested in loss the more the opposite arises.
How does this investment in loss work in practice? Often our lives have led us to become hard, to battle against obstacles and to toughen up. T’ai-Chi teaches us to do the opposite so to rediscover our inherent power and inner strength. The form is practised with the soft and poised posture of a child but using the wisdom of the mature adult. For beginners it is like shedding a suit of protective armour that although restricting, feels safe. The soft slow postures loosen and dissolve the habits that keep us stuck and uncomfortable. Its practice gradually changes long-term mental and physical habits that prevent us living with ease and happiness. It helps us to open our hearts to life, become fearless and to rediscover a generosity of spirit. Before I started T’ai-Chi, I used to question whether it were possible to live life with an open and generous heart yet at the same time feel safe and confidant. T’ai-Chi has given me profound yet simple ways of being able to be open to life and generous to myself and others yet feel safe and balanced. T’ai-Chi gives me – like so many other practitioners - a way to be warm and open in situations which previously we would have been vulnerable or found threatening.
Investing in loss is based on releasing tension in the body, to letting the breath move all the time (are you holding your breath as you read this?), to be more aware of what is going on within and around us. Gradually we can let go of the mental habits that disturb sleep and wear us down. T’ai-Chi teaches us how to listen to our inner voice and trust the wisdom of our bodies.
Ultimately T’ai-Chi works with the mind. It said that the first blow is never made as the experienced practitioner anticipates this and can deflect the attack before the opponent has time to strike. My teacher told us that until we knew what we were doing we were to keep out of the way. When we know what we are doing we won’t need it.
The philosophy, study and regular practice of T’ai-Chi can help a student to live happily and healthily. T’ai-Chi has been one of the most wonderful gifts I have had in my life over the past years. My journey to T’ai-Chi came through an injury sustained during my professional dancing career. I knew absolutely nothing about it except that it was slow and my injury required me to be slow, very slow, in order to maintain movement. I am grateful that I found T’ai-Chi. It has been an illuminating presence in my life all these years, and continues to be so, filtering into every aspect of every day life.
Principal, the Isleworth School of T’ai-Chi Ch’uan
Pain management In meditation, T’ai-Chi and Qigong the use of the warrior practice of getting to know all that we dislike, by moving towards that which is painful, we get to know our enemy: the pain, or the obstacle. Our habitual tendency is to wish our pain went away, but it is there, we feel it. Accepting this pain is the first step of being able to live with it and also to dissolve it. A useful image to help us to meet our pain is to imagine sitting with a close friend at the kitchen table (a safe and warm place to be) and sharing the intimate details of the heart over a cup of tea or coffee. By making friends with any pain, tension and discomfort of the body or emotions we can start to dissolve and lessen its impact on our lives. The best way to connect with pain is to take moment to ensure that our breathing is smooth and calm and brought deep down into the body by using the abdominal or natural breath. An easy way to access this calming breathing pattern is to lengthen the out-breath so we completely empty our lungsin a spacious way without effort or pushing. Tell yourself that you have all the time in the world when you start doing this. On each complete out-breath give yourself permission to relax, like you do on holiday, so a smile arises in each molecule of your being. On each in-breath imagine that peace is spreading throughoutyour body and mind. Breathe in peace, beathe ut a smile. As you do this connect to the natural generosity and loving kindness of your heart, our tender and soft spot. Now take your mind directly to the place of pain, develop a friendship with the pain, ask why it is there, find out what it wishes to say to you – the metaphorical sharing of a cuppa with a friend over the kitchen table. Soften into the pain, imagine it dissolving as you consciously breath clouds of kindness into its centre from your heart. Relax, release, rest. Continue doing this as you nurture and get to know your pain. Developing an ongoing practice of noticing where pain and tension arise in your body, and getting accustomed to softening into your pain is a very useful skill for living an easier life. When we tense and wish we did not have the pain, we create a ring of tension that can amplify it. Do contact me if you find this diffuclt to understand or put into practice. You can learn more by coming along to any of my Qigong sessions, I hold a regular lunchtime class in Monmouth at Bridges Centre, Thursday 12.30 -1.30 and in Pontypool at Widdershins, 2.30 - 4 each Thursday. Or better still, join me for one of the Holy Isle residential Qigong & Meditation Retreats, details can be found at my web site: sueweston.com
Balancing Yin & Yang Are you in the flow and feeling confident? I do hope so. Or do your worries engulf you? I hope not... So do join me at my regular and ocssional sessions of Qigong & meditation and learn how to balance your own Yin & Yang.
