What is Health Qigong and why is it So Popular?
An Ancient Healing Practice for Modern Life
Health Qigong is a gentle and powerful self-healing practice from Traditional Chinese Medicine. It combines slow movements, breathing exercises and mindfulness to restore balance in the body, calm the mind, and support emotional wellbeing.
Qigong is also an excellent way to relax deeply and “switch off” at the end of the day. Many people use it as part of their bedtime routine to help move from wakefulness into a peaceful sleep.
The word Qigong (Chi Kung) is often translated as breath work energy work. It involves gentle body movements, relaxed breathing and focused awareness. Qigong can be practiced standing, sitting or lying down, making it suitable for people of all ages and fitness levels.
The Three Treasures of Qigong -Jing, Qi and Shen
Health Qigong is based on harmonising three essential energies known as the Three Treasures:
Jing – Essence
Jing is your body’s deepest vitality and foundation of physical health. It is associated with growth, strength, and longevity. Qigong practices help protect and strengthen Jing, supporting energy levels and long-term wellbeing.
Qi – Life Force
Qi is the vital energy that flows through the body’s meridian system. When Qi moves freely, the body feels energised, strong and balanced. Qigong exercises promote better circulation of Qi, removing blockages and restoring natural flow — an essential part of preventing illness and supporting healing.
Shen – Spirit
Shen relates to the mind, emotions and consciousness. It governs clarity, peace and emotional balance. Through mindful movement and meditation, Qigong helps quiet the mind, calm the heart and develop inner peace.
When Jing, Qi and Shen work in harmony, physical health improves, emotional balance deepens, and spiritual awareness grows.
How Qigong Works
During practice, breathing, movement and awareness work together:
- Breathing replenishes Qi
- Gentle movement circulates Qi
- Mindfulness strengthens Shen
Qigong teaches how to guide breath and movement with intention, using imagination and awareness to direct energy through the body’s natural pathways.
The name Qigong comes from two words:
- Qi – energy, breath, vitality
- Gong – skill, cultivation, practice
Together, Qigong means cultivating life energy with mindful skill.
Qigong for Healing and Self-Care
Qigong is widely known for its healing benefits and preventative health support. It is a simple but powerful form of self-care that empowers you to take responsibility for your own wellbeing.
With regular practice, people often experience:
- Reduced stress and anxiety
- Improved sleep quality
- Better circulation and flexibility
- Relief from muscle and joint tension
- A stronger immune system
- Increased vitality and energy
- Emotional balance and mental clarity
Health Qigong supports both recovery from chronic conditions and everyday wellbeing.
Begin Your Qigong Journey
Health Qigong is gentle, safe and suitable for beginners. You can practise at home or join a guided class to learn correct techniques and gain deeper benefits.
By nurturing your energy and restoring inner balance, Qigong can improve your quality of life at every level.
Find Your Class
Join us and experience the healing power of Qigong for yourself.
Divisions of Qi Gong
There are four main divisions of Qi Gong, depending on the goal of the practitioner – spiritual, medical, martial, and athletic. However, there is some overlap between the branches. Qi or Chi: vital energy, live force, or simply air; Gong or Kung(): skill, power.
Art of generating and controlling Qi, the vital energy through mind and body exercises. Practitioners generate and move this vital energy around body to regulate mind and body or to achieve exceptional physical abilities. There are numerous forms of Qigong. For instance, medical qigong, health qigong, hard qigong, soft qigong, Buddhist Qigong, Tao Qigong, Wudang Qigong and Shaolin Qigong.
Medical Qigong
Medical Qi Gong is a branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Qi is life energy and TCM says that the health of the body relies upon a smooth flow of Qi within the body. Disease is the result of poor Qi circulation. Balancing the flow of Qi allows the body to heal itself. Gong means work or hard task, and it is the task of learning how to control the flow of Qi through the body using breath, movement, and meditation.
Qigong forms that are practiced for healing specific illness. There are two forms of practices. One generates internal Qi for self healing. The other generates or collect external Qi that can be direct by achieved practitioners to heal their patients.
Soft Qigong
Refers to forms of qigong that are practiced for mind and physical well being of practitioners or for healing. These qigong do not aimed at abtaining exception strength or other extreme physical abilities. Practices generally involve only slow, light movements or no movement at all. For these qigong mind control is usually considered more important than physical exercises.
Hard Qigong
Refers to various qigong forms that are practiced as martial art. It is believed that practicing these qigongs can lead to exceptional strength or other physical abilities.
Health Qigong
Health Qigong is a new development from traditional sports program that combines physical activity, breathing an psychological adjustment as the main form of exercise, and is an important part of the long Chinese culture.
