I’m often asked about what visualizations to add with Qigong exercises and most often I reply not to bother with visualizations. The reason being that I have found they usually add a level of complexity to your Qigong practice, but do not offer a fair exchange of value in return.
I especially advise you to avoid visualizations if you’re practicing Qigong for medical/health reasons. I say this because when we get to the ‘Let Go – Do Nothing‘ energy flow part of your Qigong exercise, then it’s important that you really do think of nothing.
When you let go, the Qi will flow to the area/s of low energy because that’s where the blockage is. Qi knows where it needs to go, so you don’t need to do anything. The problem comes when you try to be smarter than your own body.
The example I always give is someone with knee problem. Knee problems are usually linked to issues with the Kidneys. If you do your practice, let go, do nothing your Qi will flow to the kidneys and work on removing the blockage. But let’s say you don’t follow instructions and decide to focus your attention on your knees.
Qi flows where attention goes, so your Qi flows to your knees, instead of the kidneys. 3 months later you’ll probably be scratching your head, wondering why your knees are no better and come to the conclusion that Qigong doesn’t work!
With advanced levels of qigong exercises visualization is an important part of the exercise. For example in the Big Universe, you visualize your energy flowing up through the legs, down through the inside of the arms, to the palms, then up the outside of the arms to the Bai Hui, then down through the body, down through the outside of the legs, to the soles of the feet, then up the inside of the legs and repeat the cycle.
This visualization is co-ordinated with the breathing and performed in a QSoM. It will come as no surprise for you to hear me say that an exercise like the Big Universe is best learned directly from a Qigong teacher who has the skill of the Big Universe.
If you must use visualization in your Qigong practice, then a simple and useful one is to GENTLY imagine good energy from the cosmos flowing in as you breathe in through your nose, and negative energy coming out as you breathe out through your mouth.
Don’t do this for every breath, just every now and then is fine.
Here’s what I mean when I say gently imagine:
Think of a member of your family.
That’s it. Job done.
You didn’t sweat blood thinking about what they were wearing, or where they were, or what they were doing, or how they had their hair etc.
You just thought of them. Quickly, easily and simply.
It’s this kind of approach you take when visualizing good energy coming in and negative energy coming out.
No need to think what it looks like, what color it is, where it’s going, what it’s doing etc → doing so is entering into the realm of over intellectualization and we all know that’s a major contributer to mental blockages.
Marcus James Santer
