Twenty-two years ago, I made a decision that would ultimately save my life.

That decision was as follows: I vowed to practice a particular qigong exercise (called Lifting The Sky) 10 times every day, no matter what.

This decision eventually led to a solid daily qigong practice – a practice that has managed a debilitating and life-threatening case of depression for over 22 years.

At the time, it didn’t seem like a big decision. I mean, it takes less than 2 minutes to do. All I knew was that I needed change. I also knew what hadn’t worked for me in the past: Resolutions.

It’s ironic because this WAS a New Year’s Resolution. And yet, it was different than other resolutions I had made in the past. Instead of resolving to quit smoking or exercise more, I resolved to do something simple and small every day.

As the new year rolls around, many of you are thinking about ways to improve your health and well-being. Maybe you’re thinking about exercising more. Or maybe you want to eat better. Or maybe since you’re reading my blog, you’re thinking about practicing qigong.

Resolving to practice qigong for 30 minutes daily in 2023 is a noble goal, but it’s also unrealistic. Studies show that, 2 years later, only 19% of people will have kept their resolution. Those are odds are not good enough for us.

My goal as a teacher is to help you make qigong a daily habit, something that you’ll not only be practicing 2 years from now, but 10.

But if resolutions don’t work, then what can we do instead? Luckily, there’s a straightforward answer to that question: focus on habits.

Habits > Resolutions

It’s natural to want to make changes and improvements in our lives. That part of the equation is good.

The problem is that resolutions don’t take human behavior into account. Resolving to lose weight in 2023 is a fantastic idea, but what does that mean, exactly? Can you simply lose weight by resolving to do it?

To lose weight, you’ll need to change your behavior. And to change your behavior, you need habits. Otherwise, you’ll need to motivate yourself every day.

With habits, there’s no motivation required once they are established. Do you need to motivate yourself to brush your teeth, or does it happen automatically?

This is why habits will always be greater than resolutions. Habits are small, consistent actions that we do automatically, without any fuss or muss. Habits are much easier to stick with than resolutions. That’s because they become a part of our daily routine, and when something is a part of our routine, it’s much easier to keep doing it.

How to Succeed with Habits in 2023

Here are some simple but important tips for adding new habits in 2023.

1. Start small. Instead of resolving to practice qigong every day for 30 minutes, resolve to practice for 2 minutes every day. This way, you’ll build up confidence and momentum.

2. Make it a daily habit. The truth is that a daily habit is easier than 3-4x per week. When you do something daily, it’s easier to do it consistently.

3. Find a trigger or reminder. If you want to start flossing every day, set the floss next to your toothbrush or in a place where you can easily see it. You can also add a reminder on your phone. 

4. Be patient and realistic. Habits take time to form, and it’s normal to have setbacks along the way. Don’t get discouraged if you miss a day or two. Be kind to yourself.

5. Find an accountability partner. Having someone to check in with can be a great way to stay on track. Whether it’s a friend, family member, or a professional coach, having someone to support you can make all the difference.

6. Celebrate your successes. It’s important to recognize and celebrate your progress along the way. Whether it’s a small victory or a major milestone, take the time to acknowledge and reward yourself for your hard work. Did you do 30 days in a row of your new habit? Awesome! Celebrate!

7. Don’t beat yourself up. It’s normal to have setbacks or slip-ups when trying to create new habits. Don’t let these setbacks discourage you. Instead, use them as an opportunity to solidify your desire to create this new habit.

8. Start with adding instead of subtracting. Quitting smoking is a wonderful goal. (Click here to read how I quit smoking years ago.) But adding a healthy new habit is easier than subtracting a bad one. Start with adding good habits. Eventually, these will help to crowd out the bad ones.

In Summary

Focus on creating habits rather than making resolutions. This is how you’ll make lasting changes. Habits are more effective than resolutions because they don’t require motivation and because they take human behavior into account. So don’t just make resolutions – make habits, and watch in amazement as your health improves in 2023 and beyond.

What habits will you add to your life in 2023? Which tips above are you most excited to implement to reach those goals? Let me know in the comments below!

From the heart,
Sifu Anthony

The post Don’t Make Resolutions, Make Habits: How to Get Healthier in 2023 appeared first on Flowing Zen.

“This isn’t the 18th century,” I said.

Jason looked puzzled by my statement, as if it had nothing to do with our conversation. He had asked me about picking the best qigong exercises for his situation.

“I feel like I have so many exercises to choose from,” he had said. “I want to plan the ultimate qigong routine, but I don’t know which ones to pick.”

That’s why my reply confused him. His look said, “Has Sifu lost his mind?”

Allow me to explain to you what I explained to Jason.

In the 18th century, if you were lucky enough to learn qigong — which would have been like winning the Powerball — then you would have probably learned just a handful of exercises during your first 3 years of study.

You were also expected to practice several hours per day.

In other words, there was no choice. You simply practiced all of the exercises every day. For hours on end.

21st Century Learning

In the 21st century, things are different. For example, in my Qigong 101 Program, I teach over 45 different qigong exercises over a period of 13 months. (It’s a 12-month program, but there’s a bonus month.)

Comparing these two teaching methods, we have:

• 18th century = learn 5 exercises over 3 years and practice 3 hours per day.
• 21st century = learn 45 exercises in 1 year and practice 15-30 minutes per day.

At first glance, this might seem backward. If modern students practice less, shouldn’t they learn fewer exercises?

My answer is clear: nope!

Times have changed, and it’s time for students to embrace that change.

Ancient Chinese Secrets

The old method for teaching qigong and tai chi involved a level of secrecy that is hard for the modern student to grasp.

From a teaching perspective, it was not a good pedagogy.

Pedagogy is an art and a science. Good teachers — of all subjects —  strive to improve their methods and thus maximize their students’ learning.

This increased efficiency means that modern students can now learn at a much faster rate.

But the traditional Chinese method was the opposite. It intentionally slowed things down in order to test the student’s commitment. In that sense, it was anti-pedagogical.

During your “probation” phase, secrets were intentionally held by the master. Students were NOT given critical information that would help them progress faster.

No More Secrets

Believe it or not, the tradition of secrecy is still alive today.

There are still teachers, both Asian and non-Asian, who keep secrets from their students.

In other words, they intentionally withhold information that would help their students progress faster.

I’ve never been a teacher who keeps secrets. I’m the son of two teachers, and I take pride in being a skillful educator. I’ve been teaching various arts since 1989, and I’ve always been fascinated by pedagogy. (If you’re curious, I’ve taught tennis, the violin, karate, and kung fu.)

In other words, I am always working on new ways to help my students to learn qigong in a more efficient way.

Liberal Arts Qigong

Let’s go back to Jason’s question. He wanted to know how to choose from the many qigong exercises that he knows.

I graduated from Columbia which is known for its Core Curriculum. Basically, during my first two years in college, I had to read every major piece of Western literature and philosophy.

In fact, a bunch of ancient names are carved into the top of the library: Homer – Herodotus – Sophocles – Plato – Aristotle – Demosthenes – Cicero – Vergil

I read all of those authors and countless more. They’re all on my bookshelf somewhere.

Now here’s my point: I don’t remember everything that I’ve read. I probably don’t even remember 25% of it.

Did I waste my time reading all those other books?

No, absolutely not.

Reading hundreds of books not only stretched and strengthened my mind, but it also helped me to figure out which authors were my favorites.

Naturally, this way of learning stuck with me. Decades later, I see tremendous value in bringing this liberal arts approach to the art of qigong.

The Food in Spain

Years ago, I visited a friend who lives in Spain. He’s originally from NYC like me, so we both have a high standard for food.

“The food is terrible here,” he warned. “But they all think it’s the best in the world.”

After a few meals, I started to believe him. The food was decidedly mediocre.

“Watch this,” he said. We were sitting in yet another mediocre restaurant, and he struck up a conversation with a couple at a nearby table.

“How’s the food here?” he asked in fluent Spanish.

“Excellent,” they both said.

“How’s the food in Spain?” he asked.

“Best in the world!” they both said enthusiastically.

“Do you travel much?” he asked.

“No, we’ve lived here all our lives.”

Do you see why I’m telling you this story? Because I don’t want you to be like that Spanish couple!

Broadening Your Horizons

In the qigong world, we often find teachers and students who, like that Spanish couple, believe that their style is the best in the world.

I’ve been guilty of this in the past. It’s human nature. We want to believe that our city, our sports team, our food, our religion — whatever it is that we are doing — MUST be the best in the world.

If you’ve only learned one style of qigong, or if you’ve only learned one qigong set with 8 to18 exercises — then how do you know if it’s the best?

What do you have to compare those exercises to?

As a teacher, I want to help you to broaden your horizons, to learn many different qigong exercises, and also many different types of qigong.

For example, I teach a variety of different qigong sets:

• The 18 Luohan Hands
• The 12 Qigong Treasures
• Sinew Metamorphosis (Yi Jin Jing)
• The 8 Brocades
• The 18 Arhat Arts
• The 18 Qigong Gems
• The 10 Neigong Exercises
• One Finger Shooting Zen

I’ve also practiced the following styles of qigong:

1. Shaolin Hunyuan Yi Qigong
2. Chu Style Nei Kung (aka Eternal Spring Qigong)
3. Yan Xin Qigong
4. Yi Quan
5. Chaoyi Fanhuan Qigong
6. Wild Goose Qigong
7. Primordial Qigong
8. Dragon and Tiger Qigong
9. Zhineng Qigong
10. Spring Forest Qigong
11. Holden Qigong

So when you learn Flowing Zen Qigong (the name of my style of qigong), you’re not just learning one style.

