Qigong: The Ancient Solution to Modern Stress and Anxiety – An Interview with Jose Mendoza

What if the thing that made you feel like an outsider growing up was actually preparing you for something bigger?

We’ve all felt it at some point. That sense of not quite belonging, frustration we can’t put into words, a feeling that we’ve lost touch with something deeper. Jose Mendoza knows that feeling well. In this conversation, he talks about what it was like growing up as the odd one out, and how that eventually led him to Qigong, Daoism, and a hundred-day promise to himself that changed everything. He gets real about anger, self-worth, and how the body can actually guide us back to peace, along with the energy healing work he does now.

Whether you’re brand new to this kind of work or you’ve been on this path for years, this conversation is a real, honest look at how ancient practices still show up for us in modern life, and how the parts of us that once felt broken might just be what we’re here to teach.

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In your chapter within The Awakened Healer, you share your story and journey with such authenticity and vulnerability. You write about some of the challenges you experienced before getting on this spiritual path. What was going on in your life at that time? What was frustrating you? This was probably in the early 2000s, would you say?

Jose Mendoza: Yes, definitely the early 2000s and before 2010. There was a lot going on for me at the time. I was graduating from high school, and throughout my younger life, I had always been the weird kid. I was picked last in dodgeball, and I didn’t really have anyone to associate with.

I was the oddball, and that was a consistent theme for me all the way through high school. I had a group of friends, but I never really felt like I belonged. That created a lot of frustration and upset because who doesn’t want to be part of a community? Who doesn’t want to belong, be understood, listened to, and respected?

Being the loner kid, I also experienced a lot of disrespect. Those old wounds were driving every decision I made in life. Then I became serious about Qigong, attended an event, and went deeper into spirituality. I had always been somewhat inclined toward supernatural things. Being the weird kid, I guess it came naturally.

Even as a child, you felt connected to that realm?

Jose Mendoza: Yes, there was an interest. I just didn’t know how to express it or dive any deeper than ghost stories when I was younger.

Did you grow up with spirituality or faith as part of your home life?

Jose Mendoza: I grew up Catholic. Both of my parents were Catholic, so we attended church and did most of the other Catholic things. I also attended Catholic school throughout elementary school, so that was very much part of my background.

I want people to understand the frustration you describe in your chapter because it makes the transformation that happened in your life so beautiful. How was that frustration playing out before you found Qigong?

Jose Mendoza: It was multifaceted because I’m also the kind of person who wants to get my hands into everything. But when you put your hands into everything, you spread yourself too thin. Coming back to the wounding, I felt that I wasn’t enough, and a lot of my anger was directed toward myself. I felt that I had to prove myself and show people what I was capable of—to rub it in their faces—but that was hindering me rather than helping me.

At the time, I was working in the airline industry, loading planes and helping with customer service. I really wanted to break out and do something, but once again, that desire came from a wounded place. More than anything else, I wanted recognition and praise.

As I began practicing Qigong, one of the first things I noticed was that I narrowed my focus and honed in on what mattered most. If you saw the range of my interests and all the things I’ve tried, you would be shocked. It’s a big list. I was trying to do and learn everything at once, but it was too much to have on my plate.

There was also a time when the airline lost a contract, and we had to move to a different company. I took a major pay cut. Talk about not feeling like I was enough—now, at least in my mind, I was worth even less.

The practice helped soften that frustration. Before, I frequently lashed out at my loved ones. Where else does it feel safer to release all that pent-up frustration and anger than around the people you feel safest with? It’s always the loved ones. Recognizing that there was something wrong with all this lashing out was a big turning point for me.

Over time, the reactions dwindled. Something that once would have caused me to explode would instead make me notice what was happening and say, “Okay, be careful.”

Who introduced you to Qigong? After you tell us that, please explain what Qigong is. Some people may have a preconceived idea about it, but I’d like to hear it from you.

Jose Mendoza: The first person who introduced me to it was Jerry White, a kung fu master in my small town. He held a one-day seminar with another man, and they both taught us a little Qigong. It was really nice and beautiful. That was my first experience with it, back in 2009.

I knew Qigong existed, but it wasn’t until 2011 that I began learning more about it. Then I studied under someone named Pedram Shojai, and his work blew me away. I had never experienced anything quite like it before. I thought, “I want to do more of this. What is this?”

Fundamentally, Qigong consists of two Chinese characters. Everyone is familiar with kung fu. The kung and fu refer to hard work because, if you’ve seen people practicing kung fu, you know the training is very strenuous. We take the same gong used in kung fu and make it part of Qigong. Qi refers to life-force energy or vitality.

Qi makes up everything around us. It courses through you and animates your physical tissue. Qigong is the practice of working with this life force, or vital energy, that resides within and around us. We do this by moving the physical body into certain positions to achieve a specific energetic change.

That is where Qigong really shines because, within Daoism, we work from a body-first perspective. We aren’t seeking to enter higher realms or work with the upper centers in the beginning. We are here in solid tissue, so we work with it to affect everything above us.

You just mentioned Daoism. Would you mind giving us a quick primer on what that is and explaining how you’ve integrated it into your own life?

Jose Mendoza: Absolutely. Daoism is very interesting because if you look at one of its core works, the Dao De Jing, the first thing mentioned is that the Dao that can be named is not the true eternal Dao. It is something that cannot be named or described. So it’s a bit of a running joke to ask, “What is Daoism?” We can’t really tell you because if we tell you, then it isn’t really Daoism, is it?

On a practical level, Daoism is about living in unity with the Dao, which represents the Divine. But it’s more than that. Daoism is very practical because it is a body-first system. We look to the rhythms and cycles of nature for the signs and information we need to live.

A lot of it sounds very simplistic at first: When the sun rises, get up. When the sun sets, go to bed. When you’re hungry, eat. When you’re thirsty, drink. But I’m guilty of ignoring those signals, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. How often do we go through our day ignoring the signs we’re given? We’re tired and should rest, but we push through. We’re thirsty or hungry, but we deny ourselves and keep going.

Or when I’m not hungry, I eat anyway.

Jose Mendoza: Exactly. That’s another common one. Fundamentally, one of the greatest things Daoism did for me was help me recognize where I wasn’t paying attention. It gave me a sense of awareness. We know these cycles exist around us, but we take them for granted and don’t really notice them.

By observing, increasing our awareness, and noticing these patterns, we begin to understand ourselves. I know that if I eat bread before bed, I’m not going to have a good time. Maybe I shouldn’t eat bread before bed.

Would you call Daoism a religion or a faith, or is it something else?

Jose Mendoza: It’s a framework. There is a religious aspect to Daoism, but unlike other faith systems, it is compatible with any faith because its core philosophy centers on achieving balance through unity and working with nature rather than against it. Realistically, it can fit within any religious framework. That’s why I consider it more of a framework than anything else.

At least here in the West, we aren’t as familiar with its religious component. Some people become ordained, go to temples, say prayers, and speak to the various gods within a pantheon. All of that exists. But if we go far enough back, we see that Daoism is a framework that can plug into any faith system you have.

Forgive my ignorance. That’s why I have a podcast…to learn from other people. How do Qigong and Daoism intersect? Is there an overlap, or can they be separate?

Jose Mendoza: If anything, you could say Qigong is a result of Daoism—that it descends from it. People often refer to the chicken-and-egg question, but I would argue that Daoism came first, even though we didn’t know it as such back then.

Its history is very interesting. If you follow it far enough back, before the written word, there were people called wu yi, who were like medicine men or shamans in China. Qigong was also commonly referred to as Dao Yin. The practices were based on the same idea and concept, and they have existed since time immemorial.

In fact, some lineages claim to go back 6,000 years or more. If you consider that the written word in China emerged around 5,000 or 4,500 BC, Qigong may have existed before the written word.

I would say Daoism had to come first because you can see Daoist influences throughout Qigong. When we talk about the balance of yin and yang or the five elements—all fundamental parts of Daoism—the influence really shines through. You could say the framework existed first, and then it gave us the practical exercise of Qigong.

You began attending Qigong classes and experiences and then practicing on your own. How did it start to become a larger part of your life?

Jose Mendoza: I made a commitment to myself. I said, “Let me do this for 100 days and see what happens.” I’ll be honest: There’s a phrase called “chasing the dragon.” Most of us have had a practice or experience that made us feel really good, and then we wanted to replicate it. It might not happen again, but we keep trying. That concept is known as chasing the dragon because you’re trying to re-create the exact same experience.

In the beginning, that was part of my motivation. I felt so good that I wanted to chase that feeling again, so I kept trying to replicate it. After a while, the feeling levels off, and then you’re simply doing the practice. But the magic doesn’t stop just because we stop feeling it.

I committed to practicing for 100 days, and I began to notice changes in my life at home and at work. I wasn’t as grumpy. I worked in a high-stress environment, and when I didn’t practice beforehand, I became more irritated and snappy. With the practice, I tended to be the calmest person in the room despite the high-stress environment.

How long do you practice Qigong, and what kinds of movements does it involve? Could you give those of us who are new to it an example?

Jose Mendoza: It depends on the form and who teaches you. Some Qigong sets are as short as 15 minutes, while others can last 90 minutes. It all depends on how the practices are compiled.

Qigong isn’t just movement. One thing people often confuse it with is tai chi. They’ll ask, “Is this tai chi?” It isn’t, although Qigong and tai chi are related. Tai chi comes from Qigong, but it has more of a martial application.

Within Qigong, we have movement, standing, and sitting. You have three different styles of meditation built into one framework, and even within those, there are different levels. For example, as I’m doing a form, there can be movement within movement, but there can also be stillness within movement.

There are various ways to approach these practices and continue to grow. You aren’t always doing the same thing. There is always a next step or another refinement.

No lying down? They missed that part.

Jose Mendoza: Usually not, because these practices can make you very likely to fall asleep. Most Daoist practices aren’t done lying down. Sitting is good enough—and it’s also beneficial because if the practice makes you fall asleep, you won’t fall because you’re already in a chair.

Even when you’re performing the physical movements while standing, can the practice bring your body to such a place of peace and rest that you begin to feel sleepy?

Jose Mendoza: Yes. Some people enter that sleepy state very quickly. Everybody’s body is a little different. You want to think of the body as terrain. Argentina has a different terrain from the southwestern United States, Louisiana, or China. Everybody’s terrain is a little different, so the effects they experience will also differ.

Some people fall asleep quickly, while it may take longer for others. But everybody will still feel a sense of calm and peace. Some people have described a particular feeling in their heads. Imagine having a static buzz in your head all day, and then suddenly it’s gone, leaving you with a clear signal.

You became so enamored with and transformed by Qigong that you decided to dive headfirst into your education.

Jose Mendoza: Absolutely. I went headfirst into the deep end. I said, “I’m going all the way.”

What did that look like?

Jose Mendoza: An opportunity appeared for me. It began before COVID, to be honest, but I jumped in shortly afterward. It was a four-year program focused on medical Qigong.

There are different subsets and forms within Qigong, including martial Qigong and medical Qigong. This program focused specifically on the medical aspect. When I saw it, I thought, “This sounds really interesting. Let me try it.” Once I started, I said, “This is great. Let me finish it.”

Four years and 4,000 hours later, I completed the program and received a doctorate in Chinese energy medicine under Dr. Jerry Alan Johnson. That is the exact title, although the program focused on a particular teaching of medical Qigong.

Help me understand medical Qigong. How is that different from someone simply practicing Qigong on their own?

Jose Mendoza: It depends on the style the person is practicing. As I mentioned, there is also martial Qigong. Someone may be practicing a more martial form that prepares them to train and fight. With medical Qigong, our primary focus is to enhance the body’s health and vitality.

One thing people don’t necessarily do in other practices is clearing. When you want to build something, you should first clear what is already there. If I have a dirty glass and it’s the only glass available, I should clean it before pouring water into it. If I simply fill it and drink from it, I’ll still be hydrated, but the water will be dirty. Will it taste good? Will it make me sick? Realistically, you want to clear the glass—the vessel—and then pour in your beverage of choice.

I say “beverage of choice” because everybody wants something a little different. In medical Qigong, we focus on the body’s health and vitality. Maybe I have a liver issue. With medical Qigong, I can focus on that, work through it, and move beyond it.

That’s where we see the beauty of medical Qigong: It is targeted and specific to the person’s needs. Other forms may be beneficial for overall health and vitality, but they aren’t necessarily targeted toward what the person wants to clear.

What motivated you to complete this four-year, 4,000-hour program?

Jose Mendoza: Part of it was that I was told to. What I mean is that I received an insight. Ever since I was little, I knew I wanted to be a doctor. At least in my mind, I said, “That’s what I want to do. I want to help people. I want to heal people.” But the only doctors I saw were physicians.

I never got that far. I went to school and ended up assisting in the medical field, but I never became a full-fledged MD. As I grew, learned, and began experiencing different things, I received acupuncture and learned about Chinese medicine. I thought, “This is more of what I want to do.”

This work helps people live better lives in an impactful way at a lower biological cost. There is no surgery, no cutting someone open, and no six-week recovery. That desire to help people was always driving me.

Then I received an insight that said, “You need to go this route. You need to continue down this path of healing, and you need to learn so that you can help people on a deeper level.” I said, “Okay,” and here I am.

Does your work also include acupuncture, cupping, or similar modalities, or does it have a different focus?

Jose Mendoza: I don’t perform acupuncture or anything else involving needles, but everything else is allowed. There are several different tools within Chinese medicine, including acupuncture, cupping, moxibustion, tui na, Qigong, herbalism, and food and dietary therapy. Pretty much anything that doesn’t involve needles is fair game. There is even a form of Qigong massage.

There is also moxibustion. I use the term as though everybody knows what it means, but imagine something similar to a sage bundle used for smudging. It is used in place of needles to help drive energy through the channels and bring balance to the body.

When clients work with you individually, what problems or challenges are they generally experiencing?

Jose Mendoza: Most people I’ve worked with simply feel stuck and lack clarity. It manifests in different ways, but it always comes back to the same thing.

For example, one person was trying to move and sell her house, but she didn’t know which direction to take or what to do. She lacked clarity. Another person was experiencing relationship issues and a lot of grief and didn’t know how to proceed. Once again, it was a lack of clarity.

I would say that a lack of clarity is the most common issue. There is also a smaller group of people who come to me with cancer. That shows up quite a bit as well.

How do you work differently with someone who needs clarity versus someone who has cancer?

Jose Mendoza: To be honest, the way I work is by pulling on a thread. As I pull on that thread, something releases, and sometimes that’s enough. With other people, even when the initial issue is clarity, pulling on that thread opens up something else that needs to be addressed. It really depends on the person’s situation.

With anybody, it’s always a “me and you” situation. Imagine a dam blocking a river. That is your river, and without its flow, everything downstream is dying because it needs that water. You could try working on the dam alone, but I can assist you during a session. I’m standing on the shore, telling you which stick to pull.

We begin with the small, loose sticks and gradually progress to the bigger ones. But if a stick doesn’t want to come out, we don’t remove it. Once we remove enough of the sticks damming the river, the river’s own weight will eventually clear the obstruction.

It’s always a collaboration between the client and me. I’m there softening things while the client works to maintain that state and continues softening things on their end, making my work easier. It’s almost as though I’m shaping clay, but they’re the ones adding water.

When you talk about pulling on a thread, is the client performing movements while you work energetically? Or is it more of a verbal, coaching-type experience?

Jose Mendoza: It’s twofold. There is some verbal coaching, but the client isn’t the one moving—I am. They lie on a table as though they were going to receive an acupuncture treatment, and I assist by moving, clearing, and enhancing.

If this is done remotely, could someone simply lie down at home or in their office while you work from a distance?

Jose Mendoza: Right. You could lie down where you are now, and I could work on you.

Don’t tempt me—we could be here for another hour. Once someone lies down and explains the challenge they’re experiencing, what are you doing while they rest? I realize I’m asking you to explain something that required four years and 4,000 hours of training. Many people are familiar with Reiki and might assume this is similar. I hope that comparison isn’t offensive.

Jose Mendoza: It isn’t offensive. The answer is both yes and no. Reiki is very intuitive: You allow the energy to flow and do what it needs to do. When I have a client on the table, it is similar in the sense that energy will do what it needs to do. Energy is intelligent enough—in fact, energy is more intelligent than we are—and it knows what to do.

The difference is that my work is also targeted. Imagine “surgical Reiki,” and that would be closer to what I do. You come in with a particular issue, and I have a structured method for clearing and working through your system based on that issue. But the process is also intuitive. If something else appears, I need to work on that as well.

I once worked with a woman who had shoulder issues. She had received acupuncture and said that sometimes her shoulders felt worse after lying on the treatment table. When she lay down on my table, she began to feel nervous because it was the same kind of table used for acupuncture. I told her, “It’s not a problem. We’re going to work through it. It’s going to be fine.”

I began working with her using my structured method. Although her primary concern was her shoulders, another area lit up in the middle of the session. I thought, “That’s interesting.” I cleared that area and then continued with the process.

That is how the work varies. It is slightly different for each person because the intuitive aspects of what is ready to leave will emerge, but everything still happens within the same structural framework. It comes back to the idea of Daoism as a framework that can fit into anything.

Do clients experience physical, emotional, or verbal manifestations during this process?

Jose Mendoza: Yes, and it’s a little different for everybody. The woman I mentioned didn’t experience anything during the session. But when she sat up, she said, “My shoulders don’t hurt at all.” It was the first time in a very long time that she hadn’t felt pain in her shoulders.

Another woman experienced a great sense of relief, although at that moment she was very concerned about her fertility. Some people shed a tear. One woman experienced a significant release about something she thought she had already worked through, so she was a little teary-eyed afterward. It really depends on the person and what is ready to go.

After these sessions, do you feel physically or emotionally drained, tired, energized, or simply neutral?

Jose Mendoza: No. We have a saying in the clinic that if we don’t have trouble falling asleep because we’re buzzing, something was off about what we were doing that day.

We have many safeguards built into our system to ensure that I’m not putting my “crud” into you and that your “crud” isn’t coming into me. Although I say that I’m working on you, it isn’t really me. We use a method in which we connect to the Divine Source and allow it to work through us. At that point, we are simply conduits.

I’m curious about your family’s perspective on your immersion in Daoism and Qigong. What happened to your Latin Catholic upbringing?

Jose Mendoza: I still have a lot of love for Catholicism because, when you go deeper, there are many similarities between Catholicism and Daoism. For those who are repulsed by Catholicism, you have to move beyond that reaction to really see the similarities.

My spouse is now practicing and doing a lot of this alongside me. I also have two boys who participate in some of the practices and are aware of these things. They are both intuitive in slightly different ways, which is fascinating.

For a while, I was treating my mother, and she has received treatments from me as well. She’s open to it and knows I’m doing something. She doesn’t quite know what it is, but she has had her own experiences with it.

You’ll be presenting a workshop at the Awakened Lifestyle Expo called “Experiencing the Power of Qigong.” You’ll also be there as a vendor, so people will have an opportunity to meet and connect with you. What can they expect from your workshop?

Jose Mendoza: One of the biggest questions people have is, “What is qi?” They don’t know what qi is. The workshop isn’t just about experiencing Qigong; it’s about actually experiencing qi and discovering what it feels like to live in a centered state.

As I mentioned, balance and centeredness are very important within Daoism. During this workshop, people will have an opportunity to experience that firsthand. They’ll receive tools to help them, but most importantly, they’ll experience what qi and Qigong really are.

The Awakened Lifestyle Expo takes place August 22–23, 2026, in Costa Mesa, and tickets are available at AwakenedLifestyleExpo.com. What’s next for you, Jose? I know you work in the surgical field while simultaneously helping people through Chinese energy medicine. Many people in our community have their feet in multiple worlds. What is your vision for the next step?

Jose Mendoza: One of my next steps is to create a community where we can come together, practice Qigong, and begin to live in this way. I’ve been involved with this work for so long that I am now moving toward ordination through one of the major Daoist lineages in China, the Zhengyi lineage. I expect to receive that ordination in a few years.

Realistically, my vision is about building community, learning these practices, and bringing people together. I come from being the weird kid who was always excluded from groups, and isolation is horrible. It isn’t fun when you don’t have anyone to talk to or anyone with whom you can share these experiences.

That was the original concept behind religion. People ask, “What is the difference between spirituality and religion?” Spirituality consists of your experiences with the Divine. Religion is a community of people coming together for a shared experience and sharing the experiences they’ve had with the Divine.

I’m not hearing that you want to create a new religion, but you do want to bring people together to share their experiences. You call this community the Qi Circle, and people can find it on Skool.com. What can they expect if they join?

Jose Mendoza: There will be live Qigong classes where we can practice together as a community and talk. There will also be other live events where we get together, ask questions, talk, and get to know one another.

I’m also adding recorded Qigong practices that people can use whenever they want, along with recorded meditations and other educational information. We’ll explore questions such as: What is Chinese medicine, and how does it work? What are some of its foundational concepts? How can Qigong help with anxiety? How can Qigong benefit someone who works a nine-to-five job while also balancing the roles of parent and child to aging parents?

A lot is being put into this community because I want to ensure that people have access to tools that fit their situations. I also want to offer them a great deal of value. I could sit here and say, “We’re just doing Qigong,” and that would be great. But I want this to become a community where people come together and learn that there is something greater out there. It is possible for them to take hold of their lives and recognize that they have the power to get where they need to be.

You seem very composed, peaceful, and relaxed in our interaction. Have you always had that kind of personality, or is it a result of the practices you’ve cultivated?

Jose Mendoza: There was always a little bit of that, but these practices expanded it by leaps and bounds. Once again, I was the weird, lonely kid. I was quiet because of that. I didn’t want to make waves or do anything that would draw attention.

But if you asked my mother, she would probably say I was an explosive, wild kid at home. These practices really tempered that and deepened my sense of calm, centeredness, and peace.

You are undoubtedly a teacher. The way you explain these concepts, use metaphors, and allow the words to dance feels effortless. Listening to you talk about these things feels good because you make them understandable while also inspiring me to do my own research.

Jose Mendoza: Thank you.

We’ve talked about the Qi Circle on Skool. I also saw that you’re on Insight Timer. Are you still active there, or is that from the past?

Jose Mendoza: I’m still there and continue to post things. I haven’t been able to upload videos lately because there has been an issue with that feature. 

I’m on Insight Timer with audio meditations, and videos will be coming soon.

People can also work with you directly. Are those sessions generally an hour long, both in person and remotely?

Jose Mendoza: I offer two types of sessions: 30-minute sessions and hour-long sessions. If someone comes to me and simply needs a tune-up—something feels off, they don’t know what it is, and they want me to help balance them—that would be a 30-minute session. They briefly tell me what’s happening, and then we begin. The treatment itself isn’t very long; sitting down and talking tends to take longer.

When someone comes in with a more serious issue, we look at an hour-long session. We sit down, discuss what is happening and what we need to do, and then begin the process. There is also post-care afterward. I might tell the client, “I really recommend that you do these practices this week and then come back to see me.”

What is the best way for people to contact you to book a session, join the Qi Circle, or subscribe to your email list?

Jose Mendoza: Skool is typically the best place to connect with me about sessions. Some people have also messaged me through Instagram, which works, although I’m not as active there right now as I am within the community.

There is also the newsletter. When you subscribe, you have direct email access to me, so you can always reach out that way.

I’m excited for people to read your chapter in The Awakened Healer, attend your workshop, and stop by your vendor table at the Awakened Lifestyle Expo. Jose, it has been wonderful speaking with you. Thank you for educating us about Qigong. I think I’ll be pulling up a YouTube video in the next few days to learn a few things. That might be my first baby step into this world. Thank you so much for being with us.

Jose Mendoza: Thank you so much. It was wonderful.