While I understood that all the odd little movements and breathing relaxation exercises made my professional voice much stronger, I always wondered about the foundational aspects of the physical moves. Mind you, this was last century. China, in some parts of the world, wasn’t politically recognized yet, and in the 70s, anything most of us college dweebs knew about martial arts from China was picked up from the TV show “Kung Fu.”  So, if the word “Qigong” was ever uttered before, I certainly never heard it. 

Flash forward into this century and the first decade. For two years I took Tai Chi classes at the local YMCA, which in and of itself is not unusual. What was unusual is that our instructor, Bess, who was an absolute gem, was born and raised in China.

One small problem: Bess’s English was very minimal and no one in our group spoke the least bit of Mandarin. But there were always good moments for laughter as we persistently made our way through learning Tai Chi. So, by necessity, our learning was indeed monkey see, monkey do.  As a matter of fact, Bess’ greeting to all new students coming in was with a happy “Come in, come in. Is monkey see, monkey do!”

And without fail for 20 minutes we would begin our class with a, as she would say, “We warm up now,” before we began our Tai Chi practice. 

Life changes and mine took a new direction with heavier responsibilities and I moved too far away to continue with Bess and the YMCA. 

A few years later, once things began to lighten up, I started looking for a Tai Chi group to shake of some serious rust.  But now I kept coming across the word “Qigong.” So, with the advent of YouTube, I looked it up. I can’t say I was surprised. Not only were these moves reminiscent of my old acting days, but more importantly, the 20 minute “We warm up now” moves my non-English speaking Tai Chi instructor put us through were all Qigong. It was one of my “Ah-ha” moments in life. 

I decided to obtain my certification as a Qigong Practice Leader from the Institute for Integral Qigong and Tai Chi (IIQTC) founded by Dr. Roger Janke. As I live in a large urban area (can you say traffic?) my physical practice is, by design, small and limited.

In my mind’s eye, this did very little to help truly spread the good health that I believe practicing Qigong has to offer. That’s when I started putting things that I had learned along the way from some of the years I spent in various areas of television production and some of the years I spent in private sector business.

By sending out a standing Qigong practice on a bi-weekly basis to be streamed at your convenience, I hope to reach and share this health benefit with those of you who may need to fit in a moment of calm in their day but find it, for whatever reason, an inconvenience to drive to a set location.

It’s About the Qi is ultimately designed to be a beginner’s Qigong, with my personal hope that these beginning steps might lead you into a deeper look into this healing art.