Begin difficult things when they are easy.
Do great things when they are small.
The difficult things of the world must once have been easy.
The great things must once have been small.
A thousand mile journey begins with but one step.
These ancient Taoists also saw the world in what we call a five element system.
These elements were actually part of nature.
The first element is wood, the second is fire, the third is the earth, fourth is metal, and the fifth is water.
Each of these elements are interrelated and in a cyclical manner affect each other.
If you imagine a piece of wood, which is actually a tree, when it burns it's consumed by fire.
And then as it dissolves it goes into ash, which is the earth.
In that ash, as it's melted and consolidated, you find metal, a hard piece of earth,
which then can be melted down into a liquid, which is water.
In that water, you plant the seed, the tree grows again, the wood.
So as you can see, there's a cyclical nature, a circle, and each element affects the other.
In the five element system, there are many characteristics that are corresponding with each element.
The first element is wood.
We start with wood because it actually corresponds with the spring, the beginning of new life of new energy.
The color is green, the organ system that it represents in the body is the liver and the gallbladder,
and the emotion that corresponds with it is anger.
And you think about anger in the body.
Where does the energy go when you get angry?
It goes up to the head, the face gets red, it builds, you get headache, ear problems, this kind of thing.
So the movement that you would do to compensate and help balance anger is a downward motion.
You would want to bring the energy down from the head into the body.
Disperse the anger.
The second element is the fire element.
And the fire element corresponds with the season of summer, the heat, really hot in the summer,
the color, which is red, the organ system is the heart, and the emotion is joy.
Many people, when they think about emotions and feelings, they always think about the negative ones.
Joy, excitement, love.
Even to its extreme, it's called shock.
You think when you're overexcited, you get shocked.
So where does the energy and how does the energy affect the body when you're in a state of joy or a state of shock?
What happens actually is the energy scatters.
It actually goes out of the body.
You know, somebody who's so happy, they've heard such good news, they lose their mind.
You're not thinking about anything else when you're really happy.
It's only about you and whoo-hoo!
So this is actually a state where you can lose your center.
And how do you balance that state?
You basically slow the energy down, you bring it back to the center, and you consolidate it.
You bring the energy back in.
The third element is the Earth element.
It corresponds with the late summer.
I think we call it Indian summer here.
It's a real hot time, but it corresponds with the spleen and stomach organ system and the color yellow.
The emotion is anxiety, worry.
My stomach is all tied up in knots.
She gets clogged in the body.
We hold on to things.
It's not easy to let go of something you're worried about.
You think about it again and again and again and again.
So the movement that we want to do, again, like the heart, are slow and gentle.
But we actually want to do more movement, cloud hands.
We want to smooth the energy through the body.
We want to generate it and move it.
It's stuck. It's held on in there.
So you need to get some energy going to move that.
The fourth element is the metal element.
It corresponds with autumn.
It corresponds also with the lung organ system and with the color white.
The emotion that goes with the fourth element is sadness and grief.
You can imagine when you have long-term sadness, long-term grief,
where does the energy go?
It leaks out of the body.
You become tired. You become exhausted.
Not enough energy to do anything.
Actually, a lot of the designer diseases today are long-term grief and sadness and loss,
chronic fatigue syndrome.
You just don't have the energy to feel that pain anymore.
So what do we do, what movement would help correspond and balance this system?
The movements that we would do are consolidating.
We would want to bring energy into the body.
We would want to tonify and build the body.
Again, not building muscles, but building energy that flows throughout the body
so that you have more energy to actually face the grief and the sadness.
For it's just a natural feeling. We'll all have it.
The fifth element is the water element.
The water element corresponds with the kidney organ system.
And it is the color black, and the season is winter.
The emotion that corresponds is fear.
And with fear, the energy sinks all the way down, even all the way down to the bowels,
through the stomach, all the way down to that real root where you feel scared.
Yeah, yeah, everything stops and leaves, wants to go out.
So the movement that we would want to do to actually compensate when you're in a very fearful situation
is to actually lift and bring the energy up, opposite than that of the anger.
We're actually going to bring the energy up into the body.
Most people, when they're scared, can't act.
They lose the will to even move, to get out of bed.
So if you bring the energy up, rise it to the head, you can then get up and get out of bed.
This is how you can view the entire body, mind, and spirit.
And the qigong that we'll be doing will help you put into practice the five elements
so that you can start seeing your life, your mental and emotional state, in a different way.
And as you understand the cyclical nature of these five elements,
and as you understand that your emotions are a very natural part of your being,
just as the seasons are a very natural part of the world,
you can then not judge what's going on in your life, the feelings that you have.
