Surprising Impacts of Intensive Qigong Practice - Citlalli Alvarez

When Citlalli Alvarez committed to practicing Qigong for 8 hours each day, it took less than a month to transform her life completely. Citlalli endured three significant losses in her life, each one was met with immense pain, curiosity and determination. As one can imagine, the mental, physical, and emotional pain took a toll on her, but what shone through was her indefinite need for something greater. She needed to understand in a better way. Searching for an alternative medicine, she found Zhineng Qigong Science. She first heard about the Huaxia Zhineng Qigong training centre (the medicine-less hospital), which, without medicine, achieved a success rate of 95%. As a biological researcher, she aimed to understand how one could achieve healing with just qigong. Following the Huaxia center routine, she spent 8 hours each day for 24 days practicing, and with each practice, she evolved. 

In practice and with her lifelong lesson that "you have done the hardest part, and you just have to finish it”, she released all her qualms, letting go of the loss that brought her pain. In return, she found trust, which she transcended each time into joy, peace, and health. Becoming her own experiment, her studies showed her that with the La Qi, she could feel Qi (life force energy) easily; with the Lift Qi Up Method, her pain resolved and inanimate things responded to the motion of in and out, and with the wall squat method, her eyes crusted, eventually resolving a long-term eye affliction. With her evidence, she finally understood that there was a better way. Tune in for her full story.

Mindful Moments:

• Citlalli’s personal story, the loss of her loved ones, it’s impact on her health and the physical pain that comes with sadness. How this marks the beginning of her journey towards alternative medicine.
• Her life before Qigong, her passion of cycling and two major lessons she learned from it.
• Her discovery of the Huaxia Zhineng Qigong Training Center, and why she decided to practice Zhineng Qigong for 8 hours a day for 24 days straight.
• How connecting with the Qi field allowed for progress and change without movement, how it differed from the Huaxia Center.
• The physical changes she experienced when practicing the Lift Qi Up method.
• How prolonged practice affects your Qi Field. She shares the more you practice the bigger and stronger your qi field becomes.
• Feeling pain during practice as a Qi Reaction and then learning to to release all sadness in return for happiness.
• Using Qigong to naturally increase awareness on a conscious level, being aware of actions and thoughts.
• Zhineng Qigong as a complete practice, unifying the mind, body and emotions. How this allows one to achieve their goals better.
• Evolving Zhineng Qigong Science, how Citlalli's experience inspired her to become a Zhineng Qigong teacher and researcher.

Links & Resources

Proving The Power of Qi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_LTjM0c8sE

Citlalli's Email: yesca1967@yahoo.com

🎙️🌟Explore more podcasts, events, and resources visit:
https://www.zhineng-qigong-students-hub.com/

📘📚 Get your FREE E-book on the "Eight verses meditation" by Dr Pang:
https://www.zhineng-qigong-students-hub.com/exploration-of-the-eight-verses-of-zhineng-qigong-meditation-e-book

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Transcript

What happens when you practice Zhineng Qigong for 8 hours, 24 days in a row? When Citlalli Alvarez heard that this was what students did at the famous Medicine-less Hospital, she decided to become her own experiment. Being a researcher by profession, she took meticulous notes of what happened to her body, mind and emotion during this intense time of practice.

Follow her on her path and get inspired to do what it takes to facilitate your very own healing. My name is Torsten Lueddecke and this is the Wisdom Qigong podcast.

Citlalli, you wanted to start by sharing a story with us. Please go ahead. 

Thank you. Thank you for inviting me, Torsten. Hello, everybody. Well, I will tell you the way I decide. To practice. I had a younger sister that she passed away because acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and that broke my heart. So, I thought it should be something else.

Chemotherapy is not the solution. So I start to, to find for different alternative medicine in order to fight cancer in honor to my sister. And before I found Zhineng Qigong, I will tell you a little bit about how was my life. Of course, I was really sad. I, my heart was broken. I cried a lot and I felt pain of my chest here in the middle of the chest and I was feeling like didn't want to get out of my bed or didn't feel like taking a bath.

