Thinking About Quitting Life Purpose: Qigong Teacher

[Leo Gura]

@Thought Art What is it you're trying to help people do?

Focus on finding the best ways to do that.

[Thought Art]

@Leo Gura I help people clear stress and tension and improve their energy. I also teach energy management (The power of full engagement) and Learned optimism/ adversity quotient in the beta program along with the daily Qigong routines I customized for her. 
 

I am essentially trying to teach people how to remove chronic stress in mind and body so they can live better lives. I realized this has to be done somatically through movement, breath, mindfulness and also cognitive behaviour, journaling etc. 

Really, I teach the Qigong and inform and coach on the other stuff. Provide tools. 

Qigong is a great practice for this.

How to develop inner peace, relieve stress, have more energy, clear physical tension and stress. 
 

I am by no means “stress free 20 4 7. 
 

Most of my stress right now is dealing with all this ambition!!!

Edited March 13 by Thought Art

[UnbornTao]

Clarify for yourself: Why do you practice it and teach it? What do you want to get out of this pursuit?

For example, if your goal is to understand the workings of the body, then that would be the direction to go. The practice could be embraced as a means of investigating the body, movement, and so on. If there's an element of fantasy involved, recognizing this may be challenging and could lead to a sense of hopelessness for a time -- but that depends on why you're doing it.

Your goal might be teaching a beneficial physical practice that you enjoy, sharing it with others and bringing them value. Or perhaps your purpose is something less explicit, like promoting mindfulness, or mental wellbeing, or whatever, through physical exercise. Notice how this would shift your relationship to Qigong, making it about something beyond the practice itself while still actualized through it. Besides, realize that this purpose could take many forms, Qigong being one of them.

Moreover, keep in mind that you can practice something like yoga without adopting all the conceptual baggage that comes with it. Your experience of the practice is distinct from the set of concepts that accompany it -- concepts that may or may not be accurate, but are, in the end, representations.

Again, clarifying -- or reframing -- your purpose is invaluable. And this is something you can consciously create.

edit: I just read some of your other responses. It sounds like you're quite clear on it.

Edited March 13 by UnbornTao

[Thought Art]

50 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

The question is, does it produce the desired results?

You don't need to involve stories about organs if you don't want to. Just come up with some alternative technique for doing the same thing, or even some better thing.

Yes, 

Okay!

Qigong is a weird space. So much value and bullshit. 

[Elliott]

1 hour ago, Thought Art said:

@Leo Gura I am not sure what you mean by the visualization thing exactly. Qigong is more of an exercise. 
 

 

Man, first impression, you've got the mojo, I love your presentation style, it comes off so authentic to me, I love it.

Random stranger advice; target a corporate audience for their stress, charge large and give an EXCELLENT tailored and connected service. You could roll that into retreats for them.

Edited March 13 by Elliott

[Thought Art]

@Elliott Thank you! 

[integral]

I have not read the full discussion yet, but I have some input.

My sister does pranic healing and contrary to what the teachings are its real purpose is a form of assisted meditation. Meditation alone can be challenging, but if someone is there assisting you and you believe that energy is transferring or any kind of energy system that then only helps you meditate deeper. Assistant meditation is very powerful.

Another thing is often these teachings are completely misinterpreted. Emotions existing in organs and certain sounds triggering those emotion are probably just miss translations and misinterpretation. Similarly to how chakras were never supposed to be actual physical things in the body. Westerners took this concept of chakras and distorted it. It’s initial purpose is just a map to meditate to for contemplation and growth.

Finally, you should make this teaching your own and add your twist to it and add your wisdom to it. There’s nothing stopping you from doing that.

Upgrade the system.

[Thought Art]

@integral I am basing my understanding on my certification. My teacher Lee Holden has taught Qigong for 35 years and is a westerner. He is also an acupuncturist. He knows what he is talking about. 
 

