Qigong for Inner Healing: How Daoist Wisdom Transforms Mind and Body

Hey, one more thing before you go. What if life wasn't something to control, but something to dance with?What if every twist, every fall, every unexpected turn was part of a greater flow?Today, we're going to answer these questions and so many more as we are joined by someone who's lived that truth across decades, disciplines, and dimensions. And we're going to help you learn that dance to get your life into that positive flow with within meaning and purpose. I'm your host, Michael Hurst.Welcome to One more thing before you go. Sifu Boggie. He's a Taoist guide, a healer, and a storyteller. He invites us to see life not as a problem to solve, but as an adventure to embrace.With over 40 years of experience and energy work in Eastern philosophy, he's trained by renowned Taoist masters and blends ancient wisdom with modern life, offering transformative practices like qigong, tai chi, Taoist shamanism, and Eastern Reiki. His journey spans roles as a close protection officer, pastry chef, and community support officer.Embodying the Taoist principles of thriving in any circumstance. Rather than fixing people, Sifu Boggi empowers individuals to unlock their own healing potential.His playful story, rich teaching style makes complex ideas accessible, guiding others to rediscover their true selves and embrace natural flow of life.With a deep belief in the magic of everyday moments, he invites us to challenge, to see life not as a challenge, but to conquer, as an adventure and to live life fully. Welcome to the show, Sifu.

Well, to. What? Welcome. Well, thank you very much and welcome back.

Yeah, yeah. But all of those things and above, I think the most important question here is Pastry chef, did we bring the pastries this morning?

Well, funny enough, you can say that I just actually made some chocolate this afternoon. I made walnut, cashew and cranberry chocolate for my partner and myself because we do like.So I like chocolate, but they never quite quite love doing it the way I like it. So I eat dark chocolate and. Yeah. And the fresh ingredients. So we've got a little bit of that. There's no actual pastries here, but, yeah, it's.

Oh, you're talking to a retired police sergeant. I. I am a connoisseur of pastry donuts in any kind of pastry, actually. So. Yeah, it's good. It's good. You've had an amazing journey in life.You like to share that with everybody. So I like to start at the beginning. Where'd you grow up? What was your family like?

Right, so. Well, I'm actually adopted, and I grew up in a place Called Higgindon, the borough of Hiddingen, which is in the outskirts of London in the uk.And as I said I was adopted but it really bothered me. But I'm actually half Irish, half Russian and born in London.There's a place called Whitechapel Hospital which is basically the sound of the Bow Bells which they call the East End. So I'm actually a Cockney or East Ender though I don't really have the accent as such.But so I grew up as a kid in Hillingdon and I've always been a little bit out there, a little bit different and I've just seen the different perspective. I was later to find I'm actually part autistic, part dyslexic and that gave me that looking things out of, out of the box.But because of that I got picked on as a kid. You can't quite see them but rather, rather prominent ears that people used to pick on when I was younger.And so round about 10 years old, 11 years old, I started a martial art. And for me the martial art I was very lucky. Yes. And so I, I didn't go or I didn't find the normal martial arts.I found one bit like me, a little bit different, called Katie Darts. And there was a martial side, but there was a lot about meditation and about breathing and about focusing.And later I learned that actually martial arts in the west we think it's about fighting, but in the east it's all about personal development and about learning about oneself. When you learn about yourself, you actually learn about the universe.And so I started at around about 11 years old and, and within that first year I actually met, through that first martial arts I met what would eventually be my long term sifu, two of them, sifu shun and sifu po and they were daoists and the dao means the way, the part, the balance. And they were very much in to what's called qigong. Now if you heard of Tai chi then qigong is the grandfather of Tai chi.It's, it's the, it's, it's the wise one, it's that, oh, it feels like my, my sh is just broken on like on the camera.So, but it, so it was very much about like the qigong in is breath work, moving with breath and it is, there's a health side, there's a fitness side, a martial side and also a meditation side. And my teachers were very much the daoist. The dao means the way, the path, the balance.And it's actually What Star wars was boasting the daoism and chi and the yi and the yang, the light and the dark side and the force and within the Daoism, it's all about the dao, the way, the path. And it's also about the slow adapting hearing. And my teachers very much focused on everything you learn enhances everything else you do.So as I progressed through my life I started doing at 15, I wanted to be a baker and my seafood are excellent, bakers made great masseuse. So from baking I actually learned that kneading the dough is very similar to massage.And massage techniques in massage are actually techniques that you would use in martial arts or holds and locks. And then that massage could actually affect the body in a way that it can activate the endorphins.So you can have spiritual realization or past life realizations or just a bit better understanding yourself. So everything's connected to everything else.So that journey started off from, you know, 11 years old and I, I've done close protection as I said, part throat detection with my, with shilling, poke my seafoods and same time I was learning banking and eventually became a pastry chef as well.And then later on in my life in my, in my late 30s, I went into the British police and as a role of pcso which is police Community Support Officer and it's all about support, supporting the, the police and it's all, all about crime prevention. So very much about to the community and one of my biggest preferences is proaction rather than reaction.So you know, what can you, what can you ensure, what can you settle and, and fix before it becomes a problem? And it's so it was a role that Rayma saw suited what I did.And a few years ago I sort of left that and moved to Lincolnshire in the uk which is sort of the middle of middle of England. And I now with my partner, she, she has nine acres of land and we do weddings here and events.And then I also at the same time do my own, do massage as well as teaching tai chi, qigong both online and all around the world.

