03. The Three Regulators Of Qi
The Three Regulators of Qi – 三調 - Santiao (three regulate)
If you are reading this article then we are assuming you have already gained a general awareness of what qigong is from our earlier blogs or elsewhere. You have heard that it is good for your health, maybe seen someone practicing or have even participated in a class yourself. If this is not the case, then we recommend you first read our previous articles “What is Qigong?” and “The History and Types Of Qigong”. You can also watch the video below to gain a sense of what it looks like in practice.
Now that you have this general awareness of what qigong is, it’s time to have a closer look at how it works and how you can better work with your qi. To do this we are going to have a look at the three regulators of qi – the breath (調息 - Tiaoxi), body (調身 - Tiaoshen) and mind (調心 - Tiaoxin).
The Breath Regulator – 調息 - Tiaoxi (regulate breath)
“You may last several months without food, several days without water, you may even last several minutes without breathing but you cannot last even an instant without qi”- source unknown.
While the above Chinese Proverb emphasizes that qi is indispensable for life, it equally stresses importance of breath and its impact on our life force. Before we go any further the surest test is the one you do yourself… take out your stopwatch and see how long you can hold your breath. A quick search on the internet shows that most people can hold their breath for somewhere between 30 seconds and 2 minutes. Needless to say breathing is vital to life.
The average adult takes a breath about 20,000 times a day, 7,300,000 times a year or 518,300,000 breaths in a lifetime. As you can imagine the difference between healthy breathing habits versus unhealthy breathing habits over a lifetime would be huge. Qigong practice places a huge importance on learning to breathe in a relaxed, deep and natural way. A way that works with our physiology to promote health and longevity. For another quick self-test try taking in a deep breath through your nose, holding it for ten seconds and then exhaling fully. Repeat this three times. How do you feel? This simple short exercise alone has enormous benefits:
1) Breathing through the nose increases the Nitric Oxide (NO) in the lungs which has huge benefits for every organ in your body and especially so for the cardiovascular system.
2) Deep breathing has a positive effect on the circulation of spinal fluid which helps remove waste matter from the brain.
3) Breath holding when practiced correctly has also been shown to promote longevity, stem cell preservation and possibly even brain tissue regeneration.
4) Perhaps you also noticed a decrease in mental agitation, stress or other discomforts. These are just a few of the benefits of healthy breathing and as you may have noticed it doesn’t take years of practice to start enjoying the benefits. (For more on the Breath Regulator read our detailed article and get our free video course. Links below)
The Body – 調身 Tiaoshen (regulate body)
Like the breath, the link between the body and qi is self evident. Think about how you feel while enjoying your favourite sport or when going for a walk in nature on a beautiful day. Now think about how you feel when you’ve been sat slouched in front of a computer for too many hours or sitting on a long international flight. Posture and how you use your body throughout the day has a tremendous impact on your qi, your health and mental well-being.
One of the cornerstones of qigong is learning how to correctly align your posture so as to optimally support the vital functions of the body. This is done through developing correct understanding of both the body’s Yang (structural and supporting) aspects and Yin (nourishing and regenerating) aspects and applying this understanding to practice and daily life. Learning the posture first then allows the principles to be applied to movement and the various activities of the day. Much like the breath, the benefit of this practice can be felt immediately and has an enormous cumulative effect over a lifetime.
To put the Body Regulator to the test, close your eyes and describe to yourself how you feel right now. What words did you use? Now get up, run around your couch ten times, do 20 squats, 20 star jumps and 10 push-ups. Sit back down, relax with some deep breathing and close your eyes. What differences do you notice?
The Mind Regulator – 調心 Tiaoxin (Regulate Mind/Heart)
Before going into the Mind Regulator it’s important to understand the Chinese Character 心 Xin. Much like the character 氣 Qi, the character 心Xin is multilayered and very nuanced in its meaning. Translated literally it can mean either ‘mind’ or ‘heart’, or both depending on context. We will not look at these meanings in depth here but for the time being it’s useful to understand that in the context of qigong, 心Xin encompasses many qualities that in the West we associate with both the mind and heart.
At first glance the Mind Regulator’s effect on qi may not seem as obvious as the other two regulators of qi, however on closer examination its importance becomes very clear.
Different emotional and mental states are a great example of the mind's influence on qi. Think about how you feel when you are bored. Now think about when you feel helpless/stressed/excited? Last of all, how do you feel when you are in love?
“Where your mind is your Qi will flow. Where your Qi is the blood will follow.”
Focus and intention also strongly influence the behavior of qi. Let’s say you’re at work and the whole day you are distracted either by the external world or your own mental/emotional state. How is this reflected in both your work and how you feel at the end of the day? What about after a focused productive day? What differences can be noticed?
Many aspects of the Mind/Heart Regulator have an enormous impact on our qi. Qigong addresses this by sharpening focus, expanding awareness, tempering character, cultivating peace, practicing self-observation and building wisdom. It is a vast, deep and multilayered topic and practice. Again, direct experience is the gold standard. Think of something or someone who triggers you to feel angry. What physical sensations do you notice? Do you have tensions in certain parts of your body? How are you breathing? Is this giving you energy or using your energy? Now think of something or someone that makes you feel happy. What physical sensations do you notice now? Do you feel fewer or more tensions? How are you breathing now? Is this giving you energy or using your energy?
The benefits of learning to work better with your qi are both immediate and lifelong. The same as for anything in life, the more presence to your practice you give, the more it will nourish you in return.
We hope you found this article useful and wish you a long, healthy, joyful journey with qigong. This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of understanding the ground of qigong practice, so for those who wish to learn more we have created a free 3 part video course on the 3 regulators of qi as well as more detailed articles on each of the regulators of qi. Please find the links to all of these below.
Feel free to leave comments and questions and share this article with anyone you feel might enjoy/benefit from it. With love & warmth Dawa & No Mi
