Navigating Neurodiversity with Qigong: Calming minds with Regina Dell Oro

When autism or neurodiversity becomes disabling, Qigong can offer a path to healing. Regina Dell Oro was told it was impossible to find healing for her son who has autism. Using Qigong, she did three things to create calm within the space of neurodiversity.

Autism naturally comes with diverse ways of thinking, experiencing, and interacting with the world. When those differences are neglected more than they are nurtured, symptoms can escalate, challenges become more immense, and one can become debilitated. With the aim of balancing qi, from being too condensed in the brain, to being regulated in the entire body. Regina, first as a mother and skilled Zhineng Qigong practitioner, set out to find healing for her son and the other young adults who sought the calm.

First, she shifted fundamental thoughts and behaviours of happiness using Dr Pang Ming's "Happy Quarter" technique, thinking "before you practice Zhineng Qigong, you practice happiness". Second, she introduced chanting as a way of communicating. Teaching "Hao La" and "Hunyuan Lingtong" she gave her students a tool to deescalate their fears and anxieties. These magic words related that everything was okay, and more so it gave her students, who often struggled with communication, the ability to recognize when things start to feel out of control. Even with Kai He, the La Qi method, her students could integrate practice into their daily lives, by recognizing and feeling with speech. Third, she carefully introduced movement. As to not initiate seizures, she considerately taught them how to move their neck and spine. With Zhineng Qigong Methods like, Crane’s Neck, Wall Squats they were moving Qi from the brain to the rest of the body.

For Regina it was "always a dance of what can be done, what cannot be done, and where we need to push a little bit". Through it all, she used her skills and understanding to adapt the practice of Qigong and make it more relatable to people with neurodiversity. By breaking down the movements, renaming and reframing, she achieved the impossible. Tune in to hear her story.

Mindful Moments: 

• Zhineng Qigong in search of healing for autism and neurodiversity after many failed methods
• Finding calm, and peace with Qigong and initiating a teaching practice for her own son and other young adults who had special needs
• The importance of stopping misery in special needs environments and the use of Dr Pang Ming’s “happy quarter”
• The nature of autism and people with neurodiversity, the importance of self-regulation, regulating emotions and adapting to situations and environments
• Chanting and sounds as tools for students to identify emotions and to self-regulate
• The impacts of qigong practice on confidence, coping with life, regulation and preventing escalation of neurodiversity and autism

Links & Resources:

Learn the La Qi Method for FREE: https://qigong-starter-kit.com/
Zhineng Qigong

Contact Regina Dell Oro here: https://www.daoinmotion.com/

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Transcript

When Regina was looking for a way to support her son who has autism, she discovered Zhineng Qigong. Amazed by the power of the practice, she decided to make Qigong available to all special needs young adults in her circle, focusing on people with neurodiversity. She achieved improved self regulation in their emotional state, increased flexibility on a physical level, and a whole new level of happiness.

My name is Torsten Lueddecke and this is the Wisdom Qigong podcast.

Thank you, Torsten. It's wonderful to be here and to have this conversation with you. So I came to Zhineng Qigong, I think as many people do, looking for healing for my son, because I have, My second son has autism, and I had tried many different methods to, to heal him and things, you know, always, things got worse instead of getting better.

So, in an attempt to, to find a different way to, you know, to, to heal him, I came to Zhineng Qigong, and I really, I just fell in love with it for myself, you know. And, you know, was able to find. A greater piece, because of, you know, anything about, you know, my family was a crazy family because we had my son with autism.

It was only men, only men, and a dog that was also a boy. It was, my dog was a beagle, and if you know it, beagles are hunting dogs. And so, you know, the hunting dog and the, you know, it was, it was very crazy. So I really needed peace and calm, and I was able to find it through And then, you know, as I came to practice it more, I thought how interesting it would be if we could start teaching for my son and for his friends.

And for the groups that I know, because I knew a lot of groups, and by that time they were young adults, so there were, classes that I started teaching. And of course, you know, the first reaction was, yeah, I don't think you'll be able to do it. You know, I think this will be impossible, but you can try.

Was this, 

sorry, was this your reaction or was it the reaction of the environment? 

The reaction of the environment was, you know, Zhineng Qigong is a beautiful art, and many people are very precise about it. And I am also very precise about it. I love it. The more precise, the better. So, that precision goes out the window when you try to bring it to, people with special needs.

