The past few years I've been practicing various types of meditation and decided I wanted to combine meditating with movement, so I turned to the internal martial arts (Qigong, Tai Chi, Xiang Yi, Ba Gua). After speaking to several internal arts teachers from sound linneages, they all recommended starting with Qigong, and to spend at least half a year only mastering several postures before moving on to the other forms of the internal arts. I bought this book because Master Lam's method seemed in tune with this belief, and I was pleasantly shocked at the results of this book:
--The book says to expect changes over a span of weeks; after the first day alone my back felt more loose, stress free and relaxed then it had in years.
--I no longer have the need to drink caffeine in the morning to keep me up throughout the day.
--I've slowly started to be able to detect an actual physical presence of chi throughout my body (this is coming from a fairly rational/logical, non new-agey type of guy).
--My overall mood and energy has improved.
--I have a much more peaceful state of mind.
--My hypertention has been completely erased; I can calm anxiety driven behavior down much more easily, and have learned to control and regulate my breathing.
--It has helped my cardio activities, long distance running & basketball, immensely. I feel I have more endurance, more balance, and more confident in both sports.
I owe a huge thank you to Master Lam for publishing a book that is simply written and easy to understand, while containing a wealth of information about the forms, postures, breathing, visualizations, anecdotes, meridians, and other information about Qigong, and Lam's specialty of Zhang Zhuang in particular. I'm still shocked at how much learning these postures has improved my life and brought me both physical relief as well as inner peace. Highly recommended. |
The Way of Energy: A Gaia Original Books In Print, Audio Books.