Tag: qigong

Wholeness in Healing – Meet the Teachers

Posted on by Silvia Eriksson

What happens when two traditions merge into a one-of-a-kind retreat? At Mandali, we value diversity in lineages, teaching styles, and practices, so, when two of our beloved in-house teachers decided to bring their teachings together, it felt like a cosmic cocktail. This collaboration birthed the Wholeness in Healing retreat, blending QiGong, KumNye (Tibetan Yoga), and Breathwork. 

We sat with Mario and Gijs to get to know more about the core elements that make this retreat so unique and sought after.

What is the intention behind the ‘Wholeness in Healing’ retreat?

Mario: The intention of the retreat is to give people instruments to achieve a better quality of life, energy, and calmness of the heart.

Gijs: To bring about balance and harmony within our entire way of being; integrating all aspects and elements of life into a wholesome flow, and aligning ourselves with our deepest intentions and our natural state of being.

What’s special about the combination of Qigong, KumNye, Breathwork & Inquiry?

Mario: The combination of these techniques offers a complete understanding of the human dimension. Breathing works on the energetic field, inquiry enhances communication and self-expression, and Qigong focuses on the ‘three treasures’ of our human form: body awareness and energy expression.

Gijs: This combination of practices moves our energies on multiple levels, drawing out the core potentiality within the promise of our lives. It spirals our way up to embodying freedom.

What benefits can one expect to experience as part of these practices?

Mario: The benefits are numerous: unblocking energy that may be stuck in the physical body, improving communication skills to be more incisive, and increasing physical and energetic endurance.

Gijs: To find confidence in the full capacity of our authentic humanity.

Kat, a previous retreat participant, shares her experience:

“The KumNye meditation practice that Gijs taught has enabled me to achieve a state of blissful meditative clarity much faster and easier than I’ve ever been able to in 17 years of meditating. Since then, I apply KumNye in my daily life, and it’s led me to a more vital, embodied, and grateful daily existence.

“In one of the breathwork sessions, after a profound KumNye session, I experienced myself as pure energy and light. The result was blissful joy, clarity, and more confidence in my intuition. It unlocked a feeling of lightness throughout the rest of the retreat, and it’s something I can now tap into even in my own self-guided meditations.”

I attribute this depth of meditation to the highly curated variety of techniques that Mario and Gijs interweave throughout the retreat. They constantly ‘read the room’ and build off of each other’s sessions to create a holistic practice that left me floating at the end of every day.

Because of this retreat’s focus on movement and body in everything we did for five consecutive days, I significantly improved my ability to reach a meditative state of clarity and peace through various types of movements. This has vastly broadened my toolbox for finding the right method at the right moment in my day-to-day life.

I often refer to this retreat as a major turning point in my burnout. It’s the only event I can point to and clearly see a big difference before I started it versus after, in terms of my energy, optimism, and mood.”

What makes YOU feel vibrantly alive?

Mario: The connection with myself and my expression, supporting people in their personal development, and seeing them happy and alive.

Gijs: Sharing the light of love in our lives, spending time in nature, and enjoying musical creations with dear muses.

Join Gijs & Mario for their next Wholeness in Healing: Bringing Balance into Being this October 20-25, 2024 at Mandali.

Posted in Blog, Mind, SoulTagged breathwork, kumnye, meditation, qigong

How can QiGong help our mind and body during this unstable period?

Posted on by Kasia

Fast-paced and demanding everyday life can make us physically and mentally overwhelmed and exhausted. Especially now, when we still feel the effects of pandemics and our inner batteries run low on energy. QiGong is a method through which any person regardless of age and physical form, can acquire skills and knowledge necessary for a healthy and joyful life. The practice offers a quick energy recovery and a peaceful mind during everyday activities. QiGong works on three levels: the mind and mental health; body and self-care; as well as soul- consciousness.

So how can QiGong be useful for you? Being a system of breathing, physical exercises, and body meditation, it helps to relax muscles, relieve stress, and calm your thoughts. Consequently, it positively affects your mood and body health. The exercises regulate metabolism, lengthen and deepen breathing, massage internal organs, and thus help to relax emotionally and physically. These practices used by ancient warriors back in the days,  today become a great recovery complex and favourite source of energy for the whole day.  · 

Key benefits of QiGong:

  • releases stress
  • removes psychic and muscle tension
  • massages internal organs
  • strengthens muscles and stretches tendons 
  • concentrates our attention 
  • improves breathing
  • teaches us to consciously work with energy

Moreover, QiGong increases body mobility as during the practice almost all muscles are involved in the work. They repeatedly strain and relax, giving you an experience of a combination of dynamic and static movements. Your bodily posture gets improved as a lot of attention is put on the spine, lower back and coordination of all parts of the body. Last but not least, it helps to prevent diseases by stimulating the immune system, releasing stress, relieving muscle tension, and enhancing the processes of removing toxins from the body. In the mental aspects, Qigong teaches you how to release emotional blockages, relax and concentrate. You also get a sense of control over your own energy. The practice makes you an active, cheerful, and creative person. 

What happens during the practice:

  • the internal, mental dialogue silences
  • physical tension of muscles drops
  • you are in the moment – here and now
  • you experience a feeling of inner harmony
  • your intuition increases 
  • your attention is being trained

The history of Qi-Gong dates back to 5000 years. It is thought to have originated as a form of “remedy dancing” created for healing and health preservation purposes. Due to the long-term struggles with nature, the ancients gradually realized that body movement, exclamations, and various ways of breathing could help readjust certain body functions. In China, the country of origin of the practice, Qi Gong is very popular. The government supports the practice of health exercises and funds research and teaching institutes. The current categories in China include a variety of systems. They are differentiated as either health exercises for preventing disease and maintaining health or for healing existing conditions of disease and recovering fully. 

About Olga:

Olga WuWei received direct transmission of ancient knowledge from a recognized Chinese Master-  净空, Jing Kong meaning Clear Emptiness. She lived 6 years in China, 2 years at the mountain in WuWei Zen temple being a direct student of the Master, in order to bring these eastern practices and philosophy of China to the West. Over the years, she transferred knowledge in China to Chinese and foreign students, in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and Italy. Now she has hundreds of students from more than 20 countries around the world.