Qigong Practice: Healing Ancestral Trauma - Maarten Van Opstal

True healing, according to Maarten van Opstal, means to liberate yourself from any burden. In today’s Qigong podcast, Maarten explains how ancestral healing became his pathway to understanding how his kidney failure connected to a larger family story.

Generational trauma affects us more deeply than we realize, as demonstrated through Maarten's powerful healing journey. After receiving a kidney transplant, mind body healing transformed his perspective, leading him from purely physical recovery to a deeper emotional awakening. The mind body spirit connection through Zhineng Qigong opened his eyes to a fundamental truth: we cannot separate our physical, emotional, and energetic aspects, they are all one.

Accepting his physical limitations was a gateway to deeper healing, while genetic inheritance showed itself not just in physical features, but in the way he processed emotions. Through oneness in Qigong, when leading with acceptance, there's a particular wholeness and peace in any situation. Another key principle of the Qigong practice: having an open heart and open mind - a healing transformation occurred when he finally accepted his body completely, acknowledging both the blessings and challenges inherited from his ancestral line. His acceptance is a culmination of his work with Qigong and his exploration of the relationship between his ancestors and his own energy being.

Finding life purpose through healing emerged as Maarten discovered that true liberation means freeing oneself from ancestral burdens. Zhineng Qigong and Chinese medicine healing principles helped him understand that his body's story started long before his birth. Maarten's story underscores the significance of holistic healing, which encompasses not just the physical but also the mental and emotional dimensions.

By integrating Qigong, Chinese Medicine and his background in psychology, Maarten achieved a deeper sense of peace and gratitude in his life. Tune in to hear his story.

Mindful moments:

• The open heart and mind principle of Zhineng Qigong facilitates deep healing transformation
• Genetic inheritance influences not just physical traits but emotional processing patterns
• Oneness in Qigong: Mind-body-spirit cannot be separated - they form one integrated system in healing
• Being one and acceptance is the key to peace. Deep peace and gratitude emerge from integrating ancestral acceptance with personal healing
• Kidney afflictions led to discovering deeper connection between physical illness and family history for Maarten
• Ancestral burdens can be released through understanding and acceptance of family lineage
• Holistic healing must address physical, mental, and emotional dimensions simultaneously

Links and Resources:
Discover Qigong Game: https://tinyurl.com/ymuywb6x
Maarten’s Book: https://tinyurl.com/ybv7tjm6
Contact Maarten: https://t.ly/-kOPK
La Qi Method E-learning Course: https://t.ly/iHe79

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Transcript

According to my guest today, Maarten van Opstal, true healing means to liberate yourself from any burden. While on his own path to healing, he wondered whether this burden had any connection to his long family line. While it seems obvious that we have inherited our ancestors genes, it might also be true that we are carrying their stories with us.

their dramas, their talents, and their energies. Let's hear what he has to say. My name is Torsten Lueddecke and this is the Wisdom Qigong Uncovered Podcast. Maarten is quite well known in the community because he's been very active, running various, activities, helping many people, through different difficult times.

I think it was during COVID where we had a lot of things happening on your Qi channel where you were sharing, you know, Qi, lectures from various teachers with people. And so that's why a lot of people know you. I thought today we start a little bit with your own personal story. story and then move to a question that you raised in our pre conversation and that is something like, you know, if somebody heals after the healing, what is a perfect life to them?

So, I suggest we start with you, I'll just start with your personal story and then we kind of move into that, into that question. 

Starting with my personal story. So maybe in the last, the last part of your, what you said, what is a perfect life for me? You know, I'm 57 at this moment. So I feel I'm getting closer to the completion of the first life.

And this for me is the perfect life. I mean, when I get to 60 years of living, then I will have completed what, according to what Chinese say, a one, one life cycle, complete life cycle. So if you think back about how, about these different years. So let's say 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and before 10 and even before birth, it's much, it's too much to, to share.