That's amazing. You know, I find it, you know, fascinating. I learned a long, long time ago when I was younger as well. I started learning Kung fu and then moved in.When I went into law enforcement, they taught, I went to learn aikido and you know, aikido's the both of those everything that you just mentioned.I understand the philosophies about all that's connected and how the mind, the body and the soul have to Connect in order to be able to achieve either a defense, meditation, self healing and even as you say in the western side when they fight. As a cop, I got into fights. But I find it fascinating that this all comes from a Taoist lens.What does embracing life's adventure mean to a Taoist lens? I mean, you mentioned how all that brought together. He told you about the baking, the massage, which I never thought about before.A baker would be a fantastic masseuse.

Yeah, it, well, it's sort of in essence is that, you know, like when you look at the big picture when we're kids, we see all the awe and the wonder of the world. You know, it's what, what I grew up as, learning the sacred child side.And we see all these magic and mysticism and we have these great adventures in our heads and when we're growing up we get that narrowed adult hinted, narrow field and oh, you have to focus on this, you've got to focus on that. And the issue is that what happens at some point we disconnect. And one of the disconnects is that that awe and wonder.Whether you call it God, whether you call it, you know, the universe, whether you call it banana, the everything we are part of. And in, in quantum physics, we know that the quantum field is the 99.9% of an atom. So the empty space isn't entity, it's called quantum field.And every atom is connected to everything else. Well, we're, that we're full of atoms and all our atoms connected to all the other atoms. So we're all interconnected and we're all one.But when we close off, it was like a horse and have chatters across our eyes and we narrow the field, we start feeling empty, we start feeling disconnected, we start feeling that things are not right. And then we start searching for the answers through different things. You know, whether it's drugs or, or, or, or sex or power.And you think the goal is these certain things when the goal is actually to experience and learn and play and understand and, and you know, enjoy, whatever that means to you. But it's this experience is what I sort of look for. And, and like, you know, I teach certain set of things.You know, I, I, I teach the qigong, the energy work, I teach the meditation, which is also in Chinese and shen gong. I teach stretching, which is nagong. But when you look at nature, animals do that all the time.You, you, you, what if you've got a cat or a dog, when they wake up in the morning, they stretch.When with you know, even if they're, you know, 14 years old, you know, at some point in the day, they have a mad, mad five minutes where they're running around and causing mayhem or playing with a ball. That's a qigong part. And then sometimes you'll just sit there staring into space. But that's their meditation.So nature has these things already programmed into them. They know, they understand that we need the action, we need the stillness, we need play.Now we, we sort of see these things as separate or get a little bit confused.But like in the concept daoism, you have the masculine, which is the action, the doing as well as, you know, we see our just as matt male but the masculine qualities, and everybody has masculine qualities. That's all about your action, about getting things started. Being feminine side is the nurturing, the loving, the keeping it going, maintaining.And the child side is the play, the inspiration, the ideas. So we all should try to harness the masculine, the feminine and the child.And that's, you know, that's a quality that I very much respectively the child. Like, I'm always trying to make things a little bit silly.I try to be a bit fun, like because, because we focus too much on the serious and we focus too much on, you know, oh, things have to be like this.You have to understand that to allow things to play, you have to allow things to flow and to allow them to flow things, like sometimes you just have to let things be what they are. And so yes, it is good to, you know, have things and control things to a degree. But you need to be spontaneous as well.You need to allow things to just, just be what they are. And the whole idea for me is I'm not in one box. It's very hard to put me in a box because I have a tendency to break myself out of it.But the idea is that this, you are more than one person. You're more than just a mother or a father. You're more than just just a worker or a retired. You're more than this, you're more than that.You're so, so many things.And it's understanding that you are those things and then it's also understanding you're more than that because people label themselves as, oh, I'm old, you know, I'm 18 because I'm old. That's nonsense. I've seen 90 year olds that were in their 30s in China.I saw 90 year olds that were putting me to shame, that made me look unfit, you know, and it's the state of mind and through epigenetics, which is all about the way you think and feel affects your physical health. So you can change the way you think, that change the way you feel, that changes the way you are will help. So things should be altered and changed.And the biggest thing I will always say is you're never too old, you know, never say you're never too old. My, my. And one of my examples to that is the oldest person I taught Qigong was 96. He was 96 years old when he started learning qigong with me.And his wife had died a couple years before and he, his daughter was very worried about him. She'd been doing qigong with me for a couple years and he had sort of given up. And we started off with seated qigong.We were just doing seated movements, small little movements. We slowly built up and built up and he lived for another 10 years. He extended his own life through finding new passions and new loves.He extended his own Life for another 10 years. And I've seen lots of little miracles like that.I've seen people or told they never walk again or they'll always have to have a BE on the zimmer frame. And I've seen them do this. Now people say, oh, you did it wasn't me. You took those exercises, you took that knowledge and you ran with it.And you, I'm just sifu. Sifu just means guide. Somebody points a finger towards the moon or towards that goal and guide you on your path like a news. That's what I am.I'm not a master. I'm not telling you what to do. I'll help you along the way. You are the seep of your own life. You are the sea of your own adventures.And you have the capability of doing whatever you want, however big it is. Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day. He was built one brick at a time. And you know, all that journey is just one step.Start off with that one step, just one step, then another, then another, then another. And before long you're on that path. And it's the journey that's important, not always the destination. It's the journey.

