I’m writing this from a beach town in Costa Rica where I’m decompressing after a wonderful week at our retreat center in the mountains. All week, I’ve been teaching my heart out to the next generation of qigong instructors. It was an incredible week.

For those who are curious, I created this video redux, which gives you a glimpse of our week in the mountains. (Turn your sound on!)

(Click here if you want to get notified about the 2019 Costa Rica Retreat.)

Now I’m at the beach, and things are different. Here, I’m all alone. I don’t get to share delicious meals — lovingly prepared by the world’s happiest staff — with my students.

Nor do I get to practice in refreshing, 55-degree mountain air with a million-dollar view.

Here at the beach, it’s 80 degrees and humid at dawn. Okay, fine. I still have a million-dollar view. You caught me.

But many people would use the heat, or just traveling in general, as an excuse to not practice qigong.

Not me. I no longer struggle to practice, not even while traveling, not even in 80-degree heat.

I just practice.

If you think this is going to be a holier-than-thou post, read on. It’s definitely not.

I still struggle — just not with qigong.

The Struggle is Real

For example, I’m supposed to be working on my book this week. Technically, I’m on a writing retreat, not a vacation. I’m no good at taking vacations. I don’t think I’ve taken a full week off since I began teaching in 2005.

I’m not proud of this. I don’t think that my workaholism makes me a better person. But then, I love my work, so it always feels strange to stop completely.

And yet, even though I love my work, I still struggle, especially with writing.

If you’re a writer, then you know what I’m going through, just like I know what beginning qigong students are going through.

Writers are notorious for avoiding their work. Most of us never feel so good as while writing (except perhaps while qigonging), and yet we still struggle.

We resist the focus that is necessary to produce good, creative work.

I’m resisting writing my book right now by writing a blog post instead. It satisfies my inner critic because he counts this as “work”. And yet, it’s not the work that I should be doing right now.

I’m not focusing the way I should be focusing.

For those keeping score, I’ve been working on my book for nearly 2 years. I’ve faced some big life challenges during that time, but all writers face challenges. It’s no excuse.

In my defense, I have written 85,000 words, so progress is being made despite the snail’s pace. The first draft is almost finished, and then I’ll move on to the editing process. But first, I need to write about 8,000 more words.

I could do that this week — if I focused.

Focus, Focus, Focus

(Note: The links below are Amazon Affiliate links, which means that I receive a tiny commission if you use them, at no cost to you. I would highly recommend the book though, with or without the commission. You won’t be disappointed.)

In the book, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, Cal Newport describes the ability to concentrate deeply on your work without distraction as a modern superpower. I like that description a lot.

Being able to focus, to go deeply into our creative work  — this is a skill that requires superhuman inner strength.

For example, my teaching in the art of qigong emphasizes the importance of entering into a meditative state BEFORE doing any qigong exercises. We call this Entering Zen, and it requires focus.

Entering Zen is a form of focus, a form of deep work. It’s also a superpower.

This morning, as I felt myself resisting my work on my book, it occurred to me that the same thing happens with my qigong students. And although it has been years, it used to happen to me.

We resist the “work”, the focus, the Zen — even though we know that once we’re in it, we will feel wonderful.

Am I Worthy?

People are quick to blame smartphones and devices, and I think there’s some truth to that. But I also think there are some worthiness issues at work here.

Maybe we don’t feel worthy of being healthy and happy. Or maybe we don’t feel like we deserve to be pain-free.

I often feel that way about my writing. I don’t feel worthy of publishing a book. I’ve read so many great books over the years, and who the hell do I think I am to try to follow in those authors’ footsteps?

Same phenomenon, different art. I’m betting that literally thousands of you reading this can relate to this phenomenon.

You KNOW that qigong will make you feel better, that it is good and important work, and yet you resist.

I know this because I’ve seen you struggle, and also because I struggled myself.

4000 Days of Focus

If you know my story, then you know that I struggled not only with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) but also with my daily qigong practice. I struggled to focus, even for just 2 minutes a day.

So when I see my students struggling to make qigong a daily habit, I empathize. I’ve been there. I totally get it.

But I killed that dragon. My record is 4000 days of qigong practice in a row. And even after I broke my streak, I only missed a day or two.

I suspect that there are published writers reading this who empathize with my book struggle. I’m betting that they’ve mostly solved the resistance issue and found a way to write consistently, just like I’ve found a way to practice qigong consistently.

Many of you, despite your ability to do deep work in one area of your life, still struggle to focus when it comes to qigong.

And the reverse is true for me. I no longer struggle with my qigong practice, but I do with my writing practice.

Why We Resist

All of us — and I mean every single one of you reading this article, and also myself — struggle to do things that are good for us.

• We don’t eat the things we should;
• We keep eating crap that we shouldn’t;
• We don’t exercise enough;
• We don’t meditate enough;
• We don’t sleep enough;
• We spend too much time staring at screens;
• We don’t spend nearly enough time staring at the wonder of nature.

Publishing my first book will be good for me, and also for thousands of people. And yet I resist. I’m resisting right now!

This morning, as I practiced my qigong on the beach, I had an “aha” moment, a micro-awakening. And this petite awakening is what I really want to share with you today.

The “Spiritual” Dimension

Here’s what I realized:

An inability to focus is not just a mental issue, nor is it just a willpower issue; it’s also a spiritual issue.

Okay, maybe this is not earthshattering news, but awakenings rarely are. People who are Enlightened often end up saying, in so many words, that “it’s all love.” Nothing is more hackneyed than that phrase, and yet, it’s probably still true.

And anyway, mine was a micro-awakening, not Enlightenment with a capital E!

Stay with me here.

I don’t use the word “spiritual” very often because it’s tricky. It means different things to different people. To some, it is a beautiful and profound word. To others, it just means a bunch of woo woo nonsense.

I’ve built my teaching career mainly on Medical Qigong and Martial Qigong, not Spiritual Qigong. And that was entirely on purpose.

The world is full of people making premature claims to enlightenment, and I don’t want to be viewed as one of them.

You know, like this guy:

I am not that guy. I am not Enlightened. Of course, neither is he. The difference is that I’m not bullshitting you.

However, I see now that I need NOT be Enlightened in order to talk about spirituality. 

In fact, I now believe that I MUST start talking about spirituality if I want to continue helping my students grow. And I definitely want to help my students to grow. That’s all I ever want.

The War of Art

For over a decade, I’ve tried to help my students build willpower and create healthy habits. I have a zillion blog posts on the subject and even an online course. And I’ve helped a lot of people with these efforts.

In The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles, Steven Pressfield talks about the resistance that all artists face.

The book begins as a helpful and entertaining work for artists and entrepreneurs, but about halfway through, it takes a turn down a more metaphysical, dare I say “spiritual” path.

I’m also taking a turn down a more spiritual path.

Don’t worry. I promise not to get all woo woo on you. My approach to spirituality will be as no-nonsense as my approach to qigong.

But What is Spirituality?

It’s not religion. That’s something altogether different, and it’s none of my business.

But spirituality is my business, and it’s your business too, whether you’re religious or not.

There are many ways to define spirituality. Most definitions include a sense of being connected to something bigger than ourselves, and also being connected to each other.

To me, spirituality is simpler.

