More and more people are turning into Qigong, an ancient Chinese exercise to keep them
The group of five women and one man glided across the hardwood floor in the well-lit, butter yellow room on the second floor of the People’s Food Co-Op in Southeast Portland.
Their synchronized movements flowed like traditional ballet, with arms raised, fingers stretched, deep lunges. Then, the routine morphed into something more reminiscent of modern dance, with arm, leg and core muscles quickly contracting, releasing, often punctuated by staccato pulses of exhaled breath.
The “dancers” shed layers of loose clothing as their faces flushed with their physical and mental exertion; despite the effort, each participant wore a mien of pure concentration.
After the group had covered nearly every inch of the parquet, one of its leaders, Katy Langstaff, strode over to the three newcomers observing the exercises.
Inches above their white upturned palms, Langstaff placed her own downturned, pink and white mottled palm and asked, “Can you feel that?” referring to a warmth resonating from her hand.
“That’s my qi.”
Balancing the qi
Qigong is a classical Chinese exercise that claims to help its practitioners achieve inner balance and optimum mental and physical health. Done correctly, the series of largely gentle movements for the entire body, coupled with meditation, is supposed to balance a person’s two opposing forces (yin and yang) and unblock the qi.
Qi (also written “chi”) is the energy force that flows through the body via channels called meridians, says Lita Buttolph, a local qigong instructor who works with Langstaff.
If this energy force gets blocked anywhere in the body, that portion of the body suffers. But if the energy flows freely, the body better attains its balance and an ill can be healed, says naturopathic physician Laurie Regan, a professor and dean of the School of Classical Chinese Medicine at the National College of Natural Medicine (NCNM) in Southwest Portland.
Qigong practitioners’ health claims range from repairing bad knees to improving energy and metal acuity. Oh, and helping you avoid getting a cold.
Sound too good to be true? Regan, the NCNM dean, agrees. “It’s understandable to be skeptical,” she says. “So to dispel that is to experience it.”
