Sōng (松): Releasing What We Carry
By Master Yang Yang, PhD
Dear friends,
There is an old saying in Chinese medicine: 气功能祛病，缘由在松静 (qìgōng néng qū bìng, yuányóu zài sōng jìng). Qigong can dispel illness, and the reason lies in sōng and jìng: releasing and quiescence. The same is true of tai chi. This month, across our four classes beginning Saturday, October 10, we focus on the first of the two.
松 Sōng is often translated as "relax," but relax may be understood as going limp. Sōng is closer to releasing: letting go of the effort we do not need while keeping the structure we do. In class we say it this way: releasing but not collapsing.
Our curriculum draws on Chinese healing and martial arts, Chinese philosophy, and plain grandmother wisdom gathered over hundreds, even thousands of years. It works on sōng in three layers.
Releasing the body
Most of us carry more tension than the task in front of us requires, often without knowing it. We tighten the shoulders while typing, brace the lower back to stand at the sink, clench the jaw while concentrating and even while sleeping, hold the hips while walking. Over the years this holding becomes the way we sit, stand, and move.
For those of us with back pain, this matters. Lower back muscles that stay contracted keep sending signals to the brain, and a nervous system already on alert can read those signals as danger, as if tissue were being damaged. The pain is real. But part of what feeds it is tension we can learn to let go.
Through stillness, standing, sitting, and lying quietly, we cultivate the awareness to find this holding, then release it, one area at a time. We cannot let go of what we cannot feel.
Releasing the mind
Tai chi's famous saying 四两拨千斤 (sì liǎng bō qiān jīn) teaches us to move a thousand pounds with four ounces, yet most of us live it in reverse, meeting four ounces of daily challenge with a thousand pounds of tension, in body and mind alike.
We also carry tension in the mind. For someone in pain, it may be uncertainty about recovery, worry about living with pain for years, or fear that moving will cause more damage, and each tightens the body further and turns up the volume on pain. For someone without pain, the source may be work, family responsibilities, ambition, or simply the speed of modern life.
The circumstances differ, but the practice is the same: recognize what we are holding that no longer helps us, and learn to let it go. Calm grows when we understand how things work, and one principle runs through Chinese culture and holds well beyond it: the body has an innate power to heal. Our job is not to force healing, but to offer the best physical and mental conditions and let it unfold in its own time.
Releasing into something larger
Sōng can go deeper still. When pain, loss, or other challenges interrupt our lives, we may begin asking larger questions. What matters most? How will I continue to show up for my family and my community? How do I want to use the abilities I have?
Each of us carries talents that have grown over a lifetime and will keep growing. Contemplating how they can serve others awakens purpose and simple human kindness, and these give us the motivation and persistence to meet whatever life brings. We release not to withdraw from life, but to meet life with less unnecessary resistance.
A small practice to try
Sometime today, pause for one minute wherever you are. Rest your hands on your abdomen, then your thighs, then your hips, then your lower back. At each place, ask: am I holding more than I need right now? If so, let a little go on the out breath. Releasing but not collapsing. That is sōng.
We will explore sōng together, in stillness and in movement, in every class this month, beginning Saturday, October 10. Our practice is simple: notice, release, and experience pain relief.
With warm regards,
Yang
Read the full October newsletter here
Browse our newsletter archive here
If you would like to explore these principles in a guided setting, you are welcome to join our weekly classes or in-person training programs.
Explore our Live Online Saturday Spine Class (Fundamentals) → https://waqi.health/chronic-pain-relief
Explore our Live Online Sunday Cannon Fist Class → https://wa-qi.com/fall-2026-cannon-fist-sign-up
