Sense of Soul - QiGong with Lee Holden

Episode Date: October 9, 2023

Today on Sense of Soul we have, Lee Holden, he is a master of the ancient art of Qigong and CEO/founder at Holden QiGong, is a world-renowned leader who brought this Chinese practice to the modern world. Featured on 8 successful PBS shows with another 13 episodes under “Your Fountain Of Youth With Lee Holden (https://www.pbs.org/show/your-fountain-youth-lee-holden/)” shot at a variety of scenic locations including Yosemite, Redwood National Park and Croatia. Through online and in-person courses Lee teaches the transformative power of Qigong, a science that improves the energy life force of individuals and professional athletes by activating dormant energy through a series of breathing and meditative exercises.  Lee has helped over 10,000 students break through barriers to uncover healing from injury or disease as well as maximizing energy levels and decreasing signs of aging. Having received certification directly from Master Mantak Chia himself. Lee also ghost wrote 12 books including an international best seller about transforming stress into vitality.  It's no wonder why Qigong is one of the most popular exercises worldwide being practiced daily by 50 million people. Learn more by visiting his website at: https://www.holdenqigong.com Folllow Lee’s Journey at @holdenqigongofficial Check out his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/HoldenQiGong Learn more about Sense of Soul Podcast: https://www.senseofsoulpodcast.com Check out the NEW affiliate deals! https://www.mysenseofsoul.com/sense-of-soul-affiliates-page Check out the Ethereal Network! https://www.mysenseofsoul.com/ethereal-network Follow Sense of Soul on Patreon, and join to get ad free episodes, circles, mini series and more! https://www.patreon.com/

Hello, my soul-seeking friends. It's Shanna. Thank you so much for listening to Sense of Soul podcast. Enlightening conversations with like-minded souls from around the world, sharing their journey of finding their light within, turning pain into purpose, and awakening to their true sense of soul. If you like what you hear, show me some love and rate, like, and subscribe. And consider becoming a Sense of Soul Patreon member, where you will get ad-free episodes, monthly circles, and much more. Now go grab your coffee, open your mind, heart, and soul. It's time to awaken. Today on Sense of Soul, we have Lee Holden. He is a master of the ancient art of Qigong and the CEO and founder of Holden Qigong.

He is a world-renowned leader who brought this Chinese practice to the modern world. Lee teaches the transformative power of Qigong, a science that improves the energy life force of individuals and professional athletes by activating dormant energy through a series of breathing and meditative exercises. Lee has helped over 10,000 students break through barriers to uncover healing from injury or disease, as well as maximizing energy levels and decreasing signs of aging. And he's joining us today to tell us all about it. So please welcome Lee Holden. Hey there. Hey, how are you? Yeah, I'm good. How are you doing? I am good. Nice to meet you. Yeah, you as well. Yeah, I was doing some Qigong this morning with you and one of your videos.

Oh, fantastic. Wow, I love it. It's so good. Yeah, it's so good. I like to do it in the morning. Wakes the body up. Do you have a regular practice? Well, I have a mini regular practice.

Mini regular practice. Fantastic. We'll have to get you some more. Yeah. Where are you located? Where are you at? I'm in Northern California. Okay.

All my classes are online. Yeah. I saw that. You know, I think that new habits are really good. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Big time. I'm excited to have you on to start off on to tell the listeners and me,

how did you come into this? You know, I first discovered Qigong early in life. I was in high school and I was doing meditation. I was doing hypnosis and I was doing creative visualization as a like 15, 16 year old. What? And you know, isn't that what all 15, 16 year olds were doing in the 80s? Yeah, I was going to say I definitely wasn't. Yeah, right. So I was doing these practices like right before I'd go to bed. I was doing it for sports. I was doing it for schoolwork.

And I started having sensations of energy in my body. And it was so profound. I was doing it for schoolwork. And I started having sensations of energy in my body. And it was so profound. I was astonished. I was like, what is that? What is this electricity buzzing and tingling in my body? And it wasn't until a few years later that I was in a bookstore, like a spiritual bookstore. This is now in college. I was at a bookstore, Shambhala Books. And it's like one of those places you walk in, the incense hits you in the face and there's fountains and crystals. And I love those places. It's like, wow, this is so cool. And I found some books on Qigong describing energy pathways, Qigong, Chinese medicine, acupressure, acupuncture. And I was like, that's what happened to me. Oh my gosh,