Actually, Flowing Zen Qigong is more like a university. I aim to give my students a liberal arts education in qigong.

In the end, I want you to figure out not which style of qigong is best, but which sets and skills are best for YOU.

How Big is Your Repertoire?

When selecting which exercises to practice, it’s good to have a large repertoire.

Years ago, I used to prescribe exercises for my students. Since I’m trained in Chinese Medicine, I would ask them a series of questions, and then select the best exercises for their situation.

But often, these students didn’t know the exercises that I wanted to prescribe. (Side note: this was one of the reasons that I originally started putting videos online — so that my students could have access to exercises they had not learned.)

I felt like a Chinese herbalist who only had access to a limited supply of herbs.

It was MUCH easier to prescribe exercises to students with a large repertoire. Often, I would be able to prescribe not just one, but a handful of exercises specifically working toward their goals.

Writing Your Own Prescription

Coming up with customized practice routines for students takes time. I have to ask a bunch of questions, try to figure out what’s going on, and then come up with a prescription based on the exercises that they know.

Since it takes up a lot of my time, it also costs money. But not all of my students could afford to pay me for my time.

Luckily, I discovered a method that didn’t require a prescription.

When students used this new method, they still got great results.

This method is simple, and you can start implementing it immediately, assuming that you have a good repertoire of qigong exercises.

Here’s the secret: choose favorites.

Choosing Favorites

In other words, the most cost-effective method I’ve found for targeting specific health conditions is as follows:

1. Teach the 5-Phase Routine
2. Teach 24-48 different qigong exercises (including different skills)
3. Encourage students to choose their favorites.

Why are favorites so important?

It’s like a pregnant woman choosing food intuitively. She and the baby need some specific nutrient, but she doesn’t need to read labels.

She may have no clue about the nutrient, and her doctor might not know either — but her body knows.

This is how you should approach qigong. Choose favorites like a pregnant woman with cravings.

Like the pregnant woman, your cravings may change from week to week. That’s fine. Keep following those cravings.

By choosing your favorite qigong exercises, you will:

• Be much more likely to practice, thereby increasing the dosage of qigong.
• Be much more likely to ENJOY your practice, thereby following the 3 Golden Rules.
• Gradually settle on exercises that are a perfect fit for your energy and your body.

Advantage, Online Learning

I started teaching this method before I started teaching online.

Now that I teach mainly online, I discovered something else.

When it comes to choosing favorites, online learning has an advantage over in-person learning.

For example, when I would prescribe exercises to students in my brick-and-mortar studio, I often found that even though they had learned the exercise a few years earlier, they had forgotten it.

Then, as I started giving my students review videos, I kept hearing the same thing over and over. “I forgot about _____ exercise. It’s my new favorite!”

With online learning, you have on-demand access to a library of exercises.

For example, by the time you finish my Qigong 101 program, you’ll have learned 45 different qigong exercises.

Obviously, you’ll have forgotten many of them over the span of 13 months.

But unlike in-person learning, you can go back and review at your leisure.

This doesn’t mean that online learning is better than in-person learning. They both have advantages and disadvantages.

But don’t listen to people who say that qigong can’t be learned online. It’s nonsense. 

The Key is the 5-Phase Routine

This method of choosing favorites may not work as well for every type of qigong.

The reason it works so well for my students is that they know the 5-Phase Routine.

Phase 3 of that routine is called Flowing Breeze Swaying Willow. This is a rare qigong skill that generates a palpable energy flow through the meridians.

Flowing Breeze Swaying Willow is unique because it doesn’t direct the qi, but rather, taps into the body’s natural healing wisdom.

When you practice specific qigong exercises, you are basically directing the energy to certain organs and meridians.

For example, when you practice Plucking Stars, you are directing the energy to the Spleen and Stomach Meridians.

That might sound good, but Chinese Medicine is more complicated than that. Maybe the problem SEEMS like it’s in your digestive system, but it’s actually in your Kidney Meridian instead.

What happens if you send qi to the wrong meridian?

The 5-Phase Routine is the great equalizer. Even if you choose exercises that send qi to the wrong meridian, the qi will redirect to the proper destination during Flowing Breeze Swaying Willow. It’s like an automatic guidance system.

If you’d like to learn the 5-Phase Routine, I teach it in the following online courses:

• Quiet Mind, Healthy Body: An Intro to Qigong
• Battling Depression and Anxiety with Qigong
• Qigong 101: The Art of Healing for Busy People

Summing Up

If you want better results from your practice, then you follow this advice:

1. Learn the 5-Phase Routine (my book is the most affordable option)
2. Learn a bunch of qigong exercises.
3. Pick your favorites.
4. Practice

You don’t need to learn 100 exercises. Maybe later, you can have fun learning that many. I’ve learned well over 300, but I’ve been doing this for a while.

Remember that this is a lifelong journey. Even if you’re 70 years old, you can still enjoy qigong for many, many years to come. There’s plenty of time to learn new material!

Questions? Comments? Let’s have a chat below. 

From the heart,
Sifu Anthony

The post The Real Secret to Planning the Ultimate Qigong Routine appeared first on Flowing Zen.

“I’ve been practicing qigong for 6 months, but I can’t say that I’ve made any progress,” she said. “I feel calm, relaxed, and centered after practicing, but not much else.”

This comment came from one of my newer students. I’ll call her Meredith. She first learned from me online, and then attended one of my live workshops.

Meredith’s experience is quite common, and I’m betting that many of you reading this can relate to what she said.

What should you and Meredith do?

I created the following checklist to help you to troubleshoot the problem (if there is one):

1. Are you measuring progress?
2. Are you following the 3 Golden Rules?
3. Are you following the 10/30/60 Rule?
4. Are you getting the proper dosage?
5. Are your expectations reasonable?
6. Are you being a Negative Nancy?
7. Are you practicing the right kind of qigong?
8. Do you have an awesome teacher?
9. Does your teacher know your name?

Although I designed this checklist specifically for students practicing Flowing Zen Qigong, I suspect that practitioners of other styles will still learn something as well. (Let me know in the comments below.)

As an aside, if you don’t yet practice qigong and you want to try, then CLICK HERE to get lifetime access to a free online program.

Now let’s go through each of these ideas in greater detail:

1. Are you measuring progress?

Do you keep a progress chart, tracking your ups and downs as you practice qigong?

Or do you keep a qi journal, a written diary of your qigong journey?

One way or another — are you quantifying things? For example, are you assigning a number to your pain levels and writing that number down daily or at least weekly?

Many students just wing it. They don’t measure things, they don’t write anything down, and they don’t quantify.

And yet somehow, despite a complete and utter lack of data — these students magically know that they’re not making progress.

Look, maybe it’s true that you’ve plateaued with your qigong healing.

But maybe it’s not true. Maybe you’re doing fine.

The simple fact is that if you’re not measuring, then there’s no way for you (or me) to know the difference.

In other words, you need to measure your progress before you can reasonably determine that there’s a lack of progress.

In many cases, there’s plenty of progress, but you just didn’t see it because you weren’t writing things down.

We’ll cover this more in #5 and #6.

In the meantime, click here to download a FREE copy of the progress chart that I’ve given to my students for over 10 years.

2. Are you following the 3 Golden Rules?

Are you letting go of your worries?

What about your thoughts? Are you letting go of those too?

And most importantly, are you enjoying yourself when you practice qigong?

If you answered “no” to any of these, then there’s your problem. You’re not following the 3 Golden Rules of Qigong Practice, which are:

1. Let go of your worries.
2. Let go of your thoughts.
3. Enjoy the qigong (or tai chi) session.

Let me be clear that this doesn’t mean that you are 100% worry free or 100% thought free.

It simply means that you are in the habit of letting go of thoughts and worries when you notice them.

Click here to read more about the 3 Golden Rules for Qigong (and Tai Chi)

3. Are you following the 10/30/60 Rule?

Are you obsessing about the form of your various qigong exercises, trying to get them perfect?

If so, then you’re breaking the 10/30/60 Rule (not to mention the 3 Golden Rules).

The 10/30/60 Rule states that:

• The physical aspect is responsible for 10% of your results.
• The breathing/energy aspect is responsible for 30% of your results.
• The meditation aspect is responsible for 60% of your results.

Contrary to popular belief, the physical aspect of the exercise is the LEAST important thing in qigong, and not by a little.

If this is news to you, if you’re confused about alignment, if you think the perfect form is critical for getting results — then you’ll benefit from reading this article here:

The #1 Mistake in Qigong, Tai Chi, and Meditation

4. Are you getting the proper dosage?

Imagine that you go to the doctor and she gives you some medicine for your problem.

“Take 2 pills with food every morning and every evening.”

For 6 months, you take 1 pill every other morning, usually with coffee instead of food.

Then you go back to your doctor and say something like: “Doc, the pills you gave me aren’t working!”

I often feel like that poor doctor.

Let’s get something straight: If you aren’t taking your prescribed medicine, then you can’t complain about it not working!

So what’s the proper dosage of qigong?

It depends on the style and the goals.

With Flowing Zen Qigong, the proper dosage for rapid and deep healing is 600 or more sessions of the 5-Phase Routine per year.

Click here to read more about the 5-Phase Routine.

