Workshop Review
Festival du Feminin 2017
Restoring the Inner Life Force Flow
This Qigong technique is an excellent exercise for beginners. It does not require a lot of movement and anyone can do it. I have taught this in my seminars and have demonstrated the effect of this restorative technique. Being able to feel Life Force is not important. Even though you cannot feel anything, it is still moving. Can you feel your blood cells moving in your blood vessels? Just because you can’t feel the movement, it does not mean that it is no blood flow? The best way to practise this exercise is in nature with your feet grounded on the earth.
Stand with your feet a bit wider than shoulder-width apart. Relax your knees and slightly tuck in your tailbone to relax the lower spine and your abdomen. Keep the back straight and relaxed. Locate your navel and place four fingers below it where you will mark with your finger at the midline. This particular point below the navel is the centre of your lower Dantian (the reservoir of Life Force in the body).
Place the centre of your left palm two to three inches above the centre point of the Dantian. Round your arms so that Life Force can freely move under your arms. Place the centre of your right palm two to three inches above the centre of your left palm while keeping space under the right arm. Both palms are aligned with the centre of the Dantian, because they are gateways of Life Force, like the soles of your feet. When you align the palms and the Dantian you create a powerful vortex of Life Force that boosts the Life Force flow.
Stretch the top of your head to the sky and slightly lower your chin. Keep a gentle gaze at the tip of your nose and relax your eyelids. Throughout this exercise make sure your hands don’t move out of alignment. Gently place the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth behind your front teeth where it naturally rests. Lastly, activate your pelvic floor muscles as if you’re stopping your urination. Your tongue and pelvic muscles physically connect two vital meridians located along the vertical midline axis of your body. This connection will further amplify your Life Force flow. Begin your basic deep breathing technique (shown in Section 2).
You can do this as many times in a day as you wish. It is recommended that you do this first thing in the morning; when you’re over worked; and after your in-laws visit your house. On a more serious note, any time you are stressed or around negative people, take a break and do this restorative breathing technique and you’ll feel a lot better.

Creating an Energy Ball
This qigong exercise helps to amplify your healing Life Force that will later convert into your vital essence. By practising this exercise you will also amplify your energy field. This requires concentration and zero distractions.
Begin with standing or sitting with your back straight with your eyes closed throughout the exercise. Start your deep breathing in the nose and out the mouth. Locate the Dantian (reservoir of energy), which is three inches or four-fingers below your navel. This is the centre of your Dantian. Place the hands six inches apart with the palms facing each other. Extend the arms out and keep them rounded to allow Life Force to flow under the arms.
When you are deep breathing imagine the universal Life Force as light travelling down to the Dantian and toxic energy leaving the body like black smoke disappearing into the air from your mouth. Do this for five to ten minutes. After building up the Dantian with Life Force, imagine the Life Force travelling up to your shoulders down to the centre of your hands.
Repeat this visualization until your hands become slightly heavier or warmer. As you breathe deeply, imagine the accumulated Life Force in your palms forming an energy ball in the space between your hands. Continue this visualization until your hands feel slightly heavy and warmer. It may feel as if you are holding some kind of light mass in between your hands.
Then very, very slowly bring your hands together. If you have managed to create an energy ball, you would feel its subtle resistance. Once you’ve felt the resistance, bring the ball towards your Dantian and let it absorb into your lower abdomen. Place your hands over your Dantian and massage the Life Force into your body.
When you’ve felt the extra warmth or heaviness disappear from your hands place them a foot apart in front of your body once again and test if you can still sense the resistance by pulsing them together. You’ll notice the difference. There’ll be no resistance.
This is an excellent exercise to fine tune your visualization abilities. You can even send the energy ball to any area of the body for extra healing. The benefits of Qigong will show over time depending on how body’s toxicity and stress. The key is to maintain a daily practice to see results.
The earth has the ability to absorb your toxic energy and transform it into positive Life Force. The following Tree Healing Exercise and Qigong exercises will help amplify the grounding of your energy.

YIN-YANG OR FEMININE-MASCULINE?
Rather defining famine and masculine energy with gender, e.g. female and male, our definition of these relative energies is best paralleled with the concept of yin and yang.
YIN AND YANG ARE RELATIVE LABELS. If you compare Marilyn Monroe to Angela Merkel, you would describe Marilyn as more yin and Angela more yang. But if you compare Angela with Serena Williams, Serena is considered more yang in energy.
If we were to compare the energy of a man and a woman, the man may be more yin and woman may be more yang. Everything is relative depending on what you are comparing and what two things are being compared. To achieve balance in life we must embrace both energies depending on the situation.
Yin Characteristics:
Energy that consumes, absorbs, descends, shrinks, goes inwards, calms, slows down, rests, cools, and softens. It is also passive, creative, introverted, compassionate, and somber in energy. Physically yin represents things that are smaller, rounder, softer, heavier (sinking energy), damp and slow.
Yang Characteristics:
Energy that is active, protective, uplifting, jovial, social, giving, expansive, rising, outward, excited, vibrant, rapid, heated, and hard. It is also unsubstantial/weightless (rising energy), textured (rough), strong, dry and logical.
Remove your constructs of what a female or male SHOULD be and accept who you are as a woman or man. Live authentically.