Transcription of Ken Ryan for the show Brain Training & T’ai Chi #291
Dr. Lisa B.: As is often the case, we don’t know always when people will come back into our lives and this next individual is someone who I met several years ago when I first started doing qigong and Chinese medicine and now he’s back so it’s wonderful to have him. This is Ken Ryan who is the founder and chief instructor at Maine Coast Taijiquan, a tai chi and qigong school in South Freeport. With classes in Freeport and Brunswick. It’s really nice to see you again.
Ken Ryan: Nice to be here.
Dr. Lisa B.: I was impressed when I went out to your studio several years ago that, in addition to obviously helping people move their own energy within themselves, you were creating a space for them to I guess explore their energy even more effectively than if you’re just in the basement of a church or … not that there’s anything wrong with that but the space for you was really important.
Ken Ryan: It was, and the space sort of filled itself out with the people that have been there so there’s also a feeling that most people can experience, although they may not know what they’re experiencing, that all the classes and people that have been there have sort of really filled out and substantiated the … It’s a sunny space and a nice space but it feels even more welcoming and warm because of everything that’s gone on there.
Dr. Lisa B.: Tai chi and qigong are very much about the movement of energy. Of chi. And you’ve been thinking about that for quite some time because your background is in counseling and is in helping people through kind of the energetic road blocks of their lives.
Ken Ryan: Right. Although, for me, I actually had traditional clinical training in the Boston area when I started out, so everything was a medical model and very conservative. And so the feelings I had about energy work and that sort of thing were not well-respected, and so I adapt them down for a while but they were always there and, as I practice more and became my own person practicing, they started to emerge more and more until I started doing martial arts about 20 years ago and then they really emerged through the tai chi and qigong practice that I have.
Dr. Lisa B.: Well, let’s talk a little bit about that. You and I both went to Bowdoin, which is a lovely school and I think you still teach classes up on the Bowdoin campus.
Ken Ryan: I do.
Dr. Lisa B.: There’s a little bit more of a traditional feel about Bowdoin and there’s a little bit of a traditional feel in the medical arena, as I know because I’m also in there.
Ken Ryan: Right.
Dr. Lisa B.: How did you know that there was this, something inside of you that was really resonating in a different way with the world?
Ken Ryan: I don’t know how you cannot know. I mean, it’s just so elemental that I was always interested in reflective things and prayer and spiritual connection so it didn’t have the format of Chinese medicine until I discovered that but that’s actually been a wonderful portal or way for me to develop those feelings I think a lot of people have in different ways and develop in different ways, but it was always very obvious to me was there but it was nice to be able to bring it into my work life, rather than just having it in my personal life.
Dr. Lisa B.: I agree with you that many people have a sense that there’s something bigger, something … I don’t know. There’s a spirituality that kind of infuses us and what’s around us, but I don’t know that everybody understands that that’s what that is.
Ken Ryan: Well, yeah. I think part of it is having it emerge in a way that you can have a relationship with it and maybe develop it and participate in making it as full as it can be in your life. If you don’t know it’s there, if you feel it but don’t recognize it, then it’s really hard to do. I think that’s one of the beauties of the tai chi and qigong practice is that people go in, thinking they’re just going to try it. Kind of a different sort of exercise format, but it is a body, mind, spirit practice. Those things are not separated and so if you faithfully practice, it affects your body and mind in really positive ways but it also elevates your spiritual life, regardless of what form that takes.
So if somebody’s got some sort of a formal, religious practice, it doesn’t … It changes that only in that, in my sense, it gives you stronger lenses or magnifies your ability to experience the spiritual part of whatever your spiritual practice is. Your connection with nature, your connection with other people. That feeling that we’re all energetically connected and very much of the same original energy, and so that the tai chi and qigong practice and things like rural tai chi and qigong day that sort of bring that idea of connection out on a global level, those thins are all built … If you practice, they’ll emerge, which to me is part of the beauty of the practice.
Dr. Lisa B.: We’ve written about you and your works. Axelrod, one of our writers and editors has written about you for the magazine so people may be familiar with tai chi, qigong through that, but for people who don’t know what these practices are, how’d you explain them?