Profound, profound words of wisdom. And what an amazing opportunity that 96 year old had to realize that life wasn't done yet and that he still had more to give and more to experience.So that's.Yeah, that makes my heart feel good, you know, that you're able to reach somebody at that age and at that point, because again, age, as you said, I love it, it's just great. Age, Age is only determined by how we feel about ourselves.Sometimes we have little obstacles we have to overcome, sometimes we get little bumps in the road. But I love it. It's the way, it's the way it should go. Do you think you're your contribution to law enforcement?You know, in, in the way that you had done and, and your, even as a patriot chef, did that help you understand flow and adaptation like we just talked about? Because I mean those are two extremes of, of jobs and I think we have to have a balance.

I. Yeah, I mean it was very much when I, when I worked in the Met, things worked out things, things are very much set in a certain way and very much in a box and things are very much in certain part. And it was, it was good, it was good getting good structure, but it was also good about patience.It taught me patience because when the way things are, people perceive things in a certain way and, or like they perceived the, the certain people. Because in the role I was, you know, in the role of. I wasn't a police officer though.If like in the uk if, you know, if somebody tried to assault me, I can make a citizens arrest, you know, I can defend myself. I was there, you know, I had a radio.If, if a. I dealt a lot of the time, I think a lot of people think as a piece of shit, oh you know, you don't have any powers. You're, you know, you're, you're, you're nobody. But I still dealt with people with knives. I still dealt with people who threatened me.And, and the interesting thing was is that they would say you get other people say you only in this job for the power. It's like I was a protection officer. Well, I got the millionaires and, and, and you know, like I'm flying around with jets. I'm.I'm sitting on the bike talking to you in the heating down rain. I'm not here for the power. I'm here. I'm here because I'm, I'm doing a role and you know, I was helping people and that's what it was more about.It was for me, it was about helping people in a certain way.And it definitely, it definitely gave me perspective, it definitely gave me a role where people see, you know, somebody can see a uniform and go, that's this, it's like somebody behind that uniform there's some, you know, there's a person with their own problems, with their own things they're going through in their own life. And, and you know the funny thing Was is for a lot of the officers. I was their.Their back guy, you know, because, you know, because they're wearing the. The. The stab best or the, the bulletproof jacket. It was very stiff and it would make you know, it would affect a lot of their shoulders and backs.So I be. My nickname in the job was Kung Fu Panda. So be because of the fact I. I did martial arts and I loved food and I was a bit big and so I Kung Fu Panda.So a lot of people call me Panda. Lot of the officers behind closed doors, Japan. My back sort my back out. Okay, come here then.And so it was that whole thing of, you know, yeah, you saw things a different way. And of course you had the banter in. In when we were in the station you had the banter whatnot.But when we're out the street we would act in a certain way and we'd be the same way. But I always try to do a little bit humor. I always should try to be the person.There was a lot of the time where, where people would gravitate to me because of being new. Oh yeah, that's. That piece is so bright. And yeah, doctor here, he's all right. He is. He's okay. Or he looks after Mrs. Miggins down the road, you know.So it. That was the thing I went for and it was. It was being able to help people.It's a little bit like being a ninja is that I am seeing things from a different perspective. A uniform and people are seeing one thing and yet sub. I would say a certain thing or a certain way and they go, oh, I never thought of it like that.Or you know, and it's. They're not expecting it and it's. It's a way of. You know, not all Sifus wear. Wear robes. Not. Not all Seafus are. Are called Sifu.You know, everyone is a Sifu. Everyone is teacher guide. Everything around you teaches you. Because everything's talking to you all the time. The whole universe is talking to you.All you got to do is listen.

