Presence Through Movement: Qi Flow Yoga

There are three flows on the DVD:

* Gathering & Clearing Energy (48 min) - a standing meditation

* Complete Qi Flow (51 minutes) - includes meditation & flow

* Daily Qi Flow (26 minutes) - a shorter version of the Complete Qi Flow for daily use

All flows are done standing

These are the segments from Gathering & Clearing Energy:

Standing Meditation / Abdominal Breathing (approx 10 minutes for the two segments) - You stand in Bamboo Tree which is similar to Mountain Pose except more relaxed and feet hip width apart. She guides you through a meditation, thinking about how you are standing, how you are holding your head, etc. before moving into Abdominal Breathing.

Shaking (9 minutes) - First you shake your right arm, then your right leg, repeat on the other side, then shake your entire body. The shaking felt really good - very relaxing for the joints and body.

Hold the Qi Ball / Comb the Energy Field/ Clear the Spine - These segments combine various arm movements into them. For Comb the Energy Field you "comb" your arms down the front of your body, down each side, down your back, and then down each arm, repeating several times for each part. For Clear the Spine you place your hands together as if in prayer and move them to your heart, stomach area....

Balance the Chakras (approx 7 minutes) - Hold one arm overhead and very slowly move the other arm into the position of the chakras.

Whole Body Breathing / Grounding Pose - Whole body breathing (a little over 3 minutes) combines breathing with gentle slow arm movements, before returning to bamboo pose and then the grounding pose meditation.

Kim Eng's voice is perfect for this - very soothing. There are birds chirping in the background. Although you have your eyes closed for most of the practice, if you do open them the setting is very pretty as well. The music is very pleasant. This was perfect for a day where I just needed some sort of gentle activity.

Complete Qi Flow - This begins with a shortened version of Standing Meditation, Shaking, Hold the Qi Ball, Combing the Energy Field and Whole Body Breathing (13.5 minutes total). This flow was a little longer than I wanted to use at this time, however it is very nicely segmented. The Dragon Awakens Qi Flow is divided into three parts and I chose to use it as a tutorial to help me learn the shorter and faster Daily Qi Flow. In each part she teaches you 4-6 poses, going slowly through each pose, and then closes with a review where the poses are turned into a flow. Each review builds on the previous one, adding in the new poses on top of what you learned in the previous part. I completed Part 1 on the first day, then decided to try the Daily Qi Flow the next day, and then on the third day went back to complete Part 2 from the Complete Qi Flow, before trying the Daily Qi Flow again. Part 2 is the most complex and using it as a tutorial was very helpful and helped me enjoy the Daily Qi Flow more the second time around.

Daily Qi Flow - Similar to the Complete Qi Flow, this begins with shortened versions of Standing Meditation, Shaking, Hold the Qi Ball, Comb the Energy Field and Whole Body Breathing (12.5 minutes). Then you move into the Dragon Awakens Qi Flow, repeating the flow 3 times. This is the same flow that was taught in the Complete Qi Flow, but without the individual pose breakdown. This is a fairly fast moving flow including lunges and some balancing poses (similar to Warrior 3 and then moving the extended back leg forward to knee bent in front of the body). The faster pace and balance poses may not be appropriate for some. I found as I learned the poses I really enjoyed this flow and picture myself using it a lot.

Overall I really enjoyed this DVD and think it offers something for ever level. It was my first DVD of this style of yoga and see myself purchasing more.