I need to get these books. So I did. And it was very funny because the teacher or the author of the book was on a flyer on a telephone pole outside the bookstore teaching a workshop. And it was like the next day. And so I was like, I got to go. So I went to this seminar on the weekend. And luckily for me, I didn't have enough money to pay for the course. So I asked if I could work for them. So can I do, can I work in a bookstore? Can I do something? I'm a, you know, I'm a poor college student. And they said yes. And I started working in their bookstore. And every time this Qigong master would come to town, I would kind of work for him. And eventually he started having me write, you know, flyers. And I started writing little bits and pieces for his books. And I eventually became his main writer, his ghost

writer. I graduated college. I did 12 trips. So wax on, wax off. It was a total wax on, wax off, paint the fence kind of thing. You know, in fact, I flew to Thailand. It was like my first job out of college, ghost writing a book for a Qigong master. All my friends, you know, are working at Google. They're working in Silicon Valley companies. And I'm like, see you guys later. I'm off to Thailand to work with a Qigong master. And they're like, what, what are you doing? You know, I basically take his seminars and organize the material and content into chapters. And then every morning about 5am, I would go over to his house and I do personal training with him. So that was definitely kind of a Mr. Miyagi kind of, kind of vibe and situation. We would do all kinds of

crazy, strange exercises and movements and breathing practices. And I would go for two or three months and then I'd come home. You know, my, my purpose and passion was like, how do I explain all this cool stuff that I've been learning in Asia with this Qigong master? How do I explain it to my friends, my family, people working in Silicon Valley? How do I actually turn this into a job for myself? Because I love it so much. How do I make it a career path? And that's kind of what I was thinking about in my early 20s as I was going back and forth to Asia and working with Qigong masters. Now, every time I went to Thailand, I would stop in China because the flight from San Francisco to Thailand had a layover like in Hong Kong. So then I would tour around China and study

in the parks with different Tai Chi and Qigong masters, acupuncture, acupressure, healing arts. And I was kind of on that path of healing practices, as opposed to, let's say, martial arts, because a lot of this has martial arts context as well. But I really focused in on the healing arts. And when I came home, I started helping people with whatever was ailing them and built sort of a career that was some 30 years ago. Wow. That's an exciting journey. I've taken some Tai Chi courses or classes. And it's hard for me to say Tai Chi because I drink a chai tea.

And so I'm always screwing it up. But I was fascinated by the connection to martial arts. Well, of course, you know, it is, but I mean, there's this power behind it. Well, I remember the instructor saying, okay, you know, we're going to do this. And I'm like, that is not going to happen. Like my body is definitely not going to do that for that long. No way. And then all of a sudden I was doing it and I was like, how am I doing this? Like, what is this power? So it was truly an experience of a limitless boundary within that space. And I like how you said your first experience was that you sensed this energy and you're like, probably like, what the hell is that? I've had moments like that with clients before. They're like, what is this?

And I'm like, energy. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And it makes me laugh when people are like energy, I don't believe in energy. And you're like, Hmm, what, what do you think's keeping you alive? You know, what's that spark behind your heart? Or, you know, when you close your eyes, what allows you to see images? And what's how are all your cells communicating? And, you know, it's, it's a, it's a mysterious energy. And, you know, all ancient cultures have a name for life force energy, and life force energy, not to be confused with just electricity because it's different you know yes electricity is energy and energy is also gravity but there's something

special about aliveness there's something mystical and unexplainable about your life force energy and it's what makes us human it's what makes us alive it's what makes us human. It's what makes us alive. It's what makes us conscious. You know, energy is the foundation to everything. And so the way in which you work with energy is very important. You know, practices like Tai Chi stem from Qigong practices. So Qi, this means life force energy. Qi, Q-I, is a Chinese word for life force energy. And Gong simply means work. So Qi Gong, energy work. And you can do energy work on improving the quality of your thoughts. You can do energy work to balance and awaken certain emotions. I want to feel more love. I want to feel more compassionate.

These are all just qualities of energy. What do we mean by energy? Well, energy isn't physical. It's not manifest yet. It's not like your physical body, your bones, your muscles, your organs. But when you say something like, I love you with all my heart, the love part is the energy of the heart. And we might say, well, you know, that's so elusive. We can't find love. We can't do open heart surgery and see how much love is in there. Like, oh, we need, you're too angry. We're going to put some love in your heart. No, it doesn't work that way because energy is invisible.

