Have you ever found yourself overwhelmed by all the wellness practices out there? It seems everyone has an opinion about the best way to tend to your mental, emotional, and physical health needs. While there are some clear benefits to having options, it can also be difficult to decide what advice you should follow.
In this blog, we discuss the pros and cons of three popular wellness practices: Meditation, yoga, and Qi Gong. We also share some practical tips to help you decide for yourself which practice (or practices!) are right for you.
Like all three of these practices, meditation has been an important part of many traditions for thousands of years. It emphasizes the importance of working with your mind to transform unwanted mental patterns and reach elevated states of consciousness.
One of the “pros” of meditation is that it doesn’t necessarily take a lot of training to get started. For example, you can learn some simple mindfulness meditations in a matter of minutes, allowing you to begin practicing right away. This makes meditation extremely accessible to anyone who has the will to practice.
Meditation is also great at helping you turn inward, quiet your mind, release stress, and let go of unwanted thought patterns and formations. This enables you to work with your deepest thoughts and feelings to seek positive transformations and inward experiences.
Yoga and Qi Gong can offer some of these benefits, but meditation can often be the most immediate and direct way for the skilled practitioner to work with the mind.
Meditation can certainly be an important part of accessing energies in your body, but many people find it has its limitations. Although meditation is excellent for working with your mind, it doesn’t necessarily help you integrate your mind and body. This can make it difficult to work with potent energies within your body, not just within your mind.
Also, just because some meditation practices are easy to learn doesn’t mean they’re easy to master. In fact, a lot of people become frustrated with meditation because they find it difficult to calm their body and their mind. For this reason, many individuals find that it takes much longer to fully experience the benefits of meditation than with yoga or Qi gong.
Lastly, the fact that most meditation practices don’t involve physical movement means that it lacks the physical health benefits that the other two practices offer. If you want to meditate and stay fit, you’ll probably need to combine meditation with another form of exercise.
Yoga can be a great option for practitioners seeking to combine mental focus with physical engagement for holistic health and wellness.
Yoga offers many of the same benefits as meditation, including reducing stress, finding your center, quieting your mind, and transforming various thinking patterns. In addition, yoga can be an important part of a well-rounded fitness routine.
Yoga is widely known for increasing flexibility and body alignment, making it a powerful tool for preventing injuries and also for athletes balancing strength and flexibility. If you practice regularly, you undoubtedly experience improvement in your physical mobility and flexibility.
While yoga has many benefits, it can also be the most difficult of the three practices for many students. Many yoga classes assume that students can hold challenging poses and postures, which can sometimes cause disappointment, frustration, and even injuries. Additionally, if you find yoga to be physically challenging, it can be difficult or impossible to experience deeper spiritual and emotional benefits.
Every person is different, but many find it hard to tap into their internal energy during yoga in the same way that Qi Gong allows. And since meditation focuses primarily on the mind, while yoga focuses on the physical body, it can leave a gap between the two. Your energetic body doesn’t receive the attention or cultivation it needs through flowing movements. Again, each person is different Some practitioners find that yoga does help them work with their energetic body.
In many ways, Qi Gong strikes a nice balance and integration between yoga and meditation.
Qi Gong is wonderful for cultivating deep relaxation and flow throughout your mind and body. Working with meditative movement allows you to circulate energy throughout your body, helping you feel calm, centered, and energized all at the same time.
Many new students feel that Qi Gong offers the easiest path for directly experiencing internal energy (Qi) and the connected benefits of increased energy and reduced stress. Qi Gong exercises mostly consist of slow, flowing movements, making it widely accessible for individuals with a limited range of movement or physical abilities.
Qi Gong offers a variety of health benefits in one complete practice. For example, a Qi Gong class might start with activation exercises, stretching, or an exercise for strength. To finish the routine, you might do a breathing practice and relaxation meditation. By integrating so many aspects of health and wellness, Qi Gong is truly a truly holistic practice that nourishes your entire being.
Although Qi Gong touches on many aspects of health and wellness, some students feel it satisfies only some of their needs. For example, if your primary focus is to increase your flexibility, yoga may be more in alignment for you (however, the Tao Yin form of Qi Gong might be comparable). Similarly, if your main goal is to build strength or increase cardio fitness, you may want to go to the gym or spend some time running every day.
Even though most forms of Qi Gong don’t provide a rigorous physical challenge, many practitioners still feel that it plays an important role in helping them perform their best in all aspects of life. For example, some practitioners start their day with Qi Gong to get centered and make time for a more intense physical workout later in the day.
The two-week Qi Gong trial gives you the opportunity to experience free Qi Gong classes taught by master teacher Lee Holden. Most students can feel the benefits of Qi Gong in their first lesson. However, during each practice session, you’ll feel the benefits grow so that by the end of the two-week trial, you’ll feel a complete shift in your internal energy system, giving you a deep feeling of energy and flow.
Because the two-week trial is offered online, you can enjoy Lee’s lessons right from your home. Click on the banner below to discover how Qi Gong can help you start each day with vitality, inspiration, and alignment.
