In today’s fast-paced world, hormonal imbalances have become increasingly prevalent, leading to various health issues. While conventional medicine offers treatments for specific symptoms, a holistic approach to hormone health is gaining recognition. Qi Gong, an ancient Chinese practice rooted in the principles of energy cultivation, offers a natural and comprehensive method for balancing hormones. By integrating gentle movements, breath control, and mindfulness, Qi Gong harmonizes the body’s energy systems, improving hormone production, regulation, and overall well-being. We explore how Qi Gong positively impacts hormone health, the specific techniques involved, and the potential benefits of incorporating this practice into your daily routine.
Understanding Hormones and Imbalances
Before delving into the benefits of Qi Gong for hormone health, it is essential to grasp the significance of hormones in our bodies. Hormones are chemical messengers that control various bodily functions, including metabolism, reproduction, mood, and sleep. However, stress, poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, and environmental toxins can disrupt the delicate balance of hormones, leading to imbalances.
Hormonal imbalances can manifest in several ways, including irregular menstrual cycles, low libido, weight gain, mood swings, and fatigue. Conventional treatments often focus on symptom management rather than addressing the underlying causes. This is where Qi Gong can provide a holistic approach by promoting balance and restoring the body’s natural hormone production.
What is Qi Gong?
Cultivating Energy and Balance: Qi Gong, which translates to “energy cultivation,” is an ancient Chinese practice that combines movement, breath control, and meditation to harmonize the body’s energy systems. It involves slow, flowing movements, deep breathing techniques, and focused intention. By cultivating and balancing the body’s Qi (vital life force), Qi Gong aims to restore health and vitality on multiple levels, including hormone regulation.
The practice of Qi Gong stimulates the body’s endocrine system, which is responsible for hormone production and secretion. Through gentle movements and deep breathing, Qi Gong enhances the circulation of Qi, facilitating the flow of energy to the endocrine glands. This stimulation encourages optimal hormone production and regulation, thus addressing imbalances that may arise from stress or other factors.
Qi Gong Techniques for Hormone Health
Deep Abdominal Breathing: Deep diaphragmatic breathing is a fundamental technique in Qi Gong that helps regulate the autonomic nervous system, reducing stress and promoting relaxation. By consciously engaging the diaphragm and expanding the lower abdomen during inhalation, practitioners enhance the flow of Qi, positively influencing hormone production and stress management.
Specific Movements and Postures: Qi Gong incorporates gentle, flowing movements and postures designed to stimulate specific meridians (energy channels) and target the endocrine glands. For example, exercises like “Kidney Breathing” and “Spleen-Stomach Balancing” focus on supporting the adrenal glands and promoting healthy digestion. These movements improve the Qi flow to these glands, optimizing hormone production and balance.
Meditation and Visualization: Qi Gong often incorporates mindfulness and visualization techniques to enhance the mind-body connection. By directing focused intention and positive imagery toward specific endocrine glands or areas of the body, practitioners can influence the balance of hormones and overall well-being.
Qi Gong for Hormonal Balance: Practical Techniques
Here are some Qi Gong techniques that can be incorporated into daily practice to support hormone health:
- Horse Stance: Assume a low squatting position with feet shoulder-width apart. This posture helps stimulate the adrenal glands, balancing cortisol levels and reducing stress.
- Ocean Breathing: Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and inhale deeply while raising the arms overhead. Exhale slowly while lowering the arms. This technique helps calm the mind, reduce anxiety, and regulate hormone production.
- Kidney Breathing: Sit or stand comfortably and place one hand over the lower abdomen. Breathe deeply, imagining the breath filling the lower abdomen and nourishing the kidneys. This practice helps support hormonal balance, particularly for reproductive health.
- Spleen Tapping: Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and gently tap the lower abdomen with soft fists. This technique stimulates the spleen meridian, associated with digestion and hormone regulation.
- Inner Smile Meditation: Sit comfortably and visualize a warm, radiant smile directed towards each organ within the body, including the endocrine glands. This meditation promotes emotional balance and positive energy flow and supports hormonal health.
- Benefits of Qi Gong for Hormone Health: The regular practice of Qi Gong for hormone health offers numerous benefits, including:
Hormonal Regulation
Qi Gong helps balance hormone production and regulation, aiding in the management of conditions such as menstrual irregularities, fertility issues, and symptoms associated with menopause or andropause. Qi Gong exercises work on various aspects of the endocrine system, which produces and controls hormones. Regular practice helps to balance the functioning of the pituitary, thyroid, and adrenal glands, promoting optimal hormone production and regulation.
Stress Reduction
Chronic stress disrupts the hormonal balance. Qi Gong’s emphasis on deep breathing, relaxation, and mindfulness activates the body’s relaxation response, reducing stress hormones such as cortisol and promoting a sense of calm.