Just like gravity is invisible, but it controls everything here on the earth. You know, so life is ruled by invisible energy. And this is something that the Qigong masters talked about in ancient times. If you want to work on the invisible energy of consciousness, mind, soul, spirit, emotions, that's what you need to be focused on. And there's many, many techniques to be able to do that. And Qigong really was a practice of Chinese medicine to make your body healthy. And it was a preventative practice, meaning that you prevent illnesses before they arise. And this is true health care.

And I don't know if you know this, but in Chinese medicine, you paid your doctor, your Chinese medicine doctor, your Qigong master to keep you healthy. Now, as soon as you get sick, you stop paying. So like, oh, I have a headache. I have neck pain. I have digestive issues. The doctor's like, oh, hey, I'm not doing my job. Don't pay me until you're better. So the focus of this practice is to keep you healthy. And this is really important in modern life. If anybody knows when they go to the doctors or you get stuck in a Western medicine system, you're at the hospital, it can be very frustrating and scary. And it can also be very, very useful. It's great medicine, but it's not great medicine for prevention

or the study of energy and vitality. If you want to be vibrant, vital, full of energy and really work on preventative health, you've got to look outside a Western medicine system. And some of these ancient practices like Qigong have so much to offer. Wow. Yeah. And it's free. Well, I mean, this energy is free. It's amazing. You're right. Qi is free. Qi is everywhere. It's like air,

you know, yep, it is free, but we got to also unwind a lot. We got to decondition ourselves because we've been, we've been taught so many things that don't offer what it is that we want. You know, everybody wants to be healthy, happy, and fulfilled in their lives. We've been taught so many things that don't offer what it is that we want. You know, everybody wants to be healthy, happy, and fulfilled in their lives. And when we look out in the world, we see now more sickness, more mental, emotional illness, sadness, depression, anxiety, PTSD, insomnia, all those things. And so I think people are a bit lost with our modern technology and how it gears us to look outside of ourselves and there's no getting away from modern technology we just need to also be able to turn inward and get a sense of who we are or I love your podcast name

to get a sense of our own soul and why we're here. And to do that, being in touch with your energy system is crucial. You know, it's interesting because I've been thinking a lot about this lately. We're having to go back to these older practices that are ancient. I've been studying ancient text for years now, you know, and all of the things that we're just awakening to today. I mean, these are not new. That's why I always laugh when people will call it new age or whatever. I'm like, there's nothing new about any of this.

Yeah, that's it. We've been, I guess, if you want to say in Plato's cave for so long that now we're having to rewire and have new perspective on these things in it. And especially that we're energetic, multidimensional beings. That was kind of what broke me open was experience just like you and energy. And I remember, you know what it felt for the first time in my reptilian brain to learn and accept that I'm more than this meat suit. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I think that realization really helps us to understand our deeper purpose in life that we're not just meant to survive, we're here to thrive. And survival mode is when we're feeling stressed, anxious, worried, tense, tight. And we need practices to help us to move out of survival mode and into our heart center so that we can feel more alive, happier, more inspired, more fulfilled.

And that doesn't happen when we're under stress, when we're feeling the pressures of life. So we need to actually learn how to relax. You know, I have no courses on teaching people how to worry more or no courses on teaching people how to stress out more. You know, it's hardwired into us. We're actually hypervigilant towards stress and survival. And so it's very easy for us to get overwhelmed. And we need to do practices, meditation, breathing, movements like Qigong or yoga to be able to get us out of that mode. And so we can really tune in to say like, hey, what's it all about? We get a little more altitude, elevation and perspective. You know, there's a Qigong movement called expanding

your horizons. And it's like standing on the top of the mountain where you're like, you have a view and you could say, okay, this is the path that I want to be on. But when we're in survival mode, you're just, you're barely able to take one step after the other. And you can't see, you know, the forest through the trees. You got to get up on top of the mountain to really get some perspective. And that's what these practices really allow us to do. And when you awaken to your energy, and when you feel energy in your body, it just gives you so many tools and resources to be able to say, okay, here's where I'm at. I got low energy, having a hard time sleeping, and I have, you know, neck pain. I want

to move into relaxation, no pain, and good sleep, and also abundant energy during the day. How do I do that? Well, you know, think of your Qigong practice as a map that will help to guide you along the territory of life. And when you have a map, it's much easier to navigate your way through and get to where you want to go. Okay. So how many times a day do you do or will you teach it? So I teach, I mean, I'm pretty much teach every day. And then I also do my own practice. You know, sometimes my own practice is, you know, while I'm sitting in a carpool line waiting to pick up my kids, I'm doing some breathing exercises, making breakfast.