And so, the challenge was exactly what am I going to be teaching here and how will I be teaching it? Because obviously many of the movements have to be adapted and it was hard to tell whether, you know, what exactly would be able to be communicated. And so I thought for me the important thing would be to help people with disability or with different neurological abilities.

To do just a few things, one of them would be to stop being miserable, because many times when you go into an environment of people with special needs and those that help them, the first thing that will strike you is unhappiness. Right. So, no one is smiling. No one is having a good time, and everybody's miserable.

Yes. 

And so, that was the first thing that I thought we could reverse. And them, one of the experiences I've had, I think everyone in Zhineng Qigong knows, that Dr. Pang used the happy quarter a lot. And that means that before you even start to practice Zhineng Qigong, You practice happiness, means that you begin by singing, or by dancing, by playing, or by joking, or by laughing, and the reason Dr.

Pang did that is because his hospital was a hospital for people who were sick, and they were also miserable, and the first thing is the obsessive thought about I am sick, and I am so sick, and I want to not be sick, and I want to not be sick. And that's not a good way to not be sick. So, the first thing that, the way that I began, was by introducing a happy quarter and by giving people a choice of a song that they love.

And to my surprise, almost to my shock, they loved to come. They never wanted to stop coming to class because they really looked forward, first of all, to the happy quarter. And the second shock for me was that I began to see people smiling that I had never seen smile before. And so that already was a great lesson in, you know, what Zhineng Qigong is really all about and how to go.

Can 

I, can I just quickly ask by happy quarter, you mean like a quarter of an hour where you do things that make people happy? For example, you know, singing a great song or telling jokes or whatever, right? 

Yes. That's what we call it in our community, the happy quarter. And that's because it's the 15 minutes.

That are allotted to, time before you actually start to practice to break the ice, basically, and to allow you to enter into a different space, where you can really release all the fixations, all the obsessions. about where you are and that you don't want to be there and realize that it's okay to let go of those thoughts and those fixations and just be happy for a minute.

And so that, that became a habit. And it was also interesting that the people that support the people with special needs come to class as well. And they started to become transformed as well. I mean, they realized that they could be happy and that they could have a good time with the person they were working with.

So the whole dynamic began to, to change. 

I think you said something very important that might, might make it a little easier for people in that situation to accept that. Because, Being happy and having a good time isn't necessarily the same thing. You can, you can well insist on your unhappiness while you are having a good time.

While it might be a little difficult to say, okay, yes, you know, just because I'm singing, it doesn't change my fundamental underlying unhappiness. But the mere fact that I allow myself to still have a good time. You know, even if it's only for these 15 minutes, we'll shift something fundamentally. So, but I think it makes it easier for people to say, okay, yeah, I don't believe that, you know, that Regina can make me happy, but I can, you know, I kind of get, I can have a good time at 15 minutes here.

Right. So I think it's a, it's a very smart way of introducing this idea and to get, you know, make people make it, get them used to the, to the thought, well, it's possible. to be happy, and if it's only for certain time brackets. And then it can, you know, take over and just starts to become more of a habit.

And you suddenly realize that in everyday life, there are other moments where you're happy as well. 

Exactly, exactly. And it becomes a habit, you know. Right. And it doesn't have to be contrived, you know, it doesn't have to be, now we will be happy. But, and it doesn't have to be with music either. I chose music because people with neurodiversity, love it.

It's like a universal thing. They love music. They might love different kinds of music, but this is a really easy way to get into, changing that dynamic of unhappiness. But if you, you know, we do work with people in the community. That have, deep trauma, many people have very severe illnesses, and maybe music is not going to do it for them, but we can always choose different things that allow people to be happy for a minute, you know.

So in our community, sometimes we just share, sometimes we don't sing or dance, or sometimes we do, but I find a simple share of. You know, today I saw a beautiful flower in my garden and that was a moment that really made me very happy and that's enough.

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Hunyuan Lingtong. 

Yes, yes. Now, obviously your lesson doesn't stop there. So after you've done the happy quarter, what are you doing then? Or in which way are you adapting your training to, to this group of people? 

Yes, so there's, two, two more points that I wanted to make. One was the happy quarter.

The second, for people with neurodiversity, the issue of self regulation is very important. So they have a hard time regulating their emotions and adapting to different things, transitioning from one activity to another. And many times that creates. So I wanted to give them a tool that would help them identify those moments and somehow be able to cope.

And so I found that saying the sounds was really effective for them. using not, of course, not all the sounds, but Chinese is a really easy language for people that have a difficult time speaking, 

right? 