To be spiritual means to train your mind so that your consciousness can expand out of the mundane and begin to perceive the profound.

Artists tap into different states of consciousness and give us glimpses of true reality. In this sense, we could call art spiritual.

Mindfulness is a buzzword, and it’s definitely part of this. In my opinion, if you practice mindfulness deeply, then you will start to perceive more.

Slaying the Internal Dragon

For example, I need to train my mind in order to overcome my resistance to finishing my book. I need to escape the mundane and gain perspective so that I can glimpse the profound.

This is not just a mental process, but a spiritual one. It’s not just a matter of me using a mental trick or simply forcing myself to write.

To tackle this issue once and for all, I need to go within. I need to alter my perspective on writing, and on life. I need to master my fears and doubts, overcome my sense of unworthiness, and slay a huge, internal dragon.

And that’s EXACTLY what you need to do to overcome your resistance to practicing qigong.

Go within. Alter your perspective. Master your fears and your doubts. Overcome your sense of unworthiness. And slay that internal dragon.

This is spiritual. It is the path of the spiritual warrior. It is the hero’s journey, and it ain’t easy.

If you were hoping for a simple self-help trick to help you do this, I’m sorry. That’s not how the Cosmos works. If there were a simple trick, then billions of people wouldn’t be struggling to focus!

But here’s what I can offer you instead. I can offer to help you, with my teaching and my writing, along this path. Together, we can work on slaying our internal dragons.

Let me be clear that we travel this path together, not as Master and Disciple, but as a tribe of likeminded humans, hand in hand, helping each other as best as we can.

If you liked this post, the please scroll down and click the Facebook or Twitter buttons below my bio. And if you have a comment or question for me, I’d love to hear from you in the section below! 

From the heart,
Sifu Anthony

The post The Real Reason We All Struggle to Focus appeared first on Flowing Zen.

“Do you sell Chinese incense?” I asked.

The year was 1995, and the young man behind the counter seemed to be a caricature of a NYC smoke shop employee. He had thick dreadlocks, a Bob Marley t-shirt, and he looked stoned out of his mind.

I was not his usual customer, however. I was there on a very specific mission.

“Sure, we’ve got incense, man,” he said. He gestured casually in the direction of the incense sticks, right next to the bongs.

“I’m looking for really long sticks,” I said after taking a quick look and not seeing what I wanted. “Like a foot long.”

“Yeah man,” he said. “We’ve got some like that.” He disappeared into the back of the shop and returned with a foot-long tube covered in Chinese writing. It smelled like smoky perfume.

Mission accomplished! I paid the man and left the shop with thoughts of my Incense Stick Horse Stance…

Incense Stick Horse Stance?

When my first Sifu proudly said that he had an “incense stick horse stance,” I was confused. My mind immediately went to that old kung fu movie with Jackie Chan.

In the movie, Jackie Chan’s character was punished in the Horse Stance, where he had to sit with bowls of hot tea on his thighs, shoulders, and head — plus a hot incense stick below his butt (see image below). I assumed that this is what my teacher was talking about.

This particular teacher of mine was extremely stern, and asking questions was tricky business. At times, a question would get you a swift rebuke. Other times, you would be rewarded with a fascinating lecture.

I was intrigued by this “incense stick horse stance” idea, and I wanted to know more. One night, a bunch of us took our Sifu out to a Japanese restaurant, and I saw my chance. Sake was flowing freely, and I worked up the courage to ask him a question.

“Sifu,” I said, filling his sake cup in the traditional manner. “Can you tell us more about the Incense Stick Horse Stance?”

He paused for a moment, and I was afraid I was about to get reprimanded. But he broke into a big smile and then proceeded to tell us how hard it had been to get his Horse Stance up to one incense stick.

“My training was tougher than yours will ever be,” he said. “We just sat and sat in Horse Stance, watcing the incense stick burn and enduring.” He paused and sipped his sake.

“And not one of those sissy incense sticks,” he clarified. “Chinese incense sticks!” He held both index fingers about 15 inches apart, indicating the length. “At least one hour,” he added as he drained his sake.

Aha! That’s when I suddenly understood. My Sifu didn’t use an incense stick below his butt; he used it to time how long he could endure in a horse stance!

He was right to be proud. To do a horse stance correctly for 1 hour is an amazing feat. Most people can’t do 2 minutes. Even college athletes can’t make it past 5 minutes.

The Origin of the Method

When you’re deep in meditation, the passage of time can be elusive. This is probably why monks began using incense sticks to time their meditation sessions.

Actually, there’s something called an Incense Clock (香鐘, lit. Fragrance Clock). This is an ancient Chinese timekeeping tool that uses incense sticks. It’s a clever idea. You can read more about it on Wikipedia.

I don’t know if kung fu masters (including tai chi masters) got the Horse Stance idea from monks, or from the Incense Clock. Either way, this incense trick can still be found in many different schools of kung fu.

Unfortunately, it’s a dying art, which is a shame. I think that many 21st century students can benefit from this method.

Let’s see if we can keep it alive in a more modern context.

Who Can Benefit from This Method?

If you learned qigong the traditional way (see #18 on this list), then you would be taught the Horse Stance, and nothing else, for the first 3 months of your training.

As you can imagine, if I taught the traditional way, then I would have exactly 4 students (you know who you are).

Teaching qigong in the 21st century needs to be more modern. Most of my students are not interested in a 1-hour Horse Stance. They just want to get healthier, and a 15-minute daily qigong session is challenging enough.

The beauty of the incense stick method is that it can be used by students at all different levels.

You can benefit from this method whether you are:

• a new qigong or tai chi student struggling to practice 15 minutes a day
• an ambitious kung fu student who likes the challenge of a 30-60 minute Horse Stance
• a seasoned tai chi practitioner who wants to increase their practice time

I’ve already written trillions of articles about willpower and discipline. Do we really need another article on the subject?

The answer is yes. We need all the help we can get. I think that this incense stick trick is another good tool to keep in your box.

If this article inspires one person to be more diligent with their practice, then I’ve done my job as a teacher.

Japanese vs. Chinese Incense

For most of you, the foot-long Chinese incense sticks won’t be helpful. They simply take too long to burn.

Sure, you could cut off some of the stick to shorten the duration, but there’s a simpler method.

I like this Japanese incense. My first Sifu would call them “sissy sticks,” but that’s okay. I think underneath he would be happy that people are using the method, even if it’s an abridged version.

These sticks are shorter and last for about 20-30 minutes, depending on the humidity. So they are already more useful than the foot-long ones.

But Japanese incense is different. There’s no stick running down the center. The entire thing burns, which means that you can also break the sticks in half — and still use both halves.

These sticks are perfect for setting a minimum practice session for qigong, especially with Flowing Zen Qigong where the standard session is about 10-20 minutes.

A big box contains 200 sticks, and also comes with a little holder that works great. They also have smaller boxes of 50, and you can buy them in many different scents.

How to Use Incense With Your Qigong or Tai Chi

By now, the method should be pretty clear, but here is the step-by-step breakdown:

Step 1: Light your incense stick. I keep a small Bic lighter inside my box of incense. The Japanese incense above comes with a small stick holder, so the entire thing is self-contained. The ashes just drop down onto the sticks, so there’s no mess.