I do three minutes of Qigong while the eggs are cooking. You know, I'm doing it all the time in between. And then, you know, when I have 20, 30 minutes, I do a practice. Okay. I do a practice. So obviously you're not moving, you know, as you are in your videos, sitting in the car line, waiting for your kids. Right.

I love that you said that, by the way, I do a lot while I'm waiting for the kids. Cause if you don't go early enough, you get a shitty spot. be waiting forever oh my gosh yeah early so yep now it's like okay breathing yeah my body little visualization yeah there's always something to do to kind of shift your state but i think most people think of qigong as moving you know what does this look like right well maybe i might do a little like like we can all do this what i'll do is i'll do a little pressure point sequence you guys people want to feel their qi maybe that's what we should do because they might be like what i've never felt qi yeah so why don't we ignite your listeners energy system yes let's feel some

qi so we're going to do a sequence of pressure points. This one, this sequence of pressure points is very good for transforming stress and anxiety back into relaxation and emotional balance. So what we're going to do is we're going to just tap on the chest a bit like Tarzan. And I want you to just go up and down on your sternum. And it's just nice and light. And then while you do this, I want you to take a few deep breaths and then do it a little harder. Just knock a little harder, go up and down. These are all points where when we feel emotional stress, this area gets tight. And from here, this area will create tightness in your neck and shoulders. So a few deep breaths and knock a little harder. Very good. And now let's do one other pressure

point sequence. Take your fingernails, touch them together, and then rub back and forth. And just do this vigorously. So your fingernails and your first knuckle just above your fingernails are touching and you rub back and forth together and do it vigorously. This is the ends of the meridian lines. And there's some acupressure points here that wakes up your brain and your consciousness. Take one deep breath, rub vigorously back and forth. And then just put your hands in your lap. And I want you to feel what your hands feel like first tingling buzzing electricity yeah and just feel your heart center just feel in the center of your chest take a deep breath there feel that expansiveness that relaxation like it opened up yeah yeah so when energy moves your your body blossoms like a flower

opening into sun so i have been known to in public if i'm stressed sit there just start tapping yeah oh my best friend does that too yep and you know when you're tapping on points these are acupressure points so the way you stimulate acupressure points like tapping or knocking, that's Qigong. You know, you can also stimulate points with massage or acupuncture, but tapping is just so convenient, so easy. And the only hard part about it is you actually got to get yourself to do it. It was like, okay, I might look a little strange. I might look a little weird. Does that really work? And it absolutely does. You know, this practice is about a four to 5,000

year old practice. And that's just the written records. It's ancient. It goes way back and it wouldn't have stood the test of time on cross-cultural, you know, it's all over the world. And it's just a beautiful, accessible practice if you use it right and use it for yourself in the way that helps you to meet your intentions. Wow. Where does it root from originally? Well, it is, it roots in from China, but it also has connections to Indian yoga, pranayama practices. So these teachings kind of spread from India through Tibet to China, from China through Tibet to India, back and forth. You'll see the practices are similar. The philosophies are similar.

But let's say Indian yoga and Chinese Qigong, they're going to be practiced a little bit differently. But the whole goal of both of these practices is body balance, resiliency, strength, flexibility, and improved energy circulation. Awesome. And it's working on so many different levels of yourself. And I was thinking about that too. What are the physical benefits? Oh, big time, you know, and it's, it's very hard to separate mind, emotions, and body because somebody going through a bout of emotional stress, it's going to manifest in your body. You're going to hold more tension. You're going to create tightness in your neck. You know,

they say about 90% of primary doctor visits are rooted in emotional stress. So people get stressed out, their bodies tighten up and they get a headache. They get digestive issues and they're like, what's wrong with my digestion? You go to your doctor, they give you a pill, they give you a painkiller, they give you some antacid and you never get to the root cause of it. You're never managing your stress in a way that your body can relax. We want the body to relax. Now, if your body's relaxed and you feel nice and open and energy flowing, your emotions become much more balanced and much more joyful.

