177. Qigong, TaiChi, Baguazhang and Dementia (3)

My own experience is firstly like most people. As we get older, we become more and more in contact with people with dementia. Either through friends and family and others we know. While it is a terrible disease to be witness to, it is also a growing sign of getting older. The second way I have been a party to people with dementia is by way of volunteering my Qigong services at my local community centre. Most of the time it is by hanging around the elderly, but occasionally I find myself teaching Qigong to someone with dementia as part of a group. The great thing about people with dementia is that if they still have some capacity to learn, they tend to learn like slow moving toddlers. They do not resist but just do the moves as best they can. Their only limitation is physical due to their wearied age or as a result of an accident. The simple Qigong I teach, is easy to do and quickly opens up the energy channels around the body so that the practitioner can experience tangible energetic sensations in their hands as they manipulate their individual qi balls. This process, whether you believe it or not, involves a lot of brain power and the brain is forced to start rewiring neurons in order to make sense of this new sensation and what it means. People with heavy dementia from a Qigong experiential perspective tend to have a lot of empty space in their heads. It's like somebody removed a picture from a wall and ripped out the electrical wiring behind the wall with it. A fertile ground ripe for re-development provided the support structures are in place. For when a person with dementia does Qigong, their primary carer will also be doing Qigong beside them. Hence a lot of the learning, comprehension and understanding will be done by the carer.