Yep, I agree 100%.I think that once we understand that we have the opportunity to connect with the universe in such a way that we just have to listen and open our eyes because it's all around us and that harmony, that flow will come to us naturally. You know, I bring back the. Even with the double edged sword of COVID Excuse me, we had a minute of brief. What the heck.Covid was a double edged sword because Covid put everybody to a stop. And when you stop, then you had to think, because what you brought up earlier in the conversation about everybody has this expectation.You get up, you go to work, you spend all day at work, you stop for lunch and then you go back to work and then you come home, you have dinner, you watch tv, you go to bed, you get back up, you go to work. Same thing every day. And that's what you were destined to do. And people get in that rut.But Covid allowed us to take a break and say we need more of a balance. We need to go back. My wife got to work from home for two years. She normally drives to work 45 minutes to an hour in horrendous traffic.And it was nice because she had a 30 minute commute to the back patio where we had a cup of tea, we watched the sunrise, we took a breath, we connected with nature. It started our day so much better. And then when she was done, we got to eat lunch together. Every day.Work commute home was 30 seconds from the, from the, from the, the, the desk to back out on the patio again before the sun went down or whatever the case may be. We got more balance. We got more balance. Do you think qigong? And you have to help me with titar. I'm not familiar with titar.Is that of any relation to qigong or is that something a little bit different than qigong?

