Detachment is a crucial concept in Zhineng Qigong and achieving a balanced and happy life, as explained by Leilah Cupido (Qigong Practitioner & Huyuan Qi Therapist). In today’s Qigong podcast we learn that detachment is not about separation but rather about returning to a place of objectivity and wholeness without any subjective influences, Leilah explains.

Leilah notes that inner work is essential in this process. By defining the relationship to the attachment and understanding its source, individuals can begin to detach in a way that is not about denying the importance of the attachment but about creating a healthier relationship with it. Whether it be grief, emotional baggage or toxic thought patterns. This approach allows individuals to honour and love what they are attached to without being controlled by it.

Our reference framework shapes how we perceive and interact with the world, often creating limitations based on learnt behaviours, ego & defensive mechanisms, and is often how attachments are formed. Limiting beliefs and thought patterns often arise, but through Qigong therapy, Leilah notes you can free yourself from habitual thinking or reactions.

Leilah guides her clients through a Yi Yuan Ti meditation, which involves the Qi of the consciousness where the true self resides. This meditation is a powerful tool for reconnecting with one’s inner self and establishing a more stable foundation free from the subjectivity of attachments.

The subtle La Qi method, yields significant results in emotional healing too. Leilah uses the La Qi method that involves sending and returning Qi related to the attachment, helps in creating a dynamic of giving and receiving, thereby resolving the attachment in a healthy manner. Through these Zhineng Qigong techniques,  many individuals experience improvements in their emotional wellbeing, but also an improvement in energy levels.

Through Qigong, detachment leads to peace of mind and life balance. By cultivating objectivity and inner wholeness, practitioners learn to transcend worrisome thoughts and emotional attachments. This centered state enables acceptance of life’s challenges and promotes personal growth and well-being.

Letting go of attachments is easier said than done. My guest today, Leilah Cupido, explains how to achieve detachment by creating a healthy relationship with whatever we are attached to. Using some core ideas of Zhineng Qigong, she supports herself and others in this vital step to a balanced and happy life. My name is Torsten Lueddecke and this is the Wisdom Qigong podcast. So, hello everyone. Today I’ve got a

very special guest here. It’s Leilah Cupido and Leilah is working very closely with me because she is the project manager of the Zhineng Qigong Students Hub. Now, I’m very happy to have you here in this conversation, Leilah. We wanted to do this for quite some time, but obviously you’re always busy. But today I’m happy to have you here. And when we spoke about it, you said you would

like to talk about detachment. Now, detachment obviously applies that there must have been an attachment before. How come you’ve chosen that topic, Leilah? I decided to choose the topic of detachment and attachment because I find it to be really relevant in any situation. If you’re an average Zhineng Qigong practitioner, you probably know about the reference framework. And I find that attachments create this reference framework and it’s often

very limiting. Although it’s based on perceived needs and taught behaviors and actions, sometimes it can be limiting and that’s when detachment is necessary. So where’s the link between attachment and the reference framework? And maybe just for our listeners that are not familiar with the reference framework. Reference framework is basically how you see the world, right? Your reference, when something happens in life. Where you say, “oh, this is

good or this is bad”. This is the reference framework, correct? Yes, that’s correct. How you perceive the world, the behaviors and actions you were taught, your ego, attachments, all of those things that, you know, you’ve kind of learned to protect yourself and to grow with. Yeah,that’s a definition of the reference framework, and I think to related it to attachments, we can do a short exercise. Just remember this

is not necessarily a video for everyone. So some people will listen to it, some people will look at it. So whatever your exercise is, please go ahead. No, it’s a really simple exercise and it’s quick and fun. And when I was explaining this theory to the Zhineng Qigong and Hunyuan Qi therapist, I think this worked really well in explaining it. So I’m going to tell you that the

color blue is really important. It’s super important, and blue is the color that’s going to help you succeed in life. And it just. It helps you build your life stronger. So take about 10 seconds to look around the room. Just observe everything and spot the color blue. Then when you’re done with the 10 seconds and you know you’ve observed all of the blue around you, close your eyes.