Step 2: Begin your session as normal. Don’t do anything special, but try to make it a really high-quality session in order to set your baseline. (If you don’t know any qigong, click here to start learning for free.)

Step 3: Look at the incense stick. How much is left? Did it burn down completely?

Step 4: Rinse and repeat. Try to develop the habit of simply lighting the incense stick to initiate your practice session. Even if it’s just going to be a short session, try lighting the stick anyway.

Why It Works

Of course, you can use a digital meditation timer, a cube timer, or a sand timer. I’ve used all of these, and they can be helpful.

But I still prefer the incense stick. Here’s why I think it works so well:

1. The Visual Reward: There is a feeling of intense pride at watching your box of incense sticks empty gradually over time. I like to write the start date on the box so that I know how long it takes me to go through all 200 sticks.

2. The Olfactory Reward: For me, the smell of incense is wonderful. I guess this is where the word “inspire” comes from because as soon as I light a stick, I’m inspired to practice.

3. The Power of Ritual: If you light an incense stick every morning, it becomes a ritual. Later, simply lighting the incense stick will help to initiate your morning practice, even if you’re feeling lazy.

4. Analog vs. Digital: I don’t know about you, but the last thing I need is another digital device in my life. I appreciate analog options whenever I can get them, and incense is as analog as it gets!

5. Portable Discipline: When I travel, it’s easy to bring my ritual with me. The smaller boxes of incense work great. Be aware that some hotels frown on incense, but I tend to stay in Airbnbs these days anyway.

Wrapping Up

There you have it, the simple incense stick trick that can dramatically improve your willpower.

How do you feel about incense? Love it or hate it? Do you have a favorite kind? Let me know in the comments below!

And if you decide to give this trick a try, I’d love to hear how it works for you. 

From the heart,
Sifu Anthony

The post Build Willpower like a Kung Fu Master with This Incense Stick Trick appeared first on Flowing Zen.

I once practiced qigong for 4000 days in a row. That’s 11 years without missing a single day.

You’re probably imagining me as someone with tons of willpower and lots of healthy habits.

And you’d be right — if you were imagining me in my present form.

Today, I have boundless willpower, I eat my vegetables, I exercise regularly, and I even floss.

But back then — back before I did my 4000 days in a row — I was a different person.

This person, this former me, was just coming out of a severe episode of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD).

He had recently, and seriously, thought about committing suicide.

He smoked a pack of cigarettes daily, drank a 6-pack of beer every night, and ate vegetables only when they appeared on pizza, and even then reluctantly so.

He, this former me, was a hot mess.

So how did he change?

How did he transform from someone with minimal willpower and a basket of bad habits into the type of person who practices qigong 4000 days in a row and eats 6 servings of vegetables every day?

To help you transform your own life, I’ve distilled my success into 8 simple secrets:

Secret #1 – I Started Small

First, let’s back up. When I said that I practiced qigong for 4000 days in a row, were you imagining me doing hours of qigong every day?

Or perhaps a half hour?

At least 15 minutes, right?!? I mean, come on now!

No, no, and no.

The first secret to my 4000-day streak was that I did just 2 minutes on many of those days.

Sure, I did 15 minutes or even 2 hours on some days. And as I built momentum, those days happened more and more often.

But I didn’t start there. I started with just 2 minutes.

I now know that this is called a “tiny habit” and that there’s research to back up what I discovered on my own.

But I didn’t know that back then. At the time, I had never heard of tiny habits, and I had never read a book or article on willpower or habit making.

So how did I do it?

Well, I had one big thing going for me: A long list of failures (see secret #6).

I had already failed to quit smoking, to practice qigong daily, to change my diet, to get a meaningful job…

All of those failures, combined with my growing depression, led me to a dark, dark place.

So when I set out to change my life, I didn’t bother with the usual optimism and say, “I’m going to practice qigong for an hour a day for 4000 days!!!”

No. I knew I was a failure (see secret #6), and that I need a goal suitable for people like me.

(As an aside, I later learned that this phenomenon is called “depressive realism”. Apparently, we depressives are MORE realistic than non-depressives. Who knew?)

With only the tiniest dose of optimism, I said the following to myself:

“I’m going to practice qigong for a least 2 minutes a day for 30 days.”

Secret #2 – I Spent My Willpower Wisely

Are you imagining that I’m somehow different than you, that I was born with more willpower?

If I’m different than you, then I changed AFTER the 4000 days, not before.

Back then, I had almost no willpower. Everything I touched seemed to turn to failure.

But here’s what I discovered.

All humans have A LITTLE willpower, no matter how bad things are.

The trick is to be stingy with that willpower and spend ALL of it on one habit.

(And make sure it’s a tiny habit – see secret #1.)

Again, I think I got lucky.

I was so beat up from my past failures that I didn’t try ANYTHING else for those first 30 days.

I quit quitting smoking. (Click here to read my article on why you shouldn’t quit smoking.)

I stopped worrying about my diet.

I made peace with my crappy job.

In other words, I used ALL of my available willpower (which was minimal) to do my 2 minutes of qigong.

All of it. Every last drop.

And you know what? I STILL struggled.

One night, I was in bed when I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to do my 2 minutes.

I won’t lie. It was an epic act of will to get my ass out of bed and do 2 minutes of qigong.

“But you said that you didn’t use willpower!!!”

Hold your horses.

I said that I didn’t need any willpower for 4000 days, and that’s true.

But I DID need a teensy amount of willpower for the first 30 days or so.

This is the big secret that I didn’t know at the time, and that you probably still don’t know, which is the next secret…

Secret #3 – I Focused On Habit Building

If it still requires willpower, then it’s not a habit (yet!).

Real habits don’t require willpower.

Do you need willpower to brush your teeth? No, because it’s a habit. There’s no decision to be made, no hemming and hawing, no guilt. You just brush your teeth and get on with your day.

That’s a real habit. It’s on autopilot, and it happens effortlessly.

That’s what I did with my 2-minute qigong habit.

I spent all of my limited willpower (secret #2) on practicing qigong for 2 minutes a day (secret #1) until it became a real habit (secret #3).

The first 30 days consisted of 2 minutes of the worst qigong you’ve ever seen.

I mean, it was awful stuff. Even if you know nothing about qigong you would know that it was awful.

It was a struggle, but after about 30 days, something magical happened.

You know how you wake up some mornings and, before you know it, before you’re really awake, you’ve already brushed your teeth?

Well that happened with qigong.

I was still groggy. I was getting ready for work. And then it hit me.

I had done 2 minutes of qigong without even trying! It had just happened!

That was a huge win for me.

Another win was that I had done 30 days in a row, something that had seemed impossible 30 days earlier.

I had a streak going. Every day, I put a check box on my calendar. I liked seeing all those check boxes.

(I now know that this is called The Seinfeld Method, named after the comedian’s method for writing every day. I didn’t know this at the time, but maybe all those years of watching Seinfeld paid off somehow?)

With 30 check boxes in a row, it was an easy decision to shoot for another 30.

And then another.

And before I knew it, I had 4000 in a row.

Secret #4 – I Took Stress Seriously

We all know we’re stressed out, but not many of us take it seriously.