The 5-Phase Routine takes about 15 minutes. So this means that you need to practice for 15 minutes twice per day, but that you also have 65 days of wiggle room where you can practice once per day.

The proper dosage for maintaining health is 365 or more sessions of the 5-Phase Routine per year.

So this means that you need to practice for about 15 minutes every day, and if you miss a day, then you need to catch up and practice twice the next day.

In other words, if you want to stay healthy, then you only need to practice once per day, but if you want to GET healthy, you’ll need to shoot for twice per day.

These dosages are doable, especially compared to other styles of qigong that require 60 or more minutes per day. Doable, but not easy. Many students still struggle.

Over the years, I’ve found that there’s a simple way for students to solve this problem: Start with 2 minutes a day.

Obviously, practicing for 2 minutes a day is a low dosage, and it’s not enough for the more amazing results that students often get from qigong.

But it’s solid start that eventually leads to a solid habit. And once you have a solid habit, even if it’s just 2 minutes — then you can turn it into a bigger habit (like 15 minutes).

Click here for an entire course dedicated to the subject of practicing qigong for 2 minutes a day.

5. Are your expectations reasonable?

“How long have you had this problem?” I asked. I was speaking with a new student. I’ll call him Carl.

“About 15 years now,” he said.

“And what else have you tried?”

“Everything,” he said. “I’ve been to the Mayo Clinic, I’ve tried Reiki, I’ve been to the chiropractor…”

“And did any of that help?”

“Not really,” he said. His frustration was all over his face. “I didn’t see any changes whatsoever.”

“It says here that your daily pain levels were at an 8 out of 10 before your first qigong class,” I said, looking at his registration forms.

This was back in the days of my brick-and-mortar studio when all of my students had written registration forms. For this question, the scale was 0-10, with 0 being zero pain whatsoever, and 10 being the worst pain imaginable.

“It’s been about 3 months since you started,” I noted from the date on his form. “How’s your pain now?”

“Maybe a 5.”

Let me back up. The reason I was having this conversation with Carl in the first place was because he was discouraged. He was so discouraged, in fact, that he wanted to cancel his membership to the studio.

“What I’m hearing is that your pain levels — which remained unchanged for 15 years despite various treatments — have gone from an 8 to a 5 in just 3 months of qigong.”

He nodded.

“That’s why I want to drop out,” he said. “It’s just not working.”

You might think that Carl was being sarcastic, that he had suddenly realized how silly he was being and thus decided to crack a joke. But you’d be wrong. He was completely earnest.

In other words, Carl saw a 37% improvement in his 15-year-old untreatable chronic pain levels after just 3 months of qigong — and he was disappointed.

I see this all the time. Students who have been suffering from a specific problem for years and have already tried everything — seen every Eastern and Western doctor, spent thousands of dollars, taken every supplement — come to qigong expecting it to magically fix everything in 3 months or less.

Obviously, Carl’s expectations were unreasonable. The problem was not with qigong, but with his attitude.

I should mention that Carl stayed on as a member and continued to practice qigong. After about 9 months of practice, his pain levels dropped down to a 2 (from his original 8).

6. Are you being a Negative Nancy?

If you go see an acupuncture physician, a chiropractor, or an MD, they will create a chart for you.

In the old days, those charts were physical. Now, they’re usually on an iPad. But it’s still a chart.

Over the months and years, your doctor will measure your progress by asking you questions, running diagnostics, etc.

Why do they do this?

If you’re a physician, then you know the REAL answer:

Doctors keep a chart on you because you are a Negative Nancy.

Humans are hardwired to notice the negative, not the positive. That’s just biology.

For example, let’s go back to Meredith’s original comment. She was worried that she wasn’t making progress with her qigong, and yet she also mentioned that she felt calm, relaxed, and centered after practicing.

Isn’t it a good thing to feel calm, relaxed, and centered?

Isn’t that similar to what Valium — one of the best-selling drugs in the history of drugs — does, but without the nasty side effects?

This is how the human brain works. We notice the negative and ignore the positive. We complain about the rainy days but hardly stop to notice the sunny days.

(As an aside, this is why I’m a big fan of practicing gratitude — because it forces us to pay attention to all the wonderful and positive things in our life.)

I’m not saying that Meredith didn’t raise legitimate concerns. She did, and I empathize. I know that she is still experiencing some of her old aches and pains.

But I also know that to overcome those aches and pains, she needs to get in the habit of noticing the positive, not just the negative.

7. Are you practicing the right kind of qigong?

Students are always asking what qigong exercise they should practice for ______ problem.

But what they should really be asking is why TYPE of qigong.

The exercise that you practice matters far less than the type of qigong that you practice.

There are 5 main types of qigong:

1. Medical (or Health) Qigong
2. Vitality (or Longevity) Qigong
3. Intellectual (or Scholar’s) Qigong
4. Martial Qigong
5. Spiritual Qigong

If you’re practicing martial qigong and expecting medical qigong results — well then there’s your problem!

Or vice versa, if you’re practicing medical qigong and wondering why you can’t break a brick with your hand — it’s the type of qigong, silly.

You can read more about the types of qigong here: The 5 Categories of Qi Cultivation

8. Do you have an awesome teacher?

When it comes to learning the violin or tennis, everyone knows that you need a good teacher.

But when it comes to qigong, people in the West get weird.

For some reason, many people think that they can learn qigong without a teacher.

They are wrong. Period.

If you don’t have a teacher, and preferably an awesome one — then there’s your problem.

Yes, a book can be a teacher, and so can a DVD. But also remember that books and DVDs are one-way.

That’s why a teacher is so important — so you can ask questions, get clarification, and get some feedback.

Click here to learn more about spotting bad qigong and tai chi teachers.

A teacher does far more than impart information. In fact, information is the least of what we do.

Qigong is an amazing art, and like any art, it needs to be properly taught.

There’s nothing wrong with varying your qigong education, and exploring what’s out there.

But to get good results, having an awesome teacher you trust needs to be a priority.

Which leads me to ask this question…

9. Does your teacher know your name?

“Who is your Sifu?” I asked.

“Oh, I don’t know if I would call him my Sifu, but I own Master Oogway’s DVDs, I’ve attended 2 of his live workshops, and I also read his book.”

“Does Master Oogway know your name?” I asked.

“Oh I’m quite sure that he has no idea who I am,” she giggled.

I offered a mild smile but didn’t laugh. To me, it wasn’t a laughing matter.

This woman, we’ll call her Dorothy, was using qigong as a primary healing tool in her battle against Multiple Sclerosis.

“Why is it that I know your name and Master Oogway doesn’t?” I asked.

She shrugged.

Don’t make this mistake. Don’t shrug this off.

If your teacher doesn’t know you, then she can only help you so far.

Some (but not all) of the big names in the qigong world are good teachers, but many of them also have way too many students.

There’s no way they can have a relationship with so many people.

It’s up to YOU to go find a teacher with whom you can build a relationship.

I mean a teacher who knows your name, who knows your history, knows your goals, and cares about your progress.

Let’s come back to Meredith, the student from the beginning of this article.

Although her real name isn’t Meredith, she is a real student of mine. In fact, I’ll probably get an email from her once she reads this.

I suspect that there are several points in this article that Meredith will benefit from.

But one thing she doesn’t need to worry about is #9. I know her name, and it ain’t Meredith.

What about you? Does your Sifu know your name?

Bottom Line

I want you to get the results that you deserve. I want you to fall madly in love with qigong. I want you to be a raving fan who tells all her friends about this awesome thing called qigong.

Qigong works.

If it’s not working for you, that’s okay. It happens. But instead of giving up, use this article to troubleshoot the problem.

Before you know it, you’ll be getting the amazing benefits that the rest of us are getting from this beautiful art! 

From the heart,
Sifu Anthony

The post Troubleshooting Your Qigong Practice: 9 Things to Check appeared first on Flowing Zen.

If you’re like most 21st century humans, then you make your resolutions in January.

It never works, but you do it anyway.

Oh, don’t worry. You’re not alone. The failure rate for new year’s resolutions is about 92%.

What if I told you that the problem wasn’t with your willpower, but rather with your timing?

There is a better way to make resolutions — a method based on the wisdom of the ancient Chinese masters who discovered qigong, acupuncture, and feng shui.

If you want to learn about this method, then this article is for you.

What is a Resolution?

First, let’s define “resolution”:

resolution

noun

1. the act of resolving or determining upon an action, course of action, method, procedure, etc. 

In other words, a resolution is simply a firm decision that leads to action.

Humans are capable of making firm decisions that lead to inspired actions.

Although we normally associate resolutions with the new year, we can make them any time of year.

In fact, January is a terrible time to make a resolution!

This is good news for you! You didn’t fail because you’re broken; you failed because your timing was wrong!

The Ancient Chinese Approach

To better understand our failure with New Year’s Resolutions, let’s look through the lens of an ancient Chinese paradigm called The Five Elements.

Once you look through this lens, you’ll not only understand why you’ve failed in the past, but you’ll immediately understand how to flip your failure into success.

The Theory of The Five Elements is a philosophy that is central to many Chinese arts, including qigong, tai chi chuan, acupuncture, herbal medicine, therapeutic massage, and feng shui.

You’ve already heard of the grandmother of the Five Element Theory.

It looks like this:

That’s the symbol for the Theory of Yin and Yang, and it’s closely tied to the Theory of The Five Elements.

See the colors surrounding the yin-yang symbol above? Those actually represent The Five Elements.

