7 Tips to make Qigong Practice a Habit!

The benefits of qigong practice accumulate over time. In fact, ‘gong’ which makes up part of the word qigong means skill that comes from work over a long period of time. So if we want to get the most benefit from our qigong practice, it is useful to have a plan that will help us to practice regularly.  This article will give you 7 tips to help you make your qigong practice a regular habit.

1. Invest in Yourself – Schedule Your Qigong Practice!

We tend to find time for the things that are really important to us. We will move other things out of the way so that we can do them. When we recognize just how much good our qigong practice does for us, we may find it easier to consider it an investment in ourselves that pays dividends, rather than just one more thing that takes time.

When you practice qigong regularly, you may notice that so many other things in your day go better. You have less aches and pains, you can focus more easily, you are calmer, you are more sensitive and intuitive in your interactions with others, and you have more energy to get more things done! The time you put into your qigong practice is easily repaid with interest by how much easier it makes all of the other activities in your day.

When you recognize how much value you get from your qigong practice, rather than fitting it in around other things, you might realize that it is worth making an appointment with yourself on your schedule to do it. In this was, maybe you will move other things around to let you do your qigong practice, rather than the other way around.

2. Make Qigong Part of Your Routine

One of the best ways to ensure you do your qigong practice regularly, is to schedule it next to other things that are a part of your regular routine already.  For example, you might schedule it before breakfast. Then every morning you will start to associate qigong with breakfast, and if you ever start to have breakfast without doing your qigong first, you will feel like something is missing and remember to do it.

You could anchor your practice to any number of other regular daily activities, like immediately after you get home from work, or just before you go to bed.

Making qigong part of your other regular routines has other benefits as well. As we get into a pattern for our practice, our body will recognize that pattern and make subtle preparations for our practice each day, so that you can get even more out of your practice.

3. Prepare Your Location for Qigong Practice

It is so much easier to establish and continue a routine of qigong practice if you don’t have to spend time getting your space ready for practice each time you go to do it. This can make the whole process of practicing seem more time consuming than it really needs to be, because of the extra effort needed to prepare your space. If you are able to prepare your space ahead of time you will be able to simply flow into it as part of your daily activities. This might even mean doing things like preparing your space the night before if you plan to practice first thing in the morning when you wake up.

For your qigong practice space you want somewhere that is a comfortable temperature for you (not too warm or too cool), without too much breeze, and particularly without too much clutter. It is beautiful if you are able to practice outdoors and benefit from the energy of the natural environment, but for many reasons such as weather and privacy, an indoor location is often more convenient.

4. Plan for Distractions

When you are new to qigong, little distractions can really throw you off in your qigong practice. It takes a lot of focus to tune into the sensations of your body and your energy when you are just starting out. Fortunately as you progress in your practice, this becomes easier and easier, but it still helps to have a plan for dealing with distractions so that they are less likely to disturb you in the first place.

A few things that you can do to minimize distractions are to find a suitable location where you are less likely to be disturbed (as mentioned above). Let others know that you are going to be practicing at that time so they will know not to interrupt you. Turn off your phone so that it will not distract you with incoming notifications either.

Despite our best preparations, distractions will still occur from time to time. Broadly speaking, there are two types of distractions. Ones which are urgent and need your attention right now, and ones that are not urgent and can be attended to later. When a distraction arises, ask yourself which kind of distraction it is. If it can be attended to later, recognize this within yourself and put it aside so that you can continue with your practice. If it does require immediate attention, just peacefully accept that this is needed and leave your practice until you can resume it at another time.

5. Make a Conservative Commitment

One of the most important aspects of making a new habit is to ensure that the commitment you make to yourself is achievable. In my experience, all too often the qigong practitioner who decides enthusiastically that they are going to practice for 2 hours every day, finds that it is unsustainable after just a few weeks, and ends up not practicing regularly at all.

Sometimes it is possible for some people to practice such extensive volumes of qigong regularly. And this can be a WONDERFUL experience as it allows you to go deep into your practice. But for most of us the only time that is likely to fit sustainably into our schedule is when we are engage in a specific formal training program, or when we have the opportunity to attend a retreat – both of which I recommend highly!

The rest of the time we need to make sure that our expectations of the time we will put into our practice are realistic and support us in our other activities, rather than getting in the way of other things that we need to get done.

For this reason I suggest making a very realistic commitment to yourself of an amount of time you will spend on your qigong practice each day. It can be as little as five minutes of qigong a day.  You can get great benefits from those five minutes that will support you throughout the rest of your day, and if you feel like you have more time available to you on any given day, you can then happily practice a longer session. This is far better than committing to practice for an hour or more, and then being disappointed with yourself when you are not able to do it – and ending up breaking your pattern and not practicing at all.

Remember the benefits of qigong accumulate little by little. It doesn’t matter so much how much we do each day, but rather that we keep consistently practicing over time.

6. Enjoy Your Qigong Practice!

Enjoy your practice! If your practice is enjoyable, you will be more likely to look forward to doing it, and have less internal resistance to starting your practice on any given day. The tips we have discussed already above will go a long way towards helping to make sure that your qigong practice is enjoyable. Things like making sure you have adequate time and a suitable space, and not putting too much pressure on yourself about how much practice you do make the whole process so much easier and more enjoyable. There is another factor that you might want to consider as well though, and that is what specific qigong practices you choose to do.

There are many, many different types of qigong practice that you can choose from. Each of them works with our energy in different ways. Some of them are more physically strenuous, while others are more gentle and relaxing. And each of them just feels – different.

It is well worth trying several different types of qigong practice so that you can get a feel for what each of them are like. You can then more easily choose some practices that you enjoy, to practice regularly. It is also ok for this to change from time to time. Our needs and even our mood changes over time, and we may find ourselves drawn to different practices as we flow through the cycles of life.

7. Keep on Learning!

For myself, one of the things that motivates me the most is to continue learning and understand things better. There is so much to discover in the wide world of qigong, that there will always be something new for you to learn. This can help to keep your practice fresh and interesting. It doesn’t mean that you have to always be changing what you practice everyday. Many people will find some qigong routines that they love practicing daily for years or even decades. But trying something different every once and awhile can help bring fresh inspiration to your existing practice and help you to stay motivated to continue on your journey.