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1 Title Page 1

2 Copyright and data page 2

3 Contents Index of videos, links, audios and pictures 04 Disclaimer 05 Are You Full Of Energy? 06 What makes PERFECT Qigong different? 08 Part 1 What is Qigong? Discover what Qigong is and how it works. Introduction 10 How Qigong Works 11 The Only Illness There Is 13 Good Health Is Only One Benefit of Practicing Qigong 14 What Makes PERFECT Qigong So Powerful? 15 Summary 15 Part 2 An Introduction To PERFECT Qigong How to get the best results in the shortest time. Qigong Skills, The Difference Between Success and Failure 18 A Brief History of PERFECT 19 Who Is This Book For? 20 How To Use This Book 20 Summary 21 Part 3 The PERFECT Qigong System The seven steps of PERFECT revealed. An Overview Of Your 15-Minute Practice Session 24 Step 1 Preparation 24 Step 2 Enter A Qigong State of Mind (QSoM) 27 Step 3 Really Smile From Your Heart 30 Step 4 Form 32 Step 5 Energy Flow 38 Step 6 Cosmic Balance 39 Step 7 Time to Complete 41 PERFECT Conclusion 47 3

4 Part 4 The Evolution Of Your Practice How your practice changes as your skills develop. PERFECT Qigong Only Takes 15 Minutes 49 The New Student 50 The Beginning Student 50 The Intermediate Student 51 The Advanced Student 51 The 4 Stages Of Mastery 52 PERFECT Is Just A Tool 52 Part 5 Two Tools Essential For Your Success With Qigong You must use these if you wish to succeed with your practice. Essential Tool #1: The Progress Chart 55 Essential Tool #2: Clarity 56 About the Author 59 Appendix A PERFECT Qigong In A Nutshell 63 Appendix B Energy Flow An In Depth Review 65 Index? Further Resources REMEMBER TO CHECK ALL PAGE NUMBERS BEFORE PRINTING!!! 4

5 Index of Videos, Links, Audios and Pictures 12 Primary Meridians 11 Six of the eight Wondrous Meridians 12 Ready Stance 26 Preparation Video 27 Enter a Qigong State of Mind (QSoM) Mp3 Audio 31 Enter a Qigong State of Mind (QSoM) Video 32 Form: Lifting The Sky 35 Lifting The Sky Instructions 37 Lifting The Sky Video 38 Links To Other Qigong Exercises 38 Energy Flow Video 39 Yin Yang 40 Cosmic Balance Video 41 Bang The Heavenly Drum 43 Point Massage 1 Instructions 44 Point Massage 2 Instructions 46 Time To Complete Video 47 The New Student Pie Chart 50 The Beginning Student Pie Chart 50 The Intermediate Student Pie Chart 51 The Advanced Student Pie Chart 52 Progress Chart Video 56 Progress Chart Pdf 56 PERFECT Qigong Practice Guide 64 Energy Flow Graph 70 5

6 Disclaimer 6

7 Are You Full Of Energy? Take the following test: 1. Do you often feel sad, blue, unhappy or down in the dumps for no apparent reason? 2. Do you get tired for no reason throughout the day? 3. Do you find it hard to concentrate? 4. Do you have trouble sleeping? 5. Have you gained weight and lost your energy? 6. Do you feel older than your years? 7. Do you frequently feel stressed out and for no apparent reason get very angry, hostile or upset? 8. Are your muscles sore, even though you don t exercise? 9. Do you get sick easily? 10. Do you find it hard to relax? If you answered yes to more than three of these questions, then PERFECT Qigong was created for you. The book you are now holding in your hands is for anyone who wants increase their energy levels and zest for life. Here are just a few of the many benefits you can expect as a result of studying and applying the principals in <NAME OF BOOK> 1. You ll wake up your body s NATURAL healing power without having to learn for decades from some Guru or Master. 2. You ll naturally feel more energized, fresh and alert, without drinking vast quantities of coffee or caffeine laden fizzy drinks. 7

8 3. You ll improve, maintain and enhance your health in all its aspects. By that I mean physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. 4. You ll feel more confident without having to read a mountain of self help books. Just imagine the wonderful changes you can make when you stop holding yourself back. 5. You ll wake in a morning feeling refreshed and alert after having a great night s sleep. 6. You ll relieve stress and increase relaxation almost like a mild tranquilizer. 7. Your resistance to coughs, colds and other annoying bugs will increase. 8. You ll have a system for living a happier, healthier and longer life that you can take with you wherever you go. And I ve made it as simple and as easy as I possibly can for you to achieve all this in the comfort and safety of your own home. 8

9 What makes PERFECT Qigong different? Contained in this short book is the essence of my twenty years of discovering what works and what doesn t work in Qigong. A lot of Qigong styles and systems taught today focus only on the form aspect of Qigong or are so full of mumbo jumbo they re almost impossible to follow, especially without the guidance of a teacher. I was taught that Qigong is simple, direct and effective and it s the way I ll teach it to you. PERFECT Qigong takes a systematic, step-by-step approach to understanding the techniques of Qigong. Because the quicker you can grasp these techniques, the quicker you can start developing the skills of Qigong. Here s your first and perhaps most important lesson. Please always remember: It is the skills of Qigong that give you the benefits of Qigong, not the techniques. Don t worry, you ll soon discover what these skills are and we ll be covering them in great detail. You ll be very familiar with them by the time you ve finished this book. You ll notice you received a DVD with this book. This disc is a data DVD, meaning it goes in your computer. It won t work in your DVD player. On it you ll find helpful videos, sound recordings and Pdf documents all of which will help you to grasp the concepts, techniques and principles in this book easier. You see, learning Qigong from a book can be challenging. Mapping the written instructions over to the photographs, working out how to get from one photograph to the next can make something as simple as raising your arms above your head seem frustratingly complex. That s why I developed the Transition Shot Technology (TST) in this book, to make your life easier. It s like video in a book. But to make your life even easier, where appropriate I ve made reference to the resources on the disc. As the saying goes: A picture paints 1,000 words. If that s true then a video playing at 25 frames (or pictures) per second paints 25,000 words every single second. No wonder videos are easier to learn from than books. My aim with this book has been to present you with all of the essential information you need to practice Qigong, to get the benefits of Qigong and to make it as easy as possible for you. Let s get started. 9

10 Part 1 What Is Qigong? Overview: In this section you ll discover what Qigong is and how it works. You ll discover what makes it such a powerful tool for physical relaxation, emotional calmness, mental focus and spiritual awareness and you ll know why people choose to practice Qigong. Qigong is a method of Qi cultivation that has been used for thousands of years. Extract from Fire Dragon Meridian Qigong by Master ZhongXian Wu 10

