Your acupuncturist is likely to give you advice and tips about what you can do at home to support your acupuncture treatment.
You may be recommended particular dietary changes, new sleep routines, advice about managing stress, recommended to wear socks in your cold house (yes, that is a thing!), or given exercises and qi gong recommendations.
Most patients would benefit from a little qi gong in their lives. Qi gong is a great way to supplement your ongoing acupuncture treatments. It can help your qi move more smoothly, easing aches and knots, calming your mind, improving your wellbeing and sense of flow.
There are many different types of qi gong, one particular variety focuses on particular systems within your body that support acupuncture treatments in a targeted way. If your acupuncturist, for example, says that they are treating you to boost your "Kidney qi" (likely to probably have nothing to do with your real kidneys; see this article for a bit of an explanation of the language of Chinese Medicine) then there are some really supportive qi gong moves you can do at home to support your acupuncture treatment. (To be honest, most of us would benefit from the boost from strengthening our "Kidney qi", so these qi gong moves should support most of us*.)
Take a look at this video for a nice gentle qi gong practice you can do at home to support your acupuncture treatments:
If you are looking for something a little more vigorous to support your acupuncture treatments, take a look at this longer routine:
Most of these exercises can be done sitting down if you need to, and - as always - *please take your medical practitioner's advice if there is any reason why you cannot complete certain exercises.
Do you want to take your qi gong practice a little further? Then ask me about which qi gong courses or books I recommend at your next appointment.