We only take stress seriously AFTER something breaks, AFTER our health suffers.

But for some reason, I took stress seriously, even in my 20s.

Maybe it’s because my grandfather, who I never met, died of a heart attack in his early 50s.

Or maybe it’s because I was already broken, because I knew that something was terribly wrong with me, and I knew that it was connected to stress. (It wasn’t until later that I was officially diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder.)

Whatever the reason, I was serious about de-stressing, and I knew that it was up to me to do.

I don’t remember where I heard this, but I do remember hearing a saying that went something like this:

Showering doesn’t last, and neither does stress relief — which is why both must be done daily.

I was only doing 2 minutes a day, but I was doing SOMETHING, and that alone helped me to feel good about myself, which in turn relieved some of my stress.

And of course, the more qigong that I did, the more stress I relieved, and the better I felt, creating positive feedback loop.

Secret #5 – I Added Before Subtracting

I desperately wanted to quit smoking. Every day, 20 times a day, I felt like a complete asshole when I lit up.

But I had tried to quit, and failed. Over and over.

So I decided to quit quitting. The idea was to get some healthy habits going first.

And you know what? It worked like a charm.

Years later, I quit smoking for good. I haven’t had a puff since then, and I never will.

But before doing getting to that point, I had already added several healthy habits to my life.

I started with 2 minutes of qigong. Then, quite naturally, I started to eat better and exercise more. And so on.

In other words, I added the good before subtracting the bad.

Secret #6 – I Failed

Sometimes students look at me as if I’m perfect.

The look on their faces say, “How would YOU know what I feel like?”

I always want to punch that look right in the kisser!

I know failure, dammit!

Years ago, the title “master” made me uncomfortable. I winced whenever people used it on me.

Two quotes changed my mind:

‘The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.” – Stephen McCranie

“An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field.” – Niels Bohr

I’ve failed more at qigong than the beginner has even tried. I’ve made all the mistakes which can be made in the field of qigong.

I’m a master.

I know failure. The key is that I learned to embrace it as part of my journey.

Secret #7 – I Embraced Mindfulness

Speaking of embraces, I also embraced mindfulness.

This was the late 1990s. Mindfulness wasn’t in vogue yet.

But somehow, I knew it was the big secret. I knew that I desperately needed it in my life.

I had tried Japanese style sitting meditation (zazen), and failed miserably (see secret #6).

I had also tried yoga. Another failure.

I tried karate, and although I succeeded with the fighting aspects of the art, there wasn’t much mindfulness in there. I might as well have been practicing soccer.

But I didn’t let the failures stop me, and I kept looking.

I knew, on an intuitive level, that I had lost control of my life and my habits, and that mindfulness was the only way I was going to get it back.

The latest research proves that I was right. Here’s a quote from an article from PsychCentral:

“Mindfulness helps people feel less defensive when exposed to important health messages — such as “stop smoking so you can live longer” — and more likely to be motivated to make changes”

Secret #8 – I Found the Right Art

“I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life to learn qigong!”

I hear this from a lot of students, regardless of their age.

I felt the same way. It just clicked for me. I knew I was home.

I’m not saying that qigong is for everyone. It’s not. I don’t think the cosmos works like that.

Qigong is not for everyone, but mindfulness absolutely is.

Don’t give up on mindfulness, even if you’ve failed with other arts in the past.

If you haven’t tried qigong, then please do so. Maybe it will feel like coming home.

How to Create Habits That Stick

I’m so passionate about this subject that I poured my knowledge, my experience, and my heart into an online course called:

2 Minute Qigong: The Key to Creating Habits That Stick

This online course is all about using a 2-minute daily qigong practice as a gateway to other healthy habits.

Sound familiar? It should because it will show you all of the secrets mentioned in this article.

May this course help you to transform your life for the better, starting with just 2 minutes a day!

From the heart,
Sifu Anthony

The post How to Do 4000 Consecutive Days of Qigong (No Willpower Required) 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.

It’s time to break your New Year’s resolutions! Woohoo!!

Okay, maybe it’s not quite time yet. Maybe you’ll last a few more days, or maybe you’ll even make it to February!

But chances are, you’ll break your resolutions sooner or later.

In fact, you have a 92% chance of failing with your New Year’s Resolutions.

And yet you keep torturing yourself — year after year — with this resolution nonsense. If you’re looking for a better option, then keep reading.

Genies and Willpower

The transition to a new year stirs up a deep, primal desire to grow — to become a healthier, happier, and perhaps even wealthier version of yourself.

But this kind of growth requires change.

You probably know this already. And you probably think that willpower is the secret to that kind of change.

I’d like you to try an experiment right now:

• Sit or stand comfortably.
• Close your eyes.
• Snap your fingers.
• Magically summon a new car, out of thin air.

Did it work? Are you like the Genie of the Lamp?

I’m guessing not.

Then why the hell are you trying to snap your fingers and magically create willpower?

That’s just not how willpower works. In fact, you’ve got it completely backwards!

You don’t create change by adding willpower; you build willpower by creating change!

4 Magic Words for Success

Okay, so we’ve established that you want to grow in the new year.

And we’ve established that you need to change in order to grow.

And we’ve also established that summoning up willpower is not the solution to change, just like snapping your fingers isn’t the solution to buying a new car.

So what’s the solution?

Here is an incantation that might as well be magic because it’s so powerful:

Add tiny healthy habits.

Those 4 words are POWERFUL. Don’t underestimate them. Read them again. In fact, just go ahead and memorize them.

Making the Magic Work for You

To make these 4 words work, you need to keep two things in mind.

First, the habits must be small.

They should be so tiny and so easy that they require zero willpower. Look at the list below for examples.

And secondly, you should be adding habits, not subtracting them.

For the time being, forget about subtracting negative habits. For example, forget about quitting smoking. In fact, I would argue that you really shouldn’t quit smoking.

Instead, add a tiny, healthy habit.

By adding tiny, healthy habits your energy (or qi) will flow better, and you’ll naturally build more and more willpower.

Later — after you’ve built up stronger willpower muscles — only then should you even begin to think about subtracting a negative habit from you life.

Tiny, Healthy Habits You Can Add Right Now

I recommend that you pick one or two of the habits listed below, and commit to doing them for at least 30 days.

If you miss a day, then you start your 30-day count from scratch! Sorry kiddo. With tiny, healthy habits, there is zero tolerance for failure. That’s precisely why they are so tiny.

In fact, you shouldn’t be missing too many days because the habits are so easy. If you’re missing days, then try easier habits.

Here are 9 tiny, healthy habits that you can add to your life right now.

1. Do 2 Minutes of Qigong

If you choose only one habit from this list, choose qigong.

I often describe qigong as the master key that unlocks all of your other good habits.

If you don’t know any qigong, you can go learn a 2-3 minute routine for free right here.

If you’ve never heard of qigong, then you can start with this FAQ.

2. Walk More

Have you ever seen people driving around searching for a parking spot close to the fitness center? I have. It’s madness!

It’s amazing how many people neglect a free and easy habit that can literally transform their lives.

The research is clear. Walking is one of the best things you can do for your health.

Throughout your day, there are countless opportunities to walk. Park your car on the far side of the lot, get off the bus a stop early, get a dog, or just go walking with a friend (see #7 below) every morning.

