Qìgōng (sometimes called Chi Kung) is a Chinese word, made up of the characters 氣功 which mean Qi or “vital breath/energy” and Gōng or “effort.” So basically, any time you are doing breathing exercises, you are doing Qìgōng.

Qìgōng can be practiced with a number of goals in mind. Religious Qìgōng was developed primarily as a meditation for enlightenment or Buddhahood. Scholarly Qìgōng was developed as a method for maintaining good health. Medical Qìgōng was developed by Chinese doctors allowing them to teach their patients exercises they can use to restore health. There are even some forms of Medical Qìgōng that were developed allowing doctors to project their own Qì to heal a patient. This is similar in many ways to the Japanese system of Reiki. The last category of Qìgōng exercises are the Martial Qìgōng. These exercises emphasize the development of muscles and Qì for martial purposes.

 

Within the category of Medical Qìgōng, there are various exercises, which, when done with proper breathing and intention, can greatly improve the quality of patient care. Often a TCM doctor will send a patient home with a Qìgōng "prescription" or rather Qìgōng homework to help enhance the treatments given during office visits.

 

And while Medical Qìgōng is highly popular there are many other breathing exercises that can contribute to overall health and longevity.  Guided meditation, biofeedback, and Yoga are all examples of other meditations that patients sometimes turn to in order to become healthier.  And they are all excellent sources of inner peace and the facilitation of smooth energy circulation within the body.