11 Introduction If you take the word Qigong and split it into two parts you can easily discover what it means. Qi = Energy and Gong = Work. Qi is what keeps all of the functions of your body working correctly. It defends your body against external pathogens, nourishes your body and maintains the correct position of your organs and blood. In a nutshell, Qi keeps you alive and well. Qigong literally is the art of deliberately managing your vital energy or Qi. Practiced correctly it can help you to live a happy, healthy and long life. Qigong is a composite of Form, Energy and Mind. It is usually a combination of gentle external movements, coordinated with the breathing performed in a meditative state of mind. I say usually because Qigong has a history going back 1000 s of years so there are many different types and schools of Qigong out there in the world. Some types of Qigong do not involve any external movements, some types keep the breathing separate from the external movements but all must be practiced in a meditative state of mind if they are to be called Qigong. Qigong is the oldest of the five branches of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) the other four are: 1. Acupuncture 2. Herbs 3. Diet 4. Tui Na A type of therapeutic massage. Qigong is easier to learn than Tai Chi because a typical Qigong Form consists of only three or four moves. Compare this to Tai Chi s 24, 48 and more moves in a Form. Qigong is less strenuous than Yoga because there are no physically demanding postures to hold. The practice of Qigong requires virtually zero athleticism. Qigong gives better results than mediation alone because Qigong practiced correctly is meditation. 11

12 How Qigong Works Your vital energy, or Qi, flows through energy streams inside your body. These streams are called meridians. You have 12 pairs of Primary meridians. They are called Primary because they pass through your internal organs, from which they gain their name: 12

13 You also have eight Wondrous meridians. Instead of streams, the Wondrous meridians are likened to lakes or reservoirs. They are like energy grids and they help to protect the body. In the diagram below I have only shown six of the eight Wondrous meridians. The two missing ones are called the Ren and the Du. The Ren meridian runs from just below your bottom lip to your anus and the Du meridian runs from the perineum up your back, over the top of your head and ends just under your nose. 13

14 When these two Wondrous meridians connect and you have an unrestricted flow of Qi through them, you have attained what is called: The Breakthrough of the Small Universe or Micro-cosmic energy flow. This is a great achievement and in Qigong there is a saying that if you achieve the Small Universe you will be free from hundreds of illnesses. The Only Illness There Is When your Qi/energy flows harmoniously through the meridians of your body you will have good health. This is the first aim of practicing Qigong. Once this is achieved the next step is to have vigorous, harmonious Qi flow which results in health and vitality. Eventually if you continue your Qigong practice you will succeed in having harmonious, vigorous and abundant energy flow. This will give you health, vitality and longevity. Now, from the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) point of view, the root cause of all illness, in spite of the label we may put on it, is a blockage of harmonious energy flow. Cancer, diabetes, heart disease, asthma and so on are the result of a disruption to harmonious energy flow caused by blockages in the meridians. For the sake of understanding blockages can be categorised into 4 types: 1. Physical A cut, an infection or a fall for example may cause a physical blockage to the flow of energy through the meridians. If a blockage is serious enough to stop the flow of energy, death quickly follows. One of the major cause of physical blockages is poor posture. 2. Emotional Long term exposure to high levels of stress can cause emotional blockages. As can prolonged exposure to fear, anxiety and worry. 3. Mental Obsessive thinking is the leading cause of mental blockages. It is possible to think too much. 14

15 4. Spiritual The most common example of a spiritual blockage would be depression. Depression literally crushes the human spirit and affects you physically, emotionally and mentally. In practice blockages rarely occur in isolation. Due to the interdependent nature of the human body an illness or event will usually cause more than one type of blockage. For example depression can cause all four types of blockage mentioned above. If you can restore harmonious energy flow, you can restore good health. This is one of the main benefits of practicing Qigong. Good Health Is Only One Benefit Of Practicing Qigong Traditionally there are five main reasons why people choose to practice Qigong. I refer to these as the five main aims of Qigong. They are: 1. To promote and restore health and vitality 2. To live a long and happy life 3. To develop internal force, usually desired by but not restricted to martial artists. 4. To improve mental clarity and find new solutions to old problems. 5. To develop spiritual cultivation and insight. The practice of Qigong teaches you how to be physically relaxed, emotionally calm, mentally focused and spiritually aware all at the same time. Which is why it makes you feel so good. Qigong is a spiritual practice and I d like to emphasise that spiritual does not mean religious. A person of any religious faith can practice and receive the benefits of Qigong. Qigong is non-religious. By spiritual I mean that part of you that makes you uniquely you. This part of your life can only be defined by you, there are no right or wrong answers. 15

16 Your spirit plays such a vital part in your health and happiness, but it is often neglected. PERFECT Qigong will solve that. What Makes PERFECT Qigong So Powerful? Here are four key reasons why PERFECT Qigong is so powerful: 1. Saves you time It gives you worthwhile benefits in 15 minutes. Benefits that may take an hour to achieve with other types of Qigong. 2. Benefits Immediately PERFECT Qigong practitioners report experiencing the following benefits almost immediately after starting their practice: Joy, deep relaxation, peace of mind, relief from stress and worry. 3. Involves the mind Most Qigong taught today operates only on the level of form. PERFECT Qigong operates at the level of form, energy and mind. Practitioners regularly mention experiencing higher states of consciousness, increased mental clarity and creativity. They can find elegant solutions to complex life problems they once found very confusing. 4. Cultivates the Spirit PERFECT Qigong practitioners frequently report how their practice has helped them to feel their life has more meaning. Others report experiencing glimpses of cosmic reality that confirm there really is more to life than meets the eye. Summary In this section you discovered: 1. That Qigong is a Chinese energy art with a history of 1000 s of years. 2. That Qigong works by removing blockages in the energy streams or meridians of the body and restoring harmonious energy flow. 3. That from the Qigong perspective the root cause of all illness is loss of harmonious energy flow. 16

17 4. That good health is only one of five main reasons people practice Qigong. 5. The four keys that make PERFECT Qigong so powerful. Turn the page for a brief introduction to PERFECT Qigong and guidance on how to use this book to get the best results in the shortest time. 17

18 Part 2 An Introduction To PERFECT Qigong Overview: In this section you ll discover what makes the difference between success and failure with Qigong, a brief history of how PERFECT Qigong came about, who this book is for and how best to use this book to get the best results in the shortest time. Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop. Lewis Carroll, Alice s Adventures In Wonderland. 18

19 In Qigong It s Skills That Make The Difference Between Success And Failure One of the most important lessons I learned in Qigong is that it s skills that count, not how many Qigong exercises you know. There are three core skills that you must first become aware of and then practice, practice, practice until you master them. Here re the skills you need to succeed with Qigong: 1. Enter a Qigong State of Mind. 2. Energy flow. 3. Cosmic Balance. Also known as Standing Zen. Most Qigong taught today doesn t focus on these three core skills, the reason being that they were once so jealously guarded by an elite few they almost completely died out. The trouble is, if you practice Qigong without these three core skills then what you are practicing has more in common with gentle exercise than Qigong. Now don t misunderstand me. I m not saying there s anything wrong with gentle exercise, it s just that you ll only get the benefits of gentle exercise and not Qigong. The most important lesson to learn here is this: skills beat techniques. Many beginners mistakenly think a person who knows 100 different Qigong exercises is more skilled than another person who only knows and practices three. But this is a classic example of confusing quantity for quality. 19