If you have calm emotions, your mind is clear. And if your mind is clear, we're in tune with our souls. So it's, this energy just flows back and forth between body to mind, to emotion, to spirit, and there's no real separation. So now, for example, you can take a Qigong program. And what I've done is created Qigong 4, a whole series, Qigong 4, upper back and neck pain, for carpal tunnel, for headaches, for high blood pressure, for digestion, for better sleep. So I wanted to give people tools and resources and create routines where you can say, hey, this is what's troubling me. I need a 20 minute routine that I can do that's not a pharmaceutical pill. That's something empowering

for me that I can create my own best medicine within myself and create a healing effect. And now I have just hundreds of thousands of people that have tried this and it works. It just works really, really well. And it's not necessarily that the it's the practice is miraculous or magical it's that when your body mind system go into relaxation and energy starts to circulate you activate a natural healing power that's innate within you you have healing power already inside of you and it just gets turned down when we're stressed out and it gets turned up when we're in relaxation. This is so yummy to me. Nice, it is yummy.

Serious. But, you know, I've actually suggested to students before and clients, because, you know, they'll say, I can't meditate, I can't meditate. And I've suggested, you know, a mindfulness practice, whether that's walking and being mindful. I said, that's a form of meditation. Shoot. When I crochet sometimes, or if I quilt, I lose time because I see this as a form of meditation. Oh, it is meditation and movement. And you know, if you're one of those people that, oh, my mind is so busy when i sit and meditate i'm

just thinking all the time or blah blah blah blah you qigong has a lot to offer because when you in your body when you're moving it gives you something to focus on yes you say oh when i'm saying all of a sudden i lose track of time the sense of losing track of time is a meditation yeah so people don't realize this but they're meditating already you guys know how to meditate if you know how to worry you are meditating you're just meditating on the negative yes yeah you know if you know how to be stressed out you know how to meditate you just worry on the positive and you're meditating that's it just put your focus on the positive or on the moment put your attention on the moment we're just not in control of our own attention and so meditation is the art of controlling where

your attention goes where your mind goes and so we can all do that because i can say take a deep breath and put your attention, feel the air come through your nose. And all of a sudden where you're more present, feel the chair at your back, notice the clothes on your skin. And you're like, oh, I can,

I can put my attention on all of those things. It's just that attention usually wanders about every eight seconds. Hey listeners, did you know that I am a part of the ethereal network, a group of podcasts who are all like minded souls who share the same passion to help raise the vibration of the planet and the consciousness of humanity. And here is one of those amazing podcasts that I recommend you check out. Hello, my name is Melissa Oatman, and I'm the host of Awaken Your Inner Awesomeness.

I'm a teacher, healer, intuitive, and single mom of twins. I'm an empath and a recovering people pleaser. I created Awaken Your Inner Awesomeness to help other people like me learn how to stop living their lives for others so that they could start living their absolute best lives. I cover topics in spirituality and self-improvement like setting healthy boundaries, working with the archangels, and protecting your energy. I end every episode by pulling a card of guidance to help you get a message to start your day off right.

I also interview fascinating guests who cover a message to start your day off right. I also interview fascinating guests who cover a wide range of self-help topics. If this sounds interesting to you, then what are you waiting for? Start listening today. Now back to our amazing guest. Every eight seconds, your mind's going to jump to something else. And so meditation is a practice where you're stretching your mind to stay concentrated on something as opposed to wandering all over the place. The wandering mind is a dispersing of energy. The focus mind is a cultivation of energy. And so if you move your body in relaxing ways with all these flows and you're guiding your mind to be

in attentiveness, all of a sudden, not only are you meditating, you're cultivating energy and you're getting exercise, you know, it's every bit as much exercise as going for a walk and you're getting it into one cohesive practice. And this is why it's so good for longevity. Oh my gosh, I love it. And I do believe too too if you continued to add that into your mornings meditation will be easier like the sitting in in just doing nothing because i found that to be true i mean you almost trick yourself you train yourself your body starts to remember you know just like the mudras you know yeah you know i i teach Reiki. And so I'm always bringing my hands into Gosho. It's like an automatic thing. It's like a switch now. Yes. Yeah. That's too. That's, that's great.

Cause you want that kind of Pavlovian response where you do a few simple things and you drop right back into relaxation because your body already knows it. Remember, we said gong means work. So the gong, the work that you're doing, it also translates to skill. So a skillful working of energy, and to develop a skill set takes practice. So you practice, and then pretty soon, you just do a few simple things. You're making eggs in the kitchen, you do a movement movement and you're back into deep relaxation because your body remembers what it's like and i think it's interesting too reiki the key reiki that is chi that's a japanese translation for chi so reiki ki means life force energy and it's the japanese form of one particular form of Qigong.

