A health and rehabilitation discipline incorporating movement, mental-emotional, and spiritual exercises
What is Soulfire QI Gong?
Qi Gong is a Chinese word meaning vitality-work. Many types of qi gong exercises are practised. Many are martial-related, designed to build strength, stamina, and conditioning. Some are health-related, incorporating movements that invigorate, massage, and activate particular organ systems in accordance with traditional Chinese medicine. There is also a deeper aspect of qi gong which utilises the quietness and stillness to access deeper states of consciousness.
The foundations of qi gong come from our ancestral ritual and ceremonial dances around the fires before hunting and in celebration of tribal conquests. Invoking animal movements and qualities allows our consciousness to tap into archetypal personalities such as the power of a tiger or the mischievousness of a monkey.
SoulFire Qi Gong opens the gateways to our true and deeper nature. It offers perspective and insight to our human roots and reminds us to be ultra-vigilant of our intentions (Yi).
By practicing SoulFire Qi Gong, we can reclaim our lost power, heal ourselves while moving and breathing with intention and focus, and even participate in healing our loved ones, communities, and environment.
Soulfire Rehabilitation
Injuries and disorders of the body happen through direct trauma, postural or repetitive stress, toxicity, and/or psychological stress.
An injury best rehabilitates when all levels of the brain and body are involved in the therapeutic process. Academic research has developed theories to understand the complex mechanisms of the mind-body complex.
Sherrington reflex theory, reflex/hierarchical motor control theory, motor programming theory, and task-oriented theory should all be understood, allowing for maximum neuroplasticity and reorganization to occur.
This is all fancy speak for engaging every level of our central nervous system in diverse ways to achieve an intended end, in this case, injury rehabilitation and improved health and strength in every phase and aspect of movement.
To maintain postural stability and segmental joint stability as we age, SoulFire Qi Gong exercises promote proper neuromuscular control, strength, and coordinated firing of muscle chains globally around centrated, segmental joints, as well as ligamentous sufficiency to cope with stress and strain from all angles.
Postural stability is an important part of the way we rehabilitate with SoulFire Qi Gong. For instance, if you suffer a shoulder injury, we recommend treatment first. When the treatment phase is over, we follow a process of single joint, multi-joint, isolated, then complex, open, then closed kinetic chain strengthening and mobilising.
One never uses the shoulder without relying on the spinal stabilisers, the abdominal muscles, the diaphragm, the pelvic floor, and the legs. SoulFire uses exercises based on ancient Chinese health principles combined with research-based Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization (DNS) concepts. These exercises use body movement in combination with the area of injury to stabilize, strengthen, and coordinate the sequence of firing of the kinetic chain, stabilize the supporting joints proximal and distal to the injury, and link everything to the core.
Our “core” is often misinterpreted to mean our abdominal muscles. In fact, it is using the spinal rotators and multifidi muscles to govern and coordinate the recruitment of all the other muscles in the body. Exercising the core correctly means learning to fire these muscle groups, then loading them to gain strength and dexterity.
The DNS system comes from the Prague school of rehabilitation. By studying the neurological-musculoskeletal and kinesiological ontogenesis of human infants, it was discovered that they all develop through inherent programming. Without being taught, we recognise our core, activate it, then move our limbs, turn our heads, and reach for intended targets.
SoulFire urges the practitioner to take full responsibility for their healing. It identifies the source of correct movement and coaches us to recognise and correct aberrant movement patterns according to a system and structure. Also, it is inherently built into our programming and DNA. More importantly, the intention of the movement is added, as the curious infant reaches for the colourful item, he is seeking to answer a question in his mind.
What can it do for me?
SoulFire is a blend of movement with spirit and vigour.
SoulFire Qi Gong teaches the roots of building functional strength and integrity of movement. The gentle and vigorous movements can be practised by any age or gender. They protect the joints of the body by learning proper mechanics, build muscle that will enhance strength into our centenarian years, and develop ideas associated with deep psychosomatic principles.
As ideas and creativity take hold within, the focus on ‘feeling’ ushers the practitioner to experiment with the depths of their own power and abilities.
You will practise in a fun and easy environment that will allow you to adapt the exercises to your current capacity of movement and focus. There is no stress or competition involved; the progress is determined by the individual.
Watch your health and wellness transform as you dance around the fire in your heart, become a madness of sublimity and divinity, and invite your true self in to play, again.
“SoulFire Qi Gong is not so much about what somebody says it is. SoulFire Qi Gong is what each individual practitioner feels that it is, to them.”
-Stavros Mihaletos