(Note that the following links are Amazon affiliate links. This means I get a tiny commission if you purchase using my link, at no extra cost to you. I read about 75 books per year, so I’m grateful for your help in feeding my reading addiction!) 

If you get an activity tracker like a Fitbit or an Apple Watch, it’s MUCH easier to measure your progress. But if you have a smartphone, chances are it can already measures your steps.

What does a tiny walking habit look like? It can be as simple as going for a 2 minute walk ever afternoon. (If it’s raining or too cold, you can just walk inside for 2 minutes!)

3. Give

Yes, you can — and should — make a habit of giving.

Why should you give?

First, because giving feels good. Humans seem to be hard wired for giving.

Secondly, because the more you give, the more you have. I recommend a wonderful book called The Power of Giving, which explains this concept beautiful.

In the Zen tradition, giving also creates good karma. This doesn’t need to be anything mystical. When you give, you immediately feel good. Instant karma.

The more I give, the more I receive. For example, my wife and I give every month via GlobalGiving. We’ve been doing this for years, even when we were struggling financially.

If you can’t give money, then give service. Volunteer at a soup kitchen, mentor a child, or give random acts of kindness.

As an aside, if you are battling depression, then you should absolutely volunteer. Go do it right now. Click here to read why I think volunteering is so important for depressives.

4. Smile from the Heart

This Zen technique is as profound as it is simple.

Smiling from the Heart is something that we practice in our 5-Phase qigong routine. But you can do it any time, and virtually anywhere.

Pro tip: set a reminder on your smartphone to Smile From the Heart every day at a specific time.

I just started using the Breathe app reminder on the Apple Watch to accomplish this. Works like a charm!

5. Practice Gratitude

Happiness is not determined by the things or even the people in your life.

What brings real happiness is fully appreciating the things and people that are already in your life.

In other words, those who practice gratitude are also practicing happiness.

And practicing happiness builds willpower.

Notice that I wrote “practice gratitude” rather than “be grateful”.  I did that on purpose.  Gratitude is an art, and it should be practiced regularly.  There are countless things and people in your life that you can practice gratitude towards.

I practice gratitude every morning via my preferred day planner, called a Panda Planner. It prompts me to write down 3 things I’m grateful for.

I also practice gratitude during my qigong sessions.

Start practicing right now. And please consider joining us for Gratitude Mondays on our Facebook page, where we practice every week.

6. Be Mindful

Zen masters throughout history have encouraged disciples to be mindful not just during meditation or while practicing qigong, but while doing their daily tasks.

Whether it’s an enjoyable task (like eating), or a menial task (like cleaning), the Zen disciple was taught to give his or her full attention to the present moment.

We call this mindfulness. This is the secret to turning daily tasks into meditation.

The infinite is in the finite of every instant. – Zen Proverb

Try it. Pick a habit that you already have, like brushing your teeth, shaving, or cooking.

Now make a habit of being right here and right now with that habit. If you can remember to do it, then you’ll increase your work efficiency, decrease your stress, and boost your willpower.

You’ll also find that time slows down, and that life doesn’t just pass you by.

7. Find a Friend

People who are approaching the end of their lives never say, “I wish I had made more money.”

Instead, they say things like, “I wish I had spent more time with my friends and family.”

Humans are social animals. We crave a sense of community, and we need it too.

This concept of community is a huge part of the Zen tradition. Spiritual progress is always achieved with the help of a community, whether it is a monastery, a group of friends, or a school.

I’m a big believer in this concept, which is why I always work hard to create a sense of community in my students, both online and in person.

Some of the other habits that I mentioned above, like walking with a friend, or volunteering at a soup kitchen, will also help to build a sense of community.

You can kill two birds with one Zen stone!

8. Practice Loving Kindness

Metta Meditation, or Loving Kindness Meditation, is an ancient Zen practice that can change your life.

Of course, it’s not just from the Zen tradition. Jesus taught similar ideas, but used different words.

The way that I teach Metta involves 4 stages:

• Stage 1: Send loving kindness to someone you love (pets count).
• Stage 2: Send loving kindness to a neutral person, like a Starbucks barista.
• Stage 3: Send loving kindness to someone you dislike (one or both of the presidential candidates, for example).
• Stage 4: Send loving kindness to yourself.

Here’s a 10-minute guided audio where I lead you through all 4 stages. It’s free.

If you practice this meditation, and find it difficult – congratulations! You’re human!

It’s hard work. But it’s good work. It’s important work.

And it will build willpower like nobody’s business.

9. Breathe in, Breathe Out

You don’t need to breathe deeply, or use any special technique.  Just breathe.  More importantly, enjoy your breathing. You can do it right now, sitting at your computer.   Or go outside and breathe.

You say that you are too busy to meditate. Do you have time to breathe ? Meditation is your breath. – Ajahn Chah

Breathing is one of the simplest and most effective ways to meditate throughout your day. You can do it anytime, anywhere, and without any training.

You can do it while watching TV, while driving, even during a meeting.

It may see trite, but it really is that simple.  Make a habit of coming back to your breath, over and over, throughout your day.

The Takeaway

To create change in your life, add good habits. Start now. Pick a habit, and start.

I mean it.  Start right now, this very second. 

Smile from the heart, breathe, feel grateful, go for a walk, or whatever.

If you are serious about making changes in your life, then start building your discipline muscles right this very instant.

Start small. Make it easy at first. Gradually build up your willpower muscles over time.

As you get stronger, add more good habits. By the end of the year, you’ll not only have built strong willpower muscles, you’ll also have a bunch of healthy habits in your life.

This how you can pave the way to subtract bad habits in the future.

This is also how you’ll grow mentally, emotionally, and spiritually year after year.

From the heart,
Sifu Anthony

The post 9 Life Changing Habits That Require Zero Willpower appeared first on Flowing Zen.

Everyone wants more willpower. More, more, more!

And that’s because everyone knows that willpower is like magic fairy dust. Sprinkle this dust on a decision, and POOF!! Things start to change, like magic.

And vice versa. Nothing happens without willpower.

If you decide that you want to exercise more, but you’re fresh out of magic willpower dust — then nothing’s gonna change.

That’s why everyone wants more.

But many people don’t know what willpower really is.

For example, I meet many people who say that they’d LOVE to practice qigong.

When I ask them why they don’t, they give the same answer: “I just don’t have enough willpower.”

In other words, they think that they need willpower BEFORE practicing an art like qigong.

This is bass ackwards. The exact opposite is true.

Qigong is the perfect choice for people who struggle with willpower. Here are the top 10 reasons why:

1. It builds willpower

Willpower is like a muscle. If you don’t use it, then it gets flabby.

If you feel like you lack willpower, then your willpower muscles are flabby.

Qigong is how you’ll whip those muscles into shape.

Do you need more endurance before starting a jogging habit? No, jogging is precisely the thing that will help you build more endurance!

The same is true with qigong — it is precisely the thing that will help you to build more willpower.

The latest research suggests that practicing mindfulness meditation every day builds willpower by nurturing the gray matter in your brain. (Click here to read more about why qigong is a form of mindfulness meditation.)