In healing sounds you exhale with “haaaaaaa” to clear heart energy. Then you hold the hands in front of the chest and smile into the heart, with a red light. To tonify the heart energy associated with either impatience and hatred or love compassion. 
 

Each organ has its own sound, colour, emotional polarity etc, which can vary depending on teacher/ lineage. 
 

This practice feels very good. 
 

I don’t do energy healing on people. Not yet anyway. I teach you to do it yourself. 

Edited March 13 by Thought Art

[integral]

9 hours ago, Thought Art said:

I also realized maybe I hate social media. I get stressed out using Instagram and I don't enjoy it. 

Obviously, nothing I build is going to be easy, and I am getting older. So, I really don't know.

I want material success. I felt like I went through the spiritual stuff and now I find it all sort of common place like I've answered everything.

Now, it's about money, finding an enjoyable way to do it. Yoga, Qigong, Meditation.... I just think most people will never succeed full time in this. 

Maybe, I am mediocre. I don't know.

You’re not mediocre it’s because you’re not fully letting go to your orange shadow.

You gotta study social media by studying the best creators from an analytical lens and learn from them and adapt your style to be highly engaging.

There’s no way around this, charisma has to be improved, camera angles, camera quality, audio quality, whatever it takes. constantly make small improvements every video and eventually your content will be on par with really good creators.

Finally, the epistemological issues with Qigong are not important because it’s not about being perfect right now. Leo didn’t know anything when he first started, learn as you go.

[integral]

Qigong challenge

Qigong psychology teaching

Qigong Reacts

There’s 1 million different ways that you could format your content to be hyper addictive, and engaging.

talk to your audience like you’re talking to a best friend

there is a huge untapped market here, you could show some piece of content that’s very interesting and then put your Qigong perspective on it.

Edited March 13 by integral

[Something Funny]

@Thought Art as someone who actually watched your videos - I don't believe in all the esoteric aspects of qi-gong, including tge special energy in our bodies, but I really like your follow along exercises.

I think they are great for making you feel better physically and also for emotional regulation.

I understand that when you say that qi-gong session is for emotional wellness, you probably mean that the qi energy is supposed to do something with your emotions and such. But I just treat it as setting intentions for the practice, and it being kind of calm, and meditative, and also simply moving helps you feel better.

So I think that maybe you don't have to be so attached to all the magical aspects of qi-gong and still help a lot of people by teaching it.

Just treat it more like: meditation, movement, breathwork, focusing ypeople's attention on something like self-love, teaching awareness, etc.

Because qi-gong is all those things. And it doesn't need to have any mythical energy or some ancient medicine theory to do that.

[Something Funny]

@Thought Art and when in your videos or some other people's videos there are exercises like holding the chi ball in your palms or some exercise called something like "flowing dragon", etc., I think they are just kind of fun and cool. Even if they are not real.

Edited March 13 by Something Funny

[Hojo]

I would bet that emotions are stored in the body. This stuff is real.

Edited March 13 by Hojo

[Staples]

3 hours ago, Thought Art said:

putting in tonnés of work and having to work a 9-5 on top of that? No way.

Yes way.

That is the only way, and you do that until you're able to replace the 9-5 with your life purpose. There's no shortcut.

Edited March 13 by Staples

[Leo Gura]

3 hours ago, Thought Art said:

@Leo Gura I help people clear stress and tension and improve their energy. I also teach energy management (The power of full engagement) and Learned optimism/ adversity quotient in the beta program along with the daily Qigong routines I customized for her.

I am essentially trying to teach people how to remove chronic stress in mind and body so they can live better lives. I realized this has to be done somatically through movement, breath, mindfulness and also cognitive behaviour, journaling etc. 

Really, I teach the Qigong and inform and coach on the other stuff. Provide tools. 

Qigong is a great practice for this.

How to develop inner peace, relieve stress, have more energy, clear physical tension and stress. 

So what's the problem?

Use the techniques you know and then develop even better ones on top of it.

