Purify Your Chi: A Three-Step Flow to Release Stress and Renew Energy
Qigong is an ancient practice of working with life energy—chi—to cultivate openness, healing, and vitality. Qi means “life energy,” and gong translates to “cultivation” or “work.” Rather than offering a quick fix, qigong helps release physical, mental, and emotional tension from daily stressors like pollution, toxins, and challenging emotions.
The 10 Phases of Chi Cultivation provide a framework for managing chi, including discovering, gathering, circulating, purifying, directing, conserving, storing, transforming, dissolving, and transmitting chi. Among these, purifying chi is crucial in our fast-paced, stress-filled world. External stressors trigger our fight-or-flight response, which can deplete energy and harm overall health.
Intentional qigong movements and breathing techniques release tension, calm the nervous system, and reconnect us with the healing energy around us. Below are three powerful exercises to help purify your chi—practicing them indoors or outdoors, where fresh air and sunlight enhance nature’s healing support.
Below are three powerful qigong exercises to help you purify your chi. Feel free to do any of these movements either indoors and or outdoors, where access to fresh air, sunlight and healing chi from nature will provide extra support in cleansing away tension from the body and mind
Tossing Off Stagnant Chi
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Form loose fists and bring them to your belly. As you inhale, bring your fists upward through the center of your body. Then, with a long, audible sigh, fling your arms outward toward the sky, releasing tension. Repeat this motion 5–7 times, visualizing stagnant energy leaving your body with each exhale. This simple yet intentional movement helps clear physical and emotional blockages, leaving you feeling refreshed. Use anytime you want to clear away something that is weighing you down.
Shaking Like a Tree
This exercise mirrors what animals in the wild do naturally to release stress and trauma. Standing comfortably, bounce gently at your knees while allowing your arms to hang loosely, like spaghetti. You can also remain seated and bounce your heels up and down. Begin to shake your entire body gently. As you shake, take deep breaths and set an intention to release tension: “I am letting go of worry,” or “I am releasing fear,” or perhaps, “I’m letting go of shoulder tension” — whatever naturally wants to emerge from a place of self-trust and compassion for what you may be struggling with.
You may want to let out sighs of relief or other sounds that are your natural way of releasing what you may be holding on to. Create a friendly relationship with your body and mind during this exercise. Nurture that supportive relationship between the body and mind as you allow what no longer serves you to fall away. Trust your body’s wisdom to guide you through this process, and notice the lightness and chi sensation that follows. You can do shaking like a tree any time you feel stress accumulating. It is a powerful, fun and simple way of purifying your chi.
Xi Xi Hu Breath
This breathing technique is a calming practice for the nervous system. Xi refers to inhaling, and Hu refers to exhaling. Begin by holding your hands close together, as if cradling a small ball of energy. Inhale through your nose in two short breaths while expanding your hands outward slightly. Then exhale slowly with a long, sigh-like “Hu” sound, allowing the exhalation to be longer than the inhalation. This shift activates the parasympathetic nervous system, bringing the body into a relaxed state and reducing stress.
You can practice Xi Xi Hu breath anywhere, with or without movement. Much of qigong, including Xi Xi Hu breath, stimulates the relaxation response in our body, lowering blood pressure and helping to treat stress-related disorders naturally. This ancient practice has been assisting people for centuries long before the Relaxation Response — a term coined in the 1960s by Dr. Herbert Benson — was discovered as an effective healing mechanism.
Quick Chi Cleanse
You can use a simple, yet powerful flow combining these three movements together for purifying your chi anytime you’re feeling stressed, triggered, or overwhelmed. Either standing or seated, start by shaking your body as described above while taking deep breaths, and thinking about what you are releasing that isn’t serving you in this moment. Next, move into Tossing Off Stagnant Qi to release what no longer serves you as you fling your arms out towards the sky with a long sigh, thinking about what you are letting go of. Then, practice Xi Xi Hu Breath to relax and calm both your body and mind. Inhale twice through the nose and sound Hu (like a long soft breeze) on the exhale.
Finally, close your eyes, take deep breaths, and turn your focus inward. Notice how you feel. Trust your intuition — when it tells you it’s time to purify your energy, these three exercises will be there to support you.
Through purifying the chi, we can release physical and emotional discomfort, anxiety and concerns, while creating space for healing and inviting vitality into our lives. As we use intention to reconnect with the healing life energy that animates us all, qigong reminds us that the tools for transformation lie within and all around us.
Lynne Nicole Smith is the Qigong Infused Yoga® Founder and Senior Trainer with the Institute of Integral Qigong and T’ai Chi, where she trained from 2002 to 2005. For over 23 years, she has guided students worldwide through in-person and online retreats, workshops, and trainings. She also leads Start Your Sunday with Qigong, a weekly online class
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