20 A Brief History of PERFECT Once I began teaching Qigong in 2003 I quickly noticed that trying to remember what came next during their practice was a major hurdle preventing students from quickly developing these vital core skills. There s nothing that disrupts a Qigong State of Mind (QSoM) quicker than having to consciously stop and think: What comes next? I spent a long time trying to come up with a solution to this problem and finally came up with PERFECT. PERFECT is an acrostic where: P = Preparation. E = Enter A Qigong State of Mind (1 st core skill of Qigong). R = Really smile from your heart. F = Form. E = Energy Flow (2 nd core skill of Qigong). C = Cosmic Balance (3 rd core skill of Qigong). T = Time to complete. These are the seven steps that make up a PERFECT Qigong practice session. PERFECT is a tool that I use with my clients to help them get all the benefits of Qigong quicker and easier than I did. PERFECT helps you to grasp the techniques of Qigong very quickly, so you can focus on developing the three core skills that make Qigong such a powerful tool for living a happier, healthier and longer life. Part 3 of this book covers PERFECT in great detail. Combine it with the videos on the DVD and you ll pick it all up very quickly. 20

21 Who Is This Book For? There are three main groups of Qigong students who will benefit from the material in this book: 1. If you are new to Qigong, PERFECT Qigong will help you to pick up the essential techniques of a Qigong practice session quickly. You ll then be able to focus your practice time on developing the core skills of Qigong I mentioned earlier. 2. If you have been practicing another school, style or system of Qigong for more than six months and you re not happy with the results you ve got from your practice, then there s a good chance you re either not practicing correctly or what you re practicing is not Qigong. You ll benefit from exposure to the three core skills of Qigong. 3. If you re already a client of mine and you want to refresh your memory on certain aspects of PERFECT Qigong then you re in the right place. Please note, this book and the DVD that accompany it are designed to be used. If all you do is read this material and watch the DVD, you re wasting your valuable time. You ll only learn how to do something by actually doing it. How To Use This Book If you want to get the best results from the material in this book, in the shortest time possible these are the tried and tested steps I recommend you follow: 1. Read pages X to Y all the way through, quickly, to give yourself an overview of PERFECT Qigong. Then 2. Re-read An Overview of Your 15 Minute Practice Session p. X, P (Preparation p. X), E (Enter a QSoM p. X) and R (Really smile from your heart p. X) and practice them once or twice a day for three days. Also watch the relevant P, E and R videos on the DVD. Then 21

22 3. Re-read F (Form p. X) and practice P, E, R and F for two days. Once or twice a day. Be sure to watch the video to help you quickly get to grips with the Form. Then 4. Re-read E (Energy Flow p. X), C (Cosmic Balance p. X) and T (Time to complete p. X) and add them to your practice. Watch the E,C, and T videos to increase your understanding. You have started to practice PERFECT Qigong. 5. Extra Help Be sure to watch the relevant videos. Especially the Form video. Whilst a picture paints a 1000 words, a video running at 25 frames (pictures) per second paints 25,000 words. Every single second. Now you know why learning movements from a video is so much easier than from pictures in a book. The five days of rehearsal leading up to you starting your PERFECT Qigong practice are very important. Contrary to what you might think they will not hold you back. Whilst it might appear to be taking longer to get started, putting down a firm foundation will actually allow you to arrive earlier at your desired destination: practicing Qigong and gaining the benefits of Qigong. Avoid substituting or making changes to PERFECT. Simply follow the instructions to the best of your ability and the results will follow. Summary In this section you discovered: 1. It s skills that make the difference between success and failure with Qigong. Not how many forms you know. 2. The three core skills of Qigong are: Entering a Qigong State of Mind, Energy Flow and Cosmic Balance. 3. PERFECT is an acronym that stands for Preparation, Enter a Qigong State of Mind, Really smile from your heart, Form, Energy Flow, Cosmic Balance and Time to complete. It is these 7 steps that help you to practice PERFECT Qigong. 22

23 4. PERFECT is a tool to help you learn the techniques of Qigong quickly so you can focus on developing the three core skills of Qigong. PERFECT helps you gain the benefits of Qigong quicker and easier. 5. Who the PERFECT Qigong System is for. 6. How to use this book to gain the best results in the shortest time. Now it s time to take a look at the PERFECT Qigong System in more depth. Starting with 23

24 Part 3 The PERFECT Qigong System Overview: This is the main section of the book. In this section the 7 steps of PERFECT Qigong will be revealed to you in great detail. Regularly doing the right things, in the right order is the quickest route to mastery Marcus Santer. 24

25 An Overview Of Your 15-Minute Practice Session Before we look at the 7 steps that make up PERFECT Qigong, I need to tell you how best to spend your 15 minutes of practice time. Otherwise your practice could easily end up taking much longer. To make this as simple as possible I want you to imagine that your practice is split into three distinct zones. Zone 1 Preparation, Enter a Qigong State of Mind, Really smile from your heart and Form. Zone 2 Energy Flow Zone 3 Cosmic Balance and Time to Complete For the first few weeks of your PERFECT Qigong practice you re likely to spend as much as 12 of your 15 minutes in Zone 1. In fact it s very likely that for the first few months of your practice you ll spend most of your 15 minutes in Zone 1. That s the way it is for virtually all beginners. As your familiarity with PERFECT grows and your Qigong skills deepen the amount of time you spend in each Zone will change. I ve covered this in more detail in Part 4 The Evolution Of Your Practice. But for now, as you re starting out, simply realise that you re going to spend most of your 15 minutes in Zone 1. Your practice doesn t have to take exactly 15 minutes. There s no need to get a stopwatch and time yourself, just use your judgement. Step 1 Preparation Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance British Army Saying 25

26 How you begin anything is important if you want to get the best results. Qigong is no different. Here re the steps I recommend you take to make sure your Qigong practice session is starts of right. Safety First Make certain where you re practicing Qigong is safe. What does that mean? Well bad places to practice Qigong include: Areas with sudden drops like balconies and near stairs. Practicing near bins, rubbish heaps and stagnant water because of poor air quality. When you practice Qigong, you aren t just breathing in air, you re also breathing in Qi or Energy. The Qi found in the places I ve just listed is not beneficial to your health and happiness. It s also wise to avoid disturbances during your practice. These can be minimised by turning your phone off and if there are other people in the place where you re practicing let them know not to disturb you for the next 15 minutes. Walk Briskly - Once you ve found a safe place to practice the next step is to walk around briskly for about 30 paces. This helps to wake up and loosen the body, ready for Qigong. Stand Upright and Balanced Stand in your practice spot with your feet close together. Make certain that your nose, your sternum and your belly button are in a straight line. This is standing upright. Now check to make sure that your weight is evenly distributed. With 50% of your weight in your left leg and 50% of your right leg. Then check your weight is evenly distributed between the heels and the balls of your feet. This is the Ready Stance. Look at the pictures on the next page for further details. Remember: If you need to make adjustments to achieve this even balance, do it by moving forwards or backwards with your hips, not by tensing the muscles in your legs. 26