When I was in acupuncture college, we spent months learning about the interrelated theories of Yin and Yang and The Five Elements. These theories form the foundation of Traditional Chinese Medicine, so they’re super important.

But luckily, you don’t need a deep understanding of The Five Elements in order to benefit from it. 

For example, I bet you’ve already gained perspective at least once in your life by viewing things in terms of a balance of yin and yang, right?

Maybe it went something like this:

“My work/life balance is unhealthy. I need to find more of a yin-yang harmony between them.”

Or this:

“That type of exercise is too yang for me. I need something more yin.”

We’re going to do something similar right now, but using The Five Elements instead.

A Quick History of The Five Elements

First of all, you need to understand that The Five Elements are not really elements. This is not a periodic table containing elements like hydrogen and oxygen.

The ancient Chinese masters didn’t believe that the cosmos was made of only 5 physical elements. 

The Chinese term Wu Xing (五行) is actually really hard to translate. Here are a half dozen translations, which I hope will help to give you a broader perspective:

1.            The Five Elements
2.            The Five Phases
3.            The Five Agents
4.            The Five Movements
5.            The Five Processes
6.            The Five Stages

The Chinese masters discovered that a wide variety of phenomena in the universe could be explained by a 5-phase paradigm.

These 5 phases were described using symbols: Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Wood.

You’ll typically see The Five Element chart presented in this order:

If you want to learn more about The Five Elements, then please let me know in the comments section, and I’ll write more about them in future articles.

For the purposes of this article, all you need to know is this:

Each element has an energy to it, and each of those energies is associated with a season.

So for example, the Water Element is associated with an energy that retreats. In the Water Element, we see stillness and storage, like a bear hibernating in the winter.

The Wood Element, on the other hand, is associated with an energy that grows and sprouts. With this Element, we see new vitality and budding life, like flowers beginning to blossom in the spring.

The Wood Element

If you want to start eating healthier, then that’s a new habit that you want to “sprout”. That’s the energy of the Wood Element.

And here’s the crux of this article: New plants don’t sprout in January.

The Wood Element is one of growth, which is ideal for adding new habits. And the season for the Wood Element is springtime, not January.

I bet that you can feel the truth of this.

For example, here in Florida, spring has already sprung, and it’s something that you can feel all around you.

In other parts of the Northern Hemisphere, spring will come over the next 1-2 months.

(If you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, then you’ll have to wait to feel it.)

As spring blossoms, try to feel the energy.

• Do you feel more alive?
• Do you notice the morning air not only filling your lungs, but inspiring you?
• Do you have more energy to do things?
• Is it easier to make decisions?

There’s a reason why houses and desks are more likely to get cleaned out during the spring. Spring cleaning is a perfect example of the energy of the Wood Element!

And THIS is precisely the energy that you want for your resolutions, not the energy of winter and the Water Element.

When to Let Go of A Bad Habit

Notice that I specifically mentioned adding a healthy, new habit, not letting go of a bad one.

The energy of The Wood Element is for new growth, not for letting go.

The energy of letting go belongs to the Metal Element, like trees letting go of their leaves.

If you want to let go of of a bad habit like smoking, then your chances are better if you wait for the energy of the Metal Element in autumn.

The same goes for letting go of bad relationships, or quitting a job that is killing you.

By all means, make a firm decision this spring.

Decision making is associated with your Liver and Gallblader Meridians, both of which are part of the Wood Element.

That’s why it’s easier (but not necessarily easy) to make big decisions in the spring.

But if you want to let go of a bad habit, I strongly recommend that you don’t decide now, and then wait for autumn.

Remember that resolutions are not just about decisions, but about following a decision with action.

Make the decision now to quit that habit in autumn, but take action now — action that will support your habit later.

Why Adding a Habit is Better Than Subtracting

The research on habit-building shows that it’s far easier to add a good habit than to eliminate a bad one.

In other words, even if you decide that you’re going to quit a habit this autumn, you’re going to need all the help you can get.

Why not add a habit this spring that can help you to better let go this autumn?

I truly believe that qigong is one of the best habits that you can add, and that now is the time to do it.

Research is mounting that shows that mindfulness can help you to be more motivated to make big life changes.

And when it comes to mindfulness, it’s hard to beat qigong.

Even just 2 minutes a day of qigong will help you to be better prepared to make other, healthier changes down the road.

So if you want to let go of a bad habit, don’t just wait for autumn, but add a good habit right now.

Make a Smart Decision

Look back, and you’ll see that some of the biggest and best changes in your life came after making a strong, clear decision.

But you also DID something after making that decision. In other words, your decision or resolution was followed by action.

If you’re inspired to make a decision this spring, that’s wonderful! Just be careful not to write a check that you can’t cash.

Here’s an example:

“I read this great article online, and I’m inspired to make changes! I’m resolving to go to the gym 5 days per week, starting tomorrow!”

If you’re already going to the gym 3 days per week, then this is doable.

But chances are, you’re not going 3 days per week, or even 3 days per month.

If haven’t been to the gym since January 4th, then this kind of decision is a mistake.

Decisions can be powerful, but they have to be done right. Don’t just make a decision; make it a smart one.

The Beauty of Tiny Habits

As research grows on habit making, you’ll be hearing more and more a about tiny habits.

I’ve been talking about tiny habits for years, and I’m happy to see that the research is catching up.

In fact, a tiny habit saved my life years ago. That tiny habit was simple: 2 minutes of qigong every day, no matter what.

I recommend that you use the energy of the Wood Element to pick a tiny habit that requires little to no willpower.

Here are 9 life-changing habits that require zero willpower.

There are a bunch of options in that article, but I still recommend that you choose qigong.

Make A Change, Starting Now

If, right now, you decide to practice qigong for 2 minutes per day, and you follow through on that decision — then you will forever alter the rest of your life.

2 minutes isn’t a high enough dosage to give you the amazing results that my students get, but you’ll still get results.

And more importantly, it’s a habit! The #1 reason students fail with qigong is because they fail to make it a daily habit.

So start with 2 minutes.

Click here to start learning qigong right now, for free.

(If you’ve already got a 2-minute qigong habit, then resolve to do 4 or even 8 minutes per day — no matter what.)

It’s easier if you do this with a friend. Share the free course with them, and then the two of you can be accountability partners.

You don’t need to live near them. Just check in every week and keep each other honest with your tiny habit.

Or you can join our Facebook community and share your wins and struggles there. We’ve got a great group!

But act now. Take the energy of the Wood Element, and use it to sprout a new, healthy habit in your life!

Start now, with a clear conscience. Now that you know that it wasn’t your fault, now that you know your timing was off, you can let go of all your guilt from past failure.

What tiny habit will you add now that your slate is totally clean?  

From the heart,
Sifu Anthony

The post Why Ancient Chinese Masters Saved Their Resolutions for Springtime appeared first on Flowing Zen.

For years, I felt like a fraud.

I’m often seen as someone oozing with willpower. After all, I’ve spent the last 25 years mastering several styles of kung fu, including various weaponry. (If you didn’t know that tai chi is a form of kung fu, then you might enjoy reading this article later.)

But here’s the thing: I never felt like someone with willpower.

You know. Like one of *those* people — the ones born with an iron will.

Later, I learned something that changed my life:

The reason I didn’t feel like someone with willpower was because I didn’t actually know what willpower was.

Mind blown!

Why You’ve Got More Willpower Than You Think

A few years ago, I read a fascinating book called The Willpower Instinct.

It was so interesting, that I read two more books on the subject: The Power of Habit, and Switch: How To Change When Change Is Hard.

(Note: those are affiliate links, which means that I receive a tiny commission if you purchase using them, at no extra cost to you. Thanks for helping me to buy more awesome books to read!)

After reading those three books, I had an “aha” moment.

“I’ve got willpower!” I said to myself.

You’ve got it too. The reason you don’t think you’ve got willpower is because you’re thinking about it all wrong.

What Willpower Really Is

You probably think that willpower is something that some people just have, that it’s something they were born with. And you probably think that it’s something you were NOT born with.

That’s what I thought for years. But it’s not true.

More research has been done on willpower over the last 10 years than in the last 1000.

All of it points to one important conclusion that can totally change your life.

In a nutshell, here’s what the research says: Willpower is a skill.

This is GREAT news for all of us. If someone has willpower, then it’s because they developed that skill through practice.

And this means that literally anyone can develop more willpower.

But wait. Don’t you need willpower to build willpower?

Yes and no. Before we talk about how willpower develops, let’s talk about how willpower gets depleted. Let’s plug the leaks first.

How Willpower Gets Depleted

A famous willpower study was done in the 1990s. Basically, a psychologist named Roy Baumeister figured out an ingenious way to torture college students.

All of the participants were sat down in front of a plate of freshly baked cookies.

Some of the participants were allowed to eat those cookies.

But some of them were asked to eat radishes instead – with the cookies sitting right in front of them

In other words, they had to sit there and choose to eat radishes rather than freshly baked cookies.

But this wasn’t the end of the test.

Afterward, both groups were given puzzles that basically assess your current level of persistence, which is a measure of willpower.

Guess which group did better?

Yep. The group that ate the cookies did much better.

Why? Because it takes willpower to resist eating freshly baked cookies.

In other words, the students depleted their willpower by resisting the temptation of eating the cookies.

Do Cookies Build Willpower?

If you’re thinking, “COOKIES BUILD WILLPOWER!!!” then hold on a second. That’s not exactly what the research showed.

What that study really proved is that flexing your willpower muscles leaves you temporarily depleted.