Because they're small, short syllables. 

Yes. 

And they can say them, and they can even chant them. So we might go into chanting, for example, sometimes we would repeat haola.

The word haola became a magic word, so sometimes we would chant it, sometimes we would repeat it during a movement. And I gave it to them as a tool to use. When they were in a, in the middle of a situation of fear or anxiety, and they began to say haola, haola, haola, and the parents started telling me that, what, what is this word?

What is this haola thing? And I just explained to them it's a magic word that makes everything okay. And they understood it and they used it as a tool to calm down. 

Right. Excellent. 

So that was important. We also introduced, La Qi, which is a very easy movement and it was done also as a tool. We use it, we say Kai, we use the Chinese kāi huā, which they can follow and they can use.

And so we use kāi huā and they also use that as a tool to calm down. So if they find that they are escalating, and they're about to lose control. They can always sit down, breathe, hold a qi ball, and kai shun for a few minutes until they de escalate. And so that was the second tool that I really wanted to give them.

The other one was kai shin. You know, the word kai shin, open your heart, means happiness. And So we sit down and we put our hands over our hearts and we just chant shin, shin. They can say it. They, it's a very good way for them also to practice speech because, you know, they have trouble, you know, breathing in and saying a word as they breathe out.

So chanting very simple sounds is also very effective. We, I also introduced hónyuánlíntóng, which is a little more complicated, but they love to chant it, and they find the effect of it in their body, in their mood to be magic, to be like magic. So, those are some really effective tools that I tried to introduce.

for them to de escalate as strategies for de escalation, or just to have fun with it, to chant, you know. 

So, so it's not only that you, that you do these exercises, these chanting exercises or La Qi in class, it is really something that they take into their everyday life, to be able to use it when the situation arises.

Is that right? 

Right. 

Yes. 

We do La Chi in class. 

Yes. 

Also, but in order for them to use it as a tool, we also use it in class. 

Right. 

So that they get to see what it feels like, what it sounds like, how to do it. And, you know. 

Now, what I like about La Qi in particular in this context is, as you said, La Qi is a very simple movement and, there is no risk whatsoever that you start to compare yourself with others.

Say, if you do the lift you up or something, which is quite complex, you know, you can easily look at someone else and say, oh, he does it better or remembers the right movements and I don't, et cetera. But with La Qi, we don't have anything like this. Also you can do it for as long as you want to. So there's no failing.

Yeah. If you do it one or two, three times only, that's fine. You're doing La Qi. If you do it for half an hour, that's also fine. So I think this is a great, a great exercise, apart from the mere fact that it's extremely powerful, although it's so simple. So I think it's a very clever way to do this.

Are you also introducing more complex exercises? I mean, physically? Yes. Yes. 

Yes. And so this is the third part. Right. Okay. The third aspect of the class is the actual, movements. So with the movements, I've done a number of things In the past, I did do Lift Qi Up, Work Qi Down with one of my classes, and I was very shocked to see, you know, that at the end of it, they were actually in a really peaceful state, which is what I didn't think we could achieve.

But as I finished the movement, I opened my eyes to see them in silence. and in complete recollection. So that was quite a shock. But as time has gone by, I, not, we're not doing left chi up, right chi down anymore. I find it more useful to focus on Three things for people with neurodiversity. One is the head area.

And so we do crane's head, crane's neck. And I, I, I cut it in pieces. So before we do crane's neck, I invented an exercise called the turtle. I use, I, I name them after animals, a lot of the movements because they can have more fun with it that way. and they can be more playful. So we do the turtle is basically just bringing the chin in and sticking the chin up and that before we even do the circle of the head, just doing that is very helpful.

So, the entire, all of the movements with crane's head, dragon head also is a very simple and the turtle. Those are very important movements that we do. They are extremely simple methods, but they are extremely effective because they work on the cervicals. And they open the gate between the head and the rest of the body, and they allow flow, which wouldn't be there otherwise.

And so these are super important, movements. We do also the massage the skull, you know, massaging three times on one side, three times to the other, and then opening by way. like this and then pushing the energy down. All of those are movements. We also do facial movements. I try to avoid moving the eyes.

Yes, 

because that can trigger a seizure. So we have to be very careful with neurodiversity, because our kids do have seizure disorder. And so, I, I try not to do the, the tracking with the eyes because that, that, that can be tricky. But, so the neck movements, and then I try to favor a lot of the, the spine movements.

