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Taking refuge can give us what we really want

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When there’s a storm blowing, people and animals take refuge from it and, in a sense, that’s what many of us are doing now. There are plenty who are still working, of course, and others very busy looking after young children or with other responsibilities. But for the majority, it is a form of retreat, or can be. Time to reflect, perhaps, and time to enjoy being oneself. It has certainly caused me to reflect on many things, including a couplet from one of Thich Nhat Hanh’s breathing meditations: “Breathing in, I go back to myself. Breathing out, I take refuge in my own island”.

Taking refuge is finding safety inside as well as out

For many years, I felt slightly uncomfortable with that. It seemed quite at odds with John Donne’s famous phrase, “no man is an island”, with which I was sternly admonished as a teenager, and which thereafter always echoed in my brain. Suddenly, though, in this enforced retreat it makes sense. Staying at home takes care of the physical refuge. It also provides the opportunity to go further than that and bring the mind home, too, closer to its natural state.

Bringing the mind home

A good start is to resist the urge to check news and social media many times a day. We just don’t need so much information. It simply irritates the mind, uses up enormous amounts of energy, and drains our qi. Why shorten life unnecessarily? Taking refuge reverses that process of looking outwards all the time. It allows the mind to come to a more peaceful place, where true creativity lies. Surprisingly quickly, we can be satisfied with less and soon find fullness, here and now. Isn’t that, deep down, what we want? What we really, really want?

Drawn from The Art of Not Doing: How to Achieve Inner Peace and a Clear Mind

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It’s not all bad news – love heals, both inside and out

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Understandably, there is a great deal of anxiety about the effects of the coronavirus, socially and economically as well as in a health sense. Fear is spread far and wide, and this increased stress tends to weaken the immune system. So, instead of mulling over the negative and fearful stuff, let’s talk about love for a minute.

The miraculous antidote

Love is quite extraordinary. We take it for granted as part of life but we often mess it up, don’t we? Part of the trouble is that we are conditioned to associate love with relationships from quite an early age and that, as we know, is fraught with difficulty. Expectations invariably lead to disappointments and little hurts build up. These restrict the flow of energy through our body. Over time, our vitality suffers and life is less joyful and healthy than it might otherwise be. The antidote to this is love. It is amazingly powerful – we just need to learn to let it out of the box.

Love strengthens the immune system

Just as fear weakens our defences, love can help strengthen them. The immune system is a fairly simple name for a rather complex collection of defence mechanisms within and on the body. Informing and underlying our physical body is an equally sophisticated system through which the energy of vitality, Qi, flows. The better the flow of Qi, the more effective our immune system generally is. This somewhat subtle field of energy not only permeates the whole body but also extends beyond the skin.

Wei Qi

The Qi that runs close to the surface and surrounds our body is sometimes known as Wei Qi – the outer, protective layer of Qi. There are many Qigong exercises and techniques to strengthen Wei Qi. Those are really good to do and very relevant in the current climate. But what is not often appreciated is that Love expands this energy field. So when we love, we build up positive energy in and around us. When we retreat inside ourselves through fear or anger, the Wei Qi retreats, too.

Don’t panic, but for heaven’s sake don’t just sit there

Life and the world are rather upside down at the moment. As a race, we have neglected and abused our beloved planet for far too long. She is giving us a very loud wake-up call because, let’s face it, we have ignored all the warnings so far. Perhaps when the immediate urgency of the current situation has passed, a new world view may emerge. In the meantime, let’s stay positive and remember there is a very effective healing power within all of us.

Energy circulation meditation for vitality

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Stale energy: how to stop it killing you

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Stale energy in our bodies is probably something we don’t like to think about very much. It has connotations of something old, smelly and going off. There’s more than a hint of decay in the expression “stale energy” that’s far worse than a mouldy piece of bread, say, or a biscuit that’s gone a bit soft. Yet we all have it in us and it can be responsible for aches, pains, illnesses and even an early death.

Stale energy is pathogenic

Xie Qi, or Pathogenic Qi, is energy that is stagnant or even stuck. For good health, our Qi needs to circulate easily and freely through the body. It does this mainly through energy channels, informing the body as it circulates. Energy patterns that are poor or out of  balance have a corresponding effect on the body. A major influence on the internal flow is consciousness – the way we think, feel and experience impacts on our energy enormously. If we resent something, for instance, or are frustrated, the flow of energy will suffer.

