I was not born with a lot of qi.
For whatever reason, I was born with less vitality than most people, including my older brother.
You might even call me the runt of the litter. (Sorry mom!)
For example, I’m much shorter than my older brother, and I’ve had way more health problems over the years.
And you know what? That’s okay.
It happens. Often. Lots of people are born with less qi. Millions, possibly even billions.
If you’re like me — and you probably wouldn’t be reading this if you weren’t like me — then this video is for you.
Thanks to qigong and tai chi, it’s hard to tell that I was born with less qi. In fact, many of you are probably surprised to hear me mention it. You probably thought that I was bursting with qi.
And I am. But the qi that I have now is not the qi that I was born with.
In this video, I’ll examine 2 ancient theories:
- Pre-Heaven Qi (Yuan Qi 元氣)
- Post-Heaven Qi (Houtian Zhi Qi 後天之氣).
More importantly, I’ll frame these theories in a way that’s useful for the 21st-century practitioner.
Check it out:
Best regards, Sifu Anthony 
I’m Anthony Korahais, and I used qigong (pronounced "chee gung") to heal from clinical depression, low back pain, anxiety, and chronic fatigue. Today, I'm the director of Flowing Zen, an international organization with students in 48 counties. I've been teaching qigong since 2005, I've served on the board for the National Qigong Association, and I’ve helped thousands of people to use qigong for their own stubborn health challenges. If you're ready to get started with qigong, there's no better way than my best selling book, which comes with free videos and meditations. The sooner you read my book, the sooner you can start healing! Click here to see my book on Amazon.
On this topic, the one who comes to my mind is Chen Fake. On Chen lineage of Taiji, he’s one of the best in history and he was very ill and weak in his childhood. This made him dedicate even more to practice and become a reference of Wude and ability, taking Taiji name to Beijing and never losing a duel. I recommend to look out a bit and study his life! And he was competing with the Chinese elite in martial arts!
Thanks for this blog, Anthony!
Greetings from Brazil!
Yes, Chen Fake is one of many examples!
Hi, so comforting to hear about this! To have an explatation why I’ve been struggeling. Thank you!
I’ve lacked energy all my life and struggled with tension related health symptoms as well. Recently read about highly sensitive persons, that’s me also. Little qi to start with, and then taking in to much of the world and leaking out energy to everyone everywhere. So good to hear that I’m not just lazy and that it’s not my “fault” that I’m tired. Doing qigong now every day and taking acupuncture also regularly. But it needs time and patience to fix..
Yvi from Norway
It’s definitely not your fault!
Hi Sifu,
I loved your video, thank you so much! This explains a lot for me!
After doing the 5 phase routine the other day, I went for a walk with my kids and two of my nieces. Without even double thinking, I was racing and playing around with the kids, I had so much energy and my thought was, “wow, I want to practice qigong all my life!”. I have many examples of feeling tired/lack of energy and switching to another state just by doing qigong! This is a real game changer for me! Thank you again!
Yay! Qi gong is a game changer! I was a sick baby and later in life fell sick with chronic pain ….. often I wake up drowsy and aching and need more sleep! But a bit of qigong and I am good to go (teach another class 🙂
It’s been almost 20 years since I started TAichi and Qigong and slowly I changed my life from chronic pain to much vitality and joy… :-))
Many thanks, Sifu Anthony
I still tend to think of qi as the lowest (in terms of vibration) form of subtle energy, known as etheric subtle energy. This stuff tends to get stuck to matter, which is why you can absorb more of it by breathing. The Earth’s subtle body radiates subtle energy, and you should be able to absorb it through your chakras as well … I think? The idea is that our spiritual bodies are like plants and subtle energy is what they run on. Your bodies can probably store some of it just like our physical bodies store energy if food runs out. There’s probably more to it than this, and it makes you wonder what role the other forms of subtle energy play besides helping to fuel what happens in our spiritual bodies.