What Is Qi Gong? A Gentle Practice for Stress Relief and Healing in Portland

Qigong is not just movement—it is a practice of harmonizing body, mind, and universe through sensation, breath, and trust in nature’s intelligence.

Hi, I’m Tara Radsliff, a licensed Worsley Classical 5-Element Acupuncturist and Qi Gong teacher based in Portland, Oregon. I guide people in practices that support stress relief, body awareness, and overall well-being through movement, breath, and energy work.

Tara in Universe Stance at Oregon Park in Portland, OR

Origins of Qi Gong

Qigong is a somewhat general phrase that has come to encompass a wide range of movement and self-cultivation practices originating from China and other parts of East Asia.

At its core, Qigong is the art of nourishing life, Yangsheng 養生 in Chinese,  by uniting breath, movement, and attention with the rhythms of nature.

According to the legends, Qigong originated with Taoist monks who were seeking the keys to longevity - to a long and fulfilled life. They spent their lives meditating in caves and deeply contemplating energy, the cycles of nature, and how these intermingle in the body. They noticed that these long hours of meditation left their bodies suffering. So they drew inspiration from both the movements of farming and the patterns of nature to create a physical practice. This practice mirrored cosmic principles while also strengthening and nourishing their bodies.

The monks’ studies of cosmology and cultivation of their bodies naturally became one. As they observed the flow of energies in nature, they mirrored them in movement. Some exercises were inspired by farming — like “grinding the millstone” and “pulling nine oxen by their tails.” Others came from the heavens and natural world — like “left right cloud hands,” “plucking the stars to change the dipper,” and “lifting the moon from the ocean and returning it to the source.”

Tara and others "Plucking The Stars to Change the Dipper" at Puzhao Monestary in Sichuan, China

In this way, wisdom about nature and life became encoded within the forms of Qigong.

As these practices made their way throughout East Asia they naturally changed from region to region and proliferated into the several different styles and lineages that exist now.

While these lineages vary in their practice, they all the share this core principle: to nourish life, or Yangsheng 養生.

Why Qigong Is More Than Exercise

What makes Qigong truly powerful is this: Settling your focus in the lower dantian — a grounding region in the lower belly that serves as both anchor and reservoir of energy, while practicing an open receptive awareness to the different physical sensations in your body.

This is where the practice shifts from simple exercise into alchemy. Whether the sensation is something pleasant or unpleasant, it doesn't matter. And over time by continuously coming back to the physical sensations in the body, we naturally stop judging them. We stop thinking of them as good or bad, desirable or undesirable. And we start to experience them as the gestures of life itself.

Gestures of opening and closing, ascending and descending, expanding and consolidating. Feeling how our chest expands with the inhale, with excitement or joy, how our chest contracts with the exhale, with relief or sadness. These gestures of the universe, of nature, of the seasons, occurring every moment in our own body.

When we practice Qi Gong, we are not only learning and practicing these different movements but also engaging with a different view and understanding of the core functions of reality and the universe in which we live.

Trusting Nature and the Dao

The best part is, this all happens naturally, just by practicing the form and drawing your attention to your body. There is no need to effort or force the change. Instead, there is a trust and reliance on the forces of Nature, of the Dao. By repeatedly bringing our attention back into our physical body, we are guiding Qi energy into our body.

From here, the implications expand: Qi is not just energy in the body, but patterned by the cosmos itself, imbued with intelligence imparted by the design of nature. As we concentrate the Qi in our bodies and encourage the circulation of Qi through the practice, it naturally begins to initiate change and transformation in our bodies, minds, and spirits.

The Power of Stillness: Universe Stance

You might think of Qigong as a series of flowing movements, but at its heart it also includes stillness.

Master Wang QingYu and Heiner Fruehauf in Universe Stance

One of the most powerful (and challenging) practices is Universe Stance, where the body simply stands.

Paradoxically, it’s in this stillness that a deep sense of safety and connection begins to take root. In Universe Stance, we soften and open the joints of the body, allowing Qi to circulate freely. At the same time, the stance plugs us into something larger — like a living circuit, grounding us into the earth below while opening us to the vitality of the sky and sun above. In this way, the body becomes both rooted and charged, steady yet alive.

When I stand in Universe Stance, I feel my legs anchored into the soil, my head suspended in the sky and my spine dangling from the clouds. I feel my back supported by a mountain, my arms wrapped around a tree. I am in the Universe, the Universe is within me. The Universe and I are one. Universe stance is an opportunity to cultivate trust in the Universe, to believe that the Earth is holding us, that the Stars are guiding us, that we are never alone, that we are always supported, that regardless of external circumstances either pleasant or unpleasant, we always have this place of safety inside.

Stress Relief in a Distracted World

In a world that constantly tugs our attention outward — into speed, distraction, and endless demands — Qigong brings us back into the body, into something steady and unshakable. Just standing, breathing, moving with awareness, I can feel my mind begin to settle and my body remember its natural rhythms. This is grounding in the most literal sense: a way of finding stability that isn’t dependent on circumstances, but on presence.

Alchemy and Transformation

But what begins as grounding eventually becomes something more radical: a transformation in how we perceive and live reality itself. Over time, the practice loosens the compulsion to label each sensation or experience as good or bad, desirable or undesirable. Instead, things begin to reveal themselves as part of a larger pattern: opening and closing, rising and falling, warmth and cold, joy and sorrow. Rather than something to resist or cling to, each of these states shows itself as a gesture of nature unfolding through us.

The Radical Teachings of Qigong

The more I practice, the more I realize that I don’t need to force, fix, or chase after some ideal state. Just as day reliably follows night, and winter reliably gives way to spring, there is a rhythm and intelligence to life that I can trust. Qigong teaches me to move with that rhythm rather than against it. It’s not about escaping difficulty, but about seeing it as part of a greater whole. And in that shift — from judgment to acceptance, from effort to trust — something profound changes.

Qi Gong connects us with the rhythms of nature and the larger universe — the sun, the clouds, the slow slide of the glaciers, all exist within us.

To practice Qigong is to participate in this remembering: that we are woven into the same cycles that guide the stars and the seasons, that we can rest into the unfolding of life without needing to control it. That Nature designed us to thrive and to overcome obstacles. And in a world that constantly asks us to strive and grasp, this way of being is not only healing, it is revolutionary.

Start Practicing Qigong

Qigong is best understood through direct experience. If you’re ready to explore these practices more deeply, I teach 10-week introductory and continuing Qigong classes in designed to help you build a steady, sustainable practice. These classes are offered in person in Portland at Kwan Yin East. You can also join online, or at your own pace through shared class recordings. Learn more about current and upcoming sessions by clicking here.

And if you would like to know more about lineage, philosophy, and my personal journey with Qi Gong check out my previous post: Exploring the Essence of Jīn Jīng Gōng Qì Gōng: A Path to Connection with the Universe