In Qigong, the shen (spirit) holds profound importance, representing the highest aspect of human consciousness and the ultimate state of spiritual development.

The YOQI® method’s six phases of Qi flow approach the shen in the natural way that energy transforms, according to traditional Qigong principles.

Begin with the attune phase by tuning into the shen and setting your intention for the course — such as improved emotional balance, mental clarity, sounder sleep, nervous system regulation, or spiritual transformation.

Discover the origins of your shen according to Daoist metaphysics and Traditional Chinese Medicine, deepening your knowledge of this profound topic.

In this module, you’ll explore:

• The YOQI Method’s six phases of Qi flow to transform your energy
• The Daoist view of health and enlightenment
• The meaning of spirit and consciousness, according to Traditional Chinese Medicine
• How the shen plays a role in your health, wellbeing, and spiritual transformation
• The Inner Smile Meditation with Self Massage, designed to awaken awareness and connection to your shen spirit to promote a sense of inner peace and nourishment

The goal of a Qigong practice is to increase the quality and quantity of Qi in the body and promote a smooth flow of Qi and blood.

As Marisa will explain, when Qi and blood flow smoothly, you feel healthy and the shen (spirit) is happy. When the flow of Qi and blood is blocked, there is disease and suffering.

The energy in the heart shen is affected by emotions such as anxiety, anger, worry, fear, grief, and depression. In the purge phase, you’ll learn how to clear stagnant and pent-up energy through Qigong exercises, breathwork, and the principles of accept, forgive, and let go.

Purging excess heat and emotional energy from the heart and fire meridians helps improve mood, mental clarity, posture, confidence, communication skills, and sleep — and opens the heart to the blessings of the universe.

In this module, you’ll explore:

• The power of the purge phase of Qi flow
• Your fire meridians — the heart, small intestine, triple warmer, and pericardium
• How to identify emotions as energy frequencies
• Qigong techniques to clear stress, pent-up emotions, heat, anxiety, and depression and balance your energy
• How to identify specific shen imbalances of excess and deficiency
• Techniques to calm the heart and spirit for sound sleep
• A guided Qigong heart purification practice

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the sign of a balanced and stable shen is a sense of calm.

The tonify phase of Qi flow nourishes the shen by cultivating energetic balance and tranquility. Marisa will guide you to focus on the pericardium meridian, also known as your heart protector.

It is the key meridian for inner peace, self-healing, and cultivating intimate relationships.

When this meridian is healthy, you feel calm, compassionate, and maintain healthy boundaries. Explore the simple yet profound energy that lies within calmness and how cultivating it through Qigong leads to expansion.

In this module, you’ll discover:

• Why calmness is the prized emotion in Qigong
• The hidden power within your Sea of Tranquility point (CV17)
• Key acupressure points for anxiety and calmness
• Qigong practices to clear heat and emotional tension from the pericardium and strengthen your heart protector.
• How the pericardium supports hormone balance, self-love, happiness, and emotional tranquility
• A guided Qigong practice, “The Heart Protector Flow”

This combination of theoretical insights with practical exercises provides you with comprehensive tools to manage stress, improve your health, and deepen your Qigong practice.

Delve into the Qigong theory that explains the autonomic nervous system’s yin (parasympathetic) and yang (sympathetic) elements. Qi can also be seen as breathwork. The breath is vital in regulating the nervous system due to its connection to heart rate and Qi flow.

Through these tonification practices, you will learn how to strengthen your resilience to stress and tap into a coherent state between the heart and the brain through breath regulation and flow.

Explore the essential relationship between the heart, lungs, and kidneys in managing stress. By mastering these techniques, cultivate and expand your shen, achieving mental clarity, emotional resilience, and spiritual growth.

In this module, you’ll explore:

• The Yin and Yang of the nervous system
• The importance of balancing the heart, lungs, and kidneys for nervous system regulation
• The traditional Daoist breathing method called dantian breathing and the 5 breath regulations
• Daily energy exercises to reset your nervous system
• Spinal cord Qigong
• Breathwork techniques to manage stress and cultivate a resilient nervous system response
• The Qigong principle of effortless effort (wei wu wei)
• A guided Qigong practice, “Calming the Shen Qigong Flow with the Bell”

Explore the profound connection between the shen and self-love. Without an attitude of unconditional love for ourselves, we block the flow of the universe.

Taking time to love and care for ourselves is not selfish; it is essential. We cannot fully love others until we love ourselves. If our energy is depleted, our ability to give is limited. The more love we have for ourselves, the more we can share with others.

The shen, residing in the heart, is the essence of our spirit and consciousness. Cultivating self-love is essential for expanding and growing your heart energy. Self-love means respecting, honoring, and caring for ourselves in a healthy way. In Qigong, self-love is a holistic practice that nourishes the body, mind, and spirit.