Improved Energy and Vitality
Qi Gong exercises help cultivate and replenish Qi, improving overall energy levels and vitality. This increased vitality positively impacts the endocrine system, as hormones are crucial for maintaining optimal energy balance, metabolism, and overall health.
Enhanced Sleep Quality
Qi Gong’s calming effects and stress reduction can help improve sleep quality, promoting optimal hormone regulation during the sleep-wake cycle.
Emotional Well-being
Qi Gong’s mind-body integration fosters emotional balance and resilience, reducing mood swings and supporting mental well-being.
Enhancing Blood Circulation
Qi Gong gently stretches and massages the body, promoting blood circulation. Improved circulation ensures that hormones and nutrients are effectively transported throughout the body, enhancing their delivery to target organs and optimizing hormonal function.
Qi Gong offers a holistic approach to hormone health by harmonizing the body’s energy systems, optimizing hormone production, and promoting overall well-being. Through the integration of gentle movements, breath control, and mindfulness, this ancient practice stimulates the endocrine system, aiding in hormone regulation and balance. By regularly practicing Qi Gong techniques, such as deep abdominal breathing, specific movements and postures, and meditation, individuals can experience hormonal regulation, reduced stress, improved energy levels, enhanced sleep quality, and emotional well-being. As with any holistic practice, consistency and dedication are key to reaping the long-term rewards of Qi Gong for hormone health. Consider incorporating this ancient art into your daily routine to support your body’s natural ability to achieve hormonal harmony and overall vitality.
Combining EFT & Qigong For Hormonal Balance
NourishDoc: Hello, everyone, and happy Thursday. Well, I love blending different holistic therapies, and that’s what we will talk about how do you blend something like EFT and qigong for better hormonal health and hormonal balance? That’s what we’re going to find out from Kaity, who is an EFT practitioner. She’s a qigong instructor as well as a reflexologist joining me live. Thank you so much for joining.
EFT Practitioner Kaity: Thank you for having me. I’m excited to be here.
NourishDoc: Well, educate us and tell us your story on how you came about blending these two beautiful therapies.
EFT Practitioner Kaity: Yes, of course. I’ll start by explaining the two for those who do not know what they are, so qigong is an ancient Chinese practice. It’s like a moving meditation is the best way to explain it. You’re using mindful movements and much breathwork. We’re working with our meridian channels, which are our energy systems. So we’re unblocking those energy channels, breaking up that fascia to get blood and energy to different body organs.
So, it’s a holistic healing approach, but it’s like yoga, but you’re not getting the heart rate up as much, and you’re not; it’s not a form of exercise. It’s more for mindful movement, and then EFT tapping is where you tap your acupressure on those meridian channels. It will also be using some psychology. So, you’ll talk about an issue you’re going through as you tap on those meridian channels. Some people probably heard of it as just a method called tapping. It’s very popular with that.
So, yes, I fuse those two because I found out of all the therapies I used to try to heal myself on many of my clients. These two work best; working with your mindset and energy together can heal the whole mind, body, and spirit connection. When it comes to hormones, many times, what happens we focus solely on our reproductive organs. So, we’ll focus on our uterus and ovaries and what we can do to heal them. We need to focus on the body as a whole, and that’s what I’ve learned as I started doing these modalities.
EFT & Qigong Sequences
NourishDoc: Okay, so let’s go through, and I know there’s much research on both these modalities, qigong as well as EFT; you are welcome to talk about the research, but let’s talk about a simple sequence that you would recommend to your clients for, that would combine EFT and Qigong for hormone health.
EFT Practitioner Kaity: So for hormone health, I like to combine the two because EFT, many times when we are working with our hormones, I know from experience myself, I suffered from PCOS, I suffered from infertility for years, and during that time frame, I felt very unworthy of healing, I felt very broken, I had a very bad, like mind, body connection.
So, for EFT, it’s a way for me to work with my clients to work through any of those negative thoughts that we’re having because, if we think that we can’t heal if we think that we’ll never get better, we’ll never be able to conceive, our body will that message. It will hear it loud and clear, making it difficult for those things to happen.
So, I work with many clients with EFT to get them into the right mindset. So, believing that they can heal, that their hormones can balance themselves out, and anything that they’re struggling with, just getting their mindset in that right place for improving. Also, with EFT, if you experience any trauma in your life, this doesn’t have to be trauma that we normally think of, like something horrific happening.
However, anything that might have happened in our young years that set our body in that fight or flight many a lot of times as we grow up, there are little things in our life that trigger that fight-or-flight response. We’re living in that chronic stress.
So, tapping through whatever that trauma might have been lives our life, and those thought processes turn off that fight-or-flight response because we know we cannot heal if our body is in chronic fight or flight. So, with that EFT tapping, again, working on the mindset, turning off that fight-or-flight response, removing all of those negative thought we have about healing, and then I combined it with the qigong because qigong is great for just getting the entire energy system working together.