Now what you want to do is, just visualize all of the blue things you thought about. Just think about it, describe it in your mind. Just perceive it. Visualize it. Now what I’m going to do is say that the color blue no longer exists. It’s completely gone. Erased from your memory. Now try to find other objects around you, still with your eyes closed, and identify them and visualize

them in the same way. With your eyes still closed, you might find that this is harder to do. It might bring, you know, slight negative feelings of anxiety. Yeah, just feel the difference between perceiving the color blue and perceiving everything, and then you can open your eyes. How did you Torsten? Well, I’m glad when I look around, blue is still there, because I felt a little. Oh, my

God. Yes, I’m sure every listener would have their own experience, but first of all, I found it difficult to actually visualize anything else. Now I’m. I’m currently in an. In an unfamiliar environment. So I’m in a hotel room, so I don’t know all the bits and pieces. Well, maybe if I’m at home, I know my pieces a little better. That’s at home, but I found it difficult to

visualize the ones while the blue ones were obviously very present. and then whatever I visualized, it seemed meaningless. It wasn’t really anything of importance and I felt a little bit like I had lost my stability. So that’s kind of a summary of the feelings that I had. Yeah, you pick up some really good points, Torsten. So what we did essentially on a very small scale is, you know,

we made the color blue the foundation of our perception, and often we do this with attachments. You can observe how that sort of affected your perception of everything else around you. You said it was a bit meaningless, or it was more difficult to visualize and describe all of the other things. That’s essentially a reference framework. You are limiting yourself to the color blue. Yes. How comes this came

up in your life? Why did you say, oh, I’ll have to look a little deeper into that because I know you’ve done some work on this, explored it more. So how come you chose that topic? I chose this topic because just like one of the points you brought up, I found that often my attachments formed the foundation of my perception. This isn’t always helpful because you know, when

you imagine that the color blue no longer exists the same way that you imagine your attachment is being conflicted, things can become pretty unstable. We have a way you can discover Qigong. So at the Zhineng Qigong Students Hub, we know that understanding Qigong is 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 holistic healer or self healer. 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. Let’s explore this. What do you mean by an attachment is conflicted? So I can give an example. This client I was working on. He had a girlfriend and this girlfriend gave him so much joy. Because of his girlfriend, he aimed to work harder, improve his physique, be a more all down person, improve

his mental health, all of those things because he had this really nice girlfriend. So he came to me after the breakup. They had a breakup and it was, you know, like a breakup. It’s usually bad. As we were going through it, as we were discussing. He could also see that all of these other areas in his life that he based on this girlfriend. They were also, you know,

losing stability. He became depressed, he no longer worked out, he lost his job, all of these things. Okay, I see, I see now. I see what you mean by being compromised. How did you now what was your view on the situation? In these cases where I feel that this detachment technique is relevant, I usually guide people through what the attachment actually is. We have to start by defining

it and defining your relationship towards it. Then once you define it, it makes it a bit easier to visualize, and that step is really important. Where is it coming from? Is it an attachment to a thing or a feeling, a person or thing? All of these questions we kind of gauge with the client, you know, to establish a bit more knowledge and then once we have this knowledge,

we go through a special technique. So once we have this foundation, I guide them through a Yi Yuan Ti meditation. Yi Yuan Ti is basically the Qi of the consciousness, where the true self resides. It’s the most powerful form of Qi because it has the ability to affect Qi and other forms of Qi. It’s really. I find it to be a sweet, sweet home that you get to

explore more and more and uncover and evolve. So we get them into this space, a daily comforting space, you know. Where they are met again with their true self. Here is where we lay the groundwork to re-establish a more stable foundation, free from the subjectivity of the attachment or detachment, perception of perceived needs. It’s a really objective space. And then once we’re in that state, what I like

to do is like a simple La Qi technique or Left Right Hand Technique, and it involves sending Qi and returning Qi. So we send Qi that belongs to the attachment from us, and we return Qi from the attachment that belongs to us.This process gets really interesting. Yes. So what you are doing is. Let me just see whether I’ve understood your technique here. Is you’re basically taking people to

the core of who they are first so that they get connected, you know, with their inner self and, you know, and get the strength out of the inner self, and then. You’re creating some kind of dynamic between them and this attachment. Is that correct? Yes, that’s correct. We are creating a dynamic of giving and receiving the same way La Qi works in and out, you know, the fundamental

movement. And yes, I find it to be really helpful. There are different experiences in this state. So one woman I worked with, she was able to send Qi very freely, but when it came to a returning Qi, she found some resistance within herself. This also tells you where the client is at, what the relationship is like. It’s just an indication of what needs more inner work. I see,

and so you’re not. You’re not approaching the thing by saying, oh, you shouldn’t be attached. It’s not a good thing. You’re really accepting it what it is, and then create this exchange between the attachment and yourself. And by that kind of resolving it or finding out where the stumble blocks are and where more work needs to be done, right? Yes, and often it takes more than one session.

