Fall Qigong and Dao Yoga Practice
The fall season’s practice is, like nature, all about letting come and letting go. We get what we need at this point in our journey by being open so we can perceive what we need and by being empty so we can receive what we need. Just like the breath, flowing in and out, the organs that resonate with this season—the lungs (yin) and large intestine (yang)—are about taking in and letting go. As are the nose and skin, which also resonate with the fall season.
Lao Tzu said, “The way to do is to be.” In other words, be open to what comes and be letting go to what needs to leave. This is a wonderful time of year to revisit old grief and sorrow or anything you’ve been holding onto from the past. Letting go creates so much space for new life, energy, health, and experience.
The ability to experience our moments as precious and be present in them, whether they are happy or sad, is the power of lung Qi. Strong and balanced lung Qi and the metal element provide us with the courage to bring in life and also to let it move through us in a timely and natural way.
The lungs, like metal, offer strength, structure, and the ability to bring in Qi from our external sources of life energy. This element, as with the lungs, large intestine, nose and skin, governs the ability to take in and let go—of oxygen and carbon dioxide, nutrition and waste, energy, ideas, habits, relationships, life. The lungs offer protection as well as a home for courage, integrity, grief, and sorrow.
The acquired emotions or states of the lungs when energy is out of balance, deficient or in excess, may include grief, sadness, sorrow, depression, shame, guilt, and despair, as well as anxiety. The balancing and natural virtues of the lungs include integrity, resiliency, courage, strength, reverence, justice, righteousness, and detachment.
Blocks or imbalance in the metal element, are often related to constipation, diarrhea, headache, lung disorders (such as asthma), sinus congestion, allergies, fatigue, and loss of enthusiasm for life. Unresolved grief is often at the root of many physical lung, skin, and elimination problems. Holding on to the past can lead to colon ailments. When we hold onto instead of feeling emotions, which allows them to move through us, we stop and block energy flow.
When open and balanced, metal Qi is experienced as the ability to encounter difficulty with openness and strength, quiet integrity, confidence, and a willingness to release physical and emotional wastes, including old beliefs, habits and behaviours, and unhealthy relationships.
Our fall practice will use the inner smile meditation and lung healing sound to for the alchemy of transforming held or stuck energy. Our Qi self-massage will focus on stimulating the lung and large intestine meridians (energy pathways). Our Dao yoga, breath work, and flowing qigong movements will connect us with our lungs, open, clear, purge, tone, and cultivate fresh and supportive Qi into the physical and energy bodies.
We will work with the healing sound for the lungs, which is “Ssss,” and the energy colour, which is a pure, brilliant white. We will practice Ocean Breathing, Tiger Claws, the Daoist Five Tonification movements, Lung Healing Sound, Silken Form, Embracing Tiger and Returning to Mountain, some of the lung-balancing Shibashi forms, and more.
No experience is required.
See the fall schedule here.
Namaste,
Sandra
© Sandra Tonn
Much of our summer qigong classes will focus on the element of fire and its corresponding organs, the heart (yin organ), and the small intestine (yang organ). The corresponding sense organ is the tongue (speech). The healing sound is “Haaa,” and the energy colour is red (or pink if you have high blood pressure or a heart condition).
Breath with mindfulness and posture = qigong. All three, together, help to bring about the state in which we can improve digestion, remove energy blocks, and move stagnant energy, allowing Qi—life force energy—to flow. When Qi flows, we are healthy and can digest our food and our life experiences as nature intended.
Following nature’s lead, this series of Dao Yoga classes will embrace the power and depth of cleansing and new growth. Now is the time to cleanse the old and set sights on a new vision to foster growth and flow in body and in life. The yin organs that resonates with this fresh, new season are the liver (yin organ) and the gallbladder (yang organ). The element that resonates with spring is wood and the animal is the powerful dragon.
In qigong’s Five Element Theory, spring is the time to cleanse and detoxify with the help of the spring yin organ (the liver) and spring yang organ (the gallbladder). Just as in nature, our energy is ascending, out of the cold, still winter months, to start fresh, with new clarity, vision, decision, growth and flow. We work with the spring element of wood and the spring animal, the dragon, to move out anything old, stale, or stagnant, including the emotions we hold in the liver—anger, resentment, and impatience. We activate kindness, compassion, and the power of creativity. Join me for the inspiring and transforming practice of qigong, including Qi massage, Dao yoga, and guided meditation, with all the fresh new life force Qi of spring as our teacher.
This week we will review movements 4 and 5 of the Shibashi practice 
I’m looking forward to practicing with you.
Following nature’s lead, this series of Dao Yoga classes will embrace the power and depth of stillness and quiet. Now is the time to recharge and rejuvenate our physical and energy bodies. The yin organs that resonates with this cool, dark season are the kidneys—our energy batteries and the home of our original Qi (life force energy).