And for me taking a bath is a pleasure but at that moment I was really sad. The only thing that I was able to do Was to take my bicycle as a lifeline, because I used to race my bicycle. So, I took my bicycle and I start to ride again, and I met one guy, he was my partner cycling, we rode five years together, and we were boyfriend, he was my boyfriend for four years.

And one day he had a brain stroke and he passed away during the training. So the pain that I was feeling on my chest Start again, but this time with a lot of pressure, like if I were something were pressure, pressure me, my chest and my back. So my breathing was like,

like sinus I guess you, you said sinus in English and I stopped enjoying riding my bicycle. So I quit. And I got flu and then like two months later I tried to come back to ride my bicycle and I got sick and then I wait a little bit more. I try and I got sick and I wait and I tried and I got sick and I was in my four attempt when my father got into the hospital and as soon as he got into the hospital, he got in a coma state and he passed away.

And I got sick. So that was my, my life, when I finally found Zhineng Qigong, good news. So, I learned, I took my workshop, and when I was in my workshop, I saw a video where practitioners were sending qi to crops as a scientific research. And I say, I want to do that. And then I learned that the scientific research protocols with practitioners were practicing eight hours a day, but 24 days, and I said, I'm going to do that.

And I want to be sure, I want to be my own experiment in order to see if Zhineng Qigong really works. And at that moment, I was kind of naive, really innocent, because I didn't know that at the Huaxia Center, Thousands of practitioners were practicing at the same time, creating a huge, strong, powerful Qi field with teacher pang information, right?

So practicing at the Huaxia Center versus practicing by myself in my apartment was kind of a little bit of different. But anyway, I, I decide to do it. 

Let me just, let me just put this into context here, Citlalli because some of our listeners might not know what the, what the Huaxia Center is. It's actually the first medicine less hospital that Dr.

Pang founded, in the 90s, where thousands of, of patients people that had terminal illnesses or illnesses where the western medicine said, there's nothing we can do for you. Where people went and got healing, energy healing, basically by Zhineng Qigong and Huyuan qi therapy. And you discovered the center, but Obviously from the research arm, because what they also did was they used the qi, to help plants grow.

And so they gave the plants, qi in order to have a better harvest. And that was a famous, you know, experiment they did there. And you thought, well, if they do it for eight hours a day to 24 days, in a row, let me see what happens when I do it in my life. Right. Exactly. Now, now what you, what you discovered later is that there is a difference now, if you're doing it with thousands of people together, creating a massive qi field versus doing it all by yourself at home.

But still, you know, as I know you had amazing successes, so maybe you can continue your story here. 

Yes. Yes, that's, that's right. So, before I continue my story, I will tell you two short cycling stories in order. You know, how come I was able to finish my own experiment? I ride my bicycle for nine years.

I raised my bicycle when I was in my second year, one coach called me. And told me, Citlalli, I'm inviting you to belong to my women's cycling team. And I was really happy. We were four cyclists, two of them the best cyclists in Mexico. And I was 31 years old, and they were 20s, 21, 22. So the difference was important.

Anyway, in one training, we were training a hundred kilometers. And I was pushing hard in order to keep the pace with my teammates. And when we have ridden 90 kilometers, the coach said, Now it's time to go fast. And I say, what? I was really tired. But anyway, my teammates start to increase the pace. And we were faster and faster and faster.

And then, missing 200 meters, the coach said, now it's time to do the sprint. And I say, this is insane. I'm, I'm so tired. But my teammates start to do the sprint. And I finished after them. My coach came to me and he asked what happened. Really serious. And I said, honestly, I was empty, my legs didn't respond.

And he said, you have done the hardest part, you just have to finish it. He turned around and he left. And I thought, yes, he's right. I have ridden 99. 8 kilometers with the best cyclists in Mexico. I just had to push harder, the last part. I call that lesson number one. Some years later, another, friend asked, Citlalli, do you want to be a good cyclist?

