Starfish QiGong Meditation

I learned this meditation when I was a thirty year old Yoga teacher in East Hampton New York.  East Hampton is at the far tip of Eastern Long Island which juts East into the Atlantic Ocean over 100 miles from New York City.  Long Island is truly a long island.    I call it the Starfish Meditation, to honor the ocean, but there are probably several names for it, like the Five Pointed Star Meditation.   Many of our ancient symbols represent different energy flows and energy points.  This is one.

If you lie on your back on your bed, the floor, a yoga mat or on level ground, and spread your legs and arms a comfortable distance apart, you will notice that your head, your feet and your hands resemble the tips of a five tipped star.  As you may know, the palms of your hands are the location of laogong, the ‘Palace of Toil’, a major Qi point where energy can be attracted or transmitted.   At the top of the arch of the bottom of our feet are located another set of energy centers called the ‘Bubbling Wells’ or yongquan, our connection with the Earth’s energy.  And most of us are aware of the energy centers of the head, at the crown and third eye, which connect us to the Heaven’s Energies.

This simple meditation involves simply relaxing and gently inhaling into these five points on your body and exhaling through them.  Let the Qi enter and naturally flow where needed or direct it with your mind.   Your breathing determines the results achieved.   As the Masters say, “Where thought goes, Qi flows.”    So you can use this meditation and breathing exercise to achieve whatever you need at any particular time.  It can bring relaxation, calming the mind and spirit, healing, or energizing depending on your goals, your breathing rhythm, and your emphasis on inhalation or exhalation. (bringing in, or expelling)

I thank Jaki Jackson, the Yoga teacher who taught me this exercise.  I use it regularly.  Enjoy it and play with different breath patterns.  For instance, Master Robert Peng often uses the tempo of ocean waves (a six second inhalation followed by the same tempo exhalation).  Feel free to try whatever feels good to you  and email me your results at allen@ashevilleqigong.com.

good Qi to you,

Allen