Although with one session, you know, you can achieve some really good results. Now, what is interesting here is. I mean, when we went into the session, I thought we were talking about minor things. Like, for example, the picture that I painted when I was seven. It’s not quite as important, but you’re talking about, for example, the breakup of a relationship, which we know can completely derail a person.

So would you say that this technique is also useful for minor attachments or for things that don’t have quite the same importance as a breakup? I think first I have to clarify a few things. So when we think of detachment, it’s very different from separation or disassociation. You know, it’s very different. We’re not separating in a holistic way. We’re just the returning Qi that we require in order

to heal. And we sending Qi that we no longer need from this attachment. I think it can be applied to anything. Addiction, illness. Many people are attached to their illness. Also the loss of loved ones. There was a woman I also worked on, and we did this technique. She came to me because she felt such frustration, when other people used her mother’s personal belongings, and her mother had

passed by that point. But she had this huge attachment to her mother’s personal belongings. So this feeling created a lot of negative emotions. She felt angered, she felt frustrated, all of those things when someone else would use or misuse her mother’s things. Then we went through this technique. So first we established what the attachment was. We realized that actually it wasn’t towards her mother’s things. It was towards

her mother herself. You know, she experienced a great loss, and she really loved her mother, and this attachment was more focused around her mother. The physical things were just a physical manifestation of that connection. So I think it was really helpful. There were also some really interesting things I discovered in this technique from that case, and yes, I think it can be applied on smaller scales and larger

scales. Now, what is interesting, when you said you make a distinction here, you say detachment. What does it actually mean? Maybe we should have asked this question right at the beginning because it’s not. How do you put it? It’s not separate yourself from it. Maybe you can repeat your words here, what it isn’t, and then we can look into what it actually is. Yes. So I said that

detachment is different from separation, and it’s also different from disassociation. So to me, detachment is just returning to a place of objectivity, returning to a place of wholeness, without any subjective influences. I think lots of people have a different view on the word detachment, and maybe that may be more linked to dissociation. Where you remove yourself from a union. Yeah, we don’t remove ourselves. For me, that, that

is the most powerful aspect of what, what you have explained here. Because if we take this breakup as an example, I mean how many people run from a relationship, and say I don’t care anymore, I don’t give a damn, I’m not interested. But this isn’t really emotionally healthy either because you know, you had this incredible time together and just to deny it completely, to say don’t want to

look at this anymore. Isn’t necessarily emotional, you know, a good healthy strategy. While what you are doing here is. You are accepting that there is this important thing in your life and you’re just creating a more healthy relationship with this thing and, therefore being also more whole because you’re not excluding stuff from your life. You’re not just saying, oh, I’m too stupid, I shouldn’t be attached to this

or I shouldn’t be attached to that, and then looking for a, for a technique to just let go. No, you’re actually acknowledging the importance of this, of whatever it is you are attached to. You’re acknowledging it and then you’re just putting it on an eye to eye with yourself and therefore create something that no longer has power over you, but that you can actually even exchange Qi with.

Which basically means you are contributing to each other, you are contributing to the attachment, the attachment is contributing to you. By that it’s no longer is an attachment as such, but it’s still, you know, an important thing in your life. If you take the example of your client with the mother where she was upset when people are using or misus things of her, of her passed away mother,

then it means she can still honor and love her mother and she can still honor and love the things that her mother had because you know, obviously there’s, she has memories with this and so on and so on. But she, she’s no longer going to be upset or worked up about it now it’s going to be very healthy and, and flowing and contributing to each other kind of

relationship. I think that is very powerful in what you’re describing here because that’s not what you read in many books. Usually it’s about more getting to a just neutral, I don’t care kind of state when you talk about detachment while your approach seems to be different. And you know, I think I can already feel in my heart that this is more empowering and more complete as such. Is

that an experience that you would share or am I just making this up here? Yes, I would definitely share it, because I find that people ideally benefit from it and find value in it. I think you’re completely right in what you’re saying. We acknowledge it, and there’s such a profound feeling of wholeness in just acknowledgement without separation. Because we know when we separate things, when we other things,