And I said, yes, of course. So he said, take your bicycle and ride eight hours in a row. Don't come back until you finish your training. And you will see the difference. So, next year, I took my bicycle, and I started to ride my, my eight hours. When I was riding seven hours in a row, I was really tired.

Physically and mentally. And I say, why and what I'm doing this? This is insane. But then, I remember lesson number one, and I say, come on, Citlalli. You have done the hardest part. You just missed one hour. Just finish it. And I did it. And when I arrived home, I felt really happy and really proud of myself. So I call that lesson number two.

So, it was 2011. There I was, trying to do my own experiment in my apartment, practicing eight hours. And Qigong and I was in my seven hour practicing tea and chicken and I was really tired and I said, why I am doing this. This is insane. And I remember lesson one and lesson two and I say, come on Citlalli, you can do it.

You already had practice seven hours. You just miss one hour. You just have to finish it. And I finished and I was so happy and so proud of myself. So with this kind of mentality helped me to finish the whole process, the 24, days practicing in eight hours a day. And with my scientific spirit, I decided to take a note of every single change that I noticed that I noticed.

to my practice. So I will mention, some of them. The first day I felt something between my hands. I said, what is this? I don't see anything between my hands. But I feel something.

My name is Leilah Cupido and I'm the project manager of the Students Hub. Our team is constantly adding events, teachers, videos, and other resources to take your practice to the next level. Improving the quality of your life and the life of the people around you. We do this work for you, so please use it, Hunyuan Lingtong

something that doesn't allow to close my hands and sometimes push out my hands. So I took a note, something is in my hands. I don't see anything, but I can feel it. 

Just for clarification, were you practicing La qi at that moment? I was practicing La qi, gathering the Qi between my hands. For those of us who don't know La qi, it's an easy opening and close movement of the hands.

So this is the kind of movement that you do. 

Yes. And I was feeling the Qi. Then I was practicing. Organizing the Qi field is a meditation where you sit down, you don't move, only do the meditation, and my temperature, my body temperature change and say, why is changing increase if I'm not doing any movement at all.

So I took a note with my practice, my temperature increase. And I also with my eyes closed. I saw lights and colors. I said, What is that? So I took a note, I saw lights and colors. Then, when I was practicing level one, that they have movements, you move your body in front of the television because I was learning the movements.

The volume of my television went down and up, down and up. I finished the practice and I called the person that gave me the CD and I said, there is something wrong with your CD. And she said, no, there isn't something wrong. There is nothing wrong with the CD. Your television is wrong. And I say, no, my television is perfect.

So I, I get with the conclusion that my television reacts. So I took a note. Then I was a, I have one leg shorter than the other, and I always wear insulins in my tennis shoes for correcting the, that one. And walking barefoot produce a lot of pain on my hip because my, I balance. But I decide to practice barefoot in order ligaments and tendons and muscles stretch more on my feet.

So the pain start. And when I finish my eight hours, my first day, I noticed that the pain disappear. And I was ready for taking a note. But my narrow framework said, No, Citlalli, it cannot be possible. So I didn't take a note and I say, I will wait until next day. So next day, I practice. And of course, there were no pain.

The pain disappears since the first day. So I took a note. I was able, after eight hours practice, to disappear my pain of the hip. But I didn't, believe it. Now I learned that I should trust in my practice. Then I was doing wall squats. I was doing 100 every single day, and in my eyes, there were a lot of crusty, like, like tears.

But is crusty? I think so. 

I think so. It's dried up tears, kind of, 

right? Tears, but not tears. Tears are liquid. The one that is not, that is not liquid. 

So this is why you say it's crusty. Yes. Yes. Something like that. Yes. 

So, I took a note, when I do wall squats, something is happening with my eyes. And I will do a parenthesis.

