Few people, if any, start training qigong because it sounds like something fun to do. Many of us arrive here because something specific brought us, whether it was pain, disease, depression, or just a desire to have more energy and focus. Practicing Cosmos Qigong is an immensely effective way to achieve glowing health and vitality. Like any skill, it is most efficiently cultivated against a backdrop of specific aims and objectives.
Aims and objectives allow us to define the path where we want to go, and how we want to get there. Without a plan, we will certainly benefit from practicing qigong, but not nearly as much as when we specifically intend what we want out of our training and how we are going to get that.
Aims and objectives are not one in the same. Aims are more representative of long-term goals, and are more general in scope. Objectives are specific and short-term, set with the idea of being met in a specific time frame. An example of an aim of practicing qigong would be living a healthy and happy life with abundant energy. But an objective might be to overcome chronic knee pain within six months, with a specific plan of how to do that, using targeted qigong patterns that benefit the knees, and a specific training schedule. This is just one example.
Awhile ago I wrote a post about gauging progress and staying encouraged in our qigong training. When we define the aims and objectives of our training, we are then able to use the tools from that post to assess how we are doing in reaching our objectives, which ultimately get us to our aim. So while all of this might sound to surgical and exacting for an art that is energetic, getting very specific about our desires and how we are going to get there will set us up for success in our training.
During our classes at Shaolin Wahnam Twin Cities, students learn how to set their aims and objectives as they learn qigong patterns and skills like manifested Qi flow and entering into a qigong state of mind. This clearly defined direction puts them on a faster track for success. Want to know more? Classes start up again in 2019. Find out here.