Now retired, I was involved in running sports, athletic and fitness clubs for a full 40 year career. I was never the “no pain, no gain” body type Nazi, but I believed that if you weren’t maximizing, you weren’t gaining in your fitness level. I thought I could eat anything and everything I wanted. It seemed true because even if I ate 6,000 calories, there was no doubt that I would stay fit and burn it off. How could overeating be harmful if I stayed slim and felt great? Well, read on because that’s the moral of my story here.

During my years as a fitness expert, I learned to practice yoga and meditation, but I was too excited to practice such relaxed methods. I would find that my knee was bouncing and the clock was moving too slowly.

Once I retired, I discovered the benefits of slower, more meditative fitness techniques because, frankly, my body was too stiff and sore to do anything. On top of this, my husband was still working and I was worrying about him and how we would pay all the bills with one paycheck. I WORRY in capital letters!

During these early years of retirement, my annual physicals showed elevated cholesterol readings, high blood pressure, and weight gain that falls into the unhealthy category that I had escaped for so many years. Of course, the medical readings were making me stock up on medication. He was taking what I would call high doses of two different blood pressure medications and still showing high readings.

Two years ago, when my husband was preparing to retire, in my panic of how we would survive, I started looking for a place to retire with an affordable future. I found a condo in the desert that would accommodate our income and a peaceful future. In my usual high-energy style, I packed my bags, sold our house and anything else that would support the future.

Until we moved into retirement, I had been reading and trying to practice Qi Gong. It was so calm and relaxing, but in my high energy caffeine style, I couldn’t practice very well, but once we settled into a regular routine, miracles started happening.

Living in a smaller place with no reason to rush out in the morning, I started playing very relaxing music in my space all day. I started practicing Qi Gong, specifically a practice called The Eight Brocades. It was so named because the movements were written on silk and passed down. There were only eight moves. You could learn by practicing one of each of the movements a day, or several of each movement. It really depends on how strong I felt.

In addition to practicing Qi Gong, we began to sit in the sun for half an hour every morning while enjoying our breakfast, tea or coffee. What a beautiful turn our lives had taken. I was getting tanned, energized and motivated to continue my daily practice which was so relaxing, spiritual and empowering.

At that time, I noticed that at night I felt really strange, almost passed out. When I saw the doctor, she recommended that I split my blood pressure medication and take half in the morning and half at night. There was no change. At the time, she suggested that I cut one of the medications in half and that should help, but it didn’t. Since the doctor hadn’t recommended cutting it any further, I assumed he was right. After all, when the doctor tells you to take something, you do. The doctor had prescribed the drugs, so it might be too dangerous to take less.

Another thought that bothered me was that the people I saw on YouTube practicing Qi Gong seemed spiritual, in fact much more spiritual than I was. I used to say the F-word often, I wasn’t necessarily spiritual or reverent in any way, so how could Qi Gong be responsible for my healing?

At this point, I was only taking one of the blood pressure medications, but my blood pressure was getting lower and lower and I still felt like I was dying because my morning Qi Gong routine was barely strenuous. If years of intense aerobic exercise hadn’t kept me from having high cholesterol and high blood pressure in my later years, how could this easy, relaxing practice lower my blood pressure so much? I did research on low blood pressure and most of the Qi Gong websites and reputable medical sites claimed that one of the benefits of Qi Gong is that it can lower blood pressure. I felt that I was not reverent enough, or that this practice would only work with those old Chinese centenarians who were experienced practitioners and teachers, but not with me.

I contacted another doctor. She is from Colorado. When she explained my concerns about my blood pressure getting lower and lower, she asked me about my lifestyle and the changes she had made recently. She had made some changes in the last two years. I no longer had a teenager in the house, I no longer ran two businesses, I had plenty of time to enjoy nature, and I had become a regular practitioner of Qi Gong and meditation. My recent lab work hadn’t shown anything remarkable about my health that was alarming, which didn’t surprise her. My cholesterol was even normal!

After answering all of his questions, he cut my blood pressure in half, leaving me with ¼ of what I had started with several years earlier. His main comment was “believe it!” She believed that my slow lifestyle changes, coupled with the elimination of a stressful lifestyle, meant that I no longer needed the industrial doses of medication that previous doctors had continued to load up on. My goal is to stop taking all blood pressure medications completely, and at this stage in my life, that would be a huge blessing.

I cannot stress enough how much I have learned from this experience. My insecurity about not belonging to the spiritual culture of this type of meditative practice could have led me to my golden years drugged with drugs that I did not need. My advice to the reader is to believe it! You can be an average Joe who mumbles the F-word from time to time, and still practice this state of stillness and meditation to your benefit. I admit I’m still a little skeptical that listening to healing music and slow exercise brought me to this place, but my medical records show there’s no metabolic reason my blood pressure dropped this low. significantly in addition to my new lifestyle.

Talk to your doctor about how to lower your blood pressure naturally, and do as you’re told. Contact a Qi Gong teacher (if you’re older, some yoga moves can be hard on your joints, so I recommend Qi Gong). Search YouTube for some Qigong videos. Go online to some reputable medical and university websites and they will tell you the same thing. I wonder why it took me so long to believe that people reduce and even eliminate medications!

If I hadn’t thought I had a serious illness causing my heart to slow down drastically, I never would have contacted a doctor. I thank God for that doctor. I am so relieved that I am retired and doing well.