Some say that if you’d do only one Qigong exercise each day it would be this one: Lifting the Sky. Since I am becoming older, I can believe it, because doing this practice fights the momentum of tension and gravity in the body while releasing tightness in the shoulders.
Here are the steps.
To begin, relax your body, shake, shake, shake, and swing arms from side to side while standing. Bounce by bending the knees.
- Bring the feet close together and parallel.
- Open your mouth ever so slightly (relax your jaw).
- Tip of the tongue rests lightly on the roof of the mouth (to complete microcosmic orbit).
- Arms are “alive”, but relaxed down by your sides.
- Posture is upright, yet relaxed with your heart center open.
- Gaze is on the horizon.
- Palms face down toward the ground.
- Point your fingertips toward the center of the body (with a little space between each finger).
- Arms are as straight (with ease and a micro bend to the elbow).
- Head tilts down a bit (as if to look at the hands).
- Shoulders should be relaxed.
- Inhaling, raise/arc your arms up overhead.
- Slowly lift your head up to look at your hands as they reach up to the sky.
- Once your hands reach the top, lift slightly up on the heels.
- Palms toward the sky fingertips toward each other.
- Breathe gently through the nose as you arc upward.
- Exhaling slowly through the mouth, move your arms softly and slowly down back by your sides (like you are flapping your wings).
- Gracefully return your head back to its normal position.
- Repeat the entire sequence 5-15 times.
One Seeker's Story 