Is Daily Qigong Worth It? What Students Told Me
Over the past week I’ve been asking some of my regular students about their experience of Qigong — not the surface level “I feel good afterwards” kind of reflections, but the deeper shifts that arrive when practice becomes woven into the rhythm of your life. The responses were honest and layered. Some spoke about pain dissolving. Others about nervous systems thawing after years of tension or collapse. Others described emotional steadiness, deeper breath, clearer intuition, more inner spaciousness.
Different stories, same thread:
Why Constant “Doing” Winds the System Too Tight
When you practice consistently, Qigong stops being something you do and becomes the way you move through your life.
And here’s the part that’s easy to forget: we each create the quality of our own life.
If we want more peace, more ease, more vitality, clearer energy, steadier emotions, better health, we have to participate in the creation of that experience. We can’t cling to the same habits, the same pace, the same patterns of overextension and expect a different reality to emerge.
It’s a bit like one of those old wind-up toys. You turn the key a few times and it moves just as it’s meant to. But if you keep winding and winding — without pause, without release, without rhythm — the tension builds. The spring tightens. Eventually it either snaps, or it unravels so fast it burns through all its energy in one frantic burst.
Our bodies and nervous systems aren’t all that different.
Constant winding without space to breathe, soften or reset creates the same kind of inner tightening. At some point the system will either break down or spin itself into depletion.
And this is where Qigong quietly changes everything.
One of the most powerful things a consistent practice does is release that internal winding — not all at once, not dramatically, but gradually, layer by layer. The nervous system softens. The breath deepens. The body stops bracing for impact and begins to trust its own rhythm again. Presence returns, not because life becomes simpler, but because you become more resourced, more coherent, more attuned.
How Qigong Softens the System
This is exactly what students described when I asked about the shifts they’ve noticed.
Some spoke about a slow “melting” from the inside — the kind of unwinding that touches places long held and long forgotten. Others described emotional patterns rising and releasing, breath expanding, pain softening, fatigue lifting. One student shared that her body no longer reacts the way it used to when stress appears, the tight band around her chest is simply gone. Another now feels the Qi moving her, rather than the other way around. Another found her energy field activating so clearly that stillness became natural, even desired.
Different stories. Same arc.
The spring unwinds. The system reorganises. Life becomes more coherent from the inside out.
And none of these shifts happened through “big breakthroughs.” They happened because these students practiced — even on days they didn’t feel like it. Even when 10 minutes was all they had. Even when old patterns pulled strongly.
This is what I mean when I say: we are the creators of our lived experience.
Not in an abstract, spiritual way — in a practical, embodied way.
Your practice is your participation. Your consistency is your creation. Your presence is your power. It always has been.
Qichang and the Strength of Like-Hearted Support
And while committed practice is essential, there’s another truth we tend to overlook: We’re not meant to do this alone.
Human beings have always learned through transmission — through being guided, witnessed, supported. Through sitting in the field of someone who has already walked the path. Through having our blind spots reflected with clarity. Through being reminded of what matters when we drift. Through being held by like-hearted others in a way that strengthens our inner resolve.
Left to ourselves, we push too hard or not enough. We slip into old rhythms. We get caught in the intellect. We lose perspective. We confuse intensity with progress, or comfort with growth. This is simply human nature — not a flaw.
Guidance helps us stay in right relationship with the practice. And connection matters just as deeply.
There is something powerful about being surrounded by like-hearted ones — people who are also unwinding, also cultivating presence, also choosing a different way of living in their bodies and in their lives. It creates a field of resonance that strengthens everyone inside it. It’s the Qichang I’ve spoken of before — the collective field that holds, reflects and amplifies our personal work.
When you’re held in a community that values slowness, spaciousness, honesty, embodiment… it becomes easier to live that way yourself.
Being Accompanied on the Path, Not Just Instructed
Mentorship, in this sense, isn’t about collecting more techniques or information. It’s about being accompanied. It’s about being supported in the subtle places where practice becomes transformation. It’s about having someone who can help you navigate the places where the spring is still tightly wound, and notice the openings you might otherwise overlook.
Qigong is an inner art — but it’s also relational.
We grow through our relationship with our Self and through those who mirror that Self back to us with clarity. We grow through presence, through energy, through connection, through the coherence that emerges when sincere practitioners come together.
And when you have that support, consistency becomes natural — and transformation becomes inevitable.
If you’re feeling the pull to deepen your practice in a supported way, to be held in a field that strengthens your presence, steadies your energy and helps you stay connected to the path — the Small Group Mentorships for 2026 are now open for application.
These groups are intentionally small so each person receives the guidance, accountability and energetic environment needed for real transformation. If this resonates, you’re welcome to apply and step into a space designed to support your growth next year.
