Unlocking Inner Healing: The Power of Qigong and Practical Neuroscience with Sifu Boggie

Welcome to Season 13 of the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning podcast, where we delve into the fascinating intersection of brain science, emotional intelligence, and educational training for enhanced well-being and performance. This episode features Sifu Boggie, also known as Paul Brighton, who brings over 40 years of expertise in qigong, a discipline involving breath work and self-healing techniques. As stress and anxiety reach unprecedented levels worldwide, Sifu Boggie shares how qi-gong can help alleviate ailments like chronic pain, migraines, and even mental health issues.

Join host Andrea Samadi in an enlightening discussion about the role of mindfulness and meditation in managing stress and maintaining mental peace. Sifu Boggie, introduced to martial arts at the age of 12, guides listeners through practical exercises for achieving emotional and physical balance, including breathing techniques and posture corrections that can be easily integrated into daily life. Discover how understanding and altering your energy can bring about transformational changes, fostering a stronger connection between mind and body.

For today’s episode #362, our next guest caught my eye as I noticed that my stress levels have reached some high numbers recently, with the data I see from my Whoop wearable device.

Watch our interview here https://youtu.be/lYexvaGU8M0

For today’s episode #362, we meet with Sifu Boggie, where we looked at:

✔ How Paul Brighton (Sifu Boggie) discovered this pathway from Chaos to Calm, when he was 12 years old.

✔ What classes does he teach, and how does he know how to help someone, or guide them towards improved health?

✔ How would Sifu help me with persistent neck pain?

✔ How can we learn to open our minds to learn deeper truths, that can help propel us forward?

While my average daily stress has decreased by 12% over the past 6 months (Whoop measurements) with the average amount of daily stress I’m facing dropping from close to 4 hours/day to 3 hours and 25 minutes, I know I still occasionally see days where daily stress hits well over 6 hours/day. I know there’s got to be something ELSE I can be doing to mitigate this stress, since I know that dis-ease in the body, leads straight to disease.

It’s clear that globally, we have reached unpresented times with anxiety, stress and depression. I can’t be the only one who wonders what ELSE can I be doing.

We know that:

1 in 5 Americans suffers from a mental illness (NIMH). Anxiety disorders are the highest reported mental health issue in the US with 42.5 million Americans claiming to suffer from this illness. (Mental Health America). Mental illnesses start showing symptoms by age 14 (National Alliance on Mental Illness), About 1 in 4 American adults suffers from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year, and one in 10 will suffer from a depressive illness, such as major depression or bipolar disorder (Johns Hopkins). 10.7% of the world suffers from some form of mental illness. (Our World in Data).

STATISTICS FROM https://www.thezebra.com/resources/research/mental-health-statistics/ 

While looking at my own stress one day, I received an introduction to our next guest, who will share the knowledge he has gathered over the past 40 years, where he has learned how to help others help themselves with ailments like... Anxiety, Stress, Chronic Pain, Depression, Fibromyalgia, Crohn’s Disease, Migraines, ME, MS, Arthritis, poor circulation, back problems and so much more.

He does this by teaching us Qi Gong (Breath work exercises) and self-healing techniques that will help you to maintain your body, mind and consciousness.

Without further ado, let's meet Sifu Boggie (Paul Brighton) from the UK (where I was born) and see what he can teach us with his wisdom and knowledge from being immersed in this work, since he was 12 years old.

Welcome Sifu Boggie! Thank you for coming on the podcast today! Where exactly have I reached you today? (I was born in Worthing, Sussex). 

INTRO:  Sifu, I listened to some of your past podcast episodes, and I enjoyed learning through your experiences. I do want to start by going back in time to when you were age 12, and met someone who saw that you were talented, when you felt like you didn’t belong. Can you start with explaining how you found this pathway to help others understand themselves better at a young age?

Q1: What does your name mean and how does it tie into our podcast where we work on learning strategies to be the best versions of ourselves?

Q2: I can see your talent and what makes you truly unique and I’m jumping at the chance to speak with you, to ask you questions for your perspective, but what has been y