Move it to lose it

Stale energy can be the result of experiences from long ago, from our current lifestyle or from a mixture of causes. Fortunately, we don’t need to analyse the reasons. However, we do need to learn how to shift the Pathogenic Qi and expel it from our system. Usually this requires a combination of movement and specific intent, something we shall be learning at our next workshop. We can also learn a practice such as Dao Yin or seek advice from a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine or some other discipline of our choice. Whatever we do, though, it is imperative to keep moving.

Our next Staffordshire workshop, Healing with Qi is on Monday 16th September 2019. Details here.

Books available here.

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Thinking too much? Why it can make you ill

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Thinking too much
“Hmm… I should have thought of that.”

Thinking is a good thing, of course. If we didn’t think, we would get nothing done. There would never be any brilliant new ideas and there would be no education. Life would be a series of responses to basic needs and not much else. The ability to assess, calculate and learn is a staggering faculty that we take for granted. It is one of many aspects of a miraculous state called consciousness, though certainly not the only one. Thinking intelligently is a great gift, but most of us – and I most certainly include myself in this – suffer from unintelligent thinking. It is this that has the potential to make us ill.

Thinking without thinking

More than ever, there is a pressure in society to have an opinion on just about anything at all. It is so important, that corporations spend billions of pounds every year on ensuring that we do. Addiction to social media guarantees that at any given moment millions of people are expressing their opinions on this that or the other. Click Like if you agree. (No, please don’t – that was a joke.) The end result is that our minds are constantly active on things that don’t really matter. So how can this affect our health?

Too much focus can easily create tension

Energy flow

For good health, we need vitality. For that, our energy needs to flow easily through the body. When the flow of energy is blocked or restricted for any length of time, discomfort can build up, eventually leading to illness. We know if we are too sedentary or eat unwisely, there can be a negative impact on the body. But probably we don’t consider the effects on the body of our thinking.

Awareness, not thinking

The fact is that all our mental responses affect our energy circulation in some way. In short, too much thinking creates tension that interrupts the free flow of energy. Yet the nature of consciousness is not to be in a constant state of activity – it is to be aware. It really does pay to stop sometimes. Stop thinking and just be aware. It’s a treat for the body and a boon for the mind. Oddly, it’s great for our health, too.

How we can reduce unnecessary thinking is explored in my third book The Art of Not Doing. Available in print and on Kindle.

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Movement: why listening to our body is vital for health

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Movement exerciseMovement and exercise feature heavily in magazines, newspapers and most other forms of media at this time of year. As soon as New Year festivities are over, out comes every piece of advice we’ve probably heard a hundred and one times before. Photos of svelte figures performing near-impossible postures or muscly ones with abs like washboards appear everywhere. Are they meant to inspire us or to drive home the message that we are hopeless cases? Either way, they can fascinate us because, deep down, we know that movement is a natural expression of life.

Movement – harmful or life-enhancing?

We undertake all manner of movement, even when we are sitting, but the modern advice that a sedentary lifestyle can cause harm seems irrefutable. Even if we are chair-bound, there are exercises to help us maintain or improve health. That makes good sense because we know that when the body isn’t moving much, energy cannot circulate well. If this is prolonged, the muscles and tissues weaken. But before we don our running shoes or head off to the gym, how do we know what level or amount of exercise is appropriate for our body? Indeed, perhaps something like tai chi would be better for us than pounding pavements or pumping iron.

Movement weight

Balancing yin and yang

When we are inactive, the body tends to be more yin, whilst exercise increases yang qualities. One should balance the other – gradually. By the application of yang through movement, we convert sluggishness into something lighter and more vibrant. How much is enough, though? It is easy to become over-enthusiastic and then strain can put us out of action altogether.

Movement child

The sweet spot

If we want to be healthy and balanced, we need to find our sweet spot. This is the optimum point between rest and activity. The sweet spot changes from season to season, and even with different times of day, as well as with age. It is different for everyone as body types and constitutions vary. As we increase our capacity for activity, it will change, too. There is no common prescription that suits everyone so we need to listen to our body. Intuitively, we can sense when we need to do more and likewise when the body has had enough. Increasing movement may generally be good for us but to get it right, listening to the body’s intelligence is absolutely essential.

For balance in life, there is a wealth of information in The Great Little Book of Happiness

Free guided meditations

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