It’s a lot like weight lifting, really.

In order to resist the temptation of the freshly baked cookies, the students had to flex their willpower muscles. Afterward, they were left depleted.

If you are depleted, but you try to flex your willpower muscles again – then you’re probably going to fail.

But the depletion is only temporary. Understanding this fact is the first step to building more willpower.

By being more strategic with how you spend your willpower, you’ll build it more easily.

It’s important to remember that willpower is needed for both adding and subtracting things. Adding a daily meditation habit requires willpower, and so does subtracting a daily smoking habit.

Where are you spending your willpower? Are you being strategic? Or are you haphazard with the way that you build willpower?

How to Build Willpower

What if the researches had tortured the poor students every day for a few months?

What if, every day, the students had been required to sit there and eat radishes while staring at freshly baked cookies?

What would have happened to their willpower?

It would have grow. Just like a muscle.

Here’s how I grew my own willpower.

My Battle With Willpower

“But Sifu, you’re different!” she said.  “You don’t understand how hard it is for us regular people to practice every morning!”

But see, I do understand. I totally understand! I — of all people — understand!

When I was in my 20s, I experienced my first episode of Major Depressive Disorder. As a result, I was left with a lot of bad habits.

I smoked. I slept poorly and woke up late. I ate like crap. I drank too much. I had no energy.

It’s true that I had already earned a black belt in karate by this point. And yes, that requires willpower.

But my willpower muscles had all grown weak and flabby.

I actually started learning qigong and kung fu during this time, but I struggled to practice daily.

So how did I turn things around?

I did it with an exercise called Lifting The Sky.

But I didn’t try to do a 15-minute session, as I had been taught. That was too much. Instead, I started doing it for 2 minutes a day.

Just 2 minutes a day.

Building Willpower 2 Minutes At a Time

At the time, I thought that willpower was supposed to be easy. I thought it was just supposed to flow. Effortlessly.

But willpower was hard for me. Damn hard.

Some days, I forgot to do my 2 minutes, and only realized once I was already in bed.

So I got up and did 2 minutes. That was hard. It probably doesn’t sound hard, but it was like a major battle for me.

But day by day, I kept going. Just 2 minutes.

30 days went by, and I hadn’t missed a day. A winning streak! Believe me, at that time in my life, I needed to win at something.

So I kept going. 60 days went by, and then 90, and before I knew it, I had done 2 minutes a day for about 6 months. I hadn’t missed a single day!

(Click here for a course about building healthier habits with a 2-minute qigong routine.)

When Willpower Becomes Easy

There is a point when willpower becomes less difficult, when it becomes almost effortless.

That’s the confusing part. I myself was confused for years.

Here’s what helped me understand: Willpower is different than habit.

Do you use willpower to brush your teeth every morning? No, you don’t. Because it’s a habit.

Once you create a solid habit, willpower is no longer necessary. The autopilot flips on. And that’s exactly what you want.

Doing 2 minutes a day flexed my willpower muscles and made them stronger and stronger.

But it also did something else. Eventually, my 2-minute routine became a habit. Once it was a habit, I didn’t need to use willpower any more.

This meant that I had extra willpower leftover to spend on something else. I chose to spend it on practicing for about 15 minutes instead of 2.

And then that built more willpower. And then that became a habit.

You might also enjoy: 10 Reasons to Try Qigong If You Need More Willpower

You see how this works? You see how you can do the same thing?

I recommend that you start with something ridiculously simple, like I did. Pick something that flexes willpower, but can also become a healthy new habit.

In this case, it’s usually better to add a habit than try to subtract. (In other words, add a healthy habit rather than subtracting an unhealthy one.)

So pick a new habit, and do it daily for 30 days. Flex those willpower muscles, get them stronger, and build a habit at the same time.

This is exactly how masters are made — one step at a time. If you catch yourself thinking, “Oh, I could never be a tai chi master,” then stop it! Out with the old way of thinking, and in with the new. 

From the heart,
Sifu Anthony

The post Tips From a Kung Fu Master: Willpower Isn’t What You Think appeared first on Flowing Zen.

I’m done. I won’t ever make another New Year’s resolution. Never again.

You should stop too.

The way we make New Year’s resolutions is totally flawed. We are torturing ourselves needlessly, and we need to stop.

Did you know that 200 million Americans will set resolutions, but only 8% of them will succeed?!?

Those are terrible odds!

Don’t get me wrong. The sentiment behind a New Year’s resolution is great. The desire to start fresh, the motivation to make habit changes, to inspiration to grow as person – these are wonderful things.

And that’s precisely why we need to stop this nonsense about making resolutions in the new year.

Here are the top 5 reasons why I stopped making New Year’s Resolutions:

1. Resolutions Are Too Rigid.

I tried to quit smoking a dozen times before I finally succeeded. The reason I failed so many times is simple: I was way too rigid.

Roughly 2500 years ago, Lao Tzu (老子)  said everything you need to know about rigidity in the Dao De Jing:

Humans are born soft and supple;
Dead, they are stiff and hard.
Plants are born tender and pliant;
Dead, they are brittle and dry.

Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible
Is a disciple of death.
Whoever is soft and yielding
Is a disciple of life.

The hard and stiff will be broken.
The soft and supple will prevail.

This is fantastic advice for qigong, tai chi, and life.

On January 1^st, 1997, I made a resolution: “I’m never smoking again!”

My approach was hard and stiff, and I failed as a result.

I know what some of you are thinking. “Sifu, didn’t you eventually quit smoking by going cold turkey and vowing to never take another puff?”

It’s true. That’s how I eventually quit.

But I wasn’t rigid about it. It wasn’t January 1^st, it wasn’t a New Year’s Resolution, and I knew that failure was a possibility (having done it a dozen times already).

In other words, I was soft and supple. And that’s why I succeeded. That is why I haven’t had a puff in many, many years.

2. Motivation Doesn’t Last

Have you heard the joke about gym memberships?

Most people pay $300 per visit.

The joke is on you!

For example, many of my students pay $50 per month for a gym membership. Every January, they are motivated to get in shape, and they go to the gym.

Twice.

If you pay $600 per year for a membership, and use it twice, then guess what?

That’s $300 per visit.

“But if I cancel, I’ll lose my special member price!”

Is $300 per visit really so special?

Cancel your gym membership, and spend the money on something you’ll actually do. If you love qigong and tai chi, then go do that. If you love Zumba, go do that. If you love photography (my newest obsession), then go take a photography course (preferably one that does photo walks and gets you outdoors).

When you signed up for a gym membership, you were motivated to change. That’s awesome!

But motivation doesn’t last. The truth is that motivation is only useful for one thing: making or breaking a habit.

Speaking of habits…

3. Habit Is Everything

If you haven’t learned this universal truth yet, then please let me teach it to you right now.

Habit. Is. Everything.

Willpower is a big subject, and something I plan to write more about. But here’s what you need to know:

Once you make something a habit, it requires zero willpower.

People think I must have a ton of willpower because I practice qigong, tai chi, and meditation every day. (My record is 4015 days in a row.)

The truth is that I no longer use willpower to practice.

Wake up. Pee. Brush my teeth. Drink some water. Go practice. 

That’s my routine. That’s been my routine for years. It’s a habit, zero willpower required.

Trying to eliminate a habit? Same thing. You’ll need willpower initially, but eventually, you fly on autopilot.

I used to smoke 20 cigarettes a day. Quitting smoking once and for all required a ton of willpower.

But nowadays? I rarely even think about cigarettes. I definitely don’t need willpower to not smoke every day.

Once you discover that habit is everything, resolutions become obsolete.

Saying “I’m going to lose weight in 2016,” is meaningless.

Say this instead: “I’m going to do my best to create a daily habit of walking for 20 minutes!”

That’s focusing on a new habit, and that’s how your life will change: step by step.

4. Change Happens Step By Step

Normally, you have 365 days to implement change. This year, you’ve got 366. Happy Leap Year!

There’s a reason Alcoholics Anonymous encourages people to take things one day at a time. Because that’s how real change happens.

One step at a time.

Poco a poco.

Bit by bit.

If you try to do too much too fast, then you set yourself up for failure.

Instead of vowing to make all kinds of crazy change at once, try these ideas instead:

• Try to make or break 1 habit every fiscal quarter (i.e. every 3 months).
• Break harder habits later after you’re already on a roll.
• Make a list of all the good habits you already have (like brushing your teeth, getting enough sleep, eating kale, etc.).
• Figure out what you want. This is harder than it sounds. I recommend Jack Canfield’s advice to make a list of long-term goals using the following formula: 30 Things I Want To Have, 30 Things I Want To Be, and 30 Things I Want To Do.
• Seek out communities and activities that naturally come with good habits, like running or walking clubs, or a yoga or meditation studio.
• Keep track of your progress. Use your iPhone, a spreadsheet, or a good old piece of paper. This works better than you might think.

5. January Sucks For Changing Things

According to the ancient Chinese theory of the Five Elements, January is an awful time to implement change.

Actually, you already know this.

Why do flowers implement change in the spring?

The energy of springtime is much better for metamorphosis and growth. When I talk about energy here, I’m referring to Qi, the weather, cosmology, and how all of this affects the human body.

(On a side note, if you don’t believe that heavenly bodies can have an effect on something as small as a human, well then I think the moon and the oceans might disagree with you.)

Anyway, January is not a great time for starting anew. We just finished a marathon of holidays, we’re exhausted, and everything in nature is retreating and restoring.

