Qigong for Nervous System Regulation: My Experience After Six Months

At the beginning of this year I discovered Qigong, and have been practising it regularly for six months now. In this post, I’ll explore my experience of Qigong, how it has impacted my chronic illnesses and helped regulate my nervous system regulation.

What is Qigong?

Qigong is an ancient Chinese practice that aims to gather and balance your body’s vital energy (qi) to promote health, wellbeing and balance the nervous system.

It’s a gentle, flowing meditative movement practice that integrates the breath. The movements are slow, low-resistance and encourage good posture.

What Drew Me to Qigong?

I actually can’t remember how I stumbled upon Qigong but I’m so glad I did. If you’ve read my previous post about learning to move in a way that doesn’t break me, you’ll know that finding the right movement practice for a body with chronic illness limitations has been a struggle for me.

When I initially read about Qigong, it sounded like a great fit. I loved how the practice focuses on the movement of qi in your body. I’ve long been inquisitive about energy flow within the body.

Gentle, breath-focused practices always catch my eye. I particularly liked how Qigong didn’t have any resistance. For example, I can struggle with the resistance of my body weight in yoga with certain poses, but Qigong does not have that limitation.

My First Six Months Practising Qigong

I started practising Qigong for ten minutes or so every morning. I found a teacher on YouTube and followed their videos. It was easy to follow along and felt natural to me.

I did try to find a teacher locally to me that could teach in person but unfortunately there aren’t any in my local area.

How Qigong Feels for Me

Practising Qigong gave me an instant boost from the first session. I love how smooth and gentle the movements feel when you are practising them.

After practising a few times, I could feel the qi moving in my body. The qi feels warm and nourishing, soft and comforting. It was an awe-inspiring feeling for me.

In a lot of the movements, your eyes softly follow the movement of your hands. I find that following the movement of my hands is an incredibly calming experience.

Like yoga, in Qigong you marry your movement with the breath in a lot of the movements. I find this has a wonderful balancing effect that helps to reduce feelings of anxiety.

After each session, I feel lighter and calmer.

After about three months in, I did notice that I wasn’t feeling quite as good after each session of Qigong. I wasn’t feeling bad, just not as energised and calm as I had been previously. I’m still experiencing it.

Perhaps the initial feeling isn’t something I’m able to reach again? I think it’s likely linked to me having ME/CFS and fibromyalgia.

My Favourite Qigong Teachers on YouTube

There are a few different teachers that I would recommend on YouTube if you’re starting out and would like to start practising Qigong.

Qigong with Kseny: Kseny has hundreds of short-length videos (10-15 mins) that are great to slot into busy lifestyles and are very beginner friendly. She practises in some beautiful outdoor locations and her very cute dog is often in the videos.

QiYoga with Luchin: Luchin’s presence is so calm and welcoming. Her videos are also quite short in length. She has a mixture of Qigong videos and QiYoga too. I’ve found some of her videos are too energetic for me to manage with my chronic health conditions, but a lot of them are fine.

Nick Loffree: Nick’s videos are slightly longer in length and are suitable for varying ability levels. I love the incredible mountain and forest scenery that he usually practises in, plus he explains the movements well in a really calm way.

Rooted Alchemy Tai Chi & Qigong: Sonny doesn’t have many Qigong videos yet, but his teaching style is really informative. I like how he practises with his family in a lot of the videos.

Would I Recommend Qigong For Nervous System Regulation?

I would absolutely recommend Qigong to anyone who is looking for a form of movement or exercise that is gentle on the nervous system and also fun to practise.

Even though I haven’t been feeling as amazing after each practice a few months down the line, I still feel calm and grounded, sometimes with a little more energy. I’m really enjoying practising it. Qigong has helped me feel more inquisitive and lighter in everyday life.

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Much love,

Rachael xx

The Invisible Onion