So one thing I, I just quickly want to say is like, with COVID is like there's a Dallas, very simple Dallas philosophy. There is no good or bad. There just is. And everything, you know, there is, you know, there's always two sides.And the whole thing of when one thing in my practice that you learn to do is to go back and meditate on your life and see like, like the worst. Like when my father died. Yes, my father died. But what came from that, you know, from the downs.There's always an up from this, you know, and, and all like my dad had cancer, had throat cancer. And for 15 years he went, went to sleep the cancer. And, and everybody's really surprised.The doctors were really surprised because, because normally five years is, is the little bit. And he, for 15 years he, you know, he was fine. And then Covid came and his cats came back and then suddenly he was terminal.And it's like, focus on the now you're here now. Let's focus on that. Let's focus on the good thing. That's focused and it's, it's.And you short said it is that what Kobe did was that it flipped people's perspective it gave them. When before COVID a lot of people would say, I wish I had more time to spend with my kids. Surprise. Or I wish I had more time to do this.I wish I had more, you know, I wish I had friends who were advocates of working at home before COVID that was never going to happen. Society beautifully, society would never let it happen.Now each 50, 50, you know, there's a lot of businesses that will literally, you know, focus on that. So everything is perspective, everything is about, you know, there's, it's no good or bad, it just is. You've got to look at both sides, right?So to answer your question, so TikTok, so TikTok is basically Chinese osteopath, so Chinese osteopathic chiropractor. And again to answer the question is that within the Taoist perspective, everything leads to something else.So qigong is energy exercise or breath work. And qigong can be anything in movement, moving with breath. So anything can be a qigong. It's about being mindful about, about those movements.So you could just literally be sitting in your seat listening or watching to me. Breathing in and let your whole body expand, breathing out and then let your body relax and settle down.Not quite, not slump, but just settle back to a nice comfortable posture. So breathe in, expand, breathe out, reset, even expand, breathe out, reset. And you're already doing qigong.You're doing as simple as that or breathing in and you know, moving the hand out to get a cup of tea, breathing out, drawing the cup to your, to your lips, having a sip, breathing in, grieving out, putting the cup back down again, you're doing qigong. So from there, so qigong is moving exercise. Now in that big umbrella, there's lots of different storms.Tai Chi, that name a lot of people heard of, Tai chi is a style of qigong. It's one of the many styles. And the biggest thing with qigong or for me I always promote qigong is like massage. It's self massage.The movements that we do helps you massage your own body and relaxate relaxation now from one side. So the qigong is the action, the moving side. You then got tui na, which is a style of massage which has qigong set into it.So the practitioners themselves are doing a style of qigong and massaging your body at the same time and helping you relax. So it's something that's done to you.And then the tick tock is like also intertwined into the tweener and the tikta is back correction but the best way, when you have a creaky door, the worst thing to do is I've got a door behind me for those listening to this.But that, that door, if that's creaky and musty, the worst thing to do would be to yank it open because you probably break the hinges, guys, you've got some oil and then you was to oil the hinges, you would, then the door would open quite smoothly and it wouldn't crook. So tick toe.What they do in osteopath and chiropractor, they tend to manipulate and to manipulate or push onto the joints of their spray to put them back in alignment. What tikta does, it massages first and it oils those vertebrae, oils those joints first. So then we do the correction inside.There's less resistance, there's, there's less fighting of the joints, so there's less creaky door. So the whole point of that tar is that it's actually we massage first and then we, we can then correct.Now the interesting thing in qigong, a lot of people will do the qigong will do certain exercises and they'll say, oh, I just clicked something. Just clicked. It's like, yeah, you're affecting your own back, you're correcting your own posture. And that's what we're actually meant to do.Like qigong is great and ch and all these things I do are awesome for me. But you can find your own version, you know, like nae gong, which means strengthening exercise.When we stretch the body, we stretch the mind because we stretch the tendons. And when we stretch the tendons, there is tension within the tendons and toxins.And by stretching those toxins are released, you fluff them out your body. And in the Eastern philosophy that the tendons is where negative emotional energy is stored.So when you stretch your body, that's why you feel better, because you're releasing those toxins from your body and movement enhances your chi.So the biggest thing work for a lot of people with mobility issues and also things like fibromyalgia, which is chronic pain and Ms. And me is that they become more and more stick because their body is sort of, their nerves are heightened and everything is painful and they stiffen up, become more and more stiff. And that is actually encouraging more illness, it's actually encouraging more disease.So that what we do at qigong is to make movement gentle and flowing and soft and a bit like having that rusty door, a dirty plate. If you gently put the water over the plate, the dirt slowly disappears. And slowly slides off.And so the chance qigong is like oiling that door or the water, putting water over your body, it's gently starting to increase blood flow, increase the, reducing the tension in the muscles, stretching the tendons. And it's increasing blood flow, oxygen flow, white blood cells, immunity. And then we also say improving the Qi. So movement increases.When you increase the movement, you increase the blood flow, the oxygen flow, she flow, you increase yourself back to health.

Which I think is a. I mean, it's an amazing analogy, by the way, the way that you said together between the door. Because I. Sometimes I feel like that creaky door, you know, and sometimes I feel like the dirty dish. So taking that, I think that you, you.It allows us. From what I understand from what you're trying to say is there's a difference between fixing someone and guiding them to heal from within.In both qigong and Tatar can allow us to heal from within and that you guide us to that. Correct?