Ken Ryan: Well, qigong is a [inaudible 00:38:34] and medical practice of Chinese medicine. Really, they’re exercises people … Well, there’s actually different categories but the way we think of it normally is exercises people can do to access the benefits of other Chinese medicine interventions like acupuncture. The goal of qigong would be very much the goal of acupuncture, which is to move energy through the body, move blockages, strengthen the energy, and these exercises have … The RND is amazing, in terms of how long they have been studied and practiced and modified over that time, so even though they may look like simple exercises, they can have a profound effect on your body, mind, and spirit.
They’re exercises, generally, the movement of your body, use of meditative focus, meditative breath, and then tai chi chuan is a martial art that emerged more or less 500 years or so that is based on, among other things, qigong. It’s like qigong for a martial artist. It makes sense, if you think about the ability to heal and the ability to hurt are just two sides of the same coin, so the tai chi masters were fierce fighters in a time in China where you really needed to have that to survive and they were themselves robustly healthy but their ability to inflict injury on other people was also stunning.
That was how they caught the attention of people who weren’t necessarily aspiring to be bodyguards but were just interested in things like martial arts. They looked at the tai chi practitioners and were in awe of their ability to move softly, quickly, but incredibly effectively.
Dr. Lisa B.: Often we will see people say on the western prom here in Portland out in a small group performing movements that they’re all kind of in sync generally and there’s a flow to them that seems different maybe than a traditional let’s call it exercise class.
Ken Ryan: Yeah. True. It’s beautiful to watch and usually we talk about tai chi chuan or qigong as being very environmentally friendly because it’s not only good for you but somebody walking by is bound to sort of stop and look for at least a minute or two and to feel kind of soothed or affected by what they’re seeing. That’s certainly been my experience. But yeah, the part of what we cultivate is a more and more relaxed body, which allows for that flow and that the whole body moves together.
Not just together, but together the way an orchestra plays together. So an orchestra isn’t just a bunch of instruments all doing their own thing at the same time. It’s all these instruments coming together to create a maximized experience of the concerto or whatever they were playing. In tai chi and qigong, part of the study is learning to use your body so that all the parts are working together at the same time in just the right way. That combination of relaxation and full body movement I think accounts to a large degree for that smooth, unusual, it’s not ordinary movement. Smooth, unusual movement that you see and sort of feel captivated by.
Dr. Lisa B.: It’s also been attributed to longer lives.
Ken Ryan: Yeah. It’s improved health, vitality, and longevity are certainly the reputation and I can’t speak to the longevity yet but everything else that I’ve read about in terms of the benefits of these practices have been the case for me and for many of my students. So we’ve seen the sort of the reputation realized in our school and that helps to reinforce our practice because we know it actually really has a profound effect on the body and mind and spirit.
Dr. Lisa B.: There is a relationship between the types of movements you do and the types of meridians that the energy is moving through.
Ken Ryan: Yes.
Dr. Lisa B.: Talk a little bit about that.
Ken Ryan: Again, it’s easy for us to think that, when we see some set of movements, it’s something that’s somebody’s gym teacher thought of two years ago, and so it’s something that’s been in the works for thousands of years. But in Chinese medicine, as you well know, there are organ systems that are identified and worked with and there are particular movements that and points of focus with the mind that helped to activate those particular organ systems, so the meridians that are connected to those organ systems would be particularly in play when you’re doing these.
So when you do a good qigong set, for instance, it’s pretty … I think it’s very comprehensive in terms of, you don’t realize it but it’s going sort of through all your systems and tuning them up without you realizing it. Same thing with tai chi chuan, but in a less … I think of qigong as more distilled Chinese medicine practice and tai chi chuan, because it’s go so much else going on in terms of the movements, it’s a little less distilled but it’s also interesting enough that people can stick with it longer so if you are doing tai chi chuan for an hour a day every day, you’re in pretty good shape, as far as what it has to offer.
Dr. Lisa B.: There’s a position that my qigong master taught me, which is … He used to refer to it as kind of holding the ball. Basically your arm’s in front of you and it’s as if you have a big beach ball in between your arms and your body. And one would think, “Oh, how hard is that?” But it, really, just standing still and just holding that position for any period of time can be a really interesting experience.
