What is qigong (chee-gong) and how can it help?
Qigong is a 4000-year-old technique that involves preventive and therapeutic health care, physical training, and philosophy. There are hundreds of styles of qigong catalogued by the Chinese government. Medical qigong cultivates and deliberately controls energy in the body through breathing exercises and meditation.  This directed energy replaces stress and anxiety with positive images, increased confidence, and enhanced spirit.

 The word Qi means vitality, energy, and life force and Gong means practice, cultivate, and refine. Thus, qigong means to cultivate and refine one's vitality or life force through practice. The Chinese believe that the practice of qigong triggers the spontaneous balancing and enhancing capabilities of the body’s healing resources. Over thousands of years millions of people have benefited from these practices, believing that improving the function of the qi maintains health and heals disease.

 The practice of qigong engages a wide array of physiological mechanisms which have profound healing benefits. It increases the delivery of oxygen to the tissues, the elimination of waste products, and the transportation of immune cells by improving lymphatic flow. Qigong also shifts the chemistry of the brain and the nervous system.

 On any morning in the parks throughout China, you can find thousands of people practicing qigong. Some practice individually, quietly among the trees, while others practice in large groups of hundreds or even thousands. Often, one will see a patient, in hospital pajamas, doing a special form of cancer recovery qigong involving slow and intentional walking.

How is it learned?
Qigong is often learned in small group classes, and techniques can be practiced at home as desired. There are several clinics and yoga studios in the Portland Metro area that offer qigong.