Obviously you should be innovating and evolving as you teach. The early teachings don't need to be perfect as long as they are helping people achieve your stated aims.

If you find there's too much New Age woo, you can cut those parts out and replace with more grounded explanations.

Edited March 13 by Leo Gura

[Thought Art]

2 hours ago, Something Funny said:

@Thought Art and when in your videos or some other people's videos there are exercises like holding the chi ball in your palms or some exercise called something like "flowing dragon", etc., I think they are just kind of fun and cool. Even if they are not real.

Qi ball is done because it feels very real. The idea of there being the “lower tan tian” is common through Qigong texts and schools. Again, feels very real. Super Centering, grounding, and you can feel the energy you generated in the palms and belly. That’s the Qi. 
 

What’s happening is mysterious I don’t know. I feel it. I didn’t for the first month or two but. I do these days. 
 

It can leave you feeling super centred, grounded and energized though. 
 

@Hojo New mind body science and trauma research suggests emotions are held not just the brain but the body. 

Edited March 13 by Thought Art

[Thought Art]

2 hours ago, Something Funny said:

@Thought Art as someone who actually watched your videos - I don't believe in all the esoteric aspects of qi-gong, including tge special energy in our bodies, but I really like your follow along exercises.

I think they are great for making you feel better physically and also for emotional regulation.

I understand that when you say that qi-gong session is for emotional wellness, you probably mean that the qi energy is supposed to do something with your emotions and such. But I just treat it as setting intentions for the practice, and it being kind of calm, and meditative, and also simply moving helps you feel better.

So I think that maybe you don't have to be so attached to all the magical aspects of qi-gong and still help a lot of people by teaching it.

Just treat it more like: meditation, movement, breathwork, focusing ypeople's attention on something like self-love, teaching awareness, etc.

.

Qi is simply your aliveness. Which, yea is mythical because we don’t know how it started. It’s immortal because it gets handed off indefinitely through human reproduction, and it self organized into a human being. 
 

Qigong affects the emotions via the physical and mental movements which change the energetic flow of the energy. Stretching for example lowers physical and emotional stress. When you do that, you feel better changing the emotions. 
 

“Qi” is emotions, it’s also metabolism, or bioelectrical energy running through the fascia and it’s the charge the moves through the nerves too. It’s also consciousness. 
 

“Qi” isn’t a reductionist notion. It contains both material and non-material aspects as it’s rooted in a philosophical model that reality is made of consciousness. 
 

I agree that yeah, we don’t need to be attached to the magic side. Like, Mantak Chia level Cosmic Qigong. 
 

Those visualizations do help the practice and the subjective experience though. 
 

When you practice Qigong it feels like swimming through a sea of energy. So, even though I don’t fully understand it, and science does t prove this field of energy around the body it is felt in the practice. 

Edited March 13 by Thought Art

[Thought Art]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

So what's the problem?

Use the techniques you know and then develop even better ones on top of it.

Obviously you should be innovating and evolving as you teach. The early teachings don't need to be perfect as long as they are helping people achieve your stated aims.

If you find there's too much New Age woo, you can cut those parts out and replace with more grounded explanations.

Thank you a lot for your time. 
 

My ambition is larger than my means. 
 

Patience…

@integral thank you a lot. I’ll consider that as I go forward. 
 

I gotta take these skill sets and ideas and make them my own, while being outcome oriented and helping people. 

Edited March 13 by Thought Art

[Leo Gura]

7 minutes ago, Thought Art said:

My ambition is larger than my means. 

Start earning some money. You can be a perfectionist later.

Edited March 13 by Leo Gura

[Something Funny]

@Thought Art i was just offering yku an option where you don't have to believe in any airy fairy stuff at all and can still teach qi-gong, since you've said that you are starting to have issues with it.

Just focusing on movement, awareness, breathing, emotional mastery, positive affirmations, consciousness, etc.

But if you really believe in qi and stuff then sure, you can teach that. What's the problem then?