Many people find shaking practice to be the qigong form they remember and practice most often. Perhaps that’s because it’s easy, free-form and relaxes you quickly. Shaking is an invitation to check in with yourself and let go in the places that need it the most. It’s a chance to wake yourself up in the morning or let go of the day in the evening. It can help quiet your mind, send healing messages to the organs and tissues of the body and create the inner space you need to enter the stillness of being present and aware.

During a qigong class or practice session, shaking is the first form we do as a warm up for the form that follows. However, shaking is a form itself. If you would like to experience it with a group, you can join our upcoming Meridian qigong class which begins Monday, May 6, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm, and Summer Solstice ocean practice. See class schedule.

You can practice for 5 minutes or up to 45 minutes (and more). You can follow along with the short video above. It is an example of how you can move your body as you focus internally on different areas as described below.

If you have less time, do a little free form shaking and tapping tight muscles like in the video. Then focus on each of the vertebra in your spine and shake them one at a time from neck to tailbone. This refreshes your entire nervous system. Finish with another minute of free style shaking, moving all your joints, follow that by feeling you are shaking from deep in your internal organs to the surface of your skin. Then stop. Let your outer body be still and notice your inner body and the sensations of movement, lightness and spaciousness. Drift for a moment in the space around you. Sit for a few minutes of meditation. Listen to your breath and feel into the sense of stillness and presence that is the context of your experience.

For a more expanded shaking session, continue shaking and focus your tapping on the body tissue layers suggested below. After tapping a few moments through the body from head to toe, shake and focus on that body layer as a whole, then move onto the next. When you finish, stop and notice as explained above. Always end with meditation.

• Skin
• Muscles
• Bones
• Internal Organs: heart, lungs, stomach-spleen, liver-gallbladder, kidneys, belly, reproductive organs.
• Moods, feelings, emotions: like tiredness, boredom or anxiety, sadness or frustration

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