Wait until spring. Start making changes in March or April, and then by next January, you’ll have a serious habit in place!

In Summary

So there you have it. New Year’s resolutions are well-intentioned, but ultimately unhelpful. There are better ways to create lasting change in our lives.

Did I miss anything? Got any thoughts or comments to add? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

The post 5 Reasons You Should Stop Making New Year’s Resolutions appeared first on Flowing Zen.

It’s definitely a 21st century problem.

In the old days, disciples were lucky to learn a handful of Qigong and/or Tai Chi exercises.  The question of what to practice never really arose.  You simply practiced everything you knew!

In the past, disciples also practiced more.  A lazy practitioner would log in at least 365 hours per year, and a dedicated one might practice 1500 hours.

Now fast forward to the 21st century.

Modern students typically learn dozens of exercises.  For example, in my studio, I regularly teach nearly 100 different Qigong exercises.  (Click here for an article about how many exercises you need to know.)

Modern students also practice less.  A typical student will log in 90-200 hours of practice per year.

This modern combination — more exercises plus less practice time — creates a dilemma for many students.   What to practice?!?!

Here are some tips to help you with that dilemma.

1. Embrace the Process

First of all, understand that this is a necessary process.   If you’re going to become a lifelong practitioner of Qigong and Tai Chi, then you must learn to take ownership of your repertoire of techniques, and your daily practice routine.  There’s no escaping this process, so you might as well embrace it!

2. Pick What You Like

Do you enjoy Pushing Mountains?  Then do it!  If you enjoy it, then it’s good for you!

I tell my students to choose what to practice the way a pregnant woman chooses what to eat.  She eats what she wants! And usually there’s a biological need underneath her choices.  She chooses beets because they provide her and her baby with a specific nutrient.

It’s the same with Qigong and Tai Chi.  When you choose exercises intuitively, you’re providing yourself with some sort of energetic “nutrient”. For example, you might chose an exercise that you like, but it just so happens to be for your back pain.  You don’t need to know which exercises are good for back pain.  All you need to do is choose techniques that you enjoy!

3. Pick What You Dislike

Do I contradict myself?  Very well, then I contradict myself.  Qigong is large, and contains multitudes!  (That’s a Walt Whitman reference for the literature geeks out there.)

Actually, it’s not a contradiction.   Sometimes, you should pick an exercise precisely because you dislike it. For some of you, a specific exercise probably popped into your mind as soon as you read that.

For example, some people dislike Three Levels to Earth (a Qigong exercise that involves a low squat) because it is challenging for them.  But the reason it is is challenging is because it is exactly what they need!

Don’t always pick exercises that you dislike.  Just once in a while.  And pay attention to how you feel afterward.  You may be pleasantly surprised!

4. Set Goals

If your goal is to be able to touch your toes in 3 months, then you had better choose exercises like Drumming Kidneys, Touching Toes.  If your goal is to clear emotional blockages, then you had better include the Five Animal Play. If you want to develop internal strength, then you had better be practicing the Warrior Postures.

Or, if you don’t have goals — well then no wonder you can’t decide what to practice! Folks, there’s a reason why I’m constantly emphasizing the importance of goal setting.  It’s important!  Get to it!

5. Use Your Intuition

The conscious mind processes about 40 thoughts per second.  Meanwhile the subconscious mind processes 40,000 thoughts per second.  Wrap your conscious mind around that!

Try to write poetry or compose music using your conscious mind.  It doesn’t work very well.  This is something that poets and musicians have known for centuries.  They rely on their “muse” to help them shift from the conscious to the subconscious mind.

If you tend to be the type of person who is stuck in your head, then it’s good exercise to practice getting out of the conscious mind.  The best way to to this is to choose exercises after you enter into a Zen state of mind.  In other words, don’t decide what to practice until you’ve already begun to practice.

6. Ask your Sifu

Sometimes, you need a little guidance.  That’s what a Sifu is for.

What are the 3 best techniques for healing my knees?  What Tai Chi exercises should I be focusing on at my level of development?  How often should I be practicing the Small Universe?

These are questions that your Sifu can (hopefully) answer.

7. Be Grateful

If you feel overwhelmed by all the choices, then start with gratitude.  Feel grateful that, by some cosmic coincidence, these amazing, life-changing arts traveled through history, across the globe, and fell into your lap.

When a kid walks into a candy store, she doesn’t fret over all the different choices.  She gets excited!   She’s happy!  What an amazing place a candy store is!

Be like the kid in the candy store.

8. Practice More

It’s amazing how much material you can keep in your repertoire if you practice more!  How do you think I learned (and remembered) so many exercises?  Because I practiced (and still practice) a lot!

This is especially true for those who practice Kung Fu (including Tai Chi Chuan).  If you practice more, then it’s easy to keep all of those different forms active in your repertoire.

For those of you who are working toward your 24 Qigong exercises, you can also benefit by practicing more.  If you only practice 15 minutes per day, then 24 exercises will feel like a lot.  But if you practice 15 minutes 2x per day, then 24 will feel much more doable.

9. When In Doubt, Lift The Sky

If all else fails, just go Lift The Sky.  It’s an amazing exercise that covers a lot of ground.  It gives you a wonderful spinal stretch, it balances the energy in your 12 Primary Meridians, it calms the Monkey Mind, it reduces stress, it stimulates the immune system, and it relieves pain.  Sounds pretty good to me! 

From the heart,
Sifu Anthony

The post Help! I Can’t Decide What Qigong Exercises To Practice! appeared first on Flowing Zen.

Kung. Fu. Master.

Those three words summon up ideas of limitless willpower, intense discipline, and superhuman self-control.

At least if we believe what we see in the movies.

Actually, it’s mostly true. The Kung Fu masters that I’ve met in my journeys have all been incredibly disciplined men and women.  In some ways, they’re like characters right out of a Kung Fu movie.

(By the way, when I talk about Kung Fu masters, I’m also referring to Tai Chi masters. Tai Chi is one of the many styles of Kung Fu that I have learned.  It’s also my favorite.)

Wouldn’t you like to know their secret? I mean, if you had that kind of discipline, you could make amazing changes, build healthy new habits, eliminate bad ones, and create the life you dream of!

I’ll reveal their secret, and it may very well change your life. But I’m warning you:  You’re probably going to be surprised.

Karate vs. Kung Fu

I didn’t begin my martial arts journey with Kung Fu. I started in college with a Karate class, and I earned my black belt a few years later.

It wasn’t until much later than I switched to Kung Fu. (Even then, I went through various styles of Kung Fu before finally settling on Tai Chi.)

When I started learning Kung Fu, I was hit with a bit of culture shock. The Karate culture, which is influenced by Japanese ideas of strictness and order, is heavily regimented.  You wear clean, white uniforms.  You bow.  You follow etiquette.

Or else.

The Karate culture was (and still is) almost like a military organization with its complex set of rules.

The Kung Fu culture, on the other hand, is quite casual.  In all the different Kung Fu schools I’ve attended, there’s never been a standard uniform. My first Kung Fu teacher taught in jeans.  Even when my teachers wore traditional Kung Fu suits, none of the students did.

The difference between the Kung Fu and Karate world was confusing to me at first.  For years, I thought that Kung Fu needed more discipline.  More structure.  More order.

I was wrong.

Years later, I realized that the big secret to long-term discipline was to be found in the Kung Fu culture, not the Karate culture!

The Big Secret

Okay, so what’s the big secret that Kung Fu masters know? If I had to pick an English phrase, it would be this:

Slow and steady wins the race.

Let me explain.

In America, we worship  “No Pain, No Gain” as our guiding philosophy.  The Karate culture has a similar philosophy.  For all intents and purposes, these two philosophies are the same.

But the guiding philosophy of the Kung Fu culture is different.  You win not by pushing, not by tensing and gritting your teeth, but by relaxing and persevering over time.

To Americans, this can feel truly foreign.  When I first encountered it, I honestly thought that it was downright lazy.

There’s a casualness to genuine Kung Fu training that can be confusing. For example, my Sifu often said to me:

“It’s better to under-practice than to over-practice.”

The first time I heard him say this, I corrected him, assuming that he had mixed it up.  (English is his 2nd language, after all.)  But no, he had said what he meant, and meant what he said!

Compare that to a quote by one of the most famous Karate masters in history, Mas Oyama, who said,  “Train more than you sleep.”

Now that’s what I’m used to!  No pain no gain!  Someone telling me to practice like crazy until I go crazy!

But that’s not Kung Fu.

Don’t Push Hard

In Kung Fu, you don’t push hard.  If your training seems hard to the average person (and it probably would), then it’s because you have gradually worked up to that level over a long period of time.  To you, it should not feel difficult because you’ve adapted to it.

In other words, your daily training session feels effortless, almost easy to you.

This makes sense, from a martial arts perspective.  Kung Fu was developed in times of actual life-or-death combat.  In that world, there’s no room for injury.

The “no pain, no gain” approach creates injuries.  It happens all the time in the Karate culture, just like it does with professional athletes. It’s the norm to have injuries that put you out of action.

In the old days, that approach would have gotten you killed.  If you trained so hard that you injured yourself, then you won’t be able to defend yourself on the street or the battlefield.  You had to be fresh, healthy, and mentally calm — at all times.

Qi and Chinese Medicine

This is probably why the ancient Kung Fu masters gravitated toward the principles of Qi and Chinese medicine.  If you push too hard in your training, then you drain the internal energy, or Qi.  And that’s just plain bad for your health.