Everyone is talking about meditation these days. For example, in her book, The Willpower Instinct, Dr. Kelly McGonigal talks about building willpower through meditation. She even offers guided meditations.

In my experience, qigong is even better at building willpower than guided meditations and sitting meditation.

I’ve seen qigong build willpower in people who swore that they were hopeless. I’ve seen it work where everything else has failed.

2. It only takes 15 minutes

Many people think that you need to dedicate an hour or more to qigong.

That’s just not true of many styles of qigong, and it’s certainly not true of Flowing Zen Qigong.

Do you have 15 minutes?

The basic qigong routine that I teach is roughly 15 minutes long, and that’s enough to get remarkable results.

Of course, I have students who practice longer than 15 minutes. But that’s because they WANT to.

At that point, it’s a labor of love, and willpower is no longer an issue.

3. Okay fine, it only takes 2 minutes!

We all have bad days, especially when we are still building our willpower muscles.

Some days, we don’t even have the willpower for 15 minutes.

That’s where the 2-Minute Drill comes in!

The 2-Minute Drill saved my life. It’s how I developed the daily habit of qigong, even while wrestling with clinical depression.

I had zero willpower, so I just practiced for 2 minutes. That’s it.

Sure, my results were less spectacular than if I had practiced for 15 minutes, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that I practiced every day!!

Practicing for 2 minutes every day gradually gave me the willpower to practice for 15 minutes per day. From there, I gradually worked all the way up to 3 hours per day!

I started with 2 minutes. And you can do the same.

(If you want to try approach, then I recommend that you try my 30-Day Energy challenge, which is great for building a 2 minute daily routine. It’s free.)

4. It’s stress relieving.

Did you know that stress drives you to increase your current habits?

For example, if you smoke, then stress will drive you to smoke more. (I know this from experience.)

But here’s something you might not know: It doesn’t matter if your habits are good or bad.

In other words, stress can drive you to good habits just as easily as it drives you to bad habits.

If you have a healthy habit like qigong, then stress will drive you to do it more.

The more stressed out you are, the more qigong you’ll practice!

5. It’s not physically demanding.

Exercising is hard.

Qigong is easy.

You don’t need equipment, you don’t need special clothes, you don’t need to schlep to the gym, and you don’t need to break a sweat.

All of those things require willpower, and all of those things are unnecessary with qigong.

6. It’s feels great

There are few things in life as enjoyable as a good qigong session.

For those of us who’ve been practicing for years, qigong is like the best drug ever. Not only does this drug get us high on life, but it has no negative side effects!

Gimme another hit of qigong, dude!

7. It’s medicine.

Qigong is enjoyable to practice — but even if it weren’t, I would still practice it daily.

Why?

Because it’s my medicine. If the medicine works, then I’ll take it even if it’s terrible and bitter.

But qigong isn’t bitter! It’s delicious!

If qigong had a warning label, it would read:

Side effects may include spontaneous mood elevation, increased willpower, and deeper sleep.

8. The form is not important

In qigong, the physical movement is the least important aspect. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

I actually encourage my students to butcher the physical form. This frees them the dreaded disease of perfectionism.

When you stop worrying about the form, you’re free to enjoy your breathing. You’re free to enjoy the exercise, even if it’s not perfect.

Many students tell me that this freedom is what made them fall in love with qigong.

9. It’s not a martial art (but it can lead to one later)

Don’t get me wrong. Martial arts are a fantastic way to build discipline.

I’ve practiced and taught various martial arts since 1992. I can say, without equivocation, that martial arts are not for everyone.

If martial arts are not for you, then Qigong is a fantastic choice. It gives you a kung-fu-free approach that still has many of the same benefits.

And later, if you change their mind and want to try a holistic martial art like tai chi, then you’ll be well prepared, thanks to qigong.

10. Maturity matters.

To become a world-class violinist, you need to start learning before the age of 5.

Not so with qigong. In fact, maturity is an asset for this art.

Why do they say that youth is wasted on the young?

It’s because when you’re young, you don’t fully appreciate how amazing it is to be healthy, to have full mobility, and to be able to eat whatever you want.

But as you age, you start to appreciate the little things.

Maybe that’s why they also say that life begins at 40?

As you age, you not only develop a greater appreciation for health, but you also develop qualities that are essential for qigong — like patience, an appreciation for subtlety, and a broader perspective.

The truth is that most people who start qigong before adulthood don’t stick with it.

But adults who fall in love with qigong often make it a lifelong practice.

“I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life to discover qigong.”

That’s a statement that I hear from a lot of students.

Qigong gives you the opportunity to reinvent yourself at any age. And of course, it also gives you plenty of magic willpower dust to implement the necessary changes!

You might also enjoy: Tips From a Kung Fu Master: Willpower Isn’t What You Think

What about you? Do you struggle with willpower? If so, have you tried qigong yet?

Or have you already used qigong to build willpower?

Either way, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below! 

From the heart,
Sifu Anthony

The post 10 Reasons to Try Qigong If You Need More Willpower 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 had it tougher than my students.  Some of the training I’ve been through was much more grueling than anything my students have experienced.  For example, students never throw up in the middle of my classes!

In the old days, I was stricter with my students.  But I’ve softened with age.  Like a parent who has had a tough life, I want things to be better for my “children”. I don’t want to torture them the way that I was tortured by some of my teachers.  So I take it easy on them.  Even spoil them.

Teaching Qigong and Tai Chi is a lot like parenting.  You make lots of mistakes along the way.  And in retrospect, I think that I may have made a mistake in being too soft on my students.

Don’t Hold Back!

The famous Zen Master and swordsman, Tesshu (1836-1888), was known for being incredibly tough on his students.  The training was brutal.  For example, when a new student would arrive in his dojo (school), he would say something like this:

“The purpose of swordsmanship is not to fight to defeat others in contests; training in my dojo is to foster enlightenment, and for this, you must be willing to risk your life.  Attack me any way you wish.  Do not hold back!”

Typically, he would knock the newbie to the floor over and over until they dropped from exhaustion.  That was lesson #1 in Tesshu’s school!

The 21st Century

Obviously, this would never work in the 21st century.  Most of my students are interested in healing, not martial arts.  Attacking them during their first lesson probably wouldn’t go over too well.

Certainly, my insurance company wouldn’t be too thrilled.

But can we perhaps learn something from Tesshu’s approach?  Is there something that we can implement in the modern era?

The answer is yes.  We can use what Tesshu called a seigan.

The Seigan

Seigan is a Japanese word that means “a deep vow”.  Tesshu encouraged his students to take a series of these seigan, each one more challenging than the previous one.

The first seigan in Tesshu’s school was to complete 1000 days of training — in a row.

(That works out to 2.7 years, if you’re curious.)

This was no small task.  Training in Tesshu’s school typically involved 2-3 hours of vigorous practice, including heavy sparring, every morning.  Imagine coming to my studio from 6-9am every morning for 1000 days in a row!

(You would need keys because we’re not open 1000 days in a row.)

2555 Days of Lifting The Sky

I haven’t completed Tesshu’s exact version of a seigan, but I’ve made good use of vows in my own training.

In January, 2000, after struggling with discipline for several years, I finally got fed up and took a vow to practice Lifting The Sky every day — no matter what.

