There are many ancient, intricate, and profound forms within the Chinese medical (CM) pillar of internal arts, such as qi gong and tai qi. Yet, underpinning all of these styles is fundamental principle of regulating the mind, body, and breath. By simply bringing awareness to, and improving upon these three bodily functions, you can immediately and drastically enhance your quality of life. I wish to share this practice with you because of it’s simplicity, and accessibility. Although there is a great deal of accumulated knowledge and various methods or traditions behind the regulation of each of these bodily dimensions, one can benefit tremendously with very limited adjustments to their posture, rate of breath, and consequently their state of mind. There are infinite ways which we can choose to regulate our lifestyles to promote wellbeing, and as a result that the task can be overwhelming. This is especially true given the vast amount of what is frequently contradictory information that is available and disseminated. However, regardless of what path you take, regulation of the mind, body, and breath will always be of the utmost importance and should be a part of any regimen with goal of improving wellness.
Let us begin with regulating our breath. To impress upon you the importance of beginning with the breath, we can look to the very common saying “you can live weeks without food, and days without water”. Notice anything missing? It’s likely that the acknowledgment of the fact that we can only live a very few minutes without breathing is because we take this bodily function for granted. Oxygen is an element that every cell in your body needs to function. In CM we call the air we breathe da qi, or heavenly qi. As we inhale, we are taking in the yang energy of heaven (Kaatz & Tu, 2012). This form of qi is said to instinctually know how to govern life. There are many negative repercussions that result from rapid and shallow breathing, both physical and psychological. To such an extent that there is a substantial amount of modern research that has demonstrated the positive psychological impact of simply extending the duration of each breath (Noble & Hochman, 2019). In fact, the quickest way to increase parasympathetic tone, or down-regulate our nervous system, is to extend your exhale (Sapolsky, 2004). Poor breathing habits can be so insidious that one of the theories used to explain idiopathic panic disorders is the perceived increase in circulating carbon dioxide resulting from shallow breathing (Black & Andreasen, 2014). Hopefully by now you understand the importance of regulating the breath. In practice, regulating the breath is done by increasing the duration of both your inhale, and exhale to at least 4 seconds. It is also beneficial to implement a brief pause between each inhalation and exhalation. Once you have increased the duration of your breath, you can now improve upon its depth. An effective technique called diaphragmatic breathing can be used here. To accomplish this, simply expand your ribcage as you inhale. You may notice that your abdomen expands as well when this is done properly. Regulating the breath in this matter can be done anytime of day for as long as you wish. Optimally, you should maintain this breathing pattern throughout your entire day; however, spending five minutes every day or returning to this rhythm periodically is a great place to start.
Next, we move into the regulation of the body, and obtaining the optimal posture. The ideal posture should be one that improves your balance, breathing, facilitates the uninhibited flow of qi and blood, and enables you to be relaxed. This gets into the art or relaxation or active relaxation otherwise known as fang song gong (Cohen, 2000). One can spend a lifetime mastering this art known as dao shen; however, in this article I want to emphasize the importance of relaxation, or song. The legendary Lao Tzu, author of the Dao De Jing is quoted saying, “Men are born soft and supple; dead they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail.” It is very easy to be so distracted these days that we loose awareness of our bodies, and the tension they hold. Luckily, the reversal of this negative cycle begins with no more than your awareness. By surveying your body from either head to toe or vice versa, looking for areas of tension, and subsequently relaxing the musculature of this region of your body is how you can go about achieving this. Sometimes to fully allow the musculature of the body to relax you may need to straighten your spine, relax your shoulders, place your feet flat on the floor, and bring your gaze forward. Once you have come this far, you should already notice a difference in your state of mind and comfort. Like the regulation of your breath, this can be done periodically throughout the day.
Finally we come to the regulation of the mind. Many find this to be the most difficult dimension of the self to regulate. Whether you are performing qi gong or your daily mindfulness practice such as the one I am outlining for you here, it is inevitable that you will get distracted by the various thoughts that come into you mind while you are practicing. This is why one of the major themes of meditation is the return, or the acknowledgement of these distractions and subsequently coming back to following your breath. Remember that it is far easier to concentrate on your breath and posture and allow your mind to follow suit, rather than attempting to restrict the myriad of random thoughts that come to your mind. Where the mind goes, qi follows (Peng & Nasser, 2014). Focusing on the mind will only intensify random thoughts or ruminations. I have included this regulation last due to the fact that I have had the most success in my personal practice regulating the mind, by first bringing awareness to the breath and the posture. In Daoism it is said that the head is the abode of the inner gods. There is little distinction between the shen or the spirit, and our thoughts. Take this mindfulness practice as an opportunity to bring awareness to the themes or content of your consciousness and consequently your spirit, and know that just as awareness is the first step to initiate change in your posture, this is also the case with the content of your thoughts.
This brief discussion of what are known as the three regulations is intended to provide you with an easily applicable method with which you can improve your life at any time and place. Internal arts such as tai qi, qi gong, nei gong, or martial arts do not appeal to everyone, and that is ok. At the very least, we can utilize and incorporate their foundational principles into our lives to receive their benefits. Challenge yourself the next time you feel stressed, overwhelmed, anxious, or depressed to spend as little five with this mindfulness practice, and pay close attention to how it changes your experience of these emotions. Despite the simplicity of this technique, its ability to empower you in all of your life’s endeavors cannot be underestimated so long as you understand that it is a skill like any other, and must be developed. As Aristotle once said “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
References
Kaatz, D., & Tu, X. (2012). Characters of wisdom: Taoist tales of the acupuncture points. Soudorgues, France: The Petite Bergerie Press.
Noble , D., & Hochman, S. (2019). Hypothesis: Pulmonary Afferent Activity Patterns During Slow, Deep Breathing Contribute to the Neural Induction of Physiological Relaxation. Frontiers of Psychology . Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6753868/pdf/fphys-10-01176.pdf
Sapolsky, R. M. (2004). Why zebras dont get ulcers: the acclaimed guide to stress, stress-related diseases, and coping. New York: Henry Holt and Co.
Black, D. W., & Andreasen, N. C. (2014). Introductory textbook of psychiatry. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing, a division of American Psychiatric Association.
Cohen, K. S. (2000). The way of Qigong. New York: Random House International.
Peng, R., & Nasser, R. (2014). The master key: the qigong secrets for vitality, love, and wisdom. Boulder, CO: Sounds True, Inc.
