Has anyone here feel like they have cleansed their anxiety by doing qi gong regularly?

[dawei]

but how does qigong does that ? can anyone explain the process ?

 

Shady... I didn't realize you were this deep 

 

Based on your posts here, you raise a fundamental issue...  what are we really changing, something in the moment or something lasting?    In other words, even if a current practice changes your anxiety, will that anxiety return after you stop the practice?  If one needs to focus their mind, then the lost of focus means lost of being anxiety-free?

 

There are too many traditions, teachings, tantras to cover 

 

In short, I will say, you must produce an internal shift.   What does that mean?    It means you won't know it till it has happened...

[Andrei]

but how does qigong does that ? can anyone explain the process ?

 

Qigong is a bunch of breathing movements and postures with the attention of the mind focusing on the belly area (which is called Dantian - or liberally translated as Field of Elixir - this "elixir" being a feeling of well being and contentment, I wouldn't say happiness because is too much to say that).

 

What really happens is that you increase the oxygen absorption by using the whole volume of lungs including the diaphragm in the process. The diaphragm produces a slight massage on the adrenals glands. The slow movements make the blood flow and the lymph flow too which has a really important function. The whole body starts to function in an optimum way, which makes the glands especially the adrenals but also the intestines to produce hormones.

 

The adrenals produce adrenaline, nor-adrenaline and cortisol. The cortisol and adrenaline needs to be eliminated through blood, lymph and urine, also the lactic acid which are called "energetic blockages". The guts from the stomach, intestines to the colon produce serotonin. The ions that you breathe or drink or eat from the food ionize the serotonin which penetrates the blood-brain barrier and the cocktail of hormones that you have in the brain produce that feeling of well being calmness and contentment.

 

If serotonin or dopamine is missing from the brain, it produces depression. If this is combined with too much adrenaline or cortisol (created by fight-or-flight state of mind, which is normally called "stress") the feeling obtained is called "anxiety". Sometimes anxiety is produced by lack of vitamins, like B vitamins but this is because the hormonal cocktail is unbalanced and missing a vitamin or two may lead to missing the whole hormonal production. So food is very important in the process too, the exercises just facilitates the production of the "feeling well". But if the main ingredients are missing then the production is incomplete. This is the correct way of alchemy which traditionally states that Jing produces Qi and Qi produces Shen (the nutritious substances in the fluids produce bio-chemical reactions and the reaction through hormones produce feelings in the brain.

[Shad282]

Shady... I didn't realize you were this deep 

 

Based on your posts here, you raise a fundamental issue...  what are we really changing, something in the moment or something lasting?    In other words, even if a current practice changes your anxiety, will that anxiety return after you stop the practice?  If one needs to focus their mind, then the lost of focus means lost of being anxiety-free?

 

There are too many traditions, teachings, tantras to cover 

 

In short, I will say, you must produce an internal shift.   What does that mean?    It means you won't know it till it has happened...

 

Yes, and is this shift permanent? is this shift just another state of mind escapism, so when you shift back to the state you were in (lets call it lower), all these pains and anxieties, that you ignored by the internal shift you had, will come back and haunt you back ?

 

It is like when there is a zit on your face, and you add powder to hide it... when you don't see it, you are all happy and having great feeling.. but if waters touch it, the powder is gone, the zit is back and so you are sad again. (non-waterproof powder )

 

Also, as you can see below, Andrei, explained all what qigong and other traditions refer to as energy, are science and chemistry. so it could be that we should rely on psychology and biology (medicine) to heal anxiety (blockages, as they are body fluids) rather than meditation and healing?

 

so it could be that.. all energy, elements, and healing, light over distance was just another way to express the psychology, medicine, biology sciences through symbols and other terms.

 

VS 

 

 

Qigong is a bunch of breathing movements and postures with the attention of the mind focusing on the belly area (which is called Dantian - or liberally translated as Field of Elixir - this "elixir" being a feeling of well being and contentment, I wouldn't say happiness because is too much to say that).

 

What really happens is that you increase the oxygen absorption by using the whole volume of lungs including the diaphragm in the process. The diaphragm produces a slight massage on the adrenals glands. The slow movements make the blood flow and the lymph flow too which has a really important function. The whole body starts to function in an optimum way, which makes the glands especially the adrenals but also the intestines to produce hormones.

 

The adrenals produce adrenaline, nor-adrenaline and cortisol. The cortisol and adrenaline needs to be eliminated through blood, lymph and urine, also the lactic acid which are called "energetic blockages". The guts from the stomach, intestines to the colon produce serotonin. The ions that you breathe or drink or eat from the food ionize the serotonin which penetrates the blood-brain barrier and the cocktail of hormones that you have in the brain produce that feeling of well being calmness and contentment.

 

If serotonin or dopamine is missing from the brain, it produces depression. If this is combined with too much adrenaline or cortisol (created by fight-or-flight state of mind, which is normally called "stress") the feeling obtained is called "anxiety". Sometimes anxiety is produced by lack of vitamins, like B vitamins but this is because the hormonal cocktail is unbalanced and missing a vitamin or two may lead to missing the whole hormonal production. So food is very important in the process too, the exercises just facilitates the production of the "feeling well". But if the main ingredients are missing then the production is incomplete. This is the correct way of alchemy which traditionally states that Jing produces Qi and Qi produces Shen (the nutritious substances in the fluids produce bio-chemical reactions and the reaction through hormones produce feelings in the brain.

so, you are saying that, energy/elements/meditation and such are symbolism of east medicine to what western science discovering but stated in different words, psychology, biology and chemistry?

 

and increasing serotonin while relatively balancing it with dopamine, and other body fluids/hormones and such, would help to get the person in a state of calmness and contentment and he lives a normal life... but won't this person get triggered by events into anxiety? isn't anxiety is a result of memory/thought that is in the mind that is triggered when certain factors exist in the environment ?

 

in other words, having a body balanced in terms of fluids and biology, would make us (mind) forget, not care or get triggered by that memory or past we went through? and when, for a day, we do not balance the body for example: food that raises serotonin or sun or whatever not there to maintain the balance, the anxiety will strike us back?

 

I do recognize that food and body fluids are important but not a permanent healing for anxiety.

 

Thank you both for your knowledge and information! 

[Sudhamma]

Qigong or any other breathing meditations are merely tools to rein in the Mind, diciplining it, re-focusing it to put aside negative emotions. That's about all it can do, qigong cannot get rid of the causal factors that give rise to anxiety or depression for that matter. The person suffering from anxiety or any forms of mental illnesses should and must consult professional psychiatric help.