For the, the, the people with neurodiversity that can do wall squats. That is my favorite of all times. Because, you know, and that, of course, it depends on the person's ability. So if you have someone with Downs or with autism, you probably want to do wall squats, even if it's modified, even if they hold on to a railing.

But it's so important because it opens the spine completely and it allows the flow, to the brain and back down. And so that will be really one of my favorite methods. I do that with my son. My son is very athletic, so he has autism, but he has, physically he's very capable and very athletic, so he can do that.

If there is a diversity that, where the body's very rigid and where the knees are kind of strangely compromised, you probably don't want to do wall squats. 

Right. 

But somebody with Down syndrome, for example, could easily do wall squats. Yes. And it would be very helpful for them. Again, we don't have to have a perfect wall squat, and it can be modified, you know, the feet can be opened to, to, to hip width if they, if they need to, and they don't have to go all the way down.

But trying to go a little, you know, there's always a dance between, you know, what can be done, what cannot be done, and where we need to push a little bit, you know, to, to get greater flexibility. 

I'd like to hear a little bit, Regina, about, you've been doing this for how long now, these courses? 

So, since I think, or COVID, a few years before COVID, whatever, however, Good, good.

So can you see any, you know, do you get any feedback about, you know, that things have changed in people's lives because of, you know, them doing Qigong? Do you get any, any, any, yeah, any feedback on that? 

I do get feedback. I've had feedback about, regulation, self regulation. 

Yes. 

I've had feedback about flexibility of the body, you know.

We do other movements, but we don't have to, we don't, I don't have to go over every single thing we do. But, you know, I do favor flexibility of the spine. And bringing down the energy from the head down to lower Dantian is also very important. So, I just get feedback about, especially about flexibility and the need to continue doing it because, you know, because of the flexibility that, that people see in, you know, in their adults or their young adults that do the class.

Now, I can imagine that any progress in the area of self regulation will also have an impact on their, you know, on their, confidence, and on how they go through life and how they cope with life. Is that fair to say? 

Absolutely. You can imagine that. If there's a self regulation issue, right, there's, there's terrible fear that, and there's very bad feeling after, you know, if somebody loses control and has a meltdown, they don't enjoy it.

They know it's not right. This is an evidence of their disability. And so they feel embarrassed, they feel ashamed, because there's also the feedback from the community, which is, of fear and astonishment that somebody's losing control. So everybody feels unhappy. So when you give people the ability to regulate or to have a tool that they know that it's there for them, that they can use to calm down and to prevent you know, escalation, that's absolutely vital, you know, or for the person and for the people that work with that person.

And you also said that the people that work with that person are often a part of the cause, right? So they practice together. Now what happens in their lives? You know, does that have any, any effects on their lives? Do they see any improvements? 

Yeah, I think they, they've actually asked me to, to teach them also, they actually, sometimes they request different movements.

They're the ones who actually say, Oh, we really want to do, you know, this movement or that movement. I, I teach them how to do a few movements that are not, adapted, you know, because for example, hip rotations we do, but it's adapted. 

Yes. 

And they really, you know, I think they love it. And they love the, you know, the fact that some of the movements they realize are a little bit challenging.

So, you know, they might try to do them on their own later. 

And, 

you know, through COVID, I, you know, we would do Chen Chi. Sometimes. And, this is most, mostly for the people who are accompanying them. Right. You know, I explained that this was a really good movement to do. to make sure that you have good health in your heart and your lungs.

And so they practice too on their, you know, when they're not there, they do take some of the methods and they practice them. 

And I could imagine that, you know, the, the, the, Neurodiversity, people and the people that accompany them because they do these these calls together and they are, they have, they experience things together.

I mean, they're all doing La Qi together, doing the chanting together. That is also an instrument to, to have something in common. Right. And to, to overcome, you know, the natural separation, because, you know, you feel so different when you have these, this, disability, but then you are able to share a powerful experience like Shigen Shigong now with the people around you.

I could imagine that this also has an impact on the relationship and on the mutual understanding of each other. Or am I making this up? I mean, I've never been to any of your classes, but it's just my imagination running wild here now. It's just so powerful what I, what I. can see in front of my eyes what's possibly happening.

Yeah, I think sometimes the, the person with the person with neurodiversity, actually, they try to practice together. They do that too, you 

know, 

and so it becomes a very bonding thing. And as you say, an equalizer. And if you think about it, you know, we think about neurodiversity, as you say, a different population.