In this grow phase of Qi flow, multiply your love energy and practice Qigong techniques designed to awaken love in your heart, including body massage to nurture your physical being, and flows to circulate and expand your heart fire. Positive affirmations reinforce a loving and compassionate mindset.

This practice is also wonderful for those healing from loneliness, depression, loss, or heartbreak. The gentle, loving energy cultivated through Qigong can help mend a broken heart. Learn powerful tools to support your emotional healing and personal transformation, allowing you to embrace a more fulfilled and joyful life.

In this module, you’ll explore:

• How to grow love in your heart through the grow phase of Qi flow
• Powerful tools to support emotional healing and personal transformation
• The power of healing self-love through the Dao
• The importance of nourishing your jing, Qi, and shen
• Laughing Qigong to nourish the shen spirit
• A guided Qigong flow for self-love

Cultivating the shen is essential for spiritual growth and transformation — developing higher states of consciousness, deepening your self-awareness, and connecting with your true nature.

Marisa will address the spiritual aspect of the shen during the circulate phase, where energy flows smoothly and balances, leading to refinement. Explore the shen in its most expansive state—the energy of compassion.

Shamans in China, known as “stretchers,” could extend their consciousness to other dimensions of time and space. Your internal power emanates from the heart. Elevate your shen consciousness through the heart, allowing Dao to flow through you, illuminating your path and purpose.

Learn an internal alchemy practice to transform energy and raise the frequency of the shen. Cultivating your shen is the key to opening up and being able to hold more information and light. As you expand your shen through the heart, Dao can work through you, providing clear direction and joy in your life.

In this module, you’ll explore:

• The 3 dantians, your 3 energetic treasures
• The difference between the small shen and the large shen in Chinese energetic anatomy
• Awaken your elixir field of compassion
• How to transform and repattern your energy field to raise your vibration
• A beautiful mantra — Guan Yin, the Chinese Bodhisattva of compassion
• A guided practice of a warm-up followed by dantian elixir tapping and meditation

Synthesize and integrate all the knowledge and practices you’ve learned into your daily life in this phase. The ultimate goal of practice is to align your spirit with the universal spirit (yuan shen) and achieve unity with the Dao.

The empowerment of the shen brings eternal happiness that is not dependent on external conditions. True happiness comes from being at one with the cosmos, adapting to circumstances as they arise rather than trying to control or change them. This lifelong journey is a path of self-realization through selfless awareness.

A profound aspect of Qigong and neidan (internal alchemy) is the realization that you are not merely your physical body or form, but the energy within that form — you are spirit in matter.

We will examine the influence of seasons, hormone cycles, daily rhythms, diet, and lifestyle activities on maintaining a happy and healthy spirit.

In this module, you’ll explore:

• Developing higher states of consciousness, deepening self-awareness, and connecting with your true nature
• Understanding eternal happiness through the shen
• How to integrate practices for the shen into your daily life
• A Qigong Flow for Empowerment practice

Slow Flow for a Calm Spirit
Video Teaching From Marisa Cranfill

Regulate your nervous system and calm your spirit through the power of rhythmic breathwork, intention, and flow. This YOQI Slow Flow for a Calm Spirit Qigong routine focuses on balancing the fire element to promote emotional balance, love, joy, and happiness. It’s great to calm anxiety and excessive thinking. This special YOQI program uses the sound of a bell to regulate your breath and speed of movement at a rate of six breaths per minute. This balanced breath rate combined with energy flow creates an alchemy of balance and inner peace that brings expansion. All levels.

Register by October 11 to claim this bonus before it expires.

Follow along with this audio Buddhist Pureland meditation, transmitted to Marisa through a nun on Putuoshan Island in China in 1999. It uses guided visualizations to invoke compassion in your heart and share this love with all beings. It’s designed to transmit the sound through divine grace as a journey into a state of peace and healing. A 15-minute chant, “Namo Guan Shi Yin Pusa,” is perfect to play in the background anytime you want to bring peace and beauty into your life.

The rate at which you breathe has a direct effect on your nervous system. When you slow your breath down from the average 15 breaths per minute to five, something magical happens — the heart and mind go into a state of coherence. The coherent state naturally turns on the parasympathetic nervous system response (rest and digest), which has a balancing effect. This audio contains the sound of a bell at the breath rate of five breaths/minute. Use in your personal practice, while lying down during breathwork or standing during Qigong flow.

Throughout the course, Marisa will guide you through journal prompts, reflection questions, affirmations, and visual aids to help you connect to your shen spirit — get started as soon as you’d like with this digital guide. She’ll encourage you to keep a journal with all the information you can store here: date, moon phase, and season. You may see patterns and transformations emerge!