Security vs. Trust – How to Practice Qigong?

 

How to find trust? Is it possible to feel more trust in your body and its amazing self-healing abilities through practicing Yuan Qigong? Trust is one of the 5 essential heart qualities that we cultivate in Yuan Qigong and Ren Xue, especially with Tong Yuan – the heart meditations of the Yuan Qigong system. Tong Yuan is a meditative practice, but moving Qigong methods can also help to cultivate trust. To understand how, it’s helpful to understand what trust really is. 

Security vs. Trust 

Do you know the difference between security and trust? An exploration of this topic might lead you to see that the safety afforded by security can be at odds with the freedom that comes with trust.  

I chased security for such a long time in my life that I started to mistake it for trust. It wasn’t until most of the things I feared in life started to come true, when all my schemes and systems and tactics to ensure my safety failed to do their job, that I had to face the idea that perhaps security and trust are not the same at all. What then is the difference?  

How to Trust your Body

This was an uncomfortable investigation for me. Most recently, a new facet of my investigation made its appearance during Ren Yuan, the third method in Yuan Qigong. Moving Qi (Ren Yuan) is an amazing moving meditation practice. At a visual level, it is akin to a beautifully choreographed dance. At the mind level, it is a powerful mechanism to unify the consciousness and the body. At the heart level it is a process of surrendering to Qi, and your body, also to the current limits and limitations of your body.  

Like most practitioners, I do most of the practice with my eyes closed but there is one part where due to a health issue I had to keep my eyes open because it was nerve-wracking to do otherwise. Open eyes provided guard rails and a sense of safety that, for me, seemed to be a prerequisite. Over time, however, I stagnated. I got more and more comfortable with interrupting the flow of my practice by opening my eyes, and eventually I lost the motivation and even the recognition that it was possible to take things further. 

I had found a disturbing pattern: I did not trust myself or my body to go to the next level.

 

Point To The Moon is a very beautiful Qigong movement, that improves your balance, stretches your whole body and enhances the energy flow throughout the body.

 

If you are familiar with Moving Qi (Ren Yuan), you may know the movement called Point To The Moon. I am not sure when I decided to begin changing my relationship to this movement. But, at some point, I realized it was time to make a decision: stay safe or pursue freedom from this pattern by transforming it into trust. Fortunately or unfortunately, one doesn’t have to work hard to find opportunities to cultivate trust. Once you start looking, the possibilities are endless. You can pick your favorite one or perhaps the most accessible one. Using Moving Qi (Ren Yuan) to cultivate trust in myself and in my body became an avenue for investigating and changing a deeply rooted pattern that has governed many aspects of my life.

5 Steps to Finding Trust

It was harder than I thought it was going to be. It required working on acceptance, patience, self-love, willingness to fail, and celebrating small successes. I discovered that trusting myself as well as all the moving parts of the journey was fundamental to making progress. Instead of living in fear or avoiding the opportunity to improve, I started using the obstacles to gain more knowledge and make changes.   

These days when I get ready to Point To The Moon, I am immersed in surveying the physical and emotional landscape. Here are some highlights of the process that have emerged over time:

Step one is to allow everything to be present. Discomfort, panic, and expectations are allowed to be there. I don’t try to change them, rather I accept them as gracefully as I can and observe. 

Step two is to renew my state. The good news here is that getting back to being relaxed, calm, and natural is relatively easier after the previous step. 

Step three is to connect with trust. Initially, my grasp is tenuous, flickering in and out of awareness. Eventually, but in reality soon enough, there is just enough trust. That’s all I need.

Step four is about deciding how to proceed. In this case:  Eyes open?  Eyes closed?

Step five is trusting the answer and following through.

How to Cultivate Trust

So where am I now? Can I Point To The Moon flawlessly? It is hard to answer that because I am not sure what that means and it isn’t the goal of this endeavor. I do know that I am doing the best ever for me. I seldom open my eyes during this movement. I am no longer cornered due to insufficient trust so I can be patient and creative and build confidence. By shifting the focus to investigation and transformation, I have given myself permission to be intrigued by what is going on inside and what to do about it. 

I have gathered a few treasures from this process. It is more apparent now that feeling safe and feeling free can be in opposition to each other. Exploring through trust is more exciting and it opens the doors for the other heart qualities as well. For example, often I feel more Openness and Gratitude. Sometimes Love and Gongjing (true respect and humility) make their appearance. If I am in a good state it is not unusual for all these five heart qualities we cultivate in Ren Xue to be present. Finally, it doesn’t stop there. The trust I cultivate during the practice manages to seep into the activities for the rest of my day!

So whether it is Ren Yuan or another Yuan Qigong practice or perhaps even a difficult situation in your life, I invite you to feel free to rely on them as vehicles to exercise the trust muscle. You might start to see obstacles as things that are inviting you to taste freedom and you might feel inclined to leave the safety of reliving the past behind.

Disclaimer:

I want to leave you with a reminder to take the safety of your practice seriously. It is important to keep a basic Ren Xue principle in mind: a practice is beneficial only when it is both safe and effective. Learn more about safety in the Yuan Qigong system in the article “Is Qigong safe?“

My Personal Qigong Recommendation:

On a day when you have time to explore, I recommend a solo mini-retreat where you treat yourself to the Tong Yuan heart meditation on Trust followed by the practice of Moving Qi (Ren Yuan).  

Curious about the practice? Check out the At Home Learning courses and meet dedicated practitioners from all over the world!

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Explore the power and beauty of Moving Qi. Point To The Moon is part of this Yuan Qigong method.