27 Standing upright and balanced front and side view. 27

28 Why is standing upright and balanced in the Ready Stance so important at the start of your Qigong practice? Great question. As mentioned previously, one of the major causes of physical blockages in your body is poor posture. If you sleep on a poor quality mattress, work in front of a computer, watch TV or play computer games for several hours a day, it s a pretty safe bet that your posture has been compromised. Taking the time to stand upright and balanced is a powerful way to start overcoming the energy blockages caused by poor posture. A picture paints 1000 words On the disc that came with this book you can watch a video of me teaching this Preparation step. It s in the Lifting The Sky folder. Step 2 Enter A Qigong State of Mind (QSoM) If you can t relax, you can t do Qigong. Popular Qigong saying. Entering a QSoM is the first of the three core skills of Qigong and perhaps the most important. It s a bit like putting the needle on the record, or pressing play for those of you who don t remember vinyl. The more skill you develop at Entering a QSoM the better results you will get from your Qigong practice. It s as simple as that. In a nutshell, a QSoM is where you re relaxed physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. But it s more than 28

29 just being relaxed. You re alert and focused at the same time. As your skill level increases, the amount of time it takes you to Enter a QSoM will decrease. Your aim is to be able to Enter a QSoM in a single breath. But at the beginning I recommend you spend at least five minutes on this vital core skill of Qigong. You ll be glad you did. Here s how to Enter a QSoM: Relax Physically Standing upright and balanced, gently bring your mindfulness to the top of your head. We re going to take three trips through the body and as we do so I want you to focus on letting go of any unnecessary tension you find as you journey. On the first trip you re going to travel down the side of your head and neck and then let your mindfulness spread out to both shoulders. Now let your mindfulness travel down through the muscles in your arms. Being certain to let go of any tension you find as you continue the journey down through your elbows, forearms and finally to the very tips of your fingers. Now spread your fingers as wide as you can and then let them relax back to their natural position. Journey Two. Gently bring your mindfulness back to the top of your head and this time let your awareness travel down the back of your body. As your mindfulness flows effortlessly down through your head, neck, upper and lower back, be certain to let go of any unnecessary tension you might discover. Continue down through the large muscles in the backs of your legs, down through the backs of your knees and finally into the heels of your feet. Journey Three Gently bring your mindfulness back to the top of your head and this time let your awareness travel down through the front of your body. Be sure to relax those little muscles in the corners of your eyes, allow your jaw to drop open slightly and breathe in gently through your nose and out through your mouth as you continue the journey down through the front of your body. Let the large muscles in your chest relax and be certain to pay a lot of attention to relaxing your stomach area. Culturally we tend to store a lot of unnecessary tension in the abdominal area. Sucking in our guts in the vain attempt to hide our tummy. When you practice Qigong you need to let it all hang out. So make sure you re not wearing any tight fitting belts and really relax your stomach. Continue to 29

30 breathe deeply and fully in through your nose and out gently through your mouth. Continue to journey down through the large muscles at the front of your legs, your knees and all the way down to the tips of your toes. Now that you re more physically relaxed, you re ready to relax emotionally. Here s how Relax Emotionally There s no such thing as a negative emotion. The only problem with our emotions is when we cling on to them and won t let them go. For example you might get angry when someone cuts you up in traffic. And instead of letting this anger go, you hold onto it. By the time you get home you re wound up tighter than a spring and you let rip on your partner. And so on. Holding onto emotions takes a lot of effort. I like to think of it as holding onto 10kg weights. Each time you refuse to let go of your emotions it s like adding more and more weight. Is it any wonder why so many people feel absolutely exhausted by the end of the day? When you practice Qigong you have an opportunity to let go of any worries, stresses and concerns. Forget about that bill that came through the post this morning, forget about who said what to who, forget about who started it. Let go of all your emotions for the duration of your Qigong practice. You can always pick them back up again afterwards if you want to. Always remember that feelings are not facts. They re just feelings. Let go of them whilst you practice your Qigong. Now you re ready to relax mentally. Here s how Relax Mentally Opinion varies wildly as to how many thoughts you have in a day. Enough to say it s far too many and most of them aren t helpful. If you ve ever practiced meditation you ll be painfully aware of how true this is. For the purpose of Entering a QSoM simply aim to quiet the mind. Get rid of those thoughts about whether you re doing it correctly, what you re going to have for breakfast, the phone call you ve got to make later, what colour socks you re 30

31 going to wear today and all that other useless crap that takes up so much space. Now that your mind is calmer you re ready to relax spiritually. Here s how Relax Spiritually Relaxing physically, emotionally and mentally is essential preparation for relaxing spiritually. And the best way I ve discovered to relax spiritually is covered in Step 3 Really Smile From Your Heart Just Do It Nike Advertising Campaign Now listen closely. When I talk about smiling from your heart, I don t just mean the four chambered muscle in your chest that pumps oxygenated and deoxygenated blood around your body. Oh no. I m referring to the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Heart: Governs the balance between the formation of blood and Qi (vital energy). Supplies the power that controls the movement of blood in the vessels. Houses the Shen (mind or spirit) and controls the way the brain thinks and feels. Opens into the tongue The Heart is closely linked with the sense of taste. Sleep is always related to the functioning of the Heart. If you dream a lot or have frequent nightmares then your Heart energy is out of balance. As you can see there s a huge difference between the western and TCM view of the Heart. 31

32 In TCM the Heart is called the Emperor because it is the supreme controller of all the functions and systems of the body. When your Heart is open or in other words when your Heart energy flows harmoniously, it benefits all the systems of the body. So how do you smile from your heart? Simple. Don t think about it. Just do it. Go on. Try it right now. Smile from your heart. If you re a thinker and you re having great difficulty with this step, here re some tips that might help. Just don t over think it! Simply put a big cheesy grin on your face. Imagine a beautiful flower blossoming inside you. Bring to mind a beautiful place of nature and smile. Think of a loved one, or your children and smile. Imagine the sun shining on you and smile. And then smile from your heart. You ll know if you ve got it right because smiling from the heart is a big, expansive feeling. Almost like you re expanding beyond the boundaries of your physical body. Like all skills the two steps involved in Entering a QSoM take practice. So allow yourself to be rubbish at it when you start out. I ve never aced anything the first few times I ve tried it. I ve always had to practice, practice, practice. So take the pressure off yourself and just do it to the best of your ability. I ve made a simple recording of me talking you through the steps involved in Entering a QSoM. If it helps you can listen to it the first few times you practice, until you re familiar with the steps. Just remember, this is a tool. Stop using it as soon as you can. Your aim is to be able to Enter a QSoM as quickly as it takes you 32

33 to smile from your heart i.e. in a single breath. And you ll only achieve that through practicing, not by listening to this recording. You ll find the recording on the disc that came with this book. It s in the Lifting The Sky folder and called inner.mp3. In the same folder you ll also find a video of me teaching how to enter a QSoM. Step 4 Form The Form is not the art of Qigong Popular Qigong saying. There are 1000 s of different Qigong forms or exercises. Now you may be wondering why there are so many different ones? Good question. Imagine you wanted to travel to London from where you are now. You could walk, ride a bike, drive a car, travel by plane and so on. Based on where you are now you would choose the best mode of transport to suit you. And so it is with Qigong exercises. For example, if you know there is a problem with your Kidneys then the most cost effective exercise to practice would be Reverse Hands Bend Waist. Lifting the Sky will still solve the problem, but probably not as quickly as Reverse Hands Bend Waist. Now factor in Qigong s 5000 plus years of history, mix in different social, economic, political and religious beliefs and you ll quickly understand why there are so many different Qigong schools, systems and exercises in existence today. And in case you re wondering which is best? I ll tell you at the end of this section. Now please don t make the mistake that far too many Qigong practitioners make of thinking that practicing Qigong exercises is the same as practicing Qigong. Unfortunately much of what is passed off as Qigong today isn t. It s what I d more politely call Qigong form. 33

