11/12/2025
Retaining your Qi
At the end of a Qigong session, hold the Qi in your Dantian (energy centre) for awhile to help retain all the benefits of your practice.
This feels quite different than finishing the last movement of a form, then simply rushing away to the demands of modern lifeā¦
At the end of a form, whether its 6 or 64 movements, when you stand still or sit and feel into your body, with practice, you can feel the Qi still moving, then settling down to where it needs to go.
This allows the space for your body and mind to reap the full benefits of your Qigong practiceā¦ of all the internal processes to actualise, permeate throughout your body, and retain.
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A common pitfall among many practitioners is the (over)emphasis put upon the practice while neglecting the closing/retaining routine. Most treat the āclosing postureā as a dispensable ritual. They often fail to realise that these last moments of every posture and each routine are precisely what determine the advancement of oneās skill.
Yang Luchan is credited to have said, āPractising boxing is like gathering sand; retaining is like building a dam.ā This means that the vital energy and internal strength mobilised during practice must be āretainedā within the body through specific methods; otherwise, itās like a thermos flask without a lidāthe heat dissipates very quickly.
During a set of form movements, the muscles alternate rapidly between tension and relaxation, capillaries dilate, and vital energy and blood circulate swiftly through the meridians. Abruptly stopping is like slamming the brakes on a speeding car, which can cause reversed vital energy and blood to accumulate in the joints, causing aches and injury after practice. Conversely, failure to stop is like a runaway car that will invariably run out of fuel.
There is a widely recognised principle in the martial arts world: āthree years to practise boxing äø幓ē·“ę³, ten years to learn to retain the skill å幓ę¶å.ā It means that the forms and techniques can be quickly learned, but whether the cultivated energy and strength can be internalised and made oneās own depends entirely on the skill of the closing routine i.e. the retaining process. Many martial artists who had been strong in their youth but suffered from a body full of ailments in old age often faltered precisely because they never realised the art of āretaining the energy.ā