I can't remember the name of the documentary. Maybe you'll know, but I think it was on Netflix a while ago where they actually measured the energy of somebody before and after Qigong. And it was remarkable. Fantastic. Yeah, because you can do like the krillian photography you can you can measure the electromagnetic frequency in the field around you right and it is it's crazy it's astonishing yeah i mean so there is scientific proof you know that they you know they are able to see that but i think that it's the experience. It's like, if you want proof,

then don't knock it, experience it. Yeah. Try it yourself. Go knock on your chest, go rub your fingernails together, do your Qigong. And that's the thing. I think one thing about Qigong, it works really well. The hard part for people is to just build that into their lives. Lots of people say, well, I don't really have time to do Qigong. And my response is you really don't have time not to, because if you're doing your Qigong practice, you're going to be more energized, calmer, clearer, more focused. You get so much more done in that state than if you're stressed out, tight, tense, rushing around in a hurry. There's no, there's so much disbursement of energy. My Qigong this morning was probably a minute. I'm serious. And then I, well, this is this morning,

like my own practice. And then I did do, you know, I was playing around with some of your videos. Sometimes that's all I got. And that's like one minute is better than none. Right. That's true. Yeah. I mean, it brought full awareness to my body. Right. I made sure that I from head to toe, you know, and my body felt like it was awake. And prior to that, it was still, you know, trying to get out of bed. Right. Right. Those transitions are great times to do Qigong going from, from being asleep to waking up. So a Qigong in the morning is a wonderful time. You know, another time like finishing your work day and coming home somewhere there is a great time to just, I'm just going to let go of the work stress and enter into my home life more relaxed or you know i need to transition

i like that oh it's great it's great transitional practices whether it's you know a full qigong class that's 20 minutes to an hour or it's one minute of breathing and doing a little shaking it helps you to transition to create those smooth transitions in your day. You know what else I find is unbelievable? I mean, you watch children and they sit here and they twist and turn and they're always moving and probably we've been conditioned to stay still, right? Stop moving. We can learn so much from them. They're so full of chi.

They're full of chi. Yeah. They have, they're impulsive. They're spontaneous. They're full of chi yeah they have they're they're impulsive they're spontaneous they're in the moment and they always move and even if they're like watching a movie like i i noticed my kids when they watch a movie they don't sit still they like go down to the floor they turn their bodies on the couch my 12 year old was watching the movie from upside down with their feet at the back of the couch i had had a kid who was always upside down. It was so upside down sideways, you know, just, yeah, it's very, it's very cool. It's challenging for us adults that have been conditioned to like,

I mean, we tried that in school and our school is like, we take these bundles of energy and we say, sit still and listen. That is like the most unnatural thing for a kid to do. And so, yes, it has been indoctrinated into us to be stationary and still, but now speaking of science, the latest study says, sitting is the new smoking. I mean, if you sit too long, it is as bad for you as smoking cigarettes. So get up and move your bodies. And it's not doing the same movement every single day. You know, like if you go for a jog,

that's fantastic. That's moving, but you don't want to just do jogging six days a week. You go for your morning half hour run, then you sit for 10 hours a day, that's not ideal either. So you got to keep body moving. And the best, the best form of longevity is a variety of different kinds of movements. And this is why I like Qigong practice because you, you get exercise, you get stretching, you get mindfulness and you get flowing movement all in one cohesive practice. Then you're golden for the rest of the day. You know what else I love? I love to be able to sense my own energy, feel it, and then let it go. I mean, it's a powerful thing. I'm feeling it actually, as I'm just sitting here. Feeling that chi ball. I mean, it just even, you know, it filled my hand. Yes. I

mean, I love to be able and then to bring it back in and just being able to control this. And it's like a reclamation of your own body and power of energy of that. Yeah. The reclamation of your own power is big time. You're, you're, you're claiming your power, tuning into it. You're harnessing it. Yes. Yeah. And, and one of the things that we talk about in Qigong is cultivating energy, just like a gardener would cultivate a garden. You know, we're cultivating energy with the right seeds, the right soil, the right amount of sunlight and water. It all works really, really well. Now, the one thing about a garden, you don't have to do it all yourself. You plant the seeds, you set up the context, and then you let nature do the rest. And you are part of nature. So you give yourself a

little energy, you practice, you know, 20 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes in the afternoon. Now, let nature do the rest. You've set up the right context for positive, healthy energy. Otherwise, it's like gardening, but you just don't know where anything goes. You're taking compost, you're putting it in the kitchen. You're taking, you know, you're letting the weeds grow. You're watering the weeds, but not watering the garden. That's like paying a lot of attention to negative thoughts and negative emotions. Like let's just water the weeds and neglect the flowers. And they're like, why is this garden such a mess? Why am I unhealthy, unhappy? Well, we just, you had all the right things there.