THE BENEFITS OF T’AI-CHI & QIGONG INCLUDE
Qigong’s gentle yoga-like moving postures are in a standing position and focus on flexibility, release and strength. T’ai-Chi emphasizes the flowing dance of self-defence. All classes are led by T’ai-Chi Union Registered Instructor Sue Weston. She started training in 1986 and teaching in 1990 when she founded The Isleworth School of T’ai-Chi Ch’uan.
Qigong & Meditation Retreat Week, 2010 Being on Holy Isle has certainly made me re-think things. I enjoyed the week immensely and really love Wild Goose and it's graceful movements and have been practising to perfect the sequence. Other years: This was a memorable experience - a real holiday with a difference. Barbara Muston A truly wonderful week with a lovely group of people – a friendly atmosphere. As a beginner I found Qigong to be inspiring and I hope to take what I have learnt into everyday life. Sue is a wonderful teacher, kind, considerate and encouraging, and very patient. She taught us how to improve our lives and I so enjoyed the meditation. Thank you, Sue. A healing experience. Sue, thanks for a wonderful course. It was everything I expected and more! I leave feeling relaxed and refreshed. And will definitely be back again! Very well structured and presented. Enjoyed the variety of exercises, meditations and the medical Qigong. Also appreciated the course content was different from last year. After an adventurous journey from London I arrived on Holy Island via the visitors ferry. During the Sue Weston's Tai Chi and Meditation week was a fantastic experience. Through Sue's wisdom and teaching I found the week was the beginning of spiritual journey for me. Sue gives you the tools to make changes in your life and appreciate what is important. For me I have found happiness, well being, to live with an open heart, be loved and to love. Of course there are days when all this fails me but I think of Sue and Holy Island take a deep breath and start again. The whole week was an amazing experience and something I will always remember and hold close to my heart. The week of meditation on Holy Island was a marvellous antidote to the stresses and strains of 21st century living. It provided a wonderful mixture of spiritual uplift, exercise and relaxation, all in an atmosphere of great companionship. Mornings and evenings were spent in meditation and T'ai Chi, led by Sue Weston, whose leadership and compassion offered us all a chance to learn and grow. Afternoons provided the opportunity to explore and enjoy the island or join with members of the volunteer staff on the island in gardening or other conservation activities. Holy Island is a jewel of peace and tranquillity - a haven for birds and animals with a magical air, which contains in a very small space a mountain, moors, cliffs, rock pools and beaches. It's a fitting location for the Inter-faith Centre which provided more than comfortable accommodation and food that was almost too delicious. I felt truly embraced by the community and, under Sue's guidance, felt myself unwinding and relaxing as the week went on. And I was able to take away tools to help me carry the peace of the Island into my daily life. I had come to a place within myself where I felt at home and it seemed like such a long time since I had last visited that beautiful place. Doing Sue’s work is like coming back to a place deep within that one already knows but keeps forgetting about - and it’s real. I’m not one for early morning starts, but standing on the deserted beach with the dawn breaking over the silent sea at six o clock in the morning, moving as one with the rest of the group doing the gentle movements of Tai Chi was simple beautiful. Sue’s calm yet firm and always joyous energy infuses the week on this sanctuary of peace that is Holy Island. And the accommodation is lovely and the food good and the walks are lovely – what more can I say? Siobhan McMahon
What Happens on a Qigong & Meditation Retreat? When I arrived on Holy Isle in September 1999 Lama Yeshe Rinpoche gave me instructions for my year of retreat. To my surprise Lama provided only two guidelines one of which was to not do anything unless I could rejoice. Not what I had expected to hear. The subtly of this has been filtering through ever since: can I also rejoice when things fall apart as well as on a sunny day when all's well?  Lama's instruction is a precious gift that I share freely with others through Qigong and T'ai-Chi, which I have been practising and teaching for many years. When in the summer of 2003 The Centre of World Peace and Health opened I immediately offered to lead Qigong & Meditation Retreat weeks. I knew from my year on Holy Isle that this place would make a superb holiday destination offering beauty, wellbeing and adventure.
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As well as the Qigong and meditation the island itself is restorative. In the afternoons, which are kept free for all to enjoy its beauty, participants might climb the mountain even though their greatest fear is of heights - and return filled with glowing confidence. Another day they may help in the garden, take walks along the shores and some plunge into the cold waters of the Firth of Clyde. All reasons to rejoice! The volunteers who so generously look after Holy Isle ask visitors to help in the kitchen. These could be labelled Laughter Sessions, for this is what is heard during the cleaning and washing up.