Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ Spring Forest Qigong Difficulty with "Seven Steps To New Life" exercise

I love my Spring Forest Qigong practice UNTIL I get to the final exercise, the Seven Steps to New Life where you balance on one leg after another and raise the energy up and then push it down. I get off balance and my head gets absorbed and distracted trying to remember which spot I am to raise the energy to next, and so I seem to end my practice feeling kind of disgruntled and irritated because of that. Would I still get the full benefits of SFQQ if I just discarded that one exercise and did another one that appeals to me more? I know several other qigong exercises that I've watched on YouTube that seem to do a lot more for me than the Seven Steps. Any thoughts on this? Thank you.

I've always read you shouldnt mix different styles of qigong.........I'd just leave it out and do one of the other excersizes for a bit longer, I have the same problem with balance on 7 steps, since I carry a bad injury to one of my ankles, so I do 7 steps with my eyes open instead of being shut, this makes a big difference.

I also have some trouble with this movement, specially when I was just starting SFQ. When I practice this with closed eyes, I keep moving forwards so I practice it with open eyes. As for mixing SFQ with other qigong styles, Chunyi Lin recommends to wait for 30 minutes before trying a different qigong, but if you don't feel anything bad with your practice just keep going.

I have lost 5kg in doing qigong. I could be happy as I wanted to lose weight, the fact is that all the fat in my tommy is still there and my legs and bum, that were not fat to start with, are far too thin now.As a result I had to stop doing qigong as my body has become disproportionate.
Any advice? Many thanks

Aloha marilyninpdx, et. al.

A couple things of note:

Chances are, the exercise you dislike the most, has the most for you to benefit from.

That said, Going through some wonderful active exercises for 30 minutes, only to get to one where you end up back in your head and not heart because of worrying about balance, etc. isn't "best." either.

So...two things to consider at this point:

As it mentions in your manual, softly, open your eyes during his exercise, finding a spot on the wall or out the window in front of you.

or

Keep your eyes closed and feet planted while doing the exercise. You can lift your heel slightly off the ground when raising the energy and press it down when bringing the energy down to still give you the flexion and extention if you wish.

In classes, Chunyi will have students keep their feet on the floor so they can stay in the deep meditation, rather than worring about ballance, knocking someone else over, or not looking like a super smooth Qigong forms Grand Master.

The fun thing about this exercise, Metal372466, is that way back in the day, Mast Lin taught this one as a moving exercise, where each step was a step, as you walked in a circle.

Every once in a while I find myself wanting to do it in that way.

Enjoy the exercise.

Much Love,

Shawn

This is a hard exercise to do with your eyes closed. Do you lose any benefit if the eyes are open ?

Jazz

Hi,
Instead of stopping Chi Qong why not just add a muscle toning routine? Not at the same time of course! For instance I practice SFQG and I also work out on my Total Gym. I'll workout on Total Gym in the moring and then practice SFQG at night.
Chi Qong is for the health of the body. I'll never stop practicing it!