Four Energy Gates QiGong

By Jennifer Kelleher

This week’s column is a little different, and very special to me.

At Ocean Bliss, I’ve always believed in creating a space where we don’t just practice yoga but explore the many pathways that bring us back into alignment with ourselves. One of those pathways is Qigong, an ancient practice rooted in the understanding of energy, breath, and the body’s innate intelligence.

I’m so excited to introduce you to Alexandra Taggart, who recently joined our community and is now teaching Qigong at the studio. Her approach is thoughtful, grounded, and deeply attuned… and I knew right away her voice was one I wanted to share with you.

In this piece, Alexandra offers a glimpse into her work through the lens of Traditional Chinese Medicine, exploring how the body communicates through symptoms, how stress can create stagnation (particularly in the Liver system) and how simple practices like the Four Energy Gates can help restore flow and connection within the body.

This week, I’ve invited Alexandra to write this column– an invitation to understand your body, your energy, and your healing in a new way.

This Tuesday, we began Four Energy Gates practice at Ocean Bliss Studio. The practice is based in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). TCM has been around for thousands of years, though the way we understand and apply it has shifted as it’s been explored in the United States.

The body is always speaking to us through signs. Whether a symptom shows up as pain or as organ dysfunction, the body is healthy in this very act of communication. As living human beings, the energy inside the body can stagnate at times and cause something like a “headache.”

What strikes me is how our interpretation of this system has evolved over time. In ancient China, many of the lifestyle and environmental stressors people experienced were understood to impact the Stomach system. In modern-day America, our current environment tends to affect the Liver system more strongly. This means we are under a unique type of stress. All stress is not bad, but too much stress can become limiting.

So that “headache” that’s arising for you can very well be a stress response from your body– “I’ve had enough, I’m too tired, I need more energy.” Our bodies are living and breathing, so naturally they respond.

What can we do about this? A trip to the doctor may seem like the best bet, and there’s nothing wrong with gaining a detailed level of information through the Western perspective. My point is health doesn’t have to stop there.

The Four Energy Gates may look like a set of exercises. In one way, they are. For example, the first energy gate that I teach uses the thumb to activate a point on the body that is traditionally known to support the Lung and Large Intestine systems. Some people who practice this movement find that their neck pain diminishes. How can that be? How can one point on the hand change something in a completely different area of the body?

When I teach, I stay connected to the lineage I’ve learned from. This line of teachers has helped me understand a simple concept: in energy, the body is more connected than we think.

So let’s go back to that feeling of stress. You miss your train to work, or maybe a friend lets you down. This creates an emotional response we categorize as stress. You might be able to move on quickly, but we all know that in today’s world, these moments happen again and again.

If you’re someone who can move on easily, that’s great. But when we’re stuck in stress, we may feel like screaming, crying, or distracting ourselves.

In Chinese medicine, we can understand this experience as stagnation. Frustration is stagnation. And the longer we stay in stagnation, the less ease we feel in our lives.

The Liver system supports our ability to move on, to release frustration, and to keep energy flowing so that the body’s systems can communicate and support one another. Just like in the example of diminished neck pain, the body doesn’t want to stay stuck. We move energy– whether through the Energy Gates, a breath, a release, or even a cry– and the systems begin to work together again.

Join us weekly at Ocean Bliss on Tuesdays at 6:15 a.m. as we continue to explore energy through this lens. Everyone is unique, and I lead my classes using the TCM framework to support both the good and the challenging experiences we all move through.

TCM is not just an ancient system of medicine. When practiced regularly, it can take us to places we didn’t think we could go.