Vitamin Qi

Those who have joined us for a meditation or energy healing workshop, would have heard me often discuss the importance of ensuring your energy body is healthy and full of life-giving energy (prana / Qi energy). Why? Because we live in busy cities surrounded by stressful emotional and mental energies, and we are easily affected by invisible electrical fields from the technology around us. This can leave us severely depleted of life energy and can impact us physically, emotionally and mentally.

It difficult to recharge in the city or the suburbs. The stressful and busy environment, our day-to-day anxieties and fears, and the lack of life energy (Qi) in the city (and in our homes) makes us depleted or starved of this life-giving energy. When we are energy starved, we become more anxious. It is the feeling we would get if we were driving a car in the middle of the outback, late at night, with the fuel gauge on empty.

Put simply, our energy body (our body that drives our physical body, emotions and thoughts) acts as a battery that must be fuelled with good energy. This battery powers us throughout the day. When our battery is full, we can easily bring happiness and fulfillment into our lives. When our battery is low, we become anxious, lose clarity and become overwhelmed by the vagaries of life. On a low battery, our problems seem much bigger than us. We get anxious over the smallest of events - like someone cutting us off in traffic, or a conversation that didn’t go so well. Our ‘low-energy self’ finds it hard to create happiness within and we start to ‘over think’ and become obsessed with these anxious moments. And we carry these throughout our lives. These external experiences begin to define how we feel, how we think, and who we are. We let them ‘become us’ – simply because we lack the energy and clarity to see our way out.

This is a ‘normal’ state of being for so many of us. And, when it seems too overwhelming, we look for anything and everything that will make us feel better. We seek solutions that frequently add to our problems; an exciting holiday that we can’t afford, an exciting relationship that creates complications, being angry and forceful with others so that they meet your demands (in an effort to try to make you happy). Maybe it’s indulging in food, maybe it’s expensive shopping trips, or perhaps it’s escaping with overstimulation of technology and entertainment - there are endless ways in which we look to feel better.

For now, I offer you a very simple solution – spend more time in nature. It is that simple! Even if you can’t create the space to meditate, try to take a walk once a day in the natural environment for it is the greatest provider of life energy. Our forests and parks, with high density life-giving trees, are in a sense, fuelling stations – a continuous source of life energy for us to recharge and refuel. By simply spending more time in nature, you will be giving yourself the greatest gift of all – life energy. Mother Nature naturally creates more and more life by synthesizing the four elements: earth, water, air and fire. When all these elements are present and working together in harmony, more life is created. Take time to be in these life creating spaces and you will naturally be refuelled.

For anyone looking to take this refuelling to the next level, you can tap into tree and plant energy (and refuel directly) by following the energy gathering technique below:

1. Find an area with a lot of life energy (healthy, green space where the trees, plants and animals flourish with a self-sustaining ecological cycle)
2. Stand about 1m or less in front of a strong, healthy tree with the palms of your hands facing the tree. Embrace the energy field of the tree with the palms of your hands. Some people may be able to sense or feel the energy aura of the tree.
3. As you embrace the energy field, breathe in through your nose and simultaneously ‘breathe in’ the energy of the tree through the palm chakras or energy centres. You can imagine that you have ‘energy nostrils’ on the palms of hands to ‘breathe in’ the energy of the tree.
4. Breathe in the energy through the palms of your hands about 6 times and gradually work up to 12 or more times. Do not overdo it or you may feel heavy and congested. It takes time for our energy body to learn how to process new fuel! If you do feel heavy and congested, just exercise (it releases old energies so that the new energy can be better integrated)

You can also do this technique using the soles of your feet by breathing in tree energy through your sole chakras.

Please note, it is important to consider the following when undertaking this energy gathering technique:

• Start slowly! Don’t overdo it! If you feel hot and congested, exercise! If you still feel hot and congested take a swim in the ocean. A salt bath may help if the ocean is not an option for you.
• Gather energy in a fresh, clean and healthy environment. Never do this technique in a dirty or stressful place.
• Avoid gathering energy when there are people close by. They should be at least 3m away (you don’t want to absorb their energy – or dump your old energy on them!).
• The energy of the leaves of the tree is more refined that the trunk and branches. You may wish to hold the palms of your hands closer to the leaves.
• The best time to do energy gathering is in the early morning when the energy is fresh.
• Make sure the tree has not been frequently visited by our doggie friends!
• Oh, and be prepared for funny looks from people passing by – it happens to me a lot!

If you’re interested in joining me for a tree meditation, please let us know. I’m happy to get a small group together one morning, in the name of fueling up on the most life-giving energy of all – Vitamin Qi!

Peace be with you,

Chiu Chi