It's, it's, but each different, time zone, let's say time part, has a specific meaning to everyone's life. So, everyone can relate to the 20 year old person, 30 year old person, and so on. So, at this moment, what comes together in my life, let's say, is living partly in Italy, which is, as you mentioned before we started, do you like, enjoy living there?

And so I'm, I'm living my dream in a way. Since five years old, I was a child who climbed even I was at two years old. They picked me up the, up of the beach because I was climbing something in, on the beach. And so I've always been climbing mountains, everything that involves a natural living. So when I, When I say now, at this moment, I feel like I've realized, something that together with my wife, we live, and our dog, we live, very close to the world.

Wilderness, a very unknown, area of, of Italy, which is, going to Switzerland. And this area, is called Val Grande, Val Grande means, Great Valley or something like this. It's very rough. It's very tough. I prefer, I prefer that side. But if I look outside, when I'm out of my window, I look to the.

to the posh, cities of Stresa, which is, you know, a little bit, old style, classic, but also, very modern to Italian style of living. And, so from one side, my dream is to live in a place where it can be in nature. Other side is to be active, which means I can practice my body. This is very close to become to Qigong.

And, and also I can, if I have friends, I can go to the more social parts. I also like social life. I've been full, my life has been full of social activities. right from social activities due to illness. But my dream is to go back to a place where I can do this. So I'm also living partly in Belgium.

This is where I do most of my sharing of my experience, teaching, my work. So this is, in a short, short way to tell where it comes to this moment is to be able to have the mental, emotional and physical, of course, capacity, capability to realize this at this moment. So a healing story, you know, my whole life has been full of healing and has been full of working.

And it's only recent, really recent, the last few months, I feel great gratitude from the heart. And I feel, you know, when you talk about spleen or talk about body, everything comes back to the body. And for the first time since a very long time, maybe childhood, I feel like I'm home in my body. So, regardless, The damage, the, the thing that have been happening due to medical stuff, the desires I have to continue to live even with kidney failure.

It doesn't matter right now. It's just being grateful, feeling the gratitude and, and feeling a deeper peace within. So, yeah, healing exists. As it is on my personal part and being able to share it with others makes it meaningful. Meaningful. Okay. That's it. 

Yes. So you, you, you spoke about, the kidney failure, that you were experiencing.

Is that kind of the, the, the main issue you had to deal with in your life? Or is there other, other things, and how did you go about solving these issues with Zhineng Qigong? 

Okay, so there's actually two, two aspects or two, two questions in one. One is, what is the, let's say the foundation of my physical life? And due to, or let's say my personal, study, I have, I have gone backwards.

In my life, and even generations back, even to three, four generations back. So, again, as a child, I was already interested in, in what, about my parents, about my grandparents, about their parents. And I was the youngest in both my families as a child, and also the 60th grandchild in the two, two bloodlines coming together.

So this is the large family. So this, made me always looking backwards or up to the, to the people before me. And so this, came after, not only before, but also after I was diagnosed with kidney failure. I became even more interested in the, let's say, genes. You know, genetic DNA, also in the happy genetic, so it means what influences one's, one's health, you know, one's physical health.

But to be honest, The physical health is just, it is, you know, like you have a body, your feet are maybe 45, 44 size, your eyes have a color, you have a certain way of moving, and often you are referred to as, you act exactly like your grandfather or your grandmother. or the aunt of so much. And, this means, we, we receive the body from our ancestors genetically.

This we cannot change. So when I rose above, let's say the physical aspect of kidney failure, it, it helped me to look beyond, the disease as a medical condition. Medical problem. It helped me to accept a certain, no, it helped me accept my body. So I was only ready, at a certain point when they put a needle inside my back to say, this is a piece of kidney we are going to take.

I knew without kidney replacement therapy. This was in back in 98. So when I was lying in hospital, I realized. My life from a physical point is more or less finished because I need to do something else with my body to keep myself alive. So it was very much physically focused, but at the same time, physically, I also realized that I cannot think, I cannot feel, experience life without my body.