Because I'm wearing contact lenses since I was 15 years old, really young. And after like two years of practice, I went with the doctor, with the eye doctor, and he told me, Citlalli, you reduced 0. 5 diopter on your left side. And then some years later, I took out my contact lenses. on my left eye. So this is almost perfect.

It's not 2020, it's like 1920, but almost perfect. I only working on the, on the right side. I'm still wearing a contact lens. Close the parenthesis. Then, one day I saw myself in the mirror and I saw a huge light about my head. I said, what is that? It was huge. And I took a note, another parenthesis, when I finished my eight hours practice during that month, I start to reduce my practice six hours, four hours, two hours.

And then I saw myself on the mirror, and the light was shorter. I said, Hmm, interesting. When I was practicing eight hours, it was huge. Now that I practice two hours, it's shorter. And I took a note, and now we know that if we practice, our Qi field get bigger and stronger, right? And then, eh, I start, do you remember the pain of my chest?

That I felt when my sister pass away and my ex boyfriend pass away? I start to feel that again with my practice. I say, why? So weird. And one day I cried a lot. And I realized that I was releasing all the sadness that I had, and I started to feel in peace, happier, stronger, more flexible, and I took every single note of that.

And one day, I just decided to come back to riding my bicycle again. I was feeling better, physically, mentally, and emotionally, and I did it. I was able to, to race my bicycle again. And, and to win some races and the flu, I spent, I guess, nine years before I get sick again. So my immune system was really strong for so many years.

Finally, I think, well, I was able to, to be part of one scientific research in a cancer hospital. It was, it was so happy for me because I It was in honor to my sister, and then, now I'm more aware that what I said, what I think, what I do, is like my level of conscious increase. So these are some of the achievements that I have through my practice, through my telegram practice.

So let me try to wrap it up because I just want to get the full picture here. So you said to yourself, I'm going to train eight hours a day for 24 days. And is that what you did? Because you said at one point you reduced the hours, but that was after the 24 days? 

Yeah. Yeah. After, after I finished my, the whole month with eight hours taking all the 

changes.

Very good. So, and what happened? I mean, you explained some of the phenomenon you encountered during your practice. And you also explained that, you know, that is, that some of the, the, the things that you were carrying within you, like the massive pain about the death of your sister and of your ex boyfriend, then this basically, you know, you, you freed yourself from it.

And you did that in a way that we would call it she reaction. So, you know, initially the pain kind of returned the, the physical symptoms returned, but only so they can get got released. And that is something typical. So for example, if somebody does say they've got an old injury in the shoulder and they start to do Zhineng Qigong, they might feel a pain in the shoulder, but this is actually the healing work that is happening there.

So for you, it's the same thing. I mean, this massive trauma that you were carrying around, you know, with, with all these, very unfortunate, death in your family. Yeah. that kind of dragged you down and brought you in a position where, you know, life wasn't any joy, where you had problems getting up.

All of this was released during these, during these 24 days. Is that, is that so? 

Yes, exactly. Yes. 

And then you continue to practice. Which you're still doing today and you got into research because you're a researcher by profession as well. That's why we, you know, why you've got this, this dedication and you want to see what's happening and you want to see the results and want to see what is the cause and what is the effect.

And, and, the, the, what you explained about the consciousness that you are more aware, this is something that came, basically more or less like a side effect. It's nothing you had to work on specifically, right? This is something because of the practice, your awareness grows and your consciousness grows.

Is that so? Or was it a specific thing that you had to do in order to get there? 

Well, you know, Zhineng qi gong practice with your mind, with your emotions and with your body. I mean, it's, it's complete. So when you are doing any kind of method, all the methods have the same essence. The same objective. And even for instance, the practice, the Zhineng Qigong practice, unified me.

Let me try to explain. When, when I was trying to ride my bicycle, I was like, divided in two. My mind said, come on Citlalli, you have to train. But my emotion, my heart said, I feel so sad. I'm not enjoying riding my bicycle anymore. But through my practice, my practice unified me. And that, when you are unified, it's so easy that you achieve your goals.