We just didn't cultivate it in the right way. And so your Qigong practice is your inner gardening. You're going to be composting negative emotions. They're like fertile soil to grow positive. You know, we don't have to get rid of anything. We just need transform, put things in the right place. And then you just sit back and go, wow, it's beautiful. And that's what I want people to be able to do is step back and just go, wow,

this life is so beautiful and amazing. It is beautiful. I desire to be as graceful as you are. And yeah, there was this, I think I found it on TikTok or something like that. I must have watched it 20 times. I was so enamored at her gracefulness. Yeah. I felt like I was, I was doing it with her. I mean, I literally felt this experience just watching it. Oh, mesmerizing. I have desire to do it. Yeah. And that's why I, whenever I made, you know, I've been making Qigong DVDs since the early two thousands. And now I've put all these kind of quote unquote DVDs online. So you could just download them.

But I always go out in nature when I'm doing those. I film them in like beautiful places like Yosemite. I just my last shoot was in on the islands in Croatia. Right. So when you turn it on, it has nice music. It's beautiful nature. There's a waterfall. And it's like, ah, you're really there.

So it's not just like the fake like, ah, you're really there. So it's not just like the fake drop. No, I'm really there. Some people think it's fake because it's so beautiful. I'm really there. You couldn't, you couldn't do it with the green screen, you know, all those different angles and whatnot. Yeah. Do you have to have, um, a rhythm to be able to do this? Cause you know, a lot of people might people might say, I'm not very good at dancing. I'm kind of stiff on my feet. Yeah, you do not. It's great for your brain body connection. It's like brain gymnastics. So you'll see that certain movements are challenging and they take some practice. So you just grow into it. But there's always something for you to do.

And most Qigong is very accessible. That's the thing. You don't need any fancy clothing. You don't need mats. You don't need spandex. You don't need to go to, you don't need weights. You just, you and your Qi. And it is so effective for getting in shape and for feeling healthy.

There is like, for me, no better thing. Wow. Yeah. I need to be doing a little bit more. I think mine's getting just repetitive and I'm doing it just to go through the motions, like brushing my teeth or something. It does wake me up, but I think I'm going to start doing some of your videos. I'm going to send you some.

I'm going to send you some good ones that you can just be like, ah, gee. Oh, I'm going to try to get my kids to do it with me in the morning. Oh yeah. Big time. I know me too. I have a son who's autistic. And so I'm always trying to get him in his body because that detachment, cause he's definitely, that's one of his things. Yes, absolutely. It can be so good. He does. Okay does okay yes and actually he does do the exercise that i do um we because actually one of the reasons why i do the one that i do is because i taught him we really just kind of go through our whole body um and just in that time he seems to be more in tune with his body just wakes it it up. I mean, there is some sort of neurological grounding. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. And it's so good for kids. I mean,

speaking of kids are so pulled out of their bodies, because they're always on a device, they're on the phone, they're on a computer, they're watching TV. And I really think the social media can be harmful in many ways for kids and not that it's going to go away. I mean, they just, they're, they're just on those things. It's how they socialize, but they need to take some time away from it. And unfortunately, kids are spending way less time in nature, way more time on a device and it's making them, you know, anxious, stressed out and depressed like adults. So true.

So true. So I think they need practices like this. And if we can encourage them to get out in nature, to breathe, to do some Qigong, to do some yoga, it is so important for their overall sense of health and well-being. I hear the challenge in your voice, like just try it. Just try it. You know, I have two, I always run a challenge, a chi challenge, and I have a couple of different challenges.

One is a 30-day challenge. And the 30-day challenge is just seven minutes a day. So you just seven minutes a day, you do your qigong. Are you challenging me? I think you're challenging me. I'm challenging you. Yeah, so it's called the 30 day challenge on my website. It's just seven minutes each and every day. And then it forms the habit. And what I want people to do is just to feel how good the practice makes you feel in just seven minutes. And then I have a challenge,

a two week challenge. It's part of my subscription. So you do, you get free access to the subscription for two weeks and you do either an hour class, which is 50 minutes of Qigong and a 10 minute meditation, or you can always do a 20 minute version. And so it's just kind of helping people to get a practice that meets them with whatever demanding life they have. Well, you know, I'm a massage therapist. I see a lot of elderly, old people. I do. And that's what they tell me of how the ones who are not in pain are the ones who come on a regular basis of some sort of movement in their lives.