So, the body became like something to exercise, something to train after I received a transplant. And, I became very enthusiastic, very driven to, to go into business again. I was a, I was a, an organization. Advisor at that moment. And, I guess I had some successes. I went to South Africa, I went to Mozambique, I went to places where not many people come, especially not with a kidney transplant.

So when I start building my physical again, immediately, I was confronted with the mental and emotional mirror of what happened. And so, being a psychologist, I was, I was, I had an advantage to, to be a psychologist. My clients refer to me as your business aspect is good, but your personal aspect is much better.

So, this is how I moved slowly, slowly into, psychology, into sharing experiences from the, from the energy level, emotional level. And I had big confrontations at that time with my physical, because medical, medical can not help you. to give back your health. Even if you have, full, full health, you know, like everything, a hundred percent.

I realized that there was a big risk to be as big risk. So I need to go back to what is the meaning of my life. And, so I was just talking 20, 30, 40, I was in the 40s already when I met Qigong teachers. So Zhineng Qigong has played an incredibly important part in my life. Let's say the teachers played an important part of my life, but I already had 40 years of experience in, in life.

So this is different than the teachers who, who of course went to, to colleges at 80 or younger tradition. But nevertheless, I picked, I picked up the, the knowledge. I realized this was my way to go. And also I realized to integrate, to, to awareness. So to create mind, emotion, body cannot separate.

They're always, they're always one. If you're just talking about energy, Energy is just, you know, a modality, you know, like electricity. But Qi, wow, I was, I couldn't, I couldn't repeat what the teachers were saying. When Yuantong Liu was talking to me, one part was I couldn't reproduce anything. I said, oh, no, I know what he's talking about.

And then I started to try to explain or, And I couldn't, it just went all in. It was just the time to absorb, Qigong in the, at the, my beginning forties and, and so forth. So 

we have a way you can discover Qigong. So at the Zhineng Qigong student hub, we know that understanding Qigong. It's very important, and also that Zhineng Qigong in itself has various nuances that people can't easily comprehend.

So we've approached it in the style of a video game. On this page, Discover Qigong, you can select your character. So you can either be a beginner, a practitioner, or a pro. Or a holistic healer or self healer. And you click on your character and it takes you to these different sections. In these sections you can explore the nuances and when you click on a card, all of the resources pop up and we've made it really fun and not many people know about it.

So if you are interested have a look and discover Qigong. 

I think it's very interesting how you describe your journey because it seems that initially when you were confronted with the bodily issues you did separate. your body from your mind and from your emotions. And it is like, Oh, I have to do something with my body now in order to heal the body.

And then later on the emotional side and the mental side came up and you dealt with them. And it seems that, through Yuan Tong Liu, you and Zhineng Qigong, you realize, no, it's all one. And, and in a way it's, you know, I remember when you started the conversation, you said, this is the first time in my life where I, you know, actually, how did you put it, where I live fully in my body or something like that.

I'm not sure whether I'm quoting you correctly. So, it seems that, you know, after all those years it has come, finally come together, as one, accepting the whole. Is that, fair to say or yeah. Okay. 

Cool. Yes. And, living in the body means I have fully accepted my body. I fully accepted the curses.

the blessings, everything that came with my conception, and this is a part that came later. So first with Zhineng Qigong, then I met another teacher from, a Taoist teacher from, a master from, he lives in the United States, but he's, he's from China. And, one, one piece I couldn't, I couldn't figure out, I just couldn't figure out, and it was the relationship I talked about before with the ancestors.

Right. How do the ancestors are part of our body? We know from people that have lived through slavery four generations ago. Now they still feel what happened in the, in four generations ago. So I wasn't used to that. You know, I didn't grow up in, in such a situation, but I had many reasons to, to go back and to understand their lives, and not only their lives, but what I realized is that their qualities, you know, their personal qualities of each.