Ken Ryan: Yes.
Dr. Lisa B.: So some of the smaller things that we think, “Oh, that seems like it should be easy.” There’s an intensity to them.
Ken Ryan: Yeah. It is true. That embrace the sun position is one of the great surprises for people when they start practicing and they’re asked to stand that way for five minutes, which seems like it would be a piece of cake. A lot of people discover, but what you’re discovering is how, A, how tight your body really is. It’s not weakness that makes it difficult for people to hold their arms up but they get tight and then they get afraid that they aren’t going to be able to do it for five minutes and that being afraid tightens their muscles more and so there’s a little bit of panic going on now because you don’t want to be the only person in the class who dropped your arms down.
But all that’s part of the potential learning. It’s all part of, if you can learn to control your central nervous system so you don’t get scared and you just relax, that’s a pretty big lesson for your body to learn.
Dr. Lisa B.: The persistence is also a big lesson, and even the sort of internal competitiveness. I’ve had patients, and I felt this way myself, I’ve referred to classes and then I’ll come back and they’ll say, “Well, I’m not as good as them,” or, “They’re not as good as me,” or it’s usually opposite, “I’m not as good as they are,” but there’s the sense that there’s a right way of doing it. Whereas, really, the only right way is to just show up and keep practicing it over and over again.
Ken Ryan: Right, yes.
Dr. Lisa B.: But that’s not the way that we feel in our culture, generally.
Ken Ryan: Yeah. The cultural bias that we have works against … Right now, works against people coming and staying. I think of tai chi as sort of where yoga was 15 years ago or 20 years ago. That, at some point, it’ll be very common practice and the more common it is, the more … Once you get a sort of a critical mass, then people are more likely to go through that sort of self-questioning that you mentioned because everybody is doing it so it’s not a big deal. Right now, people, a lot of people think about it I think but don’t come. A lot of people call me but don’t show up. A lot of people that do show up don’t necessarily come back. So there’s a kind of a screening out that people do of themselves. You’re right.
Dr. Lisa B.: There are also so many different forms of qigong and tai chi. I know that the one that I practice is Wu Ming Qigong but you probably teach a completely different type, and so there are people who will say to me, “Well, I used to practice this way but then I moved and now I can’t find that same teacher anymore. I can’t find that same community.” And so that’s also … Well, it’s kind of similar to yoga. The different types of yoga that are out there.
Ken Ryan: Right, except there’s probably a lot more. I think there are thousands of different qigong sets and practices so what I’ve tried to do is find really good teachers and then hold on to the ones that really spoke to me. So we play around with 8 or 10 different qigong practice sets or approaches but we also have our favorites that we know are the gold standard of what’s going to be really good for us if we just do that one thing.
Dr. Lisa B.: Give some examples of those.
Ken Ryan: Our primary qigong set was created by a man named Feng Zhiqiang, who is now dead but was very well-known and very well-respected for many, many years. He created a set called the Hunyuan Qigong Primordial Set, although primordial is used in a lot of titles so it doesn’t narrow down that much, but that set is incredibly comprehensive. You can tell at the end that you’ve sort of … You can tell you’ve gotten to all the parts of your body and we’ve had people many times, coming in with a cold that’s just coming on and they’re just in that stage where you know you’re going to be sick for the next week. They do the set with us and they walk out and, poof, it’s gone.
I’ve had experience many times. It’s our sort of go-to set that we definitely want to keep going, but then there are others that have certain characteristics. Some that are more lively and big movements and some that are quieter and more we call wuji or still movements or stillness with movement, and sometimes it’s what season is it, what we feel like doing, or what do we just need today. You can also combine them with the seasons. The five elements. And so in the winter time, we’re more likely to do quiet, more yin practices that address the kidneys and that sort of water elements. Now that we’re in spring, we’re going to start moving more and doing more things like that.
