Finding Flow: Qigong and Somatic Experiencing By Richi Lubner

Over the past few years I have been introduced to and have been working with key aspects of a relatively new modality called Somatic Psychotherapy or Somatic Experiencing. Somatic Experiencing (SE) aims to resolve symptoms of stress, shock and trauma that accumulate in our bodies. When we are stuck in patterns of flight fight or freeze, SE assists us to release, recover and become just that much more resilient.

The approach is to develop an increasing tolerance for uncomfortable bodily sensations and suppressed emotions and is used as a healing modality. It is based on a multi-disciplinary intersection of physiology, psychology, biology, neuroscience and indigenous practices, and has been applied for almost 40 years.

I initially came across this modality as a client in helping me process my “stuff”. I found that Somatic Experiencing (SE) was really insightful and meaningful in helping me, not only to regulate my nervous system, but it also gave me a deeper appreciation for the intelligence of my body. This motivated me to include some somatic practices in my Qi Gong teachings and practices and I have found the response and results to be profound. 

Qi Gong, for those who are not familiar with this modality (sometimes written Qigong or Chi Kung) is an ancient Chinese practice that combines gentle movement, breathingand awareness to cultivate and balance the body’s life force energy, known as Qi (pronounced “chee”). At its core, Qi Gong is about learning to sense and guide energy within the body to support health, vitality, and inner calm and has been practiced for thousands of years as both a healing art and a spiritual discipline.

In fact, somatic practices and Qi Gong share the same heartbeat. At their core, both are about coming back to the body, not as an object to fix, but as a kind of “living guide”. In somatic work, you learn to notice the small shifts: the variety of sensations as they arise or those your body is asking you to pay attention to. Qi Gong and Tai Chi also involvenoticing, but through movement. With Qi Gong, you’re not trying to get anywhere; you’re allowing your mind to pause and your body to soften so it can show you what’s already there and what’s asking for your attention.

When I first began practising Qi Gong and Tai Chi some 30 years ago, it felt almost too simple—standing still or moving slowly, breathing in rhythm.  Yet the more I leaned into it, the more I realised it was the same medicine I’d later encounter in somatic practices and that this ancient martial art was becoming more clearly defined and explained via SE. Both modalities ask you to slow down enough to feel what’s happening beneath the surface and both build capacity in the nervous system, a way of meeting intensity without shutting down or spinning out.

I only wished I had learned both these practices during my years on the professional tennis tour…way, way back some 40 years ago! And I can recall the times when this being “in the flow” was available to me and I played “out of my mind”. Where everything went quiet, and something ran the show that was far more precise and expressive than I could ever consciously command.

It’s easy to romanticise the flow state, as if it arrives unannounced, like grace descending from above. But the truth (at least for me), is that presence and flow rarely happen by accident and need to be cultivated through training, discipline and practices that condition the body and quiet the mind. The ability to drop into the moment, to become rather than do, doesn’t always just appear. It needs some tending for sure.

It has been said mastery requires 10,000 hours of dedicated practice. But what often gets missed is that this practice isn’t just mechanical, it’s what enables flow. When preparation and repetition are layered with deep presence and awareness, a space opens up for something powerful to enter. Whether in sport, music, movement, or meditation, the most powerful performances often come not from effort, but from what happens after the effort has been integrated, when the self gets out of the way. This was one of the insights my Tai Chi master would offer me, often. 

I think that’s what discipline and practice gives us— not control, but access. The more we commit to a consistent practice, the more available we become for those moments of presence and feeling in flow. Not because we force them, but because we’ve created the inner conditions for them to emerge.

I recall such an “active still” moment when I was 20, playing an ATP tennis match at a club in Recife, Brazil. It was a featured night game, the quarterfinals, and I was up against the local champion. The crowd was wild, pulsing with music, clapping, and chants—all for him, of course. Every one of my mistakes was met with roaring approval and every winner with silence. It was chaos, intensity, and pressure, everything surging at once.

And yet, in the middle of that storm, something opened up as I walked back to towel off, I looked around, not with any particular intention or thought, and suddenly I felt it. I recall saying to myself: “Wow I’m alive”. I remember the sensations: my fingertips tingled, my breath slowed and my vision cleared and seemed sharper. In that moment, I wasn't thinking about winning or losing or the impact of either. I was just there. Fully. The next two points flew by, and although I won that match, what really stayed with me, which had greater value, wasn’t the score, it was the taste of that moment and the unmistakable clarity of being fully alive and present. I felt so grateful in that moment.

It was only years later, when I discovered Tai Chi and Qi Gong through my Chinese master that the above became more evident. After many years of regular training and practice,often spending hours either standing still with knees bent, arms held in a circle, in what appeared to be doing absolutely nothing or moving gently and silently with my master, in the simplicity of this, something extraordinarily quiet would arise. 

The learning never stops and I have committed to further study the layers of SE and its attributes and application so as to more fully integrate this into my Qi Gong practice and coaching. It is also a tool that helps me greatly to navigate and regulate my own nervous system. I encourage you to explore either modality, or both, in your journey towards being more present with what is.