34 As I explained earlier, Qigong is a composite of: Form Energy Mind If you only practice Qigong form, then how can you be practicing Qigong? That s just simple logic. But logic that many would be Qigong practitioners seem to miss. Which is a shame. Practicing Qigong exercises on their own isn t without merit. You ll get the same benefits as if you were practicing gentle exercise (which you are). These include increased blood flow, gentle stretching and the like. But personally you d be better off going for a walk. But I m going to assume that you want to practice Qigong and you want to gain the benefits of Qigong. So remember it s not which Qigong exercise you practice that is important. It s the skill with which you practice that counts. PERFECT is the key. The Qigong exercise you re going to learn is called Lifting The Sky. It is probably one of the most well known Qigong exercises and is a favourite amongst Qigong students because it is brilliant for enhancing Energy Flow and Energy Flow is far more important for giving you the benefits of Qigong than which exercise you practice. When I teach new Qigong exercises I like to start by teaching the Form first. Then I like to add the breathing, if applicable because not all Qigong exercises have specific breathing patterns attributed to them. Finally I get students to practice what they ve learned using all 7 steps of PERFECT. Because when Form is practiced with the correct breathing and performed in a QSoM the result is enhanced Energy Flow. And it s Energy Flow that makes Qigong such a powerful tool for living a happier, healthier and longer 34

35 life. So start by learning the form instructions for Lifting The Sky. Once you are confident you know the form and can practice it correctly add the breathing. Later on, you may wish to practice different Qigong exercises. This is another feature that makes PERFECT Qigong so powerful. No matter what exercise you are learning, PERFECT stays the same. The only difference is the exercise you choose to slot into F Form. No matter which exercise you practice, you will still want to practice PERFECT: Preparation Enter a Qigong State of Mind (QSoM) Really smile from your heart Form Your choice of Qigong exercise Energy Flow Cosmic Balance Time to complete Recall earlier I said I d answer the question: which is the best Qigong exercise to practice? Well here it is. The best Qigong exercise to practice is the one you practice every day. Simple. Lets get started. Turn the page to discover one of the greatest Qigong exercises ever 35

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37 Form Lifting The Sky 1. Stand upright and balanced in Ready Stance (fig. 1). 2. Move your hands so that the palms face the floor and the fingers point towards each other. Look down at your hands (fig. 2). 3. Keep looking at your hands as you raise your arms above your head (fig. 3, fig.4 shows the side profile of this movement). 4. Gently push the palms of your hands towards the sky (fig. 5). 5. Lower your arms smoothly back to the side of your body, head back to the level position (fig. 6 and 7). 6. Pause 7. Repeat step 2 to 6 for repetitions. 8. On your last repetition lower your arms and enjoy Energy flow. Important Notes: Your eyes follow your hands. Feel free to close your eyes (once you re comfortable with the form) but your head continues to move if you were looking at your hands. One of the most common mistakes with Lifting the Sky is lifting from the elbows in step 4. Notice how straight my arms are in fig. 3. The lift comes from the shoulders and you ll feel a gentle stretch on both sides of your body. Breathing 1. Breathe in gently through your nose as you raise your arms above your head (fig. 3 and 4). 2. Pause as you Lift The Sky (fig. 5). 3. Breathe out gently through your mouth as you lower your arms (fig. 6 and 7). 4. Pause in Ready Stance. Continue to pause as you move the hands to face each other and look down at the hands (fig. 1 and 2). 5. Repeat from step Note: The pauses are important but only last a second or two. 37

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39 Why choose to practice Lifting the Sky? Lifting the Sky is excellent for enhancing Energy Flow and it s Energy Flow that gives you the benefits of Qigong. The form prepares the way. Lifting the Sky can help to overcome posture problems and is beneficial for those with back problems. It can help with relaxation, overcoming worrying and increasing mental focus. A picture paints 1000 words On the disc that came with this book you can watch a video of me teaching Lifting The Sky. It s in the Lifting The Sky Folder. If you d like to learn other Qigong exercises that you can plug in to this part of your PERFECT Qigong practice. Please visit the PERFECT Qigong website: Step 5 Energy Flow Life is a meaningful flow of energy. Popular Qigong saying. It s Energy Flow that gives you the benefits of Qigong. If you don t have Energy Flow as part of your Qigong practice you re missing out on perhaps as much of 80% of the benefits you can get from your practice. Without Energy Flow Qigong is no better than gentle exercise. There s a lot to say about Energy Flow, but I ve deliberately kept this section as short as possible. For now you just need to have a simple understanding. Later when you are ready to go deeper, you ll find everything you could want to know about Energy Flow in Appendix B at the back of the book. But for now, let s keep it simple. 39

40 Energy Flow is the second core skill of Qigong and is very rare today. You see it was once a closely kept, jealously guarded secret of an elite few. So secret it nearly died out. Luckily for us a few pioneering Qigong teachers dared to share it with the public and we should be grateful to them. How to do Energy Flow is summed up very simply by this quote from Lao Tzu s Tao Te Ching: By doing nothing, everything is done. So the core instruction for Energy Flow is simply to let and let everything be done for you. After performing 10 to 15 repetitions of Lifting The Sky, with correct breathing and a QSoM you simply lower your arms and let go. Your work is done for now and you simply have to get yourself out of the way and let your body heal itself. Always remember your body has an intelligence all of its own. Only the body can heal the body and this wonderful body of yours wants to be healthy so in Energy Flow the aim is to get your intellect out of the way and let your enhanced Energy Flow do what it does best. Cleanse and build. A picture paints 1000 words On the disc that came with this book you can watch a video of me demonstrating an Energy Flow. It s in the Lifting The Sky Folder. Step 6 Cosmic Balance Be still. Stillness reveals the secrets of eternity Lao Tzu 40

41 Cosmic Balance is the third core skill of Qigong. It is vital because it allows us to consolidate the benefits of our practice. Here s everything you need to know about this vital step. Do you recognise the symbol over on the left? It s the Yin/Yang symbol. Do you know what it means? Yin and Yang are symbols. You cannot go into a shop and buy some Yin or order a kilo of Yang on the Internet. Yin/Yang theory is a theory of relativity. Something is either Yin or Yang in relationship to something else. For example, in comparison between a boy and a girl the girl is Yin (female) and the boy is Yang (male). But if we take a different relationship and compare the physical strength between a boy and a man the boy in our new comparison is Yin compared to the man who is more Yang. Yin and Yang can be used in all relationships, for example: Front/back. Night/day Slow/fast Big/small Chronic/acute And so on. Step 5 Energy Flow is movement Yang. So we restore Cosmic Balance with stillness Yin. The stillness practice we use to restore balance is called Standing Zen and here s how to do it. 1. Focus on the dan tien Your dan tien is an important energy point located just below your belly button. After enjoying your Energy Flow gently bring your 41