I kept that vow for 7 years (2555 days!) without missing a single day.

More recently, in 2009, I took a vow to do 365 days of a Qigong exercise called One Finger Zen.  By the end of one year, I had so much momentum that I kept that practice going for a total of 3.5 years.

To this day, I continue to make use of 365-Day Seigans.  They help me to stay disciplined with my own personal practice.

Start With 100 Days

Okay, so maybe 1000 days is a bit too much for most of you.  And 365 days isn’t a walk in the park either.  That’s totally fine. This is the 21st century, after all.

To make it more accessible, consider a 100-Day Seigan.  In other words, vow to do 100 days of something — in a row.

Here are some suggestions:

• 100 Days of the 2-Minute Drill
• 100 Days of the 15-Minute Routine
• 100 Days of Gratitude
• 100 Days of 100 Kicks
• 100 Days of Strength & Flexibility Qigong
• 100 Days of Small Universe Breathing
• 100 Days of Morning Practice
• 100 Days of Sunrise Practice
• 100 Days of Horse Stance
• A Kung Fu Set A Day for 100 Days
• 100 Days of Forgiveness Meditation

You can implement a 100-Day Seigan even if you’ve never learned from me or another teacher. In fact, developing discipline is one of the most productive things that you can do before finding a teacher.

If you’re a newbie, I recommend that you start with the 2-Minute Drill for 100 days. You can read about it here.

Before You Start

Hold your horses.  Before you commit to doing a 100-Day Seigan, you need to get serious.  The reason why Tesshu’s students were so successful was because they took their vow so seriously.  It was a DEEP vow.  To them, it symbolized the vow that the Buddha made to attain enlightenment.

How will you make your vow more serious?  Here are some suggestions:

• Make it public.
• Make a ritual out of the vow.
• Write the vow down and hang it on a wall.
• Offer to pay someone $1000 if you fail.

Does $1000 seem like a lot to you?  Good!   That’s the whole point!  There has to be some sort of serious motivation!

Just Do It

I’ve probably been too soft on my students.  But the solution isn’t to swing in the other direction and become too strict.  I need to find a balance.

I think I’ve found that balance with the concept of a 100-Day Seigan.

If you’ve learned from me face-to-face, then I want to encourage you to do a 100-Day Seigan.  Do an easy one if you like.  But just do it.

Let me tell you from my own personal experience that completing a seigan like this feels absolutely wonderful.  To say that you will feel good about yourself is an understatement.

If you are thinking about undertaking a 100-Day Seigan, let me know in the comments.  That’s a good way to hold yourself accountable.  Declare your vow to me, and the entire Internet! And please feel free to offer to pay me $1000 if you fail!

From the heart,
Sifu Anthony

The post How To Build Discipline Like A Zen Sword Master 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.

Stop kidding yourself. You’re not ready to quit.

And that’s okay. The sooner you admit that you’re not ready, the sooner you’ll be able to quit once and for all.

I smoked for over 10 years. A pack a day for most of that time.

I tried to quit 14 times. Some attempts lasted a few days. Others lasted as long as 9 months.

But all 14 attempts had one thing in common — I wasn’t ready.

“It’s easy to quit smoking.  I’ve done it hundreds of times.” – Mark Twain

Not convinced?  Still think you’re ready? Fine.  Then answer this question:

Right now, this very instant, can you honestly say that you are ready to never take another drag from a cigarette?  Not a single drag.  Not ever.   Starting right now.

If your answer was “no,” or if you found yourself arguing with the question, then you’re not ready.  But I already knew your answer.  How did I know?  Because you’re reading this article.

I’ve helped dozens of students to successfully quit smoking.  If you follow the steps below, then you’ll succeed too.  And you won’t have to fail 14 times like I did.

Step 1: Admit It

You’re an addict. There’s no shame in admitting that. I am an addict too. And I quit smoking years ago!

So why do I still call myself an addict? Once an addict, always an addict. Especially with nicotine, the king of addictions.

During one attempted quit, let’s call it attempt #5, I actually picked up someone’s half-smoked cigarette from the ground. It was surreal, as if I wasn’t in control of my actions. I stopped myself midway, as if waking from a nightmare, but wow — that’s addiction!

I can admit that I’m an addict. Can you?

Step 2: Know Thy Enemy

Nicotine is powerful stuff. It crosses the blood-brain barrier and messes with your dopamine pathways. After years of smoking, those pathways get altered. In other words, smoking physically changes your brain.

If you’ve been smoking for a few years, then your brain has been conditioned to responded to nicotine. Think about how many cigarettes, day in and day out, you’ve smoked. That’s a lot of training. No wonder your brain changed.

Can those dopamine pathways heal? Probably. I agree with Dr. Rankin that there is “no such thing as an incurable illness”, and I’ve seen the incredible power of self-healing in myself and thousands of students.

But when it comes to nicotine, it can take years to heal those pathways. So it’s a conundrum. By the time your dopamine pathways heal, by the time you MIGHT be able to take a drag without getting addicted, you’ll no longer have any desire to do so.

Step 3: Know Thyself

I can sit in a bar, surrounded by smokers, and have zero desire to smoke. If someone offers me a cigarette, I say “I don’t smoke” without hesitation, and without a second thought. Even when major stresses come into my life, I still don’t feel any urge to go buy a pack.

So I’m “cured” of smoking, right? Yes. But you know what? Even after all these years without a cigarette, even with my daily Qigong and Tai Chi practice, even with all the acupuncture I’ve received — I’m still not sure if my dopamine pathways are 100% back to normal.

And it doesn’t matter. Because I’m not going to find out. Even after all these years as an ex-smoker, I believe that a single drag might be enough to reignite the dopamine pathways and send me right back into addiction. That belief, whether it’s true or not, serves me well. It helps me in my mission to remain smoke free.

I’m an addict, and I understand the addictive nature of nicotine. I’ll never take another puff in my life. I won’t risk it. Period.

Step 4: Make Peace

Are you bargaining in your mind? Are you trying to rationalize a future where you can smoke cigarettes now and then? If so — forget it. That’s the addiction talking.  Once you break the addiction, you’ll think much more clearly.

You don’t have to quit now (we’ll get to that part soon). But once you do, you can’t smoke ever again. Make peace with that. You don’t have to like this advice, but for your own sake, you should make peace with it.

If you do the research, you’ll find that all ex-smokers agree on this issue.  All of us have one thing in common — we’re completely done with smoking.  That chapter is over.

What about those people who can just smoke on weekends?  Personally, I think they may be aliens in disguise. I’m not sure that they’re human.  Certainly, they are not addicted like you are, or like I was.   They aren’t REAL smokers.

I desperately wanted to believe that I could be like them, and I tried really hard to do it.  But it didn’t work.   At least 8 of my quit attempts failed because I tried to smoke “just now and then”.

It doesn’t work.  Ask any ex-smoker.  The next time you quit, it’s got to be forever.

Step 5: Quit Quitting.

Now for the fun part.  If you’ve been stressed out thinking about never smoking again, then relax.  You’re not quitting now. In fact, I want you to quit quitting.

The next time you quit will be the last.  Until then, you’re  going to continue smoking — and you’re going to do it completely guilt free.

