Brian Johnson describes his personal morning qigong routine, which he calls “Virtue Gong” — a 1–3 minute practice performed facing the rising sun that pairs power poses and breathwork with visualizations tied to virtues. He outlines a sequence: power pose and grounding breaths, then four cardinal virtues (wisdom, self-mastery, courage, love) followed by four sub-virtues (hope, gratitude, curiosity, zest), each with a short affirmation. The video closes with an invitation to practice along and a note that an audio recording is linked.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optimize plus one. I've been doing a super simple qigong practice for years. Thank you, Michael Gelb for getting the balls rolling. We've got a link to a YouTube video with a qigong practice he taught me years ago. So every single time I hit the trail in Ojai, I stop at the exact same spot facing the rising sun and do a one to three minute practice. I'm constantly optimizing it and lately I've been playing around with a qigong practice inspired by our virtue compass. I call it Virtue Gong. By the way, for curious souls, qi means life force gong or gong means mastery. So qigong is literally mastery of your life force. Virtue Gong, therefore, is mastery of virtue. So here's how my morning practice went this morning. I start by flipping the switch and striking a power pose, feet shoulder width apart, pulling the thread through my head, chest up, chin down, relax, smile. Then I take a nice deep breath in through my nose, down into my belly and back out through my nose with a slightly longer exhale as I imagine power from the universe coming in through my head as I think to myself, wisdom. I know the game I'm playing and how to play it well. Then I take another nice deep slow breath as I imagine power coming up from the earth through my feet and into my body. As I say to myself, self mastery. I commit to playing the game well. Then I take another deep breath as I imagine energy coming up and through my heart, then moving out to the left of me like the midline of our compass. As I say, courage. I am willing to act in the face of fear. Then I take another deep breath as I imagine energy going through me and my heart, this time to the right. As I say love. I am kind and present and encouraging. Boom. The four cardinal virtues. Then I continue with the sub virtues. Hope. I know my future is going to be amazing because I'll do whatever it takes to make it so. Gratitude God. Thank you for blessing me with the gift of my life and everything in it. Curiosity. I'm so eager to see what unfolds in my life as I continue to optimize and then zest. I feel alive and energized. Let's do this. That's my virtue gung practice. And that's today's plus one. If you feel so inspired, find your happy spot and practice with me. Here's to mastering our embodiment of virtue. One optimist virtue inspired. Breath at a time. Today we got a PS Little audio recording of that virtue gung meditation you may enjoy is linked in today's plus one.
