Tutu Mora here again with The Y offering you tools to feel well in your body, mind
and spirit. So, today we're going to be doing some Qigong moves which is maybe
not a term you've heard of but it's similar to Tai Chi. So, slow moving
meditation that's meant to balance your energy and help you feel calm. So, what
we're gonna do—whether that's your jam or you're just interested in trying
something new—let's all go ahead and just stand.
So, find your feet about hip distance apart and fit in parallel. And you can go ahead
and just put your hands right over the center of your body. So, right at your low belly.
So, let's stand just like that with our hands here. And I want you to just take a
couple deep breaths as if you're breathing all the way down into that
space in the center of your body. And so taking a deep inhale in through the nose ...
and out through the mouth.
Another deep inhale in through the nose ...
and out through the mouth. Really starting to let your awareness
sink down into that low belly—into that center of your body.
So, continuing just to breathe deeply like that letting the distractions—the outside world—just
drop away, letting that breath start to allow you to feel a little bit more
centered with your awareness on your center.
So, let's take a couple more here.
And so, as we're moving we're just gonna move, like do a couple of this movement
sequence. What I want you to do is see if you can hold that attention that
awareness on the center of your body. So, just gentle awareness right there at
your low belly. So, I'm going to take a couple steps back so you can see my body ...
but placing that awareness, keep it on your center. Okay. So, here we are,
awareness staying here. We're gonna start with move number one which is just going
to be a swirling motion here. So, Qigong— just like many other forms of
martial arts—we're balancing here. We're balancing energy from the earth and from
the universe. So, bringing that balance into this space with us and within our body
so that we can feel more peaceful and balanced. So, what we're doing here as we
swirl, were bringing up energy from the earth, energy from the universe and
bringing them into balance. So, just see if you can start to move those arms like
so keeping that awareness at your center.
And so, just imagining here you're one of those big windmills or energy turbines
and you're just mixing those two forces here from above and below
and bringing them here together at your center.
So, let's take it just a couple more times here. Nice and slow—really letting your
body feel that movement. Keeping your awareness on your center. I'm gonna say
that so many more times, because it's so easy for our thoughts just to start to
consume us. We're so used to being in our heads and not being in our bodies or
present in the moment. So, this is just a practice to help you stay present and
balanced and centered.
So, we're going to go on to the next moves.
So, I'm going to have you stack your hands. One is gonna be right at the height of your low belly,
the other at the height of your forehead. This is called wall of Chi. So, wall of
energy. We're just gonna start to push that wall across our body. Reach into
the earth pull up more, stack it on top of that wall,
and then we're gonna push that again across our body, taking it to the other
side. Again, reaching, energetically speaking, into the earth pulling up more,
stacking them on top, and then pushing that across to the other side. So, we're
gonna do this several more times. Just reaching in, stacking them on top,
pushing that to the other side. And while we're doing this, again, keeping that
awareness on your center.
So, we'll do it two more times to each side. If you feel like you've gotten a
hang of this movement, I'd invite you just to close your eyes,
really let yourself just sink down into the movement and be in your body.
One more time to each side.
Okay. So, we're gonna move on to the third movement here. And to start that we're
gonna return to that swirling motion that we did before. So, we're gonna swirl
here three times. And then we're going to switch our hands just like this.
So, this hand is gonna be bringing in energy from the earth. This hand energy from the
universe. And we're just gonna call those into the space to help promote more
balance and harmony. So, we're gonna bring those in and then we're going to swirl
again two times. Switching those hands. And now this hand is bringing in energy
from the universe and this hand from the Earth. So, bringing those two forces into
the space—into balance. And then we're gonna gather everything that we just
called in, bringing it into our center. So, that can boost our immunity, bring
everything to balance inside and out. So, let's do that again. We're going to swirl
three times. So, swirl in here and swirl and swirl. Then, we're gonna switch our hands.
So, switching them here. Bringing those two energies here into balance. So, you don't
need to tense your muscles. All you need to do is allow it to happen. So, with your
intent just bring them in and know that it will happen.
Then we'll swirl again twice. Switching those hands. And now this hand is your universe hand
and this hand your earth hand. So, just allowing those two energies to come in ...
through the palms of your hands. And then we're going to, again, bring all of that
in to our center. So, we can use it for boosting immunity, peace, calm, all those
good things. So, let's do that few more times here. If you have the movement down
you can close your eyes and just feel that movement. Otherwise you can keep
your eyes open—I'll be doing it with you—but keeping that awareness at your
center. So, let's swirl here.
Switching those hands. Letting those arms be super loose to let that energy flow. And then we'll
switch again, swirling twice ...
bringing that all in towards your center. So, I'm going to step a little bit closer here.
We're going to do this again. So, swirl.
And switch those hands.
Swirling again and switching those hands.
So, that's movements just one through three here. So, we'll continue to do some more
of these next week. But, to close down, we're just going to bring all of that
energy now in towards our center. So, scooping it in. Guiding it into our
center. So, we can hold on to that peaceful, balanced feeling, and now so if
you take this practice home and you want to repeat this and do it yourself,
I would invite you just to do those movements as many times in a row as you
feel like you need to, because you can really start to sink into a very meditative space.
So, let's just close this down by bringing our arms up to our center once ...
twice ... and three times.
A nice deep inhale.
In through the nose.
Out through the mouth. And one more time.
So, I hope that this exercise helped you feel a little bit more peaceful and balanced and in your body .
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. And I'll see you back here on the Y's YouTube channel next
week with more tips and tools to help you feel well in your body, mind and spirit.