In Kung Fu, we refuse to sacrifice our health with our training.  The opposite, in fact; we want to build health.  That’s why, of all the martial arts in the world, the one that is most widely practiced for health is Tai Chi (even to the point where most no longer even recognize it as a martial art).

Karate, on the other hand, does not necessarily make you healthier.  It may make you stronger, or more fit — but not healthier.  (Remember that you can be fit without being healthy.)

In other words, Kung Fu trains you not just to defend yourself against punches and kicks, but also to defend yourself from colds and flus, chronic illness, and even from accidents.

How can you defend from accidents?  By not draining your Qi. If you’re tired, if you’re weak, if your energy is scattered — then you’re more likely to get in an accident, whether it’s driving a car, or just crossing the street.

The Sprinter vs. the Marathoner

They say that early humans, before the invention of the spear, the atlatl, or the bow, thrived on something known as “persistence hunting”.  Humans didn’t have sharp fangs or claws, nor did they have camouflage, nor did they have the ability to sprint as fast as most mammals.

What they had was persistence.  Endurance.  And this turned out to be a powerful tool.  

Most mammals are faster than us in the short run, but not in the long run.   Early human hunters were successful because they chased their prey for hours, until the animal literally dropped from exhaustion.

And that’s a lot like Kung Fu.

Humans are not natural sprinters.  We are natural long-distance runners.  This metaphor applies beautifully to the Kung Fu concept of discipline.

Kung Fu masters win not by sprinting, but by pacing themselves for the long run. And they succeed beautifully.  More than any other martial art, masters of Kung Fu can be found practicing in their 90s and even into their 100s.

Very few martial artists are able to maintain such a long-term practice for so long.  Most are sprinters.  They may sprint and earn a black belt in 5 years, but a few years later, they stop practicing.  They may pick it up again a few years later, keep at it for 10 years, and then stop again.

Most of my Karate colleagues from 20 years ago are no longer practicing.  (One of them still practices, but he switched to Kung Fu, so I don’t think he counts!)

Meanwhile, I’m still practicing daily.  Slow and steady.  Year after year.  Decade after decade.

You Are Not Undisciplined

If you think that you’re undisciplined, you’re probably wrong. It’s more likely that you’re just reacting to the “no pain, no gain” approach.  If you’re bad at that, then don’t fret.  So was I.  And that’s why I love the Kung Fu approach.

I’ve watched thousands of students wrestle with the concept of discipline.  What most students do is try to muscle it.  They push hard because their culture tells them to push hard.  And after a few months, or maybe even a few years, they burn out.

It’s the students who are more casual, who don’t push too hard — these are the ones who are successful in the long run.  Slow and steady.

We all have discipline in us.  It just needs to be nurtured in the right way.  The big secret to discipline is that it must be cultivated and nurtured — slowly, steadily, tenderly, not clobbered with a club.

So if you’re tired of trying to force discipline, then try the softer approach.

Kung Fu and You

Even if you’re not interested in Kung Fu or Tai Chi, you can still benefit from the big secret.  And you can start to implement this secret right now.

Here’s how:

Decide (or resolve, or intend, or whatever word works for you) right now that in 2014, you’re going to practice the amazing Qigong exercise called “Lifting The Sky” every day for 30 days for at least 1 minute a day.

What?  You haven’t learned Lifting The Sky yet?  That’s okay.  It’s easy to learn.  I recently released 2 free instructional videos when I launched my new online academy.   (Click here for the videos.  You have to enter your email, but otherwise, it’s completely free.)

Does that sound too easy?  Not so fast, grasshopper.  Believe me — this requires real discipline.  But it’s a different KIND of discipline.

Do this for 1 minute every day — for just 30 days.  If you miss a day, then you have to start over.

If you can do a full 30 days, then congratulations.  You’ve just cultivated some Kung Fu discipline!  If you keep at it, then the sky’s the limit on what you can do!

Got questions for me?  Post them below.  I’d love to hear from you. 

From the heart,
Sifu Anthony

The post How Kung Fu Masters Build Discipline (You May Be Surprised) appeared first on Flowing Zen.

What can we heal with the self-healing art of qigong? And what can’t we heal?

These are super-important questions, especially since we are in the midst of a health care crisis in the U.S.  If you’re reading this article, then you probably have a specific problem, and you want to know if there are any options other than drugs or surgery.

This article will tell you how to figure out whether or not your specific problem can be addressed with qigong.

Before I go on, let me categorically state that I am not suggesting that qigong can “cure” anything.  To do so would be illegal. As I state very clearly on my terms of use page, all material provided on this website is offered for informational or educational purposes only, and is not intended as a substitute for the advice of your physician, psychotherapist, or other healthcare professional.

Yada yada.

Now, let’s get down to business.

Can Cancer Be Reversed?

(Note: Let’s be clear that I am not giving medical advice, and that I am not in any way suggesting that your cancer will be cured or reversed by qigong. In the U.S. it is illegal for anyone other than oncologists to treat cancer. This is a theoretical discussion, not medical advice.)

Let’s begin with an important question — one that could potentially change your life. I’ll focus on one particular illness at first, and then branch out to others later.  So please bear with me if the first example does not apply to you.

Ready for the question?  Here it is:

In theory, can cancer be reversed without chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, or any medicine whatsoever? 

Make sure to answer this question before you continue.

Okay, got your answer?

Hopefully, you answered “yes”. If you answered “maybe” or “no”, then I’ve got news for you. And it’s wonderful news.

The medical literature is full of cases where cancer reversed itself without any external intervention. In other words, there is a ton of scientific evidence that the the human body can heal itself of all kinds of cancer — without drugs, chemo, radiation, or surgery.

I’m talking about the well-known phenomenon called “spontaneous remission”.   And it happens all the time. For example, this study found that 22% of all breast cancer cases underwent spontaneous regression. Wowzers! That’s a lot of spontaneous regression!

If you were suffering from breast cancer, you would absolutely want to be one of the lucky ladies to undergo spontaneous regression. Why? Because it involves no surgery, no nasty side effects, and it is typically far more effective than the orthodox treatments. Oh, and it will also save you a few hundred thousands dollars.

The Spontaneous Remission Project

So how can you pour yourself a nice cup of spontaneous remission?

Well, you can’t, at least not according to Western medicine.

You see, doctors and researchers are too busy fighting the “war” on cancer to pay attention to something like spontaneous remission. Who cares that it is arguably the most important medical discovery in the last 100 years. We’ve got a war to fight!

That’s why you don’t hear about these cases too often. But you should, because these cases prove — beyond a shadow of a doubt — that it’s at least POSSIBLE to reverse cancer, even at advanced stages.

Perhaps Western medicine doesn’t yet understand the mechanism by which this is possible, but the evidence is clear that it is possible.

If you’re skeptical, great!  I love skeptics!  Just make sure that you’re a healthy skeptic!

If you’re a healthy skeptic, then you will certainly be interested to know that in 1993, some researchers decided that spontaneous remission was something that should be studied rather than ignored.

Together, they compiled the largest database of medically reported cases of spontaneous remission in the world, with more than 3,500 references from more than 800 journals. Go ahead and take a long look at the Spontaneous Remission Bibliography Project online.

In the database, they define spontaneous remission as:

“the disappearance, complete or incomplete, of a disease or cancer without medical treatment or treatment that is considered inadequate to produce the resulting disappearance of disease symptoms or tumor.”

Coming back to my earlier question, we now have good answer — that the human body is capable, at least in theory, of reversing of many forms of cancer. Terrific!

What Can’t Be Healed?

Before we talk more about what can be healed, let’s talk about the opposite.  Let’s talk about something that the human body, and thus Qigong & Tai Chi, cannot heal.

A beautiful young woman once approached me after a workshop and asked, quite innocently, if qigong could regrow an amputated limb.  This woman had a rare condition as a child that required amputation.

My heart went out to her.  It was one of those moments where you just want to lie and say that everything is going to be okay.

But I told her the truth.

“I’m sorry, but to the best of my knowledge, that’s not possible.”

As far as I know, there are no recorded cases of entire human limbs being regrown. So it’s safe to say that this kind of thing is outside the window of possibility. You can comb the medical literature and never find a single case of this ever happening. Not even one.

Will qigong to get rid of the phantom pains associated with amputation? Yes. I’ve seen it happen, and in fact it happened with the young woman I mentioned.

But I’ve never seen or even heard about anyone regrowing a limb. It’s just not something that the human body is designed to do.

The Self-Healing Map

These two examples (cancer, and a severed limb) give us a working theory for the range that is possible with qigong. I call this the Self-Healing Map.

The evidence suggests that cancer is on the Self-Healing Map.

This doesn’t mean that every case of cancer can be reversed, but it absolutely does mean that SOME cases of cancer can be reversed. In other words, it’s possible to reverse cancer.

On the other hand, regrowing a limb is not on the map. It’s simply not within the range of healing for the human body.

Other Health Problems

What other health problems are on the map? Well, the first thing you should do is look through the Spontaneous Remission Bibliography Project.  (I recommend that you start with the index.)

If your problem is on the list, then you can reasonably theorize that it’s possible to heal yourself.

Does that mean you’ll definitely heal? No. There are many other factors involved. But isn’t it wonderful to know that it’s possible to heal?

What about things that are not on the list?

Remember that spontaneous remission, by its nature, is not easy to record. Do you think that there are more than 3500 cases of spontaneous remission in modern history? You bet there are, and you can also bet that most of them were never recorded.