It's, it's important. I i mean i know already you know my hands are starting to get tighter you know you feel you feel it and so you got to keep moving you definitely do absolutely movement is key to life and you can think why is that why is movement so important and the reason is that everything is moving. Everything in this universe is in movement. Everything on the earth is in movement. Everything in your body is moving. So movement is key, like unrestricted, unstrained movement. That's why Qigong is so good because you're doing movement, but you're relaxing. So it is like the sunset of exercise. We all like watching a sunset. sunset oh isn't it

beautiful it's because yin and yang are in harmony like it's not day it's not night it's just like balance and that's what qigong is like it's not a extremely hard workout and it's not too easy it's just like it just feels really good and that's what we want to do we want movements to move our bodies in ways that feel good just like kids and you want to keep your body moving because everything is moving and actually being still is a form of resisting what is that's why when you know like think about traveling people sit on a plane six to eight hours nobody gets gets off the plane. Oh man, I feel so good. I just been sitting here for six hours. So rested. No, you get stagnant. You get feeling like

uncomfortable in your body. So we just get used to stagnation as opposed to circulation. And then it becomes our new norm. And once we start moving in healthy ways, we're like, wow, I didn't know I could feel this good. I had restless leg syndrome. I had it probably about over a decade ago, but like, it was like two weeks ago, I had it. Oh, you did, okay. Yeah. So I'm like, maybe this is like, hey, get up.

Get up and move, get up. Yeah, your leg's like, hey, are we going? You know what else I was thinking? Because I have a daughter who my youngest is. She just started middle school. And, you know, your body around that age, you know, going into high school, you know, you're when you start really judging your body. And I bet this really kind of connects you and almost with a relationship with your body

in a different way. Yeah. It's like it helps you just get in tune with who you are naturally. And, you know, I think, you know, it's important to remember what your body actually is because we're like, I don't like this about myself. I don't like that about myself. I'm too this, I'm too that. And it's just kind of beauty standards of a culture. And it's important to remember that your body is miraculous. I mean, it took this universe about 14 billion years to make you. It was like 14

billion years, there was nothing. And now all of a sudden there's you that is conscious with a beating heart and beautiful face and these hands and this ability to witness life in the way that you do, you are miraculous. And it should be a sense of joy to be in these bodies. And most people look in the mirror and don't feel that they're like, Oh, I don't like my hair. And the universe is like, you're a miracle. I took 14 billion years to make you. I picked your body. What are you talking about? Come on. Well, Lee, thank you so much. You brought so much wisdom. I'm so glad we got to have this conversation. You really inspired me to move. Fantastic.

And I am going to go ahead and take your challenge. I really am going to challenge myself. Absolutely. Oh, good. Tell everybody where they can find you. Come find me at Holden Cheong. So Holden, H-O-L-D-E-N. And Cheong is spelled Q-I-G-O-N-G. Holdenong is spelled q-i-g-o-n-g holden qigong q-i-g-o-n-g.com

and there's a the 30-day challenge there's a free two-week video class subscription trial that you can try the class I mean I teach three days a week live on zoom and if you miss a class it's on the website so you can always take the latest two weeks of classes. And then I have all those conditions, you know, upper back, neck, headaches, digestion, sleep. I got all the conditions laid out there in something called a healing series. That's awesome. Yeah. It's, you know, it's, I think it's really important for like my age group right now, because I mean, you know, we could drink and wake up fine. Now we drink and we wake up like we're going to die or, you know what I mean?

I mean, I was in the hospital because I ate wasabi almonds. Oh my gosh, what happened? It's really important. I think it's really important at any age, but, you know, just been thinking a lot about my health and my body. And so, yeah, that's it. When you have some health issues, we really go like, oh, there's really nothing more valuable than our health and our energy. So do what the ancients used to do. Take charge of your health on the front end. You know, they say don't dig your well when you're dying of thirst. This would have been very vital to know like 20 years ago.

Absolutely. Right. For sure. Thank you so much. It was so great to meet you. So great to be here. Thanks for the conversation. Thanks for listening to Sense of Soul podcast. And thanks to our special guests for joining me. If you want more of Sense of Soul, check out my website at www.mysenseofsoul.com where you can work with me one-on-one or help support Sense of Soul Podcast by donating to my coffee fund. Thanks for listening.