The Second Secret of Qigong… Mind
Simply put, this secret has to do with attention and awareness.
If you practice qigong without paying attention and being in the moment, you will get substantially less benefit. In other words, if you find yourself thinking about what happened yesterday or what you will be doing tomorrow (or anything but the exercise you’re doing), then you are missing one of the most important aspects of your practice.
Imagine for a moment driving down the road and daydreaming. You’d miss the important information right in front of you, and be more likely to get into an accident.
It’s the same thing when practicing your energy exercises. By being present in the moment, you amplify the effectiveness of the exercise and reduce the chances of doing them incorrectly.
This gives you some benefits you might not think of right away. For one, when you focus 100% of your awareness on everything happening in the qigong exercise, all of your other concerns, thoughts, feelings and distractions from the day fade into the background. It gives you a kind of mental vacation and clears your mind.
Another advantage is that you develop an much greater ability to focus on everything else in your life. You learn nuances about awareness and attention that people who never pay attention to these things typically miss.
Finally, you develop the skill of mastering your random thoughts. You may have noticed that your mind, if left to its own devices, tends to run all over the place. In Oriental traditions they call this the “monkey mind.” It’s an apt term for it, as in “running around like a crazy monkey.”
Of course quieting your mind is just the beginning stage of a deeper process that will happen as you practice. But it’s still an important step to master.
Here’s a little exercise you can do to help quiet your mind. My long-time friend and collaborator, William Horden, developed this exercise and it’s a good one. He calls it the “Enough” exercise. Here’s how it works:
Pay attention to what your mind is doing during your waking hours. Since most people’s minds are doing the crazy monkey thing, it won’t take long for you to notice that the thoughts you’re having are running on auotpilot.
When you notice this, mentally say the word “Enough!” with a seriousness of intent. Imagine the tone you might use when telling you dog to “Sit!” It’s that kind of command. What you are doing is commanding your monkey mind to be quiet.
At first you’ll have to do this repeatedly, but after a while you’ll find that sometimes minutes go by without any autopilot thoughts. This is the ideal sort of mental state to be in when practicing your qigong.
Be well,
Dr. Bruce
