Lift the Sky

Lifting the Sky is the first exercise in two of the most famous Qigong sets in the world: The 18 Lohan Hands, taught by the great Bodhidharma, and The 8 Pieces of Brocade taught by General Yue Fe. It’s safe to say that it is the most widely practiced Qigong exercise in the world. And for good reason. It’s awesome.

Ideally, you need to learn this exercise face-to-face from a teacher as the real secret is not in the movement, or even the breathing.  The energy flow really needs to be learned face-to-face. But in the meantime, it’s safe to try this on your own by following the instructions below.

Practicing Lifting the Sky for about 2 minutes a day is a great habit, and I highly recommend that you implement it. You’ll feel great, and you’ll unwind a lot of stress, which is the start of self-healing. 

Lifting The Sky – Posture 1

Your feet are close together.

Your mouth is gently open.

Your toes are pointing forward.

Your hands are relaxed by your sides.

Your posture is upright but relaxed.

Your chest is soft and open.

Your nose is pointing forward. 

Lifting The Sky – Posture 2

Your palms face down toward the ground.

Your fingers point toward each other.

Your fingers have some space between them.

Your arms are as straight as comfortably possible.

Your neck tilts down, as if looking at the hands.

Your body remains upright.

Your shoulders remain relaxed.

Your jaw is still relaxed. 

Lifting The Sky – Posture 3

Your arms arc up smoothly to the top.

Your nose follows the movement of the hands.

Your head ends tilting back comfortably.

At the top, you lift up gently from your heels to your hands.

Your arms remain comfortably straight.

Breathe in gently through the nose as you arc upward. 

Lifting The Sky – Posture 4

Your arms drop smoothly down, like a bird slowly flapping its wings.

Your wrists are no longer bent.

Breathe out gently through the mouth as your arms are dropping.

The neck gradually returns to normal with the nose pointing forward.

Finish in Posture 1.

Repeat.

The four postures are not static, of course. There are some slight pauses, but they should flow from one to another. They big secret is to make the exercise as comfortable as possible. 

Reduce Stress in 60 Seconds with QiGong Breathing

Two thousand years ago, in China, they discovered that our breath, or lack of it, is at the root of most of our stress and health problems. It’s no secret that meditative breathing can help bring down your stress level. Well, with QiGong breathing, you can change your whole outlook! In this guide, you will learn a simple QiGong (chi kung), or breathing technique, that will shift your outlook on life in 60 seconds.

Open Up to Relaxation

Your body is made of energy—as is everything in the universe. The energy field that you are can get tight and squeezed when we are under stress and don’t breathe fully. So, as you sit back and enjoy the sensation of the body loosening, opening, and being massaged by the rhythm of your own breathing, allow this energy field of your being to just “let go” and to be expanded open by a silken effortlessness that begins to permeate your being.

Feel your entire being “un-gripping” and surrendering itself open to the expanding lightness that is permeating you. Expand your energy to be open with it, like an unfolding blooming rose. It is a feeling of simply lightening up on yourself and the world all around you.

As you practice this breathing technique and your body become familiar with it, you will begin to allow the breaths to fill you, and relax out of you. Don’t force it, or strain. T’ai Chi and QiGong are the arts of learning to live “effortlessly,” so you just let the breathing “breathe you,” as you relax out of the way, almost being massaged by the rhythm of your own breathing.

Breathe for Stress Reduction

Before you begin, make sure you have a quiet space where you can be uninterrupted and without distraction. Read through this exercise, then practice it step-by-step to get familiar with it. Once you understand the exercise, go through it all with your eyes closed for one or two minutes, completely surrendering yourself to the full breaths and the absolute letting go suggested.

1. To begin, sit comfortably upright, preferably in a straight-backed chair. Lightly touch the tip of your tongue to the gum line just behind your front/top teeth.

2. Let your eyes close easily and naturally, as you just sit back and enjoy the sensation of your body filling and emptying of breath. Let your shoulders relax down away from your neck, and allow your torso muscles to relax around your rib cage. Think of the 50 trillion cells of your being absolutely letting go on each releasing breath.

3. Now, as you breathe in, think of breathing into your dan tien, or upper pelvis. Of course your lungs don’t go down that far, but thinking of breathing into the upper pelvis will cause your lower lungs to fill first …

… and then your chest will naturally inflate as well.

On your sighing exhale, again let your shoulders sink and relax down away from your neck, and let every one of your 50 trillion cells let go of everything. The air will empty out of your chest first …

… and then will empty out of your lower lungs, as you allow your abdominal wall to gently relax inward.

4. With eyes closed, repeat this for a minute or two. Let it become very relaxed, as your body and torso “relax open” to a full breath—filling from the lower torso, and then on up to fill the upper chest as well. On each sighing exhale allow every aspect of your being—your mind, your heart, your body—to let go of everything it’s been squeezing on to.

As you exhale, think of the brain-mind beginning to let go of all the tight thoughts it’s been squeezing onto. It’s as if the brain were a muscle that you’ve unconsciously squeezed for no reason at all … and now you can enjoy the sensation of the airy fibers of your mind beginning to un-grip, to unfurl, and to relax open this this expanding lightness as you exhale. As you let that breath sigh out of your relaxing body, it’s as though your brain could exhale and let go.

Think of your heart beginning to let go of all the tight feelings it’s been unconsciously squeezing within it. Enjoy the effortless sensation of your tight heart beginning to exhale and let go of everything that it’s been holding onto. Enjoy that silken effortless lightness that expands through your heart and chest and torso, as the heart lets go again and again and again.

5. As you continue breathing with the tip of the tongue lightly touching the gums behind the top/front teeth, and deeply letting go over and over again, allowing the silken effortlessness of this soothing energy to permeate you, and to expand you open and outward … just let go of the process.

Let the breath breathe you, as you relax out of the way, being massaged, loosened and opened by it.

6. Before you open your eyes, give yourself a few moments to just bask and soak in this ocean of expanding radiance that you have become. Be lifted, lightened, and opened by it. Let yourself float in this field of absolute safety, and complete acceptance. Nothing to rush off to, nothing to measure up to … you are held dearly floating in this field of lightness … cherished and appreciated for who you are.

Let this expanding radiance hold you and embrace you. Let yourself be loved. You are loveable. You don’t have to earn it. You are floating in a field of absolute safety and love.

Just breathing, and letting go.

And in a few moments, whenever you are ready, very slowly, and very gently … open your eyes.

If the experience of doing this QiGong breathing exercise did not blow your mind and relieve you of your stress, you need to try it again—and don’t try so hard this time. The problems we face with these techniques are never because we didn’t try hard enough, or weren’t precise enough … it is usually because we try way too hard. 

Just remember to sit back and let this happen to you, just for the fun and pleasure of it. Breathe, and let go. Open and lighten, as you let the lightness and radiant energy expanding through you open you. You just relax out of the way. QiGong gives you the sense of lightness, which is who you really are. 

You are a being of light, bathe and luxuriate in your incredible lightness of being. Enjoy the peace.