42 awareness down to the dan tien and allow your movements to come to a slow, graceful, gradual stop. Never stop abruptly always take a few moments to transition from Step 5 to Step Check your posture During Energy Flow you may have ended up on the floor or in an unusual position. Spend a few moments making sure your posture is upright and balanced. Like it was during Step 1 Preparation. 3. Clear the mind of all thoughts Yes, this is easier said than done. If, like most people, you have difficulty clearing the mind of all thoughts, the best advice I can give you is to use the one thought to overcome the 10,000 thoughts. And what is the one thought? It s this: When you breathe in gently through your nose say the word, to yourself, In. And when you breathe out gently through your mouth say the word, to yourself, Out. In, Out repeat. It really is that simple. Now when you become aware that you ve lost your concentration on the one thought, which you will, what do your do? Simply bring your awareness back to In and Out. 4. The amount of time you spend on this step will vary depending on how long you ve been practicing Qigong. Refer to the section on The Evolution Of Your PERFECT Qigong Practice on page X. 5. When you ve finished bring your awareness back to the dan tien (the energy point just below your belly button and you re ready for Step 7. A picture paints 1000 words On the disc that came with this book you can watch a video of me demonstrating Cosmic Balance. It s in the Lifting The Sky folder. Step 7 Time to Complete 42

43 Finish Strong How you complete your Qigong practice matters. You live in what we call the phenomenal realm of existence. That is the realm of the five senses. When you practice Qigong you enter the cosmic realm. The realm beyond the senses and human understanding. When you complete your Qigong you need to make sure you transition from the cosmic to the phenomenal to avoid feeling dazed, confused or distant as you go about your daily life. It s simple and easy to complete your practice correctly. Here s what to do: Send a blessing This is an optional step but if you wish to you can send a simple blessing or say a short prayer for somebody who needs it. And that includes yourself. Face massage Rub your hands together vigorously until your palms are nice and warm and then gently dab your palms against your eyes, nourishing your eyes. Then with your fingers tips make small circles around the eye sockets, massaging the muscles around the eyes. Continue to make larger and larger circles until you are massaging your head, face and neck. Point massage This is another optional step. Acupuncturists know that along each meridian there are specific points which when stimulated with a needle help to improve Qi Flow. You can gain similar benefits by stimulating some of these points with your fingertips. You can find full instructions below. Bang The Heavenly Drum - Place your palms over your ears and either flick or tap your fingers against the back of your neck. See the diagram below. Whether you choose to flick or to tap make sure you bang the drum 24 times. Why 24? Because 15 isn t enough and 40 is too many. The number 24 also corresponds with the Chinese solar year that is divided into 24 seasons. Walk Around - Walk around briskly for another 30 paces and get ready to enjoy the rest of your day. 43

44 Point Massage - Optional The face and head have a large number of very beneficial energy points which when stimulated, either by a finger or a needle, can directly influence the flow of Qi in a particular meridian. The point massage routine described here is entirely optional, but by adding it to your Qigong practice it stimulates those points that can help you to develop a youthful appearance. I like to think of it as cosmetic surgery without the surgery. Using the tips of your middle or index fingers gently massage the following points: 1. Inner part of your eye socket (fig 1). 2. Start of your eyebrows (fig 2). 3. Wipe the fingers briskly across your brows (fig 3). 4. Middle of your eyebrows (fig 4). 5. End of your eyebrows (fig 5). 6. Outer point of your eye sockets (fig 6). 7. Lower, middle point of your eye sockets (fig 7). 8. Back to the beginning - the inner point of your eye socket (fig 8). Refer to the diagrams 1,2 and 3 on the next page for a pictorial representation of steps 1 to 8. 44

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46 1. Sweep the fingers down the sides of your nose (fig 9). 2. Press firmly on the indents of your nostrils (fig 10). 3. Gently massage your temples with the soft fleshy part of the base of your thumbs (fig 11). 4. Press the fingers into the backs of your ears. Where the top of the jaw meets the back of the ear (fig 12). Refer to diagrams 4, 5, and 6 on the following page for a pictorial representation of steps 9 to

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48 A picture paints 1000 words On the disc that came with this book you ll find a video of me demonstrating the facial massage, point massage and banging the heavenly drum. Massage folder. It s in the PERFECT Conclusion If this is your first time through the book, it s now time for you to go back to page X How To Use This Book and start from instruction number two. I can t stress how important it is to follow these instructions. If you want to practice Qigong correctly, quickly, then following the remaining 4 instructions on page X is the fastest way I know. If this is your second time through and you ve got a good understanding of PERFECT and some practice under your belt. Then it s time to proceed. 48

49 Part 4 The Evolution Of Your Practice Overview: The amount of time you spend in each of the seven steps of PERFECT Qigong will change as your skills deepen. In this section you ll find guidance on how your practice will develop. Be not afraid of going slowly, be only afraid of standing still. Chinese proverb. 49

50 PERFECT Qigong Only Takes 15 Minutes Your PERFECT Qigong practice will only ever take 15 minutes per session. Ideally you ll practice twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. There is no need to practice more than twice a day. The amount of time you spend in each of the 7 steps of PERFECT will vary as you become more skilled. For example an advanced Qigong practitioner will be able to Enter a QSoM as long as it takes them to Really smile from their heart. Whereas a beginner will probably need to spend the largest portion of their 15 minute practice session on entering a QSoM. Let s start by cutting a PERFECT Qigong practice session into three zones: 1. Zone 1 Preparation + Enter a QSoM + Really smile from your heart + Form. 2. Zone 2 Energy Flow. 3. Zone 3 Cosmic Balance + Time to Complete. Now let s examine how your time in each zone changes as you progress through four development stages. Please note the type of evolution I describe only occurs from daily practice and as everyone is unique it s not carved in stone. Your own times will vary, but if you ll put in the effort these four stages will give you a good impression of what to expect as your practice evolves. 50

51 The New Student 0 to 4 Weeks When you start your practice of PERFECT Qigong there is a lot of new information to take in, learn and practice. As a result you ll spend most of your time in Zone 1 as you learn how to stand upright and balanced, Enter a QSoM and Really smile from your heart. And then there s the form Lifting The Sky to remember how to do properly too. You re likely to spend 12 of your 15 minutes session in Zone 1 as you become familiar with PERFECT Qigong. You re also not likely to experience much during Energy Flow when you first start out. The Beginning Student 1 to 3 Months After one to three months you re very likely to be very competent with PERFECT. Preparation has become second nature to you and you re confident at Entering a QSoM. Lifting the Sky comes easily but you still need to do 10 to 15 repetitions before you start to feel Energy Flow. 51 As a result of your increased