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Health Qigong forms that are officially promoted by Chinese Health Qigong Associations (CHQA). There are currently four forms, namely Ba Duan Jin, Wu Qin Xi, Yi Jin Ying and Liu Zi Jue. These qigongs are designed for improving general health of those who practice them.
These exercises once learnt can also bring about increased muscular efficiency and coordination, improved breathing and blood flow, greater flexibility, a higher level of internal balance and harmony and improved immune system.
Qigong is now regarded within the Chinese health and medical science fields as “a shining pearl in Traditional Chinese Medicine”. It has helped millions of people with severe and lingering health problems to improve their health. Over 40 countries have adopted Dao Yin Qigong with over 4 million people currently practicing this art.
All Health QiGong routines - listed below -, are part of the New Health Qigong Exercise Series compiled and published by the Chinese Health Qigong Association: (These programs teach in private sessions, in group sessions and in the workshop.)
Qigong Programs Offered at Tunde-World:
1. Ba Duan Jin (8 Pieces of Silk)
2. Liu Zi Jie (The Six Healing Sounds)
3. Yi Jin Jing (Tendon-Muscle Strengthening Exercises)
4. Wu Qin Xi (Five Animals)
5. Daoyin Yangsheng Gong Shi Er Fa (Mind Leading Qi. 12 Method of Healing Chi)
6. Shi Er Duan Jin (Twelve Pieces of Silk)
7. Ma Wang Dui Dao Yi Shu (Guiding Qi)
8. Da Wu (Big Dance)
9. Tai Ji Yang Sheng Zhang (Tai Chi Rod for Wellbeing)
Qigong learn for better balance. Qigong increases flexibility and the spring of ligaments. Qigong is like a good gentle stretch and an acupuncture treatment combined, which improves the circulation of fluids and energy in the body to lessen the impact of injuries and allow more rapid healing. Practitioners of qigong learn to avoid strain and stay well within their 70 percent capacity, and, in particular, not to over strain if there is already some pain or restriction. Qigong balances energy and improves the weaker areas in people's internal systems. The aim is to prevent the body's "weak links" from causing problems down the road.
QiGong is by far the most appealing of all modalities to kill stress because it achieves 3 very important steps.
*Synchronizing your mind,
*Synchronizing your body,
*Synchronizing your breathing.
When all 3 are aligned you get your body into it has optimal state of flow- and this is where your natural healing abilities being to kick in.
Health Qigong is called Chi Yoga or Chi dancing, which has been practiced for over 5000 years, originally created by herbalist doctors as part of Chinese medicine for self-energy healing. Meditation leads Chi and the "Chi" energy acu-pressure therapy activates the body's Acu-points and meridians to address the cause of imbalances and clear the "blockages" to build up energy and heal disease.
A Chinese practice, qigong (pronounced "chee-gong") makes use of breathing techniques and graceful movement to increase the flow of qi - also known as chi - through the body. Qigong means energy (qi) and skill (gong), or a skill or practice that cultivates or increases energy.
Yoga practitioners study a similar concept called prana. Chi is defined as a life-force that is often equated with the breath, or seen to move with the breath. Controlling breathing helps control and optimize the movement of chi, which leads to increased health and well-being. Breathing techniques are often accompanied by specific types of exercise that increase the flow of chi. These exercises also increase strength, flexibility and balance.
Popular in China for thousands of years, Qigong is the art of cultivating your vital energy through gentle movements and techniques that incorporate breath, sound, visualization and self-massage. Often thought of as "Feng Shui for the body" or "Chinese yoga", Qigong is not simply about physical fitness, but also internal healing.
Health Qigong is called, Chi Yoga, or Chi dancing, which has been practiced for over 5000 years, originally created by herbalist doctors as part of Chinese medicine for self-energy healing. Meditation leads Chi, the "Chi" energy acu-pressure therapy activates the body's Acu-points and meridians to address the course of imbalances and clear the "blockages" to build up energy and heal disease.
Qi Gong is an ancient practice that can be practiced by anyone and has a huge amount of health benefits. Read on to find out more.
On Health Qigong Principles (Ⅰ)
The laboratory research also shows that Health Qigong exercises can influence certain neural reflected functions to change and regulate the physiological functional activities of human. For example, the laboratory research displays that when Qigong exercises gets into quietness, the rhythm of alpha wave will increase, and each area tends to the directional change of synchronization and ordering. Under the control of cerebral cortex, along with bodies and mind of exercisers relaxing deeply, relative harmonious change will appear on the function of each system of the human, such as heart rate slowing, blood pressure decreasing, vein expanding, capillary permeability increasing, breath even, gentle, slow, deep and long, skin resistance decreasing, efferent nerve transmitting speed accelerating, and even endocrine system and immunity system changing relatively. These changes will make the functional movement of each part of the human coordinate and unite much more. (By Cai Li)