we create conflict. We don’t want conflict. We just want peace and objectivity and a space free from distortions. So we can make the best decisions from our true self. Absolutely. I like what you just said. You said if you separate yourself from the attachment, you create conflict because that is what’s actually happening. If you’re embracing it and just creating a healthy relationship, this wholeness is what is taking

effect, and that will make me a more powerful, fulfilled human being that can actually embrace the whole spectrum of feelings, but in a very healthy way and in a very giving and in a very loving way, rather than in a resisting way and in a destructive way. So. Yeah. Great. Is there anything that you would like to add to that? Where you feel, okay, there’s another aspect of

your theory here or of what you’ve developed of the technique that you would like to share with our audience. Yes. This is something that really excites me. So what I noticed is that apart from the physical changes you see during the meditation or the guided practice, you can see a huge relief from the client’s emotionally, physically. They feel lighter, they feel that they have more energy, they sleep

better, they eat better. It’s wonderful what such a simple practice can do, and even more than that, what we noticed is that people came in with feelings of pain and different issues in their body after the session. We’re not targeting illness, we’re not targeting these areas specifically, but after the session, those things were even more resolved, those issues. I think this is amazing, and also just a reflection

of the body linked with the mind. And you know the release it can bring. And also the nature of Yi Yuan Ti. Yes and the technique that you’re using is not. Yeah. Is the basic technique. It’s not overly complicated. It’s an Yi meditation. And then you’re using some La Qi ideas of opening and closing, of sending and receiving. And that already is very powerful. Now, obviously, if you

come across some stumble blocks, it might be very helpful to have an experienced teacher with you so that you can explore these areas where you feel a resistance or something you can’t do or some emotions that come up. But in essence, the technique is quite straightforward. So basically anybody could use that. I also want to mention that some of my clients aren’t very open to receiving QI treatments

or using external energy. So it’s either physical work or consciousness work that really gets to them. I find that this is really helpful because it changes things on an informational level. Lots of clients, they don’t see really a potential for a healthy life, and this is where we need the information to shift and change and for the illness not to be an attachment anymore. Right. I see now.

But obviously you are working on the information level, but through that, you are obviously working on the energy level as well. Maybe you’re just approaching it in a more clever way so that the client thinks. The client finds it easier to digest than somebody just sending Qi, which for a lot of people is difficult to grasp as a concept. But understanding how you can resolve an attachment, I

think that is more our Western mind that says, okay, let’s do that, because we’re used to all kinds of therapies and so on and so on. So it’s not an unusual concept for us while somebody’s sending Qi. For a lot of us people here in the west, it’s a foreign concept and we don’t really know what it means and why that should work. So approaching it by the

information level is great. Through that, obviously influencing all the other levels as well and having a huge impact. When you said that just by resolving an attachment or making. I don’t even like the word resolving attachment anymore, because you’re putting the relationship with the attachment on a healthy level, that’s basically what you’re doing. Just by that, you noticed positive health aspects in the physical that from the outside,

you might say, had nothing to do with it. But of course, everything has to do with everything else. So there is this connection and there might be a pain or a physical ailment that I’ll struggle with that will be resolved while I’m working on this attachment thing and while I’m putting it on a healthy. On a healthy relationship. So, yeah, so I’m not surprised you have this effect.

And then people come back to your session and say, by the way, Leilah, I know we work on the attachment, but my back pain is gone. So this is usually what will happen, right? Yes, yes, that’s definitely what happens, and I find that it’s really simple and you can just shift the language to make it more accessible for people who are even unfamiliar with Zhineng Qigong. The client

who wasn’t really familiar with Zhineng Qigong experienced waves of energy flowing through her body. She experienced Qi, but, you know, she doesn’t define it like that. Yeah. All right. Anything else, Leilah , that you would like to add to this exploration we are doing right here? Yes. So I would like to say thank you to all of our viewers. I had the privilege of meeting some of you,

and I really like your dedication. I love chatting with you, specifically Justy, Peter, Hannes, Heather, all of my friends, all of my teachers. I’m sending a lot of love. Okay. Right. This is the first on this podcast that we’re actually sending that out to individual people. But I love it because I know you mean that, Leilah. So thank you very much for being my guest today, and maybe

there’s another episode coming soon. Thank you, Torsten. 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. To get your free eBook on the Eight Verses Meditation, please check the show notes below.