Right. 

Your mind in the center, your body center, your emotion center, and come. So the practice, that's, that's the way I can explain how you become more aware, because it's an inside job. 

So it is this, alignment of your of your mind of your body and your emotions that makes it so strong and where you no longer have to fight one part of you against another and trying to convince the other part it's this what you call the unification within right 

yes yes that's right 

Now, I think this is a, this is a really, really cool story, Citlalli, because, we are often here confronted with people that have some extremely serious illnesses, and they don't know what to do.

But they are more often than not, You know, coming to us or to a Qigong teacher and say, you know, please help me do something with me. While you actually took the initiative and you said, okay, no matter what else is going on my life, I'm going to go through this routine now, eight hours a day, 24 days in a row and see what happens.

You had no idea whether it would work. You had no idea what would happen, but you did it. And, And I can only encourage, you know, people to, to take that route in particular, if you've got something life threatening because, so often we say, Oh no, yeah, just like when you were, you gave us the great examples of your bike and of your cycling.

So often said, ah, no, it's too long or I can't do it or I have to work or I have to take care of my kids, et cetera, et cetera. Rather than prioritizing what is the number one priority at that moment, which is a total recovery of your health. And, the fact that you, that you said, I'm going to do it and just stick to it.

I think it's an extremely powerful example that can hopefully be a motivation to many other and an inspiration to many other to say, well, if said Citlalli can do it, then I can do it as well. And, yes. So, so, so thank you very much for, for sharing that with us. And you said you later on went into, into research as well.

Maybe you want to explore a little bit more about what you discovered there. Okay. 

Yeah, I, I always recommend my students to be their own experiment. It's, it's the only way. And remember, I mean, feel the qi. See the chi is really easy. I mean, practicing zhineng qigong is a way to like, recognize and apply your change capacity.

So if you are your own experiment, you can realize that and just remember. If you are tired, if you feel uncomfortable, if you feel pain, it's because you have done the hardest part and you just have to finish it. 

So you also explained to me, Citlalli, that you experienced your Qi field. Maybe you can explore that part of your learning and of your experiment a little bit.

Yeah, after I practiced the whole month, eight, eight hours for 24 days, I went to downtown and I took a subway. So I sat down, closed my eyes. I don't care about people. And I decide to gather Qi, universe, mentally, universe, qi field, universe, qi field, like 45 minutes more or less. And when I listen that I arrived to my destiny.

I stood up, and when I get out from the train, train, I felt something was coming with me. And I start to walk, and I turn to the right, I didn't see anything, turn to the left, I didn't see anything, but something was with me. And I was walking and walking with amazing sensation. And I was feeling like a peacock.

You know, like the bird. It was so amazing. I was walking and feeling my qi field and after like three minutes. The sensation disappeared and I say, don't go away. Don't go away. It was so good. But yeah, so now I tell my students, it's so easy to feel the, the qi in your hands, but also to feel your qi field or see the chi feel in your chief field, in the mirror or others.

Qi field is so easy, so that information can get into the. Framework and it help you to see and to understand that there are something else. 

Right. That's beautiful, beautiful experience that you had there and it all happened in the subway. So just imagine how easy it must be back home when you're doing it and you have a quiet environment compared to the subway, right?

Right. I want to, before we finish the conversation, Citlalli, you've, you've shown, how powerful it is to practice eight hours a day, 24 hours, 24 days, in a row, like they used to do in the huaxia Center. Now you also said that it must have been even more powerful in the huaxia Center because there were thousands of people doing it.

So, you know, we can only encourage people to do this practice if they have, you know, a serious challenge in their, in their health or in their life or in their life. And they do it at home because you've shown that it's possible. Or you can, of course, also, you know, go to China into one of the centers that are there these days.

The Xi'an Center comes to mind. We have got a podcast about the Xi'an Center for those of you who are interested. Or any of the healing retreats that, yeah, that our teachers organize. So you can do it by yourself, but you don't have to, you can obviously get the support and be part of a group when you do the practice.