Can I put in a plug for the World Tai Chi and Qigong Day, which sort of speaks to this because it’s got that international aspect that draws in so many different practices from around the world? So over 15 years ago now, a guy in Kansas got his tai chi, qigong community together and got out on the steps of either their library or hospital, I can’t remember which one, and did a presentation. Demonstrations and talking about tai chi and qigong. And somehow that got to CNN or some of the bigger outlets and it got some legs and so he continued to do that but sort of invited people from around the country and then around the world to also on the last Saturday of April, 10:00 in the morning, get together in your community and demonstrate and invite people to come in and give information.
Now, it’s this huge global event that happens in over 80 … I mean, it’s all over the world. Big cities, little villages, small towns, and it starts at 10:00 the first time zone, the New Zealand time zone and then the next time zone picks it up at 10:00 and the next time zone. So you have this wave of tai chi, qigong practice coming across the globe with a tagline “One world, one breath”. So it’s not just about promoting the arts but it’s about promoting that energetic connection that we all have that really ties us together.
So we’ve been doing it in Brunswick for 15 years now. First time I did it, we had seven people on campus. We do it at Bowdoin. Lately, we’ve had close to 200, with the numbers growing each year. So it’s a sizeable showing of people out on the campus so it’s quite beautiful. But the profound thing is that so many other people are doing it at the same time as well, so you really feel this tremendous connection, and the World Tai Chi Day organizers have done a really good job of creating a website that has pictures, videos, live streams so you can look at all those little villages and see people in beautiful silk outfits and see people in their work clothes and big spaces, small spaces.
It’s really a very impressive and interesting event, and so we’ll be doing that on April 29 at Bowdoin on the campus at 10:00 in the morning, and you don’t have to be a practitioner to come. We’re really hoping people will come just to check it out. You can participate or not participate and it’s a very meaningful event.
Dr. Lisa B.: Well, I could talk about this all day because it’s one of my favorite subjects. I love the idea of the five elements, the five phases. I think qigong and tai chi, I recommend pretty much to all my patients. Any one who will listen, I will tell them I believe that this is a good thing for you to do. Since we can’t keep talking about it forever, it’s a limited interview, I hope people will take the time to go and be part of World Tai Chi Qigong Day, possibly maybe think about giving you a call, looking in to taking a class with you.
I think it’s interesting because we’re all looking for the right thing to do. The right yoga, the right exercise, the right food to eat. The interesting thing for me about this practice has been that you don’t have to reach out of yourself to pull something in. You’re working with what’s already within yourself.
Ken Ryan: Right.
Dr. Lisa B.: And that isn’t something, that’s not a message that we get very often. That we have it within ourselves to heal ourselves and not have to take pills or potions or eat specific kinds of foods. The energy is there.
Ken Ryan: Right. Moving medication, this is sometimes called, because you’re right. The power to heal is a really untapped power in the body and there’s also an element of qigong where Chinese doctors practice qigong where they help to heal other people, so there’s the external healing as well as the internal healing. But it’s pretty vast and open. You could practice for a lifetime and still be learning and growing.
Dr. Lisa B.: Well, I can definitely attest to that because I have barely scratched the surface myself but it’s been a fascinating process for me and I know it has also been very interesting for you. I appreciate your coming in and taking the time to talk with me today. I’ve been speaking with Ken Ryan, who is the founder and chief instructor at Maine Coast Taijiquan, at tai chi and qigong school in South Freeport with classes in Freeport and Brunswick and also advocate for the World Tai Chi and Qigong Day. Thanks so much for being here today.
Ken Ryan: It was a great pleasure.
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Dr. Lisa B.: You’ve been listening to Love Maine Radio, show number 291. Brain training and tai chi. Our guests have included Pam Blodgett and Ken Ryan. For more information on our guests and extended interviews, visit LoveMaineRadio.com. Love Maine Radio is downloadable for free on iTunes. For a preview of each week’s show, sign up for our e-newsletter and like our Love Maine Radio Facebook page. Follow me on Twitter as DoctorLisa and see our photos as LoveMaineRadio on Instagram. We’d love to hear from you so please let us know what you think of LoveMaineRadio. We welcome your suggestions for future shows. Also let our sponsors know that you’ve heard about them here. We are privileged that they enable us to bring Love Maine Radio to you each week. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. I hope that you have enjoyed our brain training and tai chi show. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you live a bountiful life.
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