You can have some insight and internal guidance to be able to live comfortably in your body.
Because really, what do we all want? We want to have love, happiness, joy in our life.
But if we can't have that, if we don't have sadness, pain, darkness, all go together.
In Discovering Qi, Energy Exercises for Emotional Vitality,
you'll be learning a process of qigong, energy movement, breathing exercises,
which will actually help your awareness that your emotions are energy.
There's a few things you need to know before you start doing qigong.
First is that this is not an aerobics class or aerobic movement.
Qigong is actually internal energy movement that comes as the result of moving the body
or as the result of becoming still.
So we're not trying to build our muscles, work off flab, et cetera,
although all of that does happen from doing the qigong.
The tip of the tongue is at the roof of the mouth, so where the teeth meet the upper palate in the mouth,
gently rest the tip of the tongue there, keeping the mouth closed.
We're going to inhale through the nose and exhale through the nose.
The breath is natural, just as the emotions are natural.
I don't want you to guide it.
Often in other exercises, you'll actually be told to inhale and exhale.
In this qigong, we want your body to actually innately tell you how to breathe.
We don't really need to tell it at this time.
As you develop the breath, the body will take over,
and your breathing will naturally become deeper and more from the lower energy center.
All of the movements will originate from the horse stance,
which is a standing position with your feet shoulder-width apart,
the shoulders dropped, the chin tucked, the pelvis slightly tucked,
so that the spine is straight.
It's a relaxed position, and it actually helps consolidate the energy of the body.
When you're in this position and you know this is the beginning position
and you're ready to do qigong, it's almost like bringing the energy in,
saying, okay, we're going to start this process now.
So that's the beginning stance that you always start from.
Be very still and allow every new experience to take place in your life
without any resistance whatsoever.
You do not have to do anything.
You simply have to be and let things happen.
The emotional qigong that I've developed is a four-part qigong,
two active stages and two quiet stages.
Based on the theory that moving meditation or qigong
is actually quieting the internal energy.
That's why people like exercise so much.
It quiets the mind.
The inside becomes very still when you're moving the outside.
The first part of the process is a bouncing phase
where you're actually standing in your horse stance,
and you're allowing things to dislodge in the body.
So imagine that just everything's bouncing and moving
and just gently shaking to come to the surface.
Any emotions or pain or discomfort that's lodged in the body,
you should have an awareness about in this first stage.
The second stage is a free-form movement section
that is designed on the five elements that we talked about.
Remember when we said when you're angry,
the energy rises and you want to bring it down?
There's one movement for each of the five elements
that you will do according to any five-element characteristic
or emotion that is predominant at this stage of the qigong.
Now again, if it's not an emotional feeling,
it's a color you saw or something,
just a thought or a memory,
you can pick a movement and move in accordance.
The third part is a sitting or lying down meditation.
This is the part where the body becomes still
and the mind becomes active.
But we don't want you to lose your mind.
We talked about that a little bit in the heart element.
We want you to actually guide the energy
and be aware of the energy and where it is in the body
to help complete the first two sections.
Remember you had the awareness,
and now you want to actually focus it in the body,
channel it, and come to some clarity, some completion.
The fourth stage is a journal writing section.
And in this section, basically you record the story
or the process of what's happened in the first three sections.
Now I have found that also to be optional.
Sometimes I wanted to write, sometimes I didn't.
But it's a chance for you to actually put down your insights on paper
and then be able to record them and use them for valuable lessons.
The first section of the tape is the bouncing section.
Again, you're standing in your horse stance
that we've already talked about, the feet shoulder-width apart.
And you start by bouncing from the knees.
The feet are flat on the ground.
And it can be fast or slow, depending on the day.
I find on the days that I'm more angry or irritable,
the bouncing will be more like this.
But when I'm feeling a little more quiet or fine
or don't know what I'm feeling, the bouncing's more smooth and gentle.
Go with that.
This is a time for you to start seeing about what's going on with your body.
I could tell you what I think I see going on with your body,
but you're the expert, and this is the time for you to find out,
where is my pain?
What is it like?
Where is it moving to?
Does it dislodge easily?
Is it something that I have every day?
And when you're bouncing, you should slowly just shake things up.
Bring things to the surface.
We want you to be conscious of your feelings at this point and emotions.
But don't marry them.
Don't hang on to them.
Think of something that I feel angry,
and then you have to feel angry for the full ten minutes.
Emotions are fleeting. They're transitory.