Yeah, yeah, it's very, it's very much.Well, yeah, but the guy, you know, so, so these things are also one of the biggest things in qigong and tai chi especially is that is about listening. And the more you listen to your own body, you'll actually, you know, you'll know what you need. You know, any, any.If you, if you're a lady, you've had children, we know, like mums who wanted us when they were pregnant, wanted to eat a bit of coal or they wanted to eat pickled, pickled onions and strawberries because their body craved those things. Well, ironically enough, our bodies instinctively have that there were things that we will naturally crave when we're in a flowing state.We crave the things we need. Now sometimes what happens when we're in a negative plate, we crave the things that will actually slow us down.And it's about getting yourself back into this state of listening to your body and listening. And one of the biggest things we don't understand, a lot of people don't understand, is that you can actually feel your own organs.You can feel your body inside. You can feel that tension, that pain is for, for, for virtual. I haven't got much to.But it's a bit like a flag, you know, it's like a flag waving in the wind. The pain is an indicator. It's telling you there's a problem.Now what happened, what's happened in modern society, we focus so much on the flag and not actually what it's trying to say. And just the issue is like the Pain. The pain is the effect. There is a cause.And what happens in medicine, in modern medicine, what seems to have happened is that we focus far too much on the call, on the effect side, not the cause. So in the Eastern approach, listening to your own body, you can actually feel where that tension is.You can feel where you're stiff and aching, where you hurt. The more you can relax, the more you can let go and just allow yourself to move and twist and turn and just breathe, the more you can affect that.And there's a. There's a wonderful Dallas poem that says the way you. The way you breathe affects who you are.And what it means is that if you breathe fast, erratic, shallow, and quick, your thoughts, your feelings, your actions will be fast, erratic, shallow, and quick. But if you can focus on breathing slowly and smoothly and quietly, your thoughts start to become slow and smooth.Your actions, your feelings start to slow down and start to smooth out, and things will get quiet. And the way you think and the way you feel affects who you are. So when we. When we see an illness and we say, I'm this.You know, I got this, it's that we're seeing ourselves as that thing, and it's like, you're not that. You're so much more than that. And. And you can let that go and actually change things and alter things. And, you know, not everybody gets it right.You know, the. The medical profession brushed off their feet, you know, in a lot of countries, and. And they see things in a certain way.But if you look up epigenetics and look up Dr. Bruce Lipton and Joe Dispenser, the. These people have studied the science of the way we think and feel affects our physical health, and they understand that.They know that we're science so much more than its physical body. You know, there's. There's even science to prove that our soul or consciousness is actually on the outside and it comes into this body.When they've done MRI scans or they're looking at where thoughts were coming from, it appeared to be coming into the body rather than being located somewhere. So we're so much more than this body. You know, we're so much more.And all you've got to do is to allow yourself to play with that idea, allow yourself to play, be a child again. You know, a lot of people talk about the divine feminine or the vine masculine, the sacred child is really important.That idea of play, that idea of what if. That, you know, like, what if I could make myself better? What if I could, you know, not be that disease and. And be me or be more than that disease.What if. And it's coming from that. You can then explore all these different avenues.

That's brilliant. Brilliant. I mean, I agree with you a thousand percent. Once we learned. It took me to learn. I had to learn it.You know, I sat in a wheelchair for four years feeling sorry for myself and angry and resentful and you name it, until my. My daughter leaned down in front of me and said, I want you to walk me down the aisle. I know you can do it.And from that point forward, it got me out of there and I haven't looked back since. And I used a combination of. Even when they tried to give me the drugs, my wife couldn't attest to this.They kept trying to bring me Vicodin and codeine. And I said, I don't want it. And she would do acupuncture on me. She got trained with some acupuncture. We do acupuncture. We do juices.She'd bring me juices to the hospital. Hospital. And then I would Qigong walk. I get emotional. Sorry. I. When I. When the physical therapist would come in. Qigong walk.And I did this and I did this and I did this. And I healed up six weeks before the average individual doing it. I was the. Without being gross.The nurse, every time she came in to check my urine, she said, you got the cleanest urine. I said, because I'm just drinking water and green tea and juices while I'm here and so forth. There's a connection that we.Like you said, I have to validate that for you, that you need to listen to your body. When your body tells you something, you have the opportunity to move past what you're experiencing. And I did it. You can do it.And I've walked 1.6, 1.7 million steps in the last year when I was told by five doctors I wouldn't. So, yes, I believe in everything that Jesus said and I appreciate the way you presented it. That's brilliant.Do you think we as people can find magic in everyday moments like that?