Father, mother, great, grandfather, great, great grandmother, so on. So 14 in total are actually very well connected to the qualities of our energy being. And this I, I probably have to explain. further on, because maybe it's too big a subject, but it's a big subject to replace your ancestors into an energy.

I'd like to hear about it because, what you said initially is something I think that all of us can understand. When you said we are, when you're given your body and for example, I've got blue eyes. They don't come out of nowhere. They come through my ancestors. So if we, if we take this idea, then it's not too far fetched to say that we're also carrying other things from our ancestors in our, you know, in our life and in who we are.

So I think it's a great topic and I'd love to hear more about it from you and how you see that. Please. 

Okay, so to give you a little bit of an idea, and I give it from my, because we started from my personal perspective as a, as a healing story. I think the, the true healing for everyone, for anyone is, you know, to liberate yourself.

from any burden. You know, if you still have the backpack with stones, if you fit at this moment in your life, you're just sitting, talking, you still feel I'm doing a lot of work. I cannot free myself. I cannot feel happy. I cannot feel without any reason, feel joyful or grateful. I always need to do something.

So it always involves action, you know, energy plus action. So we need to be able to feel yourself. free is, is for some people it's very difficult because they always carry the burden. So this burden, how can we liberate ourselves from? So, and I spend a lot of time on the bloodline story, you know, bloodlines, ancestor genes, talking about this.

And then I realized that, when we, when we always do something, we use, you know, we use the hands, for example, is it my hand that I use? Or is it the hand of my grandfather or grandmother? You know, if you always like to do physical work, there's a good chance that the physical work comes from an ancestor who liked to work as well with their hands.

Artists, for example, you know, have you, Oh, now I know because my grandmother was also interested in painting or something like this. So our hands, they are very related to our mind. So also our mind is very, what we think, how we behave. What we feel, our emotions, are all related to what happened before, before.

So, I don't have children, so I'm not going to pass, anything like blessings or curses to the next generation. The good thing is, I don't need to, so I, I, I am free to do what I want to do. And it means, I have to solve any problem I have in my life. myself, or any good thing, any celebration.

Normally you go celebrate with your children or your family, and we do it together. We have a small group. But the interesting part is, and this may be referring to the Zhineng Qigong community, there was once a teacher who said to me, I went away. It's a big teacher, you know, like hundreds of people go to his retreats in China.

He said, once I went away from my family and I went to the Zhineng Qigong community, I realized, oh, this is, this is my real family. This is where it's not so, because I asked, why don't you go back to your family? What happened? It's a difficult question. And he said, well, basically the family story is very difficult.

complicated. So when we feel liberated in our community, we feel free to be who we are. This is also all the qualities you receive and give in this community are still related to your ancestors. Because maybe, you know, one grandmother, she had an unfortunate life. Or she had a great grandfather who, you know, there was war, there was famine, there was, maybe happened to them, happened something which has changed their desires, their way, and to be free in themselves.

And this was given through generation of generation to the next generation. So I know this sounds very, very deep and very far. are fetched. But, it's very immediate. You know, like, what do you feel when you do something, if you take a decision? How do you take the decision? Is it very easy to take decision, or do you have to pass the board, you know, the board of invisible people that you have inside yourself?

Or maybe, the friends that represent this, quality that help you to, to build confidence. the trust in your life. And, I realize that, that this, trust, many people, lack, they don't have the trust because they cannot find this group or community. And that's why the community of Zhineng Qigong or any other community you might have, is very important.

And to add one more thing is that originally we lived in family structures, you know, like, like in Africa, big family structures. So everyone is being taken care of in their own, when they're sick, when they're healthy, when they're young, when they're old. This, we, we have lost, this we have lost. So we need to find a way.

And, the people around us that built this structure for us to be able to live a, let's say, a good life. Yes. 

Now, when you talk about, the, the communities and you, you mentioned that Zhineng Qigong community as an example, And that this kind of takes the role of the family structure that we used to have in in former times.

