The word Qigong (Chi Kung) is made up of two Chinese words. Qi is pronounced chee with the meaning of the life force or vital-energy that flows through all things in the universe.
The second word, Gong, pronounced gung, means accomplishment, or skill that is cultivated through steady practice. Together, Qigong (Chi Kung) means cultivating energy, it is a system practiced for health maintenance, healing and increasing vitality.
The History of qigong, the Chinese practice of aligning breath, movement, and awareness for exercise, healing, and martial arts training, extends back more than 4,000 years. Contemporary qigong is a complex accretion of the ancient Chinese meditative practice xing qi (行氣) or "circulating qi" and the gymnastic breathing exercise dao yin (導引) or "guiding and pulling", with roots in the I Ching and occult arts; philosophical traditions of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, with Yoga influences; traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts; along with influences of contemporary concepts of health, science, meditation, and exercise.
There is one main benefit of pratice QiGong: Freedom. Freedom of movement, freedom from disease and freedom of the mind. Qigong tunes the body and the mind like an instrument, cleaning up the trash and putting things in their rightful places. It has profound psychological, physical and intellectual influence if practiced on regular basis. Since ordinarily the "tuned" feeling is a random and rare event, it is difficult to describe the effects of consistent practice. As a minimum it is something like a smile that rises from the inside to the outside. Artistic, physical and intellectual "genius" abilities that we attribute to the random grace of nature are actually within the reach of qigong.
As a healing art, Qi-Gong focuses on prevention and self-healing, traditionally viewed as a balancing the body's energy meridians and enhancing the intrinsic capacity of the body to heal. Qi-Going has been used extensively in China as part of traditional Chinese medicine and is now recoginized as a form of complementary and alternative medicine.
