Coming into Residency 3 for the Spiritual Direction program here at Columbia Theological Seminary, there were some things that I expected to learn, such as discernment. That was the theme for the week and the focus of our readings and videos as we came into this week. I knew that I would be learning more about the practice of spiritual direction in resources and hands-on real time experience. What I didn't know is that our body connection would be the practice of Qi-gong.
I have much to process going forward and I'm not sure what I'll share and not share. However, I do want to share a bit about this Tai Chi Qi-Gong with Karen Soo. We did the video below every morning. Today, we have evaluations prior to last session. I decided to do the practice on my own prior to my evaluation time.
Karen moves at a slow pace, enough to follow her well. There are song birds in the background. If that bothers you, turn off the sound. But, the sound of song birds has a calming effect on us as we recognize that if birds are singing, they feel safe and secure. That's cool!
Doing these exercises, breath work and stretching are a large part of it. You breathe in (inhale) and breathe out (exhale) in a rhythm. As you work through this, it is calming.
I learned that this has much to do with the autonomic nervous system and the polyvagal theory. I look forward to reading Deb Dana's book Anchored to learn more.
Going back to Karen and this Qi-gong practice, my goal is to see how it becomes a part of my practices and how that draws me nearer to the heart of God.
If you'd like to learn more about Qi-gong, check this out: Qi-gong: What you need to know.
I invite you to try Karen's video. If you do, I invite you to share your experience in the comments. Also, I'm open to more conversation.
Right now, I need to head to my assessment meeting. :)
Life continues to be an adventurous journey.
Rev. Debra
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