Rachel Taylor Geier

Greetings and welcome to a new Flute Friday! Today we have a guest blog by the fabulous Cynthia Ali on the practice of Qigong. Learn more about Qigong, including a wonderful meditation exercise, below. Enjoy!

Happy Fluting!

CULTIVATE JOY IN YOUR FLUTE PLAYING With SPRING FOREST QIGONG

Have you lost the joy and first love of your flute playing? Does overwhelm, disappointment, pressure, or anxiety push out the enjoyment you once had for the flute?

There is an ancient Chinese practice called Qigong that can help you balance out your emotions to create more joy, happiness, peace, love, thankfulness, and contentment in your life. As a flutist, this lovely practice is available to you to help enhance your career as a musician and bring more joy into all areas of your life.

Photo credit Unsplash

Spring Forest Qigong is a form of qigong created by Master Chunyi Lin, the founder of the Spring Forest Healing Center in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. This practice is composed of active movements, meditation, visualization, healing colors, and healing sounds.

Fire Element Rises Photo by David von Diemar on Unsplash

Cultivate Joy. Qigong is based on the Five Element Theory of Chinese Medicine. Each season is connected to an element, emotion, color, sound, and body system. During the summer months, the Fire Element rises and the emotion is joy. During this time, focusing on the emotion of joy will bring many healing benefits to you. The color is red, sound is KERR, the body system is the heart and small intestines.

The practice of qigong has active movements. The movement called “Breathing of the Universe” cultivates the feeling of joy. You can call on the unlimited joy available to us in this bountiful universe. We can also set the intention for our practice to bring joy back into our flute playing.

The Healing Color of Red  Photo by Cynthia Ali

Meditation for Joy: I invite you to sit comfortably and begin to visualize the color red around you. Coming from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet. This brilliant red light gently envelops you from outside to inside.  Put a smile on your face and be open to receiving love and kindness. From this space, allow the unlimited joy available to flutist to return to you. Letting go of all overwhelm, anxiety, disappointments you have held from all of your flute related experiences. See all these hindering emotions leaving your body to be transformed into beautiful butterflies going back to the lovely place where they are happy. Take three slow breaths and then start inviting all the aspects about the flute that brings you joy to come to you now. Acknowledge each joy that comes to your mind:

1. Beauty of the sound of the flute.
2. Colorful tones of the flute painted on the canvas of silence.
3. Learning from the master teachers.
4. Excitement of discovering new pieces to perform.
5. Accomplishments of new skills learned.
6. Community of flutist friends.
7. Performance at an amazing venue.
8. A new flute of your dream, solid silver with a jeweled crown.
9. Pure enjoyment.

Allow all the joy to come to you. You may pause at this point and breath slowly for 2-3 minutes. Now you can rub your palms together creating heat and place your hands over your eyes for 15 seconds. Then rub your face from the side of your nose, across your forehead and down the side of your face. Do this four times. Lastly, rub your earlobes top to bottom 4 times.

Everyday Joy. The practice of qigong will expand the capacity of your heart and will give you more space to experience joy. Take notice every day of what brings joy to you about your flute. Be on the lookout for this emotion in connection with the flute. Keep a journal and write down everything that you notice that sparks joy. Do you find joy in hearing a new piece? Going to a flute masterclass? Shopping for new music or accessories? Take notice of the tiniest twinge of joy and allow this joy to expand daily.

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If you would like to experience a qigong session, you can connect with ”Qigong for Musicians,” a community of musicians practicing qigong. This group is led by Cynthia Ali, a flutist and a Certified Spring Forest Qigong Practice Group Leader.

Qigong for Musicians: www.cynthiaalistudios.com/qigongformusicians

Instagram: @qigongformusicians

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Cynthia Ali is a freelance musician for weddings, celebrations, church and festivals. She has recorded three digital albums: Lullabies for the Children, Whisperings of Solace and Winter Whispers. Cynthia teaches flute privately in her “Whispers of the Flute” studio in Minnesota. 

Also, Cynthia Ali, NCTM is a Spring Forest Qigong Certified Practice Group leader for musicians to help foster balance, stillness, calm and well-being in their lives. Information about the practice group: Qigong for Musicians

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Disclaimer: No content in this blog article or in the qigong practice should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician. Qigong does not diagnose illness, disease or any other medical or mental disorder and does not substitute for medical examinations This blog article is for educational purposes only. This written work does not represent the full Spring Forest Qigong class. The information presented in this written work originated from Spring Forest Qigong. For more info about Spring Forest Qigong: http://www.springforestqigong.com