52 confidence with Zone 1 you now start to spend more time in Zone 2 Energy Flow. You may have had the odd moment of complete stillness in Standing Zen, but you re still heavily relying on using the one thought to overcome the 10,000 thoughts. The Intermediate Student 3 to 6 Months The three to six month period is when most students really start to notice the benefits of their PERFECT Qigong practice. Your time in Zone 1 continues to decrease as you re able to Enter a QSoM much quicker and you only need to practice five to ten repetitions before you let go and enjoy your Energy Flow. As a result you naturally spend more time in Zone 2 and begin to regularly experience feelings of great joy, inner peace and bliss. You may have noticed that whilst your friends and family keep getting annoying coughs and colds, you no longer seem to. Your periods of Cosmic Balance (Standing Zen) bring you great peace and you can feel your resistance to the stresses and strains of modern life increasing. All in just 15 minutes. You might begin to wonder how you ever managed without PERFECT Qigong. The Advanced Student 6 Months and Beyond After six months of daily practice your practice is firmly established. PERFECT Qigong is no longer something you feel you have to do, it s a part of who you 52

53 are. Instead of having to squeeze your practice in when you can, your life starts to fit in around your practice. Because you know how valuable it is for your happiness and well-being. You only spend a few minutes of each 15 minute session in Zone 1 because you can Enter a QSoM as quickly as it takes you to Really smile from your heart. And you only need to do a few repetitions of the Form before you can let go and enjoy your Energy Flow. Ecstasy, healing and deep joy are your common experience during Energy Flow. During Standing Zen you experience glimpses of cosmic reality, become familiar with the mind expansion and wisdom benefits of Qigong. The 4 Stages Of Mastery I believe there are 4 stages to mastery in ANY activity and Qigong is no exception. Here they are: 1. Unconscious Incompetence 2. Conscious Incompetence 3. Conscious Competence 4. Unconscious Competence To make these 4 stages clearer, let s take an example you re probably familiar with, learning to drive. 53

54 Before you start taking driving lessons, you have no idea just how rubbish you are at driving. You are completely unconscious of your incompetence. On your first lesson you very quickly become conscious of just how incompetent you are. Eventually, if you persist and practice, you will be able to change gear, look in the rear view mirror, signal correctly and make your move whilst steering the car in a straight line. But it will take all of your concentration. You re now consciously competent. After a period of time driving you ll be able to carry out all of the functions of driving without giving them a seconds thought. You re balancing the clutch, performing near perfect three point turns and all the other skills of driving without having to think about it. Welcome to unconscious competence. Now you are a unique individual, there s never been a person like you on the earth. So how long it takes to traverse the 4 stages of mastery varies wildly from person to person and from activity to activity. PERFECT Is Just A Tool Eventually you will let go of PERFECT. It s just a vehicle to help you move through the 4 stages of mastery as quickly and simply as possible. So you can start getting the benefits of Qigong as soon as possible. Once you no longer have to consciously think about what comes next in your practice and you re able to flow effortlessly through it from start to end you ll no longer need PERFECT. When you begin to understand Qigong through your own direct experience and you find your practice provides the answers you need to live a happier, healthier and longer life PERFECT has done it s job and it s time to let it go. But this takes time and regular correct practice. It doesn t happen overnight. I m just showing you the route ahead. 54

55 Part 5 Two Tools Essential For Your Success With Qigong Overview: If you re serious about succeeding with your Qigong practice then there are two tools you must use. You ll discover all you need to know about them in this section. Theory, without thoroughly systematized practice is of little value. Farmer Burns World Champion Wrestler. 55

56 Essential Tool #1: The Progress Chart Peter Drucker, the famous management consultant once said: If you can t measure it, you can t manage it. And I couldn t agree more. PERFECT Qigong is all about getting results. You bought this book and have invested your precious time in it because you want something of value in return. If you follow the instructions in this book to the best of your ability you will get the results you want. But there s a downside to practicing Qigong that can be a problem for some people. It s to do with the fact that the improvements and positive changes you get from practicing Qigong are usually gradual and hard to notice. For example, every time my son goes to visit his relatives up North, they always comment on how much he s grown since the last time they saw him. My wife and I don t notice this growth because the changes are gradual and we see him every day. It s the same with Qigong. I can remember when I first started practicing Qigong. After a few months I began thinking that nothing was happening. I was focused solely on overcoming my asthma. I hadn t even noticed that I was making improvements in other areas of my life. In fact I was considering giving up when luckily for me, one day my wife happened to say: Marcus, I don t know what it is, but you re just so much nicer to be around these days - calmer, less angry and less volatile. I was stunned. She was right. I did feel calmer and I was slower to anger. But I hadn t noticed these things because I had been focusing solely on my asthma. This is where the Progress Chart earns its weight in gold. I ve been so impressed with the usefulness and value of this tool that I use it with every single student. It is powerful because it helps you to notice improvements, often in areas you d never think to look. 56

57 However, for the Progress Chart to work you must get into the habit of filling it out on a weekly basis. When you do something wonderful starts to happen. As you start to see the progress you are making you become more enthusiastic about your practice. The more enthusiastic you are about your practice, the more likely you are to practice regularly and the more progress you will make. It s a powerfully motivating tool to use. Make sure to watch the Progress Chart video I made for you. You ll find it on the disc that came with this book. You ll also find a chart you can print off and complete. Essential Tool #2: Clarity This is an essential tool that you must use. You must set clear aims and objectives for your Qigong practice. They will be totally unique and individual to you and there are no right or wrong answers. The key to success with your practice is to remember that: Clarity is King. But what are aims and objectives and how can they help you to get better results from your practice in less time? Aims are long term and are usually not very specific. For example these are the main aims that people who practice Qigong are often seeking to achieve: 1. Health and Vitality 2. Longevity 3. Internal Force (think of this as abundant energy) 4. Mind Expansion 5. Spiritual Cultivation By contrast objectives are short term and specific. Here are some examples of objectives that people who practice Qigong may have: 1. To cure a particular illness 57

58 2. To improve concentration 3. To increase resistance to stress 4. To wake up in the morning feeling more energetic 5. To increase stamina for a particular sport or activity If you want to succeed with the tools in this book you must be clear on what your aims and objectives are. Follow this simple set of instructions and give yourself the gift of clarity. By doing so, you increase your chances of success significantly. 1. Start with the end in mind - Spend up to 10 minutes thinking about and writing down what you want to achieve from the material in this book. Consider this question: when you bought this book, how did you hope it would help you? Write it down. 2. Look at your list - Split your list into aims, those achievements that you think will take longer than 6 months to achieve and objectives, those that you think will take less than 6 months to achieve. 3. If you have several objectives choose just one to focus on - I remember someone telling me once that I could have anything I wanted but I just couldn t have everything I wanted. Now is the time to choose what you want the most. 4. Get SMART Ensure your objective is: Specific If your objective is to be richer and I give you a penny then you ve achieved your objective. Oh, but you wanted more than that? Then you need to get specific. Measurable How will you know when you ve achieved your objective? Could you produce some proof that you have achieved it? Achievable Is your objective realistic? Relevant Does your objective support your overall aim? Time Bound Is your objective framed in a set period of time? See if you can spot which of these two objectives is SMART: a) I want to stop feeling so stressed all the time. b) After 3 months of practicing Lifting the Sky on a daily basis, I want to feel calmer and have more peace of mind when facing the stresses of my job. 58

59 Which objective do you feel is more likely to be achieved? What makes you think that? Now take your own objective and rewrite it to make sure it is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Bound. 5. Read your objective daily to help you stay focused and on target. A wise man once said: Goal setting is the start, but it s goal getting that really matters. When you combine these two tools together you have a powerful combination that will increase your chances of success beyond the vast majority of students who practice Qigong. 59