For example, I have a student who reversed Crohn’s disease. Her doctors have confirmed that there are no signs of Crohn’s present, and she’s completely off her medication. But I can’t find that disease on the list.

If you suffer from Crohn’s and you want more evidence, then you should comb the internet for other cases of people who healed themselves of the disorder, even if it wasn’t with qigong.

I’m betting that there are cases of people doing it with many different forms of self-healing. Do 10-15 hours of research, and find out if the human body has ever healed your particular issue.

If your condition is something that heals itself all the time, like low-back pain, arthritis, or migraines — then it’s definitely worth trying qigong.

But keep in mind that not all qigong is appropriate for medical problems like this.  Read my article on The 5 Categories of Qigong for more information about what types of qigong are appropriate.

Also, let’s not miss the crucial lesson behind the specific examples of the Spontaneous Remission Project — i.e. that the body is capable of all sorts of amazing healing!

What Can We Heal?

Let’s come back to our original question:  What can we heal?  By now, you should have a better idea of how to theoretically answer this question. To simplify, here’s what I tell my new students:

“If you want to know what qigong can theoretically heal, then simply ask yourself what a superbly-functioning human body is capable of healing. And there’s your answer.”

Just make sure that you do some research before concluding that something can’t be healed. For example, many people don’t know that the body is capable of reversing cancer. Obviously, they haven’t done enough research. Don’t make the same mistake as them.

What If You Don’t Heal?

So far, I’ve talked mainly about theory. But as we know, theory and practice don’t always agree.

Just because qigong can theoretically heal something doesn’t mean it will.

When it comes to healing, there are a lot of factors, like the quality of your practice, your deeply-held beliefs, and even the climate where you live.

This is a huge topic, and it will be covered in a future article.  If you’ve got something that is blocking you from healing, then my follow-up article will help you to get to the bottom of the problem.

From the heart,
Sifu Anthony

The post What We Can (and Can’t) Heal with Qigong appeared first on Flowing Zen.

It wasn’t raw talent. These students were no more talented than me or the others. It also wasn’t a matter of them knowing secret techniques.  My Sifu taught them the exact same techniques as everyone else. But there was something else going on.  These students were obviously doing something that others were not.   I asked them how much they were practicing.  If anything, they were practicing less than average, not more.

Finally, I asked my Sifu.  His answer was simple:  “They progress faster because they set clear goals.”

At the time, I didn’t fully understand his answer.  How could setting goals make such a difference?   How could it possibly save someone 10 years of practice?

I followed his advice even though I had no idea how to set clear goals.  Honestly, it took me years of trial and error to learn how to set goals properly. In this article, I have distilled everything that I learned over the years.

If you take my advice, if you follow these 11 steps, then you’ll easily save years of time in your practice, whether it is in Qigong, Tai Chi, Meditation, or Kung Fu.  (The steps will also work for Yoga.)  Many students have told me that following these 11 steps changed their life.  Follow them, and they will change yours too.

Step 1 – Get Ready

Schedule a time to go through these steps.  You can read through them now, but unless you’ve set aside an hour or so, you won’t be able to do all the work.  If an hour seems like a lot of time, then think about all the time you’ll waste by not following these steps.  An hour is nothing.

Write down your answers!!  The process of following writing down the answers forces you to clarify your goals.  It’s also important to have them written down for future reference.

Step 2 – Dream Big

Step 3 – I Don’t Want…

Step 4 – I Want

Step 5 – Understanding Aims & Objectives

If you have questions about whether something is an aim or an objective, then feel free to ask it in the comments section below.

Step 6 – Setting Aims

If you’ve followed Steps 1-4, then you should have a much clearer picture of what you want and don’t want. Using that information, it should be easy to set some aims. Do that now. Why do you practice Qigong, Tai Chi, Kung Fu, Meditation, or Yoga? Write down your aims, and remember to keep them general.  Ideally, you should cover all 5 categories, or all 6 if you are a martial artist.

Step #8 – Measuring Progress

A big secret to setting objectives is to make them measurable.  Otherwise, how will you know when the objective has been met?

Some objectives have a measure built in, like touching your toes.  But some are less specific, like worrying less about your finances.  With the unspecific goals, you need to figure out how you will measure improvement.

For example, let’s pretend that you typically get stressed out every time you open up a bill.  You’ll know that you have achieved your objective of worrying less about your finances when you can open up a bill without getting stressed.  That’s the measure.

Now, go through your objectives, and make each one measurable. Look at  your list of objectives.  In the left margin beside each objective, write a measure.  If the measure is self explanatory (like being able to touch your toes), then write in “SE” for that objective.

Don’t get complicated, and don’t be a perfectionist.  Just make an effort to identify a measure for each objective.  Do this before moving on to the next step.

Step #9 – Time Frame

Setting a time frame for each objective is important.   Keeping with the theme of a college course, set a date for a final exam for each objective.  The final exam is when you will review your progress.

Ideally, you will achieve each objective before the final exam.  For example, if you set a 3-month objective of touching your toes, and you achieve the objective in 2 months, then you’ve already passed the final exam.

But in other cases, you will “fail” the exam.  Fail is not quite the right word.  Let’s pretend that, after 3 months, you still can’t touch your toes.  During the final exam, you’ll see whether or not you’re making progress towards the goal.  If you are, then all you need to do is continue another 3 months with the same objective.

The default for all objectives should be 3 months.  Some objectives will take a little longer, and some a little shorter, but 3 months is a good starting point.

Now look at your objectives.  In the right-hand margin, set a time frame for each one.  But don’t just write “3 months”.  Write down the date of your final exam.  In the beginning, all of your final exams may be on the same date, which is fine.  But as you accomplish objectives, the dates will start to stagger.

Make sure that you have a final exam date set for each objective before moving on to the next step.

Step #10 – Methods

Methods are the specific techniques that we will use to achieve our objectives.  For example, if your objective is to be able to touch your toes without bending your legs, then you need to pick appropriate flexibility techniques for  your methods.  If you pick push-ups as the method, then you won’t ever reach your objective.

This is a mistake that literally millions of people practicing Qigong, Tai Chi, and Kung Fu make. They never achieve their objectives because they are using the wrong methods!  Don’t be one of them.

How do you pick the appropriate methods?  This is where having a good teacher is critical.  Although you can learn a lot from books and the Internet, there is absolutely no substitute for an experienced instructor.  I cannot stress this point enough:  Having a good teacher is critical.

Methods should be specific techniques.  For example, if your objective is to be able to touch your toes, then your method should be some sort of flexibility technique, like Luohan Taking Off His Shoes.  Do not simply write “flexibility” or “Tai Chi” as the method.

Many students get stuck on choosing methods.  If you have clear objectives and a good teacher, this should not happen.  Consult with your teacher.  He or she should be able to help you to pick the appropriate methods to achieve your objectives.

If you don’t have a teacher, then you have to do your own research.  You have to find out which techniques achieve which results. For example, if your objective is to fix your back pain, then you not only need to find and learn the appropriate techniques, like Carrying the Moon.

Whether you have a teacher or not, my teacher’s books are an excellent resource.  I spent years and hundreds of dollars reading countless books.  My teacher’s books are among the best in any language.  He has books on Qigong, Tai Chi, Kung Fu, and Zen.

Look at your objectives.  Now write down methods that contribute towards your objectives.  Remember that some methods will contribute towards multiple objectives.  Come up with methods for each objective before moving on to the next step.

Step #11 – Practice Routines

We’re almost done! Now that you’ve set your aims and objectives, and picked the appropriate methods to accomplish them, it’s time to create some practice routines.  If you’ve followed all the steps, then this should be a piece of cake.

I recommend that you write each routine on a big Post-It or index card.  This way, you can hang them easily in your practice room, or on your fridge.  Here’s an example:

Notice the addition of the “tracking” category.  Every time you do something toward your objective, add a hash mark.  The idea is to see how much effort you have put towards a particular objective.  If you fail a final exam, but there are only a few hash marks on your sheet, then it’s obvious what the problem was.  On the other hand, if you fail a final exam but there are lots of hash marks, then you either need more time, or you need to choose different methods (or both).

In the beginning, you should create 1 routine for each objective.   Later, once you’ve got the hang of this, you can start consolidating routines.  Many methods will overlap objectives.  For example, Luohan Touching Toes will help to achieve the objective of touching your toes, as well as your objective of improving your Kung Fu kicking.

How many methods should there be for each routine?  Well, that depends on your objective.  If your objective is to practice the Simplified Tai Chi Form every day for 90 days, then there’s really only 1 method (i.e. the Tai Chi Form).  On the other hand, if your objective is to eliminate chronic shoulder pain, then you might have several methods (like Lifting the Sky and Big Windmill Hand).

When you are finished with an objective, don’t throw out the paper!  Create a file called “My Goals” and put everything in there, even if you abort or change a routine.  Years from now, you’ll be glad that you have a detailed record of your aims, objectives, and methods!

Qigong, Tai Chi, Kung Fu, and Meditation are amazing arts that can enrich our lives beyond our wildest dreams.  I’ve seen this with my own eyes.  My own life, and the lives of countless students have been dramatically changed for the better with these arts.

I want you to be successful with these arts.   I sincerely hope that this article helps to make you more successful.  If you have any questions as you work on your goals, please feel free to leave a comment below.

The post How To Supercharge Your Practice appeared first on Flowing Zen.