Right now, there are too many negative emotions surrounding the act of smoking.  Guilt, shame, anger, worry, fear.  In the world of Chinese medicine, those emotions represent energy blockages.  You need to start clearing those blockages BEFORE you try to quit smoking.

If you’re constantly trying to quit, and constantly failing, then there’s never a chance to clear those blockages.  You’re spinning your tires in the mud.  You’re just reinforcing negative emotions, and making it harder and harder to actually quit.

Quitting smoking is stressful. Of course, smoking is also your way of de-stressing. If you quit too many times, you’re creating more stress than you’re eliminating. You may actually be lowering your stress threshold rather than raising it.

Step 6: Enjoy Smoking

If you’re reading this article, then you’ve probably gotten to the point where you hardly enjoy smoking any more. You smoke because you’re addicted, because of the habit, because you would feel terrible if you didn’t smoke.  Gone are the days when you truly enjoy smoking.

We need to reclaim that. I know it’s counter-intuitive. But if hating smoking made it easier to quit smoking, you would have quit already, right?

So I’m giving you a free pass. For the next 3-12 months, you’re going to smoke guilt free.  In fact, you’re NOT ALLOWED to quit smoking for at least 3 months.  If anyone questions you, tell them that Sifu Anthony said so, and they should take it up with me. (Don’t worry. I know Kung Fu.)

For 3 months, I want you to savor each cigarette. Be present. Smile from the heart. (Click here to learn how.)  Be here and now.  Notice the cigarette, the color of the cherry, the feel of the drag, the shape of the smoke. That’s Zen.

Here’s what’s NOT Zen.  Lighting a cigarette and smoking half of it without hardly noticing.  And then needing to smoke another one immediately after because you missed the first one.

It’s critical that you don’t feel guilty. Guilt just creates a negative loop.  You feel bad, and then you want to smoke more, and then you feel worse, so you smoke more.  You need to break the cycle, and the way to do that is by feeling good.

Step 7: Add Good Habits

In this online course, I talk about why most people fail with their New Year’s Resolutions.  They fail because they try to subtract bad habits rather than adding good one. Don’t make the same mistake.

Don’t take anything away. Add good habits first.

The course above gives you everything you need to change your life using 2 minutes a day of qigong as your gateway habit.

Learn qigong ASAP.  If you’re not going to learn it right this instant, then schedule a time to learn it.  I’m serious. If you finish this article without scheduling a time, then no matter how good your intentions, you won’t do it. So put it on your calendar right now.

You first goal is to do 2-Minutes once a day. That’s harder than it sounds.  You’ll probably be okay for a few days, but then you’ll forget.  Keep trying until you succeed in doing it every day for 30 days.

Step 8: Set a Date

Keep smoking, and enjoying yourself, until you have made a strong habit of doing 2 minutes a day of qigong. 

All of that enthusiasm and energy you periodically have toward quitting — put all of it into your daily qigong. It’s not time to quit yet.

Once you’ve managed to do 30 days of qigong (and not before), then you can think about setting a quit date. There’s never a perfect time. You’re going to be an absolute mess for a few weeks after you quit. But you’ve got to do it sooner or later.

Remember, this next attempt at quitting is going to be your last one ever. No more trying. Do or do not.

Set the date far enough in advance that you can continue to do two things for a few more months — enjoy smoking, and practice qigong for 2 minutes a day.

So let’s say that you’ve successfully done 2 minutes a day for 30 days. You decide to set your quit day 3 months down the road. Until that day, you’re going to continue enjoying your cigarettes (a Zen exercise), and also doing 2 minutes at least once a day (and preferably twice).

Step 9: Get Ready

With your quit date set, you have time to get yourself ready. Gradually start to arrange things for that day. For example, collect all of the ashtrays in your house, and throw out all but one. Tell people that you’re going to quit.  Obviously, you’ll also need to get rid of all your extra cigarettes.

I’m a big fan of the acupuncture protocol called NADA (National Acupuncture Detoxification Association). If you’re in Gainesville, my wife offers it at her clinic.  You should start doing this roughly 1-2 weeks BEFORE your quit day.  (If you’re not in Gainesville, then look for a NADA practitioner near you.)  This will help you to get ready for the big day.

But most importantly, get your heart and mind ready for the big day.  You’re gradually psyching yourself up, reminding yourself of all the reasons you want to quit.

Step 10: Say Goodbye

So the big day is approaching. You’ve told all your friends so that they can support you (and not tempt you, if they’re smokers). You’ve gotten the house ready. You’ve gotten rid of all but a few cigarettes.

This is a personal choice, but I’m a big believer in the power of ritual. I still remember the last cigarette that I smoked. I made a little ritual out of it, and said goodbye, as if saying goodbye at a funeral.

I recommend that you smoke your last cigarette at night. That way, you can wake up the next morning and start fresh.  And that’s exactly what you’re going to get — a fresh start on life.

Step 11: Go Cold Turkey

Forget the patch.  Forget the gum.  Cold turkey is the only way to go.   Again, just ask ex-smokers, and the successful ones all agree — go cold turkey.

I’m not going to sugar-coat it for you. It’s going be rough for a few weeks. You’re going to go through withdrawal from one of the most addictive substances known to man. But that’s a necessary part of the process.

The suffering that you experience during the withdrawal is part of the equation. Don’t wimp out of this step with the patch or something similar.  Going through the hell of withdrawal is necessary.  A few months down the road, when you’re craving a cigarette, you’ll remember how awful it was when you went cold turkey.  Because of that memory, you’ll be less likely to go backward, and more likely to go forward.

Use your tools, especially the 2-Minute Drill. It will be your life vest.  It will also help you to detox faster. During the first 2 weeks, you may need to do it 10 times a day, or even more.

Don’t expect the 2-Minute Drill to make everything okay. You won’t be okay. You’ll probably be miserable. But the 2-Minute Drill will make it tolerable, and give you the strength to get through.

(A small percentage of people don’t experience the hell of withdrawal. This has advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that it’s easier to quit. The disadvantage is that it’s easier to start up again. If you’re one of these people, then you need to stay vigilant, especially 3-6 months after you quit.)

Step 12: Visualize the Future

Maybe I should have started with this part.  Do you start with the good news, or the bad news? In this case, I started with the bad news. So here’s the good news.

Once you make peace with never taking another puff, and once you get through those first few months, once you quit for good — life becomes beautiful.

[Click here to read an article I wrote after going 10 years without a single puff from a cigarette.)

All those little things that you’re worrying about now — how you’ll drink coffee without a cigarette, how you’ll go to a bar, what you’ll do after a meal — all of that stuff will seem trivial once you’ve broken the cycle of addiction.

Take it from me — it’s worth it. You haven’t felt so alive in years. 

I know that, from where you’re standing, it’s hard to imagine life without cigarettes.  But from where I’m standing, it’s hard to imagine life WITH cigarettes.

Like I said, that chapter is over for me. My life is so much fuller and richer now that there’s absolutely no need for me to smoke again. Not ever. Not even one puff.

Let’s use the comments below as a community support group. Those of you who have already quit, please post your stories below.  And those of you who are getting ready to quit — come back to this article and post your thoughts, questions, and concerns whenever you need a little help.  I’m here for you. 

From the heart,
Sifu Anthony

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