So many clients struggling with hormonal imbalances have been on birth control for years. They’ve been on fertility medication for years. Many times, when we are on medication for a long time, it can block those energy channels, especially our reproductive system. So we will be using qigong to open up those energy channels, getting that energy flowing not just to our reproductive organs, spleen, liver, gallbladder, and everything. Everything needs to work together to heal. So, once we get that kind of mind-body connection, our hormones will slowly start to balance themselves out.
Recommended Tapping Points
NourishDoc: What would be some of the points? Could you help us with the tapping points that you recommend?
EFT Practitioner Kaity: There’s a flow. Still, you could do it however you like, but Doctor Callahan, he’s the man that made EFT. So, you start on the side of the hand, and with the EFT tapping, as I said, you’re bringing issues to the surface. So, you start on the side of the hand, and this is where you would say your statement like, even though I struggle with balancing my hormones, I choose to love, honor, and accept myself. The reason why we say it in a negative is that we’re bringing our issues to the forefront. We’re not bearing it.
We’re bringing it to the surface to face the facts and change our mindset. So, we’d start on the side of hand tapping, saying that even though I struggle with my hormones, I choose to love, honor, and accept myself. It would be on the inside of the eyes, balancing my hormones; outside the eyes, I struggle with balancing my hormones; under the eyes, I struggle with balancing my hormones; top of the lip, it feels like everything I’ve tried, nothing works, chin, and all I want to do is balance my hormones. You do collarbone, causing me great frustration and anxiety.
Then it would be right underneath, right on the bra line for females, and I’m just frustrated; I’m ready to heal my hormones. Then you do the top of your head, frustrated, ready to heal my hormones. So you’d go through a tapping sequence like that, talking about the negatives. So, what emotions come to the surface when you think of healing your hormones if there are specific things you are working on, like many of my clients struggling with infertility?
So, we’ll tap on that. Once you feel like your mindset starts to shift on that subject, you put in your positive affirmations and tap through the sequence using your positive affirmations. Like my body is healthy and healing, I’m ready to conceive and tap through that way. So, once you feel that energetic shift, then you’ll start doing the positive affirmations, and then from there, then we add the qigong, which is just kind of different movements; as I said, they’re very slow moving to help get that energy flowing and help calm the body down.
NourishDoc: The qigong would be like after the tapping. Is that like for us? You said the tapping, right? So we finished the tapping sequence, then went different once and more, if you are okay with a few moves.
EFT Practitioner Kaity: So it’s like a comment is just heaven and earth. So we want to connect ourselves to heaven and earth. So you push your left arm down, right arm up, and you want to do a breathing, and then you exhale rotating hands, pushing one arm down and extending the other up. So, our meridian channels run throughout our bodies, lungs, small intestine, and heart. So, we’re making these movements more and getting all those meridian channels moving.
So, you take a breath and move with the breath, breathing out, extending, and breathing in. So, like I said, very slow movements. Another one, you could have your hands right here. You’re just going to gather that energy, that chi from around you, and pull down the center of your body and exhale as you bring it down. So when you’re doing these movements, you want to be as present as possible, so that’s why it’s really important to stay out loud, like breathe in and exhale out, just as you would with the meditation. Those are some movements that you could do.
Many of my clients would be working on the meridian channel that wraps around our waist just because, like I said; we have that energy flow that’s usually blocked right here when working with our reproductive system. So, even just warming up your hands, many times, placing them on your kidneys and making those circular motions as wide as you can go in one direction and then, rotating in the other direction so, just breaking up that kind of that belt audience.
So we get that energy flowing through both upper and lower body channels. So, those are some; there’s for 1000 just like how I know, like many people know yoga, so I’ll refer to that, but you can make over a thousand different moves. So, a lot is out there, but it’s just those meditative, mindful movements.
NourishDoc: All right. Well, thank you so much. I think, I always, when I look at qigong, it looks like restorative yoga, very slow movement and pausing in between that if you were to make a comparison, that’s what, at least, I’m not a yoga expert, I’m just commenting.
EFT Practitioner Kaity: Yeah, no, very much so, and it’s kind of, I mean, it’s very similar in nature to yoga, but there are so many different types of yoga, so like yin yoga where you’re yin yoga focuses a lot on like the Meridian channels and breath work, so very similar to that.
NourishDoc: Absolutely. This is a quick five to 10-minute session that we bring daily. This is a quick session to infuse EFT and Qigong for your hormonal health. Keep your comments coming. Keep supporting us, and thank you so much; anything else you’d like to add, Kaity? You’re welcome to see your Insta account.
EFT Practitioner Kaity: Yeah. So, you can find me. I have many videos on YouTube where I blend the two; it’s just under my name, Kaity Neiswonger. You can find me on my social media platforms, so that’s Instagram and TikTok, I think that’s everywhere.
NourishDoc: All right, great, amazing videos, I must say that. Thank you so much, and thank you, everyone, bye-bye.