60 About the Author How a drunken brawl on the streets of Bradford led to the discovery of the PERFECT Qigong System We don t want any trouble!. It was all I could think of saying as the skinhead with Shirley tattooed on the side of his neck clamped his hands firmly onto my shoulders. To be fair I was in shock, stunned by the extreme, swift violence that had lead to three of my friends lying unconscious and bloodied on the pavement. And I was clearly about to be next. How about a f**cking headbutt? my attacker said. Then time slowed down. I could feel his hands gripping tighter onto the fabric of my jacket. I could see his head moving slowly backwards, building up momentum before he slammed it into my face. I saw the tattoo on his neck and wondered who Shirley was and all the time I kept wondering why I was just standing there doing nothing. Waiting for this thug to knock me unconscious or possibly even kill me. I couldn t move. I just closed my eyes. But I ve always been a lucky guy and I slipped in the pool of my friends blood that was gathering around my feet. And the next thing I remember was opening my eyes and seeing my attackers head striking the empty space my head had occupied an eternity earlier. And then, as quickly as it had started it was all over, apart from picking up the pieces of my friends and helping to put them back together again. And so began my quest. I was 19 and I was NEVER again going to just stand by and do nothing while some thug decided whether I was going to live or die. Do you know what happened? Two days later I enrolled in my University s Tae Kwon Do club. Over the next three months I went from being beaten up once in 19 years (school doesn t count) to being beaten up twice a week in my Tae Kwon Do lessons. 60

61 Eventually, I couldn t face it anymore and I gave up. I was disgusted with myself for being such a wimp. Over the following 10 years I attended more martial arts schools than I can remember and all I learned was how to take a beating. As if somehow that would help me to protect me. But let s fast-forward from all of that because as interesting as it may be it s not really relevant to what I want to share with you. By accident, in my quest to learn how to protect myself I stumbled across what I now call the PERFECT Qigong System (PQS). Let me explain. At the end of 1999 I was working at Nottingham University library.. On Fridays I worked until 8pm. Now think about it. What do you get if you cross students with a big city and Friday? That s right. By 5pm the library was like a ghost town, populated solely by staff and the odd student usually trying to meet a Monday morning deadline. As a result I got to spend a LOT of time surfing the internet. It was in these circumstances that I discovered a martial arts teacher who seemed to be the real deal. He emphasised the importance of family, of healthy morals and he also taught that free sparring was not the way to teach people how to protect themselves. This was music to my ears. The problem was, this teacher lived in South East Asia, 7000 miles away and that was too far for me to travel. I kept visiting his website and reading his material. Then one Friday evening I noticed that he was going to be teaching some courses in Spain. Finally, here was my chance to learn from him directly. However, there was a major problem. I didn t have enough money to take the Tai Chi Chuan course that I wanted to.. I could just afford to take a couple of his Qigong courses. I wasn t particularly interested in in doing this as I had already done several years of what I thought was Qigong previously. However, the opportunity to meet this teacher directly was too good an opportunity to miss, especially as I might be able to ask him some questions about my own Kung Fu practice and gain valuable insights. Also one of the Qigong courses was focused on developing Internal Force. 61

62 Now if you don t know what Internal Force is, neither did I at the time. I knew it was something internal that martial artists placed great value on. My understanding was that it enabled you to hit someone, channelling your energy into them to make sure they didn t get up again. This seemed highly desirable to me back then. I travelled to Spain wanting to learn how to hit people so they didn t get back up again and instead I came back totally hooked on Qigong and how simply brilliant it was. And I possessed a step-by-step easy to follow blueprint. Let me condense the next nine years for you or we ll be here all day. By 2003 I was certified to teach Shaolin Qigong. In 2005 I began organising Shaolin UK Summer Camps. The first Summer Camp was a 3 day affair but by 2009 I had built them up into 2 week events attended by hundreds of students from all over the world. In 2005 I also became the Chief Instructor of my teachers school in the UK and even began teaching Shaolin Kung Fu. In 2008 I published my first book: Shaolin Chi Kung - 18 Exercises To Help You Live A Longer, Healthier And Happier Life (Chi Kung is just another way of spelling Qigong). It s still the most comprehensive, English language resource available on the famous Shaolin 18 Lohan Hands Qigong set. I m still so very proud of this book. But what I didn t know was how much trouble it was going to cause me 12 months later. By 2009 I conservatively estimated that I d invested 18,000 on my Qigong and Kung Fu education. I d racked up hundreds of thousands of miles travelling (mainly to Malaysia) to attend various intensive, invitation only and instructor only courses. It might surprise you to know that even as the Chief Instructor in the UK, I was still expected to pay to learn the material I would later teach to my students. I was a major part of a worldwide organisation and I had a big problem. My book Shaolin Chi Kung was a great success. The last print run sold out in less than 48 hours. I was regularly receiving videos from readers asking me whether their 62

63 form was correct. This was a fair question to ask. But do you know what really amazed me? In about 98% of the videos the student s form was incorrect. In the other 2% it was so bad that it bordered on being dangerous. I found this very confusing because I had spent weeks making the instructions in the book as clear as I could. My teacher had reviewed the final draft before printing, as had several other senior instructors in the school. And yet readers were clearly struggling. After much contemplation I knew what the solution was, but I knew I could never make it available. Can you guess what it was? That s right, video tuition. And that presented me with a serious dilemma. The school did not sanction video tuition and my teacher was very clear on this point. But from the correspondence I received, I knew there were many people who wanted to learn Qigong, who were genuine and committed to practicing, but for whatever reason were either unable to travel the long distances to learn directly from the school or afford the tuition fees. What was I to do? In November 2009, I resigned as Chief Instructor in the UK and left the school. I went to work on creating my online 22-week Qigong home study course. Combining the best multi-media to teach Qigong and make it an easy and enjoyable experience for the student. My goal is to make authentic Qigong as accessible as possible to all those who want to learn it. 63

64 Appendix A PERFECT Qigong In A Nutshell On the next page you ll find a simplified, one page explanation of the Perfect Qigong System. Once you ve read through this book, you ll have a good grasp of what PERFECT stands for. So for each of the letters in PERFECT I ve only put down the major points to remember for that step. I ve put a copy of the guide on the next page on the Disc that came with this book. So you can print it off and have it easily accessible as an aid memoire when you need it. On the right of the guide you ll notice I ve also added suggestions on the amount of time you want to be spending in each Zone of PERFECT, dependant on your stage of development. Where: New = The student brand new to Perfect Qigong (0 4 Weeks). Beg. = The Beginning student (1 3 Months). Int. = The Intermediate student (3 6 Months). Adv. = The Advanced student (6 months plus). Note, all of these times are simply for guidance only. They are not carved in stone. You might spend slightly longer or slightly shorter in a particular zone, but your practice will still last around 15 minutes. Don t do like I did when I was a beginner and use a stopwatch to time yourself! Simply use your senses to tell you when it s time to move on. With practice you ll soon get your times dialled in just right. <PUT A SMALL PDF GRAPHIC WITH A REMINDER ON WHERE TO FIND THE PRINTABLE VERSION ON THE DISC.> 64

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