But in reality, we really all, all are a different population. You know, whether we're speaking to do Zhineng Qigong because we have an illness, or we have a trauma, or we have just the joy of living, we just love movement, you know, somehow we all find ourselves in the same boat. And we have to confront our own limitations, whatever they might be, our own fixations, you know, and become aware of our attachments and how to let go of them.

You 

know, because if you think about our own attachments, are not that different from, a person with neurodiversity. Encountering a little bump on the road because something didn't go their way. Yeah. So they go to the store. They really want those chips, but they can't have them because you can't have chips every time you want them.

But, our own attachments are a little like that, you know, it's those little chips, you know, you think about how much comfort you get out of whatever it is that you're attached to. 

Yes. 

And the fixation that that attachment can really evoke and cause in your life, the havoc it can actually cause in your life.

So, you know, it's, I've learned a lot about teaching in general, through teaching people with neurodiversity. But I also learned a lot about my own attachments. my own fixations. 

Mm-Hmm. . 

My own meltdowns, you know? 

Mm-Hmm. . Yes. Yes, it's only that, you know, they are probably a little more common or not so obvious to the outside world because we are better at hiding them.

But, you know, they might do even more harm because, you know, a lot of our diseases and the thing that happened to us are actually caused by these attachments and by these, meltdowns that we don't want to look at. And then suddenly we wake up and we have this disease or that disease and we've got no idea where it comes from.

So, it's, I can see how you make the, how you, how you see these things, in the people you work with and say, well, wait a moment on one level, I do exactly the same thing. It just shows a little different, right? That's All right, so let's just go all the way back to where we started, where we were talking about happiness.

So is that, you know, if you look into the people they are working with and their families or the people that take care of them, would you say that things have shifted over the, over time so that they allow themselves more to say, wow, life is beautiful and, you know, and just enjoy the moment and go with the flow?

And don't get too obsessed with the things that don't work so well. Basically letting go of the idea that something is wrong because, you know, fundamentally there is nothing wrong. It's just a difference. That's why we call it diversity. So have you noticed something that shifting there in their consciousness as well?

You know, I mean, it, it's amazing. I, I was shocked at how many things actually shifted. From being, you know, like, alone, two people who are alone that are put together against their will or by force or by necessity, suddenly it became a community. 

Right. 

And all the people that accompany our adults are, now friends.

And they get along, and they like each other, and they like the person that they're working with, and they can laugh together, and they can make jokes together, and they can, you know, poke fun at each other, with each other. And just, it's, it's, it became a really beautiful group now. It's now a cohesive group, of the, the people that go with our kids.

that became friends and our kids that actually now enjoy being with one another. And so it's a really very relaxed environment. You know, once they relaxed, it's okay for your kid to not be perfect. 

Right. 

And so that vibe takes over and the community sees it. And there's much more accepting and much more open, and there's so much more flow all the way around.

Very cool. Well, I'm glad we are talking Regina. And I'm just having this thought, if there is, you know, someone in the community listening to this conversation. What Who is in a similar situation or would like to work, you know, with people with special needs in particular neurodiversity, you know, would you be willing to talk to that person?

Can they get in touch? So to experience, get a little bit more firsthand experience from you, or maybe the, a little bit of coaching or advice if necessary, if they do want to start an initiative like you did, themselves. 

Absolutely. I would love to, you know, explore and have a conversation with them if they need to.

Great. Wonderful. So we're putting your, your details in the show notes, obviously for people to get in touch, but I'm also would like to know, I know you are also a regular Zhineng Qigong teacher, do you also offer courses or is it mainly in cooperation with teacher Wei that you help him organize his courses or, you know, what else is there else you could, you can offer here?

Right now, I'm only offering, the co the cooperation with Teacher Wei, but I am developing different courses at the moment. I will start teaching also for, City of Hope, which is a, subsidiary of the hospital where they treat cancer for people with cancer, and I'm beginning to develop new, new things, so possibly new things are coming down the pipe.

Perfect. So we're going to watch this space, watch your website, and maybe there's an opportunity if you do start a new initiative, please get in touch again and maybe we can run another episode here. 

Wonderful. 

Thank you very much, Regina, and all the best to Los Angeles. 

Thank you, Torsten. It's a pleasure speaking with you.

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 verses meditation. Performed by Zhineng Qigong teacher, Katrien Hendrickx. Enjoy.

[Meditation]

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