You know what? I'm going to do the unthinkable. I'm going to bring back Covid again.I think something writes that was, for me, like a lot of people saw the darkness of. Was interesting in. In. In. That was in 2019 oh, 2020 is going to be a wonderful year. And it's going to be magic and fairies and roses and.And I said, yeah, that'd be really cool, but I Don't think so. I actually think or I felt some things. I saw that, that, that yes, eventually things would. There'd be great change in the world.There's going to be a turmoil. That. From that, from that adversity comes opportunity. And that's. That is a very Taoist saying. And I think the idea. It's funny. I've had. In the last.In the last 30 years, I've had. My best friend died of leukemia. Another friend who died of kidney cancer. My father, as I said earlier.So after 15 years of it, as I call it, being sleeping, then the throat cancer came back. And if I learned anything in. And my. My best friend was the first one to say to me, he said, boggy, because that's what he knew me as, boggy.And he said, boggy, never take anything for granted. Live every moment. You know, like I have this luck because he was basically diagnosed with leukemia and a year later he passed.And every single moment of that year, he lived it. Lived it to the fullest. He did everything he could. We did some crazy stuff.And it's about living because you don't know what to master and bring, you know, like in. In. In 2019, we didn't know that. That the world was going to go into lockdown. You don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. So why.But don't worry about it, because worrying about it is like trying to adjust a wing mirror when you're driving down the car and there's a deer in front of you. That's not going to do any good. Get your hands on the wheel and suck a freaking car action. Doing something, but also living it.You know, enjoy your life. Find. Find things. What is it that you want to do? What is your passion? Do it. Even if it's the five minutes a day, do it.Start off small and build it up. And that's what we spend so much time. I've seen so many people worrying about things, worry.And a Dallas poem says that worry creates tension in the mind, which creates tension in the body. Tension creates illness, and illness eventually leads to death. So why worry? Because it will kill you. So. And then it also says, well, worry.If you're worrying about something that was in the past, it's in the past. Why are you worrying about it? If you're worrying about something that's in the future, it's in the future. Why are you worrying about it?If you worrying about something you can do something about, don't worry about it. Do what you got to do.If you're worrying about something that there is nothing that you could do about it, what are you worrying there's nothing you can do. Live in the now, focus on what you can do. Don't worry about what you can't.And it all actually leads me straight back into my teachers should and Po I very much learned that philosophy on a river in China where we've been training. And they said both of them actually Po Anchin said we want you to learn about letting go. Okay, Sifu. What. What does that mean? And they.One of them struck me with like a punch punch and I would fly into the river.So I was in this river and I swam out and came back to the side really tired because it's real strong river and I like go back onto the side and shouldn't. My se shook his head say no, try again. And he punched me again. And I went flying back into that river.And this time I was so tired, you know, I. I was exhausted. I couldn't. I couldn't fight that stream again. That, that sorry that river, I couldn't fight it. So I just relaxed.I thought well you gotta take me, take me.And because I relaxed, I floated and eventually it went push me down down the stream or down the river and it pushed me back up on onto the bank and that then my chief went ah, now you have learned FL flow and it's all about that sometimes in life rather than worrying about stuff, just live in that moment, enjoy what you've got right now, make the best out of what you have. And everything is possible is. Is like for me when I was in. When I was a kid I have flat feet. And I was told by the doctors that there was.I had what had a few drew martial arts. I was broken some bones of my feet.And they would say because my feet were spreading out that by the time I get to 30 I'd probably be in a wheelchair. And there is an operation that I could have.But the operation there was as much chances of that operation put me in the wheelchair as it was correcting my feet. So I said no, you know, I didn't want to.And fortunately, you know, my parents listened about 15, 16 and years later in ice hockey, I was in ice hockey and I went to hospital over instant where I pulled my ankle and when they x rayed my feet, 99% of the bones got little tiny bones in your feet. And 99 of the bones in my feet were broken in both foots. And the doctors kept saying are you okay?Are you in pain, it's like, what's going on, what you know, just come out of it. And so. But in both your feet, all the bones are broken in your feet, all shattered. You should be in agony, you know, you shouldn't be walking.Why are you walking? Because I can. Because I put one foot in front of the other. Are you in pain? No, because. Because I've learned pain is just a signal.And you can turn that signal off, you can acknowledge that and you can go past it. The body is new to listen to you, not the other way around. You can actually guide your body. You're the, you're the seafood for your body.And you can control it and you can and learn not control, but you can adhere to it and you can guide it in a way that it works. And it all starts off with breath. It all starts off with understanding. The way you think and feel affects the way you, you are and who you are.So don't worry so much. Let go. You know, like if you've got 500 worries, well, they don't still be there tomorrow. Go and enjoy yourself today.Or, you know, take some time off because otherwise those 500 worries are just going to bury you. Let go. Go with the flow. But is any good D say, hey, what do I know?

You know, it's, it's. I, I will. Those are still brilliant words of wisdom. Life can change in an instant. That's a lesson that I teach on one more thing before you go.Because I learned that through my personal life and my professional life. Life can change in an instant and you should embrace life. So we, we have that mutual message from different, different perspective.But yes, it, it's, it's live life. Live, live. Don't give up. Live. Move forward. You're known for your playful teaching style. I love the humorous story.I'm sorry I had to smile when you said he punched you and you went off the boat and had to come back. And then he says, nope, try again. I've heard that so many times.