You have millions of emotions in one day.
Think of a child who's angry, sad, glad, happy, everything in five minutes.
So this is where we come from.
This is who we are when our emotions are not stuck.
So the emotions are not bad.
They're not to be judged as a good emotion or bad emotion.
Most of us want to feel joy.
All right, you want to hang on to that.
Why should I let that one go for anger or sadness?
But the flow is what's important.
The feelings are natural, part of your everyday life.
You'll always have them.
And we want you to become more aware of them in this first stage.
The second stage is a free-form meditation,
which will be signaled by the change of music.
Now, I often use the word meditation interchangeably at times for Qigong,
because when you think about it, meditation is breath work.
Qigong is breath work.
Everything is one.
Basically, I could be doing a different tape on meditation,
but actually my study is in Qigong.
But I do often use the words interchangeably.
But in this free-form movement section,
whatever feeling or emotion or thought, color, season, organ system, pain
that you're feeling at the moment of the change of the music,
that's the movement that you'll pick.
Now, you're going to have to learn and practice this a little bit.
For example, if you feel sadness,
you may forget which element that corresponds with.
It corresponds with the metal element.
So you're going to have to pick the movement for that metal element.
But you'll pick it up.
You'll start seeing things in a different light.
So you'll pick whatever movement
and move on to the next accordingly to how you feel.
Now, one of the biggest things in this section is most people after the bouncing,
if you haven't done this process, you usually just feel fine.
You don't really feel anything.
I feel a little jittery or shaken up, but I don't really feel something.
Just pick a movement then.
Again, trying to enhance the inner guidance system.
If you just start with something, it will follow.
So you will then determine and develop and discover something about yourself
just from starting some movement.
As you do the process more and more,
eventually you can do other traditional Qigong moves in this section,
or you can do spontaneous movement that just comes naturally from your body.
Again, going back to trying to enhance your inner guidance system.
The music will then change and signal you into sitting or lying down meditation.
Now going into the calm and quiet portion of the Qigong,
but the internal energy is going to become active.
In some meditations, they tell you to just go with the bliss, zone out,
enjoy yourself, but we want you to actually cultivate your qi.
We want you to guide your energy through the body.
Just like a bus driver has to sit in that seat and drive the bus
so that it stays on the freeway,
you need to be in your body and be aware of your energy.
You might notice some areas of pain.
You might notice areas that have loosened up.
You might notice that you started off angry and now you're sad.
You might have felt great the whole time.
It's your process.
So this is where this Qigong is totally up to you.
I've developed a process, but you're actually going to have the experience
of what's happening.
The music will then end after a 10-minute period,
and you'll go into the journal writing.
The journal writing, you'll want to have a pen and paper close by
so that you can record your story,
record the thoughts and feelings and emotions of the day.
And remember, it's not just about emotion,
even though that's what this tape is about.
The five elements have very many characteristics.
Let's just say you saw the color red the whole time,
but didn't have any joy or excitement.
Basically, let this pen guide you and write down whatever comes out.
Often you'll get insights into what's going on internally for you.
So the journal writing is a time for you to complete your emotional process.
It's actually a type of Qigong also,
sitting and letting the energy flow from the pen,
making sure that the breath is natural and even.
You still want to have the tip of the tongue at the roof of the mouth,
and you're still doing Qigong.
People who deliberate fully before they take a step
will spend their lives on one leg.
Thank you everyone for being here at Discovering Qi,
Energy Exercises for Emotional Vitality.
It feels like it's part of my life work
to talk about emotional health and well-being
and the Western and Eastern concept merging them together,
that the emotions are part of the physical body,
their energy, their natural.
I want to thank all my teachers who have given me the insight
to make this tape and all the people who have helped.
I've enjoyed it tremendously.
Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
Discovering Qi is a video series taught by Linda Madero.
Volume 1, Discovering Qi, Energy Exercises for the Beginner,
features the basic warm-up and the first two stages of the Qigong form.
Volume 2, Discovering Qi, Energy Exercises for the Intermediate,
introduces the third, fourth, and fifth stages.
In Volume 3, Discovering Qi, A Transition from Qigong to Tai Chi,
Linda completes the Qigong series with the sixth and seventh stages.
In addition, you will learn a basic Tai Chi form,
an advanced form of energy exercise,
integrating graceful and elegant Qigong movements.
With the fourth volume, Discovering Qi,
Energy Exercises for Emotional Vitality,
you will learn how to use the ancient Chinese system of the five elements
to maintain a centered, relaxed state of mind.