chi kung when upset

It can really go either way, depending on your intention, the type of practices that you are doing, and your own awareness of your own instability.

If you are emotionally ungrounded, but you are oblivious to this . . . and you just try to do qigong and/or meditation . . . then it can amplify the negative emotion. The extra qi you generate just goes to feed your already imbalanced state.

If, on the other hand, you recognize that you are emotionally ungrounded, and you go into qigong or meditation with the intention of releasing this, of detoxing this, of stabilizing yourself, of becoming more grounded . . . then because your intention in the practice is specifically to deal with your perturbed state, then you will get the opposite response.

I have seen folks who were emotionally ungrounded–acting erratically–who then upon doing more qigong and esp. advanced K&L, ended up getting pushed over the edge and going a little nuts . . . e.g. hysterical, fits of rage, completely unglued.

However, oftentimes these are people who
1. Do not recognize that they are ungrounded.
2. Lack sufficient grounding practices in their routine.
3. Do not take responsibility for their own emotional instability.
4. Do not go into qigong practices with the intention to stabilize and ground.
5. Are not emotionally grounded, but then try to do a bunch of advanced K&L.

On the other hand, I myself quite oftentimes will practice when I am upset, and it more often than not, has the opposite effect of returning me to a state of peace, calm mind, and centered groundedness. Here I believe that this positive outcome is the result of my intention of going into the practices to release stress, emotional instability, and the like. In those cases, I usually focus on emotional detoxification practices (e.g. Healing Sounds, Fusion), grounded qigong (e.g. IS1, Tai Chi), and Primordial (which opens up the heart). If totally in crisis mode, Deep Healing Qigong is my ambulance.

I have had some experience with the former (of qigong/meditation making things worse and causing things to unravel) but very rarely in recent years because I’ve developed enough insight into understanding what is and what is not a good idea.
Most of this comes down to application of what I mentioned in the two preceding paragraphs, along with listening to your own inner wisdom as to what you feel you need and not trying to “override” these messages with clever ideas from the brain.

Hope this helps,
Steven

Exactly.

Getting really grounded, becoming aware of what you need through inner listening, what your intention is, and what you are going to practice is the cornerstone to really creating effective positive changes, in my experience.

The good news is, is that the more you practice, the more you learn about yourself, and subsequently through the passage of time, the more effective you become at having this inner intuition.

Qi,
Steven