You’ve got to splay to play
I didn’t mean to became a Qigong teacher. It happened by accident. Honest.
I’d been doing Qigong (on and off) for a decade. Qigong is a coordinated series of body postures and movements, breathing and meditation. Used by the Chinese for 5000 years as a preventative medicine. I got inspired to do some a decade ago by Lee Holden whose videos I found on YouTube. In the videos I like most he’s in his lounge. No panpipes or bells, no gurgling water, no blurry focus, no wind chimes. Just a bloke in his house doing Qigong. I loved its honesty.
In the past I’d done some tai chi and I found it immensely calming. This was about 25 years ago. More than useful, I felt stronger and more resilient than I’d probably ever felt. But then I stopped doing it and I can’t really remember why. All I know is that at times of stress I would gravitate back to the opening sequence of moves. Roll-on 20 years and I was in a stressed state. I found myself googling tai chi and this is when I found Lee Holden. I started doing his morning and evening routines and felt great. It may be the Qigong, it may have been the fact that I had a routine, or the fact that it is a kind of meditation. I don’t know, I don’t actually care. I just knew that I felt better on the days that I did Qigong than on the days when I didn’t. Then last October I went to an event called Summit in LA and signed up for the Qigong sessions. By some weird coincidence They were run by Lee. He’s a lovely chap and the experience fired me up to learn more. When I came home and started to do Qigong 2 or 3 times a week. The more I read about it the more it made sense, on many levels. Sure there are physical benefits from moving through the patterns. But it is a kind of meditation too and my meditation practice was a little patchy. Plus it slows and regulates my breathing. Then there is an elevated energetic feeling that I get from it. And, if you want it, there’s a spiritual element too. I like to think of it as a smorgasbord. I take from it what I need at any particular time.
Anyway, on day one of lockdown I found myself doing a little Qigong in the garden. I felt great afterwards. So I thought “if I feel better maybe others will too”. I also felt better after starting the day with something positive, something timetabled. So I announced on Instagram that people could meet me online at 08.00 each morning and join-in with me. On day one I think I had 12 people with me, three of which were related to me. I did 25 minutes on that first day. Roll-on seven weeks and I’m joined by upwards of 70 people some days and it now takes towards an hour.
I’m not going to lecture you on the benefits of Qigong, but I will share the kind of things people say after the sessions. They range from
“I feel so alive”, and “I didn’t do it yesterday and I felt half asleep all day”, to “I can’t tell you how amazing I feel”, “my fingers were fizzing and buzzing and I felt alive”, “I was really stressed when I started, I had a bad day yesterday but I feel great now”, and “today really moved me, something about that flow really unlocked me”.
As time went on I added observations about life that were sparked by my walk, by my talks with Nic. These ranged from how the way water fowl parent is similar to humans, how you should always trust your instinct, how we grieve the loss of who we could’ve been, how shame has a long half-life, and why we should grow as much like brambles as trees. These daily rambles tended to hit the spot, tended to get positive responses. I then added in a reading from Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman’s “The Daily Stoic”. Weirdly the reading ( I never read them before I open the book in the session) aligns with my rambling. Then at weekends I added-in a breath work session on Saturday and Sunday. My friend and breath work coach Matt Bagwell takes the group on a breathing session.
All of this is great, amazing even. But the real magic, the real reason to be cheerful is the connections between the people who form this community. The first five minutes of each session is taken-up people saying hello to each other, sharing what they’ve been up to, trading greetings. It is wonderful that this happens without encouragement.
Why did I start this? I did this for me. I did this because I wanted to create a daily practice and I felt that if others were joining me I would have to show-up myself each morning. This has worked. I have a 7 week Qigong habit, I’m now training to be a Qigong teacher. The joy of Qigong is one reason to be cheerful, the joy teaching others is another reason. I’m an accidental Qigong teacher and I bloody love it. I’m not a traditional Qigong teacher: there are no wind chimes; I swear sometimes; I reflect what is happening in the world; but I do try and give a perspective that is filled with love rather than fear. But the main reasons to be cheerful are the speed this strong community has formed, the connections between people in the community, the sharing of care and support outside of my sessions, and the genuine joy and help that Qigong is bringing to people when they need it most.
But more than that. My morning routine gives me reasons to be cheerful. Not because of the way it makes me feel about me, about life (although they are both reasons to be cheerful). But because it’s allowed us to fall in love with where we live. Immersing yourself in the place where you live, looking at it with fresh eyes, reveals its beauty. The same is true of the time I spend with Nicola. Peeling away the the daily chores and conversations about laundry allows you to see the person you are with through a different lens, reveals the beauty in the relationship. That’s a reason to be cheerful all on its own.
Join Mark at 08.00 UK time each morning on Instagram @markshayler. The sessions are saved to his grid and can be replayed at any time.
Mark Shayler
www.thisisape.co.uk