Zooming in on the practice of self-care

The embodiment movement has urged us all to shut down our screens and get outside, connect with nature, and reclaim the physical activities and somatic therapies that foster integration of mind/body/soul. Too much screen time turns us into talking heads with attention deficits and countless issues with body alignment and circulation due to our frozen postures before devices. And yet, since the pandemic and the boom of online gathering, a lovely paradox has been emerging: more and more students of somatic practices are finding opportunities to study with master teachers online and go deeper than ever with embodiment work. As Healing Circles Global has expanded its online presence, circle hosts have sought more effective ways to embrace this paradox.

After I was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer, I turned to HCG mostly for cancer support. At the time, I was studying energy healing in Turin, Italy, with my mentor from the Barbara Brennan School, who urged me to practice medical Qigong and find a good teacher. I lived in the hills of Turin and did not drive. After surgeries and chemo, I was not keen on the bumpy bus trek into the city in pursuit of a teacher, but I had good books and YouTube videos that I thought would help, and they did in a limited way.

Mostly, my reading convinced me that Qigong was an important path in whatever kind of healing was possible for me. And then I discovered that HCG offered HeART of Body–a Qigong circle.

The HeART of Body circle is a co-creation of Catherine, Joann, Nancy, Sandra, and Maria–all students of Dr. Roger Jahnke, author of The Healer Within and The Healing Promise of Qi. Jahnke draws from multiple lineages of Qigong masters who emphasize medical Qigong and self-care. In The Healing Promise of Qi, he calls an increasing discernment of Qi a “resource so essential it is impossible to define or translate.” He defines Qigong as “the practice or methodology for cultivating Qi” or, simply stated, “an energy cultivation practice.”

Jahnke invites us to follow the energy essence of our life experiences and embody Qigong’s “three treasures” (earth, life, and sky/cosmos), “three alignments” (body, breath, and heart-mind), and “four baskets” of practice (gentle movement, breathwork, self-massage, and meditation).

The HeART of Body team includes the treasures, alignments, and baskets in every circle. They also integrate basic HCG structure, along with a special set of self-care agreements focused on self-regulation to prevent physical injury. Catherine, who was used to teaching in-person, says, “The only way we can do this online is to make sure everyone understands that this is a self-care practice and that every body is different. It’s important to listen to your own experience.”

To the original five HCG agreements, the hosts of this circle add their own self-care agreements:

• I agree to treat myself with respect and compassion.
• With the intention of curiosity, I agree to open all my senses to discern what my body and heart-mind* need in any given moment.
• I invite myself to unfold my experience slowly and pause when necessary.
• If pain is a sensation that I feel in my body and heart-mind, I will acknowledge that sensation and take care of myself.
• I have the power to heal, transform, and transcend within me.
• I invite myself into the awareness of my whole being.

*The Chinese have one symbol to describe the connection between the heart and mind. It’s seen as one system–not two separate ones.

Without underestimating the advantages of in-person lessons, I soon came to appreciate how a Zoom experience minimizes reliance on an instructor’s regard and even self-conscious comparison to others. There is something about the platform that inspires more independence, initiative, and focus on interior experience. The voice from the screen is a lifeline, but I find that I can more readily internalize the teachings.

Due to conflicts with my work schedule, I was not able to participate in the circle as often as I would have liked, but as Jahnke repeats in The Healer Within: even simple daily practices like ear or hand massage, a “gathering breath,” or gentle “flowing motion” can initiate a process of healing with immediate benefits that will encourage future practice. Conscious breathing, along with many flow exercises, can be done almost invisibly throughout the day; anyone can gently massage a hand or take a deep breath at any time–practices that are of great benefit in alleviating stress and heightening presence. These practices can be especially useful during the welcome phase of any healing circle. They provide an opportunity to ground, center, and balance.

For me, the great gift of Qigong is the habit it has instilled in me of listening for “the healer within” through intensifying my attunement to inner sensation. No matter my physical condition, there is always a gentle way of activating Qi and increasing my awareness of it, whether through practices related to the four baskets or simply through the daily assessment of whether a situation, a food I ingest, a book I read, or a person I meet enlivens or stops the energies. This attunement does help me manage my cancer, or at least its symptoms, and I continue to thrive. In fact, I’m tempted to claim that cancer has been a gift to me because it has motivated me to pursue the “call of Qi” and has brought me in contact with so many beautiful practitioners.