The important thing is that you get going and that you make a decision for your life that you're going to tackle whatever needs to be done and do whatever needs to be done. 

Yeah, exactly, you know what is because at the beginning, I didn't receive the information that you can connect with the Qi field. So that was.

That's why I was thinking that I was naive and innocent because I didn't get the whole information. Now, we would tell the students that we connect with teacher punchy field, and we connect with a share center or with the other teachers in China. And it's easier because you can feel how the chief in the big chief field support you in your practice.

I did it in a different way because I was learning, but now that I teach my students, I said, let's connect. Actually, when you start your practice and you start the meditation, the Suchangpa, the, you connect, you always connect your Qi field with Qi, teacher Pan Qi field and Chinese Qi fields and everything, and that help you.

So. Even if you are in now in your apartment by yourself, you can connect and you can feel the support of the chief. Right? And it, of course is better if you go to, to, with a group and we practice together, right? That's why a lot of eh change instructors. We do free, practice together every every day.

So you, you, you can support your, your students. But yeah, 

you're right. Just to make a note here, because there's a difference, we just described the power of doing eight hours a day, 24 days, in a row. Now the free practice is great, but it's like a one hour exercise stand alone. So if you really have something special.

Serious going on. Yeah. You need to do more. You can't just do a practice once a week or something that's, you know, that's all wonderful and it's, it's great and it supports you. But if you've got a serious issue, you need to get serious work done here. 

Yeah, and I forgot to say, at the beginning, at the beginning is hard because the chi is getting into your body and is opening and creating reactions, but then with the days, you will enjoy, and it will be more amazing.

And easy, and you will feel the Qi and your mind will get into, because when you feel the qi, your mind is not out, it's the chi and your mind get together. And it's really easy when you practice more hours. So the beginning is a little bit different and difficult, but then if you keep doing. The results will be amazing.

You will feel really, really happy, really healthy, release all the things that you have to release and take care of yourself. Yeah, it's a great experience. You have to do it. 

And I think you're a good proof because we can see you smiling and laughing and full of energy and very different than what you described initially, you know, where you started before you actually started to practice zhineng qi gong.

So congratulations to you as well for the choices you've made there and congratulations for the contributions you've been since then through your research and through supporting other people. And for the listeners out there, after Citlalli, you know, you did the experiment on yourself, you started to a lot of research, with other people.

You went into the schools, you had children practice Qigong, you made, you noticed what the differences are, what the results are. You worked with plants, you even went down into the ocean to work with corals and see whether there's any, any, any change there. So for all the listeners out there, we've got a very interesting video on our YouTube channel that you might want to visit.

If you're interested in the research that Citlalli did afterwards, where you can find out more about the results and the work that she's done from there on. Citlalli, you are teaching Zhineng Qigong in Mexico, are you? 

Yes, I'm teaching children, teenagers, and adults. And as you mentioned, at the same time, I'm doing scientific research protocols.

Okay, wonderful. And your groups, are they locally, are they in Mexico, or do you work on Zoom with international groups as well? 

Yeah, now everything is online, so it's easier because the students can get from different parts of the world. Yeah, so now online workshops. 

Perfect. So if anybody wants to get a first hand experience of, the woman you are and the work that you are doing, they are, free to contact you.

We've got your details in the show notes, huh? 

Yes. Thank you, Torsten. Yes. Okay. Well, thank you very much 

for that, Citlalli. 

Thanks to you, dear Torsten, for all this work that you have done, in order to spread Zhineng Qigong. We need more people like you. Thank you very much. Thank you. 

Thank, thank you, Citlalli.

We trust you enjoyed this conversation, and we invite you to subscribe to our podcast so we can stay in touch and notify you of future episodes. We will end today's episode with the eight words meditation performed by Zhineng Qigong teacher Katrien Hendrickx. Enjoy. 

[Meditation]



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