Three Essential Principles of Qigong Meditation

The Mind
When in a Qigong meditation, first thing to do is to ease your senses and clear your mind from all of the stress and problems. This is all about bringing the Qi (life energy) to the Dantian (energy center, which is a significant focal point for performing Qigong), where it is stored and developed. It is significant to keep the Qi in the Dantian to attain total relaxation and balance. Don't let the Qi stay in your upper body because it may lead to chest pressure and difficulty in breathing. Meanwhile, if Qi remains in your head, you will feel pressure, and suffer Headaches or Insomnia.

Proper Breathing
On most meditation practices, the need for proper breathing is always first in the list even in performing the Qigong contemplation. In breathing properly, one must consider the proper techniques to have a good blood circulation, peace of mind, energy, oxygen towards the brain and promote development of the body's Qi. Even though old contemplation practitioners perform proper breathing via diaphragm, as a beginner, it is essential to start with breathing through the abdomen.

When working the breathing exercises, always pause somewhere between inhalation and exhalation in order to give the Qi energy the time to collect itself when manipulating its strength or to make any required changes in direction during circulation. Also, naturally rest your tongue against the palate and always breathe by the nose and not by the mouth. Also, make a slight force in your lips.

The Right Body Posture
To have an excellent flow of the Qi inside our body, old Chinese medicine experts believed that a good and proper posture is the right thing to do. If you fail to let the interior Qi flow smoothly, then you can never achieve relief and a peaceful mind. In return, once the mind is not relaxed, it will result into the futility of the Qi. So to help you well, here are the appropriate body postures in the practice of Qigong Meditation.

1. Straighten up your back so that your interior body is in a relaxed state. The straightening of the body helps connect the Dantian to the Chong or the connecting channel in the center of the body that relaxes the Baihui or the head crown and the Wuyin or the point somewhere between the legs.
2. Apply parallelism among your body parts such as the feet and the shoulder line to make an ideal poise with your body parts. Also keep parallelism somewhere between your feet.
3. To efficiently straighten your spine, your tailbone must point directly to the ground.
4. Keep your head adrift smoothly above your neck.
5. Close your eyes as you bring your tongue against the roof of your mouth.
6. Slump your chest while going round. It should inflate towards your navel and the sides of your ribs stay as soft as a baby’s.
7. Massage your organs internally.
8. Raise the spine properly and spread the shoulders.