Would you say this is because you share certain things with the community? Or is it because, you know, like, one of them, the characteristics of Zhineng Qigong is the idea of open heart, open mind. Which means we are very accepting and it means we are, you know, open to understand you no matter where you come from and how you are, we are, we welcome you with an open heart.

Or why would you think, you know, that the Zhineng Qigong community in your case plays such an important role and not, you know, some local football club or something like that? 

But that's the whole thing. It can be anything, you know, even if you live in nature, the nature becomes your community. And so it has no form, but as soon as it becomes a form, it often reminds us of patterns we had in the, in the past, right?

So we open ourselves to others, or we say as a group, we say welcome in our group. , This resembles a lot about how we were received in our own family. You know, our conception, which is the most determining moment of our life, takes place four years before we even, you know, have any, any, awareness or any thinking about it.

But a lot. The most important growth is between conception and the first six months of, growth. Becauseh, then we get our, our body, that's where, when our body is, so, so the whole body is already completed before we are even aware of it. So, and this is not just a body, it also includes the emotions, you know, like, like through Qi, Qi Gong we know, or Chinese TCM we know, vital organs.

Emotions, elements, colors, anything that comes to our feeling body, let's call it a feeling body. So, when we are accepted by the community, it means something can connect. Qi, you know, Qi is connection, you know, it's just energy flowing. When it flows, oh, we feel, okay, this is, this is, maybe I want to spend some time with with this family, with this community.

But it pays off to reflect what is the quality of this connection. I mean, not like a high or low, but I mean, What is exactly what you're getting turned on? You know, why do I'm excited or why I certainly feel so sad or angry or to, to, to study the deeper layers of the emotions to the vitality of our life.

And this is, this is a, is a, it's, it's a long work, you know, before you realize what, what, where do, where my lungs come from. What is the emotional sadness and where did it, did it connect in the back? in the background or backwards, sometimes we, we think it's because of me. Most of the time, you know, we like to, to say it's, it's to me, it's, I'm the one who's going to do it.

But many emotions, they go back to hundreds of years. They're still in our body, they still have the residue of what happened, or famine, or hunger, or war, you know, that goes back maybe to 1600, you don't know. And this makes. a life spectacular, a surprising, a wonder, a miracle, and, the only thing we need to do to work, because that's the Qigong, is to need to do work, to go through all the emotions, to go through all the, physical and emotional, and to go beyond this, of this.

If, if you can go beyond, it's always said by many teachers. go beyond, you know, like standing for two hours like this and then, experience everything, but always have the blue sky Qi field. How many minutes can I stand like this without thinking, you know, without, starting to, to, to, the ego starting to say, you know, lower your arms now.

And so how many, how much time of the two hours? can we spend beyond. So this means true liberation. It's very safe because the Qigong, it's not, it's not dangerous to the body because it's not dangerous to any, to the psyche, to the psyche, because when we want to stop, we will stop. When we think it's dangerous, when it's painful, we will stop.

And at least with Qigong training, we can, we can say pain that is good, pain that's not good, you know. So this, so through the Qigong energy, Qi, Through the relationship we have with around and within, and flowing or not flowing or opening, we realize something very special. And that is that, without even really knowing why, suddenly the emotions start changing into a positive one.

Even the sadness, you know, crying with, you know, The smile, a little bit of anger is good because it motivates us, or you're getting more anger. Okay, do a practice, it takes six hours for the body to settle down. Okay, more acceptance. And, so even without really knowing exactly what happened in that time, but it pays off to study where do you come from?

Where's my emotion come from? Where's my, what can I do? And the reason I say is. Because you can become more conscious, aware, free. The body I cannot change, but I know now that I can, I can change. I can do something very powerful. Yes. 

Now, we don't always have the, possibility to know enough about our ancestors to know that three generations away, maybe my grandma had to go through hardship because of a famine or something like that.

For example, in my family, I can hardly go one generation or two generations backwards, because I don't have the information. So. So I think it's great to explore that. And wherever you can find out something about the family, that can be very useful because it might resonate. And then you see, okay, well, maybe this is where my emotion comes from.