It was the third. The river. It was, it was on, on, on the side of the river. Yeah, he did.Like if, if you ever see Bruce Lee, like the one inch punch, it would basically, he's called Far Gene. Explosive power. And I actually grew up getting a lot of those hits with my seafood.You asked too many questions or you didn't practice enough or you were, you were smiling too much. That was me. Then you'd get, you'd get a little flick. But by the time I was 20, it was a Steel bar around the back of the head.But people go, oh, you know, oh, that's terrible.It's like, maybe you're missing the point because I learned, you know, like in judo and Aikido, you learn how to fold, but also how to be thrown and you learn how to land so it doesn't hurt. And so when it doesn't hurt and, and that. So the whole punching thing was all about pain. Doesn't hurt. You know, we think it should hurt so it hurts.But, but if you, you know, there's, they've done experiments where, where, you know, they, they, they've, they've had a dummy arm and a mirror and someone's poking the, the pins into the dummy arm and being like, oh, oh, oh. And it's like, but that's not your arm, you know, and it's like. And we're, we're perceive. What we perceive is real.And that's a real, that's a big thing that perception is, is your reality is that if you perceive a problem to be real, it is real. This is where phobias come. And so it's this understep. But if you can see something as a problem, you can then see it not as a problem.You know, you can switch. This is where I would like people to focus, is that knowing and understanding this, we can change our perception and change our reality.

Right. And, and I think you present a magnificent opportunity for people to learn how to be able to reach within ourselves, how to learn Qigong in piktar.

Yeah.

You give us a wonderful opportunity to learn how to listen to our bodies, how to heal, how to live with presence, how to learn how to balance our mind, body and our soul, how to control these, these aspects within ourselves that are telling us that we are not good enough. We're not. We're not able to. Or shut those off. How does somebody reach you to learn Qigong and tiktar and, and so many things that you teach.

Well, you can find me under Sifubogi, which is S I F u B O W G I E on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and other. And other places as well. And then there is my school, which is studentdao IO. So well, it'll be written in the notes.S h u n D A O dot or sorry dot uscream IO I forgot the useful bit. Birdseeping and it is, it's a sort of like a cross between Netflix and Facebook where there's lots of different videos. And then we also have the.We also have live Classes that are done every week. And if you get to to do the live class, that's awesome.But the whole thing of the videos is that when you like watch that class, you can actually comment.And when you do that comment, I read all the comments and like if you say seafood, like you mentioned this, but what about, you know, you mentioned this, this qigong does headaches. But what about if you have earache or what. What about my elbow? What about. What about my shoulder?And then I can either redirect you to a class that already exists or the next class I create, I will have you in mind and I will do an extra a technique for your situation. So the whole point of Shindell, it's the flowing way. Shun means to flow with fold and down means to wait the path of balance. So it's the flowing way.So the whole idea is that even the school is interactive. It's about you communicating with me, me communicating with you and us learning together. So that interests you.Like I said, can find me on Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, YouTube, but you can also just look up shouldn'tow USC IO and you'll find me there.

And I'll make sure that all that's in the show notes and on the web page so that they have easy way to connect with you. And there are some free videos on there as well. I. I perused them myself.And there's a lot of opportunity for you to kind of get an introduction into some of these philosophies and practices that we've just talked about. This is one more thing before you go. I could talk for another hour, maybe two. This is one more thing before you go.Do you have any words of wisdom you can share about us living in the present from a daoist perspective?

Breathe, breathe from the belly. So when you breathe in, let the belly expand. When you breathe out, pull the belly in. When you. When you breathe in, let fill yourself up with light.Fill yourself up and let yourself glow. So when you breathe in, let yourself glow. And when you breathe out, breathe out. The stress, the worry, the tension. So breathe in, let yourself glow.Breathe out and let go shakes go.

Brilliant words of wisdom. Brilliant words of wisdom. Sifu, thank you very much for guiding us on this journey today.Thank you very much for sharing your wisdom, your experience and everything you have to offer to help us better ourselves. I am grateful that you're here.

I'm very grateful to be here. Thank you very much.

As we close, let's pause for a moment. What if the adventure is an out out there, but in here, in the way we breathe, listen and show up for ourselves and others.Sifu Bogi reminds us that healing isn't a destination, it's a rhythm, a dance between the seen and the unseen, between effort and surrender. So take the moment, live life for the second. Enjoy life because it can change in an instant and embrace. That's a wrap for today's journey.If someone, something stirred you or soul or sparked a new way of seeing, Share this Episode Stay Connected. Don't forget to like, follow and subscribe. This episode's also available on YouTube. You'll find it there and everything else.One more thing before we go, in the link in the show notes and one more thing before you go. Always remember, you're not just listening, you're part of this story.So next time, have a great week, have a great day, Keep seeking, keep growing, and never stop asking that one more thing. Thanks for listening to this episode of One More Thing.

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