The basic premise of Chinese medicine is that all tension is DISEASE!!
Physical, Mental/emtional, and spiritual tension.
Thus, tension sets up fields in the body on an energetic or physical level which assigns qi and blood to the different areas of the mind/body system. It is in this way that physical tension can affect us in an emotional or spiritual way, and inversely, emotional or spiritual tension can affect us physically.
Now when we are born, we have a very plastic, soft mind and body which is why as children we can fall over and seem to naturally have resistance or resilience to injuries - both physical and mental/emotionally.
We bounce when we hit the ground, and we bounce back fast!
Thus, often as kids, we fall over and get up without a care in the world or life events happen and we 'bounce' back - usually much faster than adults. Children are adaptable. As children, our body is in a fluid state. Our body's neutral and natural tensegrity field allows our body to move, adapt and disperse incoming forces. This natural state will enable forces to pass through our system unimpeded by unnatural tension which blocks up the natural transference of the incoming energy. (Tensegrity field = the way the force or pressure passes through a physical or energetic structure). This is why drunk people tend to survive car accidents. Because they are soft and pliable and the incoming forces dissipated through their body and why if you see an accident about to happen the rigidity of the fear causes us to brace for the impact which can impede our structures ability to adapt to the impact or effects of stress which causes more significant injury.
This state of being is healthy or natural internal tension. Natural tension is balanced and holds natural structural integrity which leads to health, vitality and growth. Negative or diseased tension is excessive tension which acts to overload, push and pull our healthy state of tension out of alignment. This misalignment causes the pressurized system to fall out of structural integrity and the misalignment of forces within our system erodes and breaks down the way that stress passes through and out of our system.
There is a Chinese saying about the Mighty Oak and the Bamboo in a strong storm. The Oak for all its hard and rigid might gets blown over by the wind, whereas, the bamboo gets hit by the wind but only bends and swaps with the impact and once the wind has passed it again returns to its natural upright state.
Thus, as we get older and begin taking of shit from the world, creating and embedding our judgements upon our systems or sustaining physical injuries, unnatural or negative tension builds up in our systems in the form of physical musculoskeletal splinting patterns or injuries or mental/emotional baggage. I use the term 'unnatural' or 'negative' tension because this externally or internally generated mental/emotional tension fights against or lays in contradiction to our natural tension field which results in blockages building up within our natural tensegrity field inhibiting our fluid state.
This tension makes us ridged - physically, mentally/emotionally or spiritually. Much like a river which used to flow open and free being blocked up with logs, rocks after a storm or even at times if the trauma is strong enough, the river becomes dammed. Or like becoming the mighty Oak as opposed to remaining like Bamboo!
The natural tensegrity field we are born with assigns our qi and blood to our meridian system, muscles, nervous system etc. in a naturally relaxed, soft and pliable alignment. This state of natural tensegrity allows the external forces or the mental/emotional 'shit' we encounter in our daily lives to pass through our being, keeping us in a state of integrity, balance, harmony and flow. It allows a direct pathway for incoming forces, pressure, stress and strain to pass through our system and be grounded down into the earth. After all, as a wise and wonderful woman Daisy Kaye once told me, the Earth likes your shit...it's like fertilizer for life to grow - so give all your shit to the Earth, she can handle it!!
Qigong has helped me understand this. To learn a way, a path, a vessel to become this. To embody this principle in an authentic and tangible context and apply it to issues both physical injury as well and emotionally and intellectually. It has taught me how to delete unnatural tension states and the blockage they create and dissolve and ground the stress, strain and pressures out of my physical, mental/emotional and even spiritual being.
So often we are taught, conditioned, encouraged or as a knee jerk reaction to the event we hold on to or fight back against unnatural tension states and create further resistance to the process of allowing the event creating the tension to pass throughout being. All to often we're told that mere strength alone is to be able to carry the load or to hold strong or persist and fight back against the resistance, or conversely, that we need to be so soft that often that too crumbles our being.
And we do need to let go, be more vulnerable, however at the same time we also need to maintain our internal frame, boundaries and structure because it is that natural alignment which allows these forces to pass through us. It is in this way we can avoid breaking or begin to put ourselves back together to allow our body and mind to rebuild itself back into its natural alignment and state of being.
So after this massive rant...my point is that qigong builds our natural tensegrity field whilst deleting unnatural tension. That is its primary focus and function!
It is in this way that Qigong can help us heal from physical injuries, emotional trauma, and intellectual, cognitive and spiritual blockages.
Qigong...get it into ya and begin dissolving the tension in your life and find a naturally aligned and healthy expression of your innate nature!
If you would like to find a really simple exercise to try this and understand the process please check out this FB live I did a little while ago and try it out for yourself:
Or if you want to learn more about this topic and how it applies to health, fitness, qigong, martial arts, Chinese medicine, restoring vitality, grounding, being centred etc...then please join my brand new group here: