Sweden: Falun Gong at Volvo

Volvo [the Swedish car company] is currently running a project aimed at preventing burn out and other symptoms of stress. The Industrial Health Service (Företagshälsovården) has divided the participants into different groups, the members of which meet regularly for an extended period of time. We – two Falun Gong practitioners working for the company – were given the opportunity to inform one of those groups about Falun Gong. The people in that group were people who were particularly likely to develop stress related symptoms. We had an hour and a half to our disposal although the great interest showed by the participants made us go on for two and a half hours.

We started by showing a short video film, “Exercise demonstration”, which, in a very beautiful way, presented some of the harmonic exercises. After that we spoke from our hearts about how we viewed cultivation of Falun Gong. As we talked about the fundamental principles of Truth, Compassion and Forbearance, the woman from The Industrial Health Service said: “ I think all of us can subscribe to that”. We also discussed the brutal and tragic persecution the Chinese government subjects the Chinese practitioners to.

We demonstrated four of the five Falun Gong exercises and then did them together with the rest of the group. Already after this short introduction one of the participants felt clearly how the energy circulated in her hands. We also received comments such as: “I never thought I would be able to keep my arms up for such an extended period of time but it went really well” and “Now I feel how tense my back actually is”.

All of the participants were interested in continuing the practice and asked us to teach them the exercises on further occasions. Maybe we will start an exercise group at the company. We were also asked to participate in a follow-up on the group some time later.

On the way from the practice one of the participants said sincerely: “This really feels trustworthy”.

Swedish practitioners