This is why I sometimes feel like it. But again, you know, not all of us have the possibility to go very far. So what you're suggesting here also with you had Qigong exercises and you were mentioning, you know, an exercise like three centers merge where you're just standing for two hours and basically whatever comes up comes up and your emotions and so on.

It is by dealing with these emotions and being very, accepting that you might also let go things that are not your own. your own or that you haven't acquired in your own lifetime. Let me put it like this. They are your own because they got from your, you got them from your, your ancestors, but you haven't necessarily acquired them in your lifetime.

They can be coming, you know, from past generations, right? Yes. 

So, yeah, from what you say, there's two things, you know, first of all, resonating and that word I remember, second is, to go back, not to blame your ancestors, you know, this is the opposite, but it often happens, you know. That we, if we're not aware, you know, unconsciously, we start to blame.

Maybe not even your ancestor, maybe you start blaming a neighbor or somebody passes in the street instantly. This is also related to where do you come from? What is my bloodline? And also you said, I don't know my, my generation before. So how can I connect? So some people, this, this, you know, you have methods, techniques.

Qigong is just a technique. You go back to the ancestor, meditate on the, on your ancestor that you didn't know. Not everybody, not everybody, 14, you know, seven on your, on your father's side, seven on your mother's side. Maybe you were present when you had your conception, I mean, present in the, in your, in your bloodline.

Maybe didn't, the genes didn't express themselves through all of them. They probably just, nine, or at least two, you know, at least two, because the two bloodlines come together. So when you say, I don't know them, at least you can use a technique to go back. I remember very well when I was in China, I was in my shang with, with Master Liu, we did a meditation on this, even going back before you were born, before conception.

So it means a lot. It means a lot to Chinese traditional knowledge. They say honor your ancestors. Maybe you've heard this before, you know, especially Taoists, they, they say, honor your ancestors. And, but honor, honoring, what is the meaning? You know, like, do we, do we, do we go out and go to the grave or do we go out to do a ceremony?

Yeah, maybe for you, that's working. I don't know. For me. I, I use a very simple method, just use my Qigong knowledge and then went past, I passed either each ancestor, went back to a great grandmother, great grandfather, whatever, their, their in laws, you know, how they were married. And, I came up with a number of ancestors that I was sure they were playing some role in my life, either through blessing or Or maybe to less positive, but you know, it's just energy.

It doesn't make any, any difference. So you're, what you say resonate is very important. If it, if it resonates, it means you still have the connection. You still have the energy. So even if you're living now, you might be experienced something that happened then, which is. which resonates within your life. So this is very important because when you have this feeling, when you bring it back to the core, it's just energy.

So how much energy, time, do I spend, on living my life for my ancestors or free myself from something that happened in the past? This only anyone for himself or herself can answer. And through Qigong, I learned one important lesson is to take full ownership, you know, ownership. You cannot blame, you cannot be, if you feel guilty all the time, which is not what is the, what's the use of feeling guilty all the time?

What's the use of feeling shame, ashamed? It's just not feeling free, but no one is going to tell you how to liberate yourself from this. So this is taking full ownership to the core, to the deepest practice. How many hours do I need practice to go back to my owning my life. Yes. 

That was a very interesting talk, Maarten.

I think we went on quite a journey and I think it's the first time that, you know, I actually had a guest here using these ideas of what, what is the influence of my ancestors on me and on my life and who I am. So that was very, very valuable. And, I'm sure our audience has enjoyed it a lot. So I'd like to thank you, Maarten, for being our guest today.

And, yes, and I wish you that you, you know, continue creating this beautiful life you have in Italy right now with your wife and your dog. And I'm sure we'll stay in touch and maybe there's an opportunity for another podcast very soon. 

Thank you very much, Torsten, and have a good day. Thank 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. 


To get your free ebook on the eight versus meditation, please check the show notes, below.