The Importance of Nutrition and Qigong in Spiritual Practice

There is a common question I come across that asks, “if shengong practices and healings are so powerful why then practice Qigong meditation and clinical healing at all?”

In the 3 treasures of Taoist philosophy, Qi is known as our vitality. Qigong was initially developed as a tool to strengthen our vitality and lengthen our longevity so we could be in the best health and have as much time as possible for doing our spiritual work. When our vitality is chronically low, the body and soul aren’t able to really "have" the full potential and powerfully transformative effects that spiritual healing, meditative practice, and spirit integration provides. Also, meditative and healing work being done out of the center of our head draws our vital energy up and transforms it into shen, or spiritual energy. So, before one beings this practice it is best to build up our vital energy or qi until it is abundant.

Nutritional health and supplementation nourish our jing and provide the chemical building blocks in our bodies so that we are physically able to make the changes at the cellular and neural level. Working through nutrition allows our body to naturally increase our vital force through the conversion of jing to qi along with our qigong practice.  With this foundation, our lower 3 chakras pertaining to our body and our physical life can naturally turn down more easily and relax. This allows for a greater ability to integrate the shifts we make on a spiritual level that impact our thoughts, emotions, and experiences we draw into our lives. It becomes much harder to make those healing shifts a reality when our body isn't on the same page to receive the new information if its needs aren't being met. 

When our vitality is chronically low it activates our sympathetic nervous system causing increased levels of stress creating an overcompensation based out of patterns of wounding and protection that aren't coming from present time, or our truth. This over compensation inhibits the full effectiveness and integration of spiritual healing and meditative work in creating those new neural pathways and healthy cell production. The small us, or the ego is forced to take more of a driver’s seat position in an attempt to hold us together when our vital force is severely lacking which it isn't designed to do.

In ancient Taoist science from which qigong is based, it teaches to conserve and nourish our jing. Strong jing along with qigong meditative practice cultivates and strengthens our qi increasing our vital force. Our qi, when abundant naturally transforms into shen giving us a strong mind and ability to focus our will and intent clearly. It ultimately provides a container and a strong foundation for the more subtle and higher vibrating spiritual energies cultivated in shengong; allowing them to be received and integrated into the body.