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How to balance our inner fire

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Fire and WaterFire, one of the five elements in Qigong, is particularly strong this year, and even more so in the summer months. Fire governs the heart and circulatory system in our bodies. When it is in balance, the body functions well, but when it is too strong our health can suffer. When we are feeling agitated, irritable or angry, it is often because our inner fire is burning too vigorously. There is too much heat in our system, which can easily damage our heart and circulation.

Fire on the world stage

This year, we have seen many examples of anger and hatred in our towns and cities. On the world stage also, violence in the Middle East conflict has flared out of control. Untold suffering is being created by the thoughts and actions of supposedly intelligent people, but when Fire is too strong, it unbalances minds. Hatred ignites far too easily and intelligence becomes charred remains. But all is not lost.

The antidote to excess fire

The strongest healing power in the universe is love, unconditional love. That is what the world needs and that is what a balanced heart will give out. Fire element is not bad – it helps us to think clearly and to radiate love and joy, healing and nurturing – but it needs to be in balance.

Balancing with water

We cannot change the world directly, but we can help ourselves to find balance. In the summer months, it can be helpful to balance our inner fire by being near water and greenery. We can meditate near water or simply visualise a lake or a waterfall – whatever appeals. Fire can make us overthink or become anxious. Sipping water often can help. Breathe slowly and calmly, then smile. That way, our contribution to world consciousness will be more balanced and soothing, and that is no small thing.

Do less to accomplish more: The Art of Not Doing

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  3. Strength: 3 reasons why balance is better than muscle
  4. Motivation: how using Nature’s power can change your life

Vibration – the key to our wellbeing

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Vibration affects every second of our lives

Vibration is the key to all life. Everything in the universe, us included, is energy and takes and maintains its form due to vibration. A significant factor for our wellbeing is the effect of the vibration of things around us, and of the people and organisations we associate with. We similarly have a vibrational impact on others and our environment by the way we think, speak and act. To use a modern idiom, each one of us is an influencer, whether we use social media or not.

Vibration to make a difference

Many people can feel the “vibes” or energy a person or place gives off. These may be uplifting, which we could say are positive. A comparatively negative quality, on the other hand, might make us feel uncomfortable or even pull us down. If we want to make a difference to our world, we can. We can do it by aligning or associating ourselves with higher quality energy, and the highest form is love – unconditional, non-judgmental. The universe has an unlimited supply of it – we just have to be open to it. It really is that simple.

The best vibration is the simplest

Simply by being kind and by loving, we raise our own vibration – of our mind, emotions and our entire energy field. That’s all we have to do. When we love, our body heals faster because all our energy channels open up. Loving those around us helps them heal faster, too. When we love unconditionally, we help the world because all tension eases, both in us and around us. Everything responds to love. Whatever our day to day responsibilities, grand or small, spreading “good vibrations” is our role, too. Cheers to that, I say!

Awakening Heart – The Blissful Path to Self-Realisation

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  1. Healing energy, the Universe and You
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Strength: 3 reasons why balance is better than muscle

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Strength taiji
Strength and balance

Strength is wonderful. When we are strong, whether in body or mind, and preferably both, we feel great and can achieve many good things. Cultivating strength seems very worthwhile. It often results from dedication, application and discipline – from gong fu. A strong character is developed through life’s experiences and, if we are lucky, sound education. Daily, we see the actions of those who have used strength in order to become powerful and perhaps wonder if it is such a good quality after all. In taiji (tai chi), we emphasise balance as the way to become strong. Being powerful should be of no interest whatsoever. Here’s why this is essential, not just in taiji, but to leading a happy life.

Strength lies in the beauty of the play of yin and yang

Life is a continual play of opposites. Once we accept and understand this, we don’t need to cling onto what is good, nor fear the bad. When we cling, we become very yin. When we fight, we become very yang. Both are states of weakness and imbalance that are detrimental to health and wellbeing. They can also cause problems and unhappiness for those around us. No good points there, then. But all we need to do is let go. In taiji, we learn to relax in our movements so that the blood and qi can flow through the body unimpeded. Good upright posture but relaxed and open. Strength is in grace and poise, not power. The principle in life is the same. Balance yin with yang, and yang with yin. No forcing – just play.Strength tree

Head points to Heaven, feet to Earth – don’t forget the feet

There is a very valuable principle in taiji of being rooted. When we begin learning the movements, the placing of the feet in the correct position is drummed into us. Only much later can we understand why this is so important. When we know how to relax the body, including the feet, and to open the joints, which takes a long while to develop, the experience of being rooted comes. It’s a wonderful feeling. There is enormous strength in being connected to the Earth in this way. It is very difficult for others to push or pull us off balance. In modern life we tend to focus in the head and forget the feet. The world is more than a little crazy because we have become very clever but in the process have lost our stability.

The Goldilocks effect

Muscles are better than porridge. Even if you are a porridge fan, you can’t eat porridge without muscles. Some people like to build up their muscle bulk to acquire an impressive physique. Oddly, you don’t see animals going to the gym or lifting weights, but you do see them stretching. Strength isn’t about having big muscles but having a body that is fit for purpose. Too little muscle, and we are weak; too much and we become tight and lose some of our flexibility. Like Goldilocks’s choice of porridge, there is a midpoint that is just right. In taiji, there are moves that involve standing on one leg. Most people wobble a bit at first. Gradually, through doing relaxed movements, strength builds up. A stiff leg isn’t strong, we discover. We learn, too, that a taut abdomen makes us weaker, paradoxical though that may seem. In life, too, there is a midpoint in everything. The Middle Way. Now, that’s strength.

For an exploration of finding the middle way in life, read my book The Art of Not Doing available here.

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Power: how to realise yours for a better world

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Power is extraordinary, isn’t it? People with power are making the news left, right and centre at the moment. So much so that we might think that ordinary people – the likes of you and me – are insignificant. If we fell off the face of the planet tomorrow, would the Earth shudder? In my case certainly, there would be no big bulletins. But powerful people are different. When they sneeze or cough, others jump.

Where do powerful people get their power from?

What makes someone powerful?power gorilla Historically, it came from physical strength. Just as in the animal kingdom there are fights to determine the dominant male or female, in more barbaric times there were battles for strength. Leaders emerged because people followed them, either for protection or out of fear. Wars are a remnant of this crude approach.

As humanity evolves, there is a gradual shift from brutish strength to a more subtle phase. Power now, more than at any other time, is the ability to change minds – the manipulation of mass consciousness.

It takes three to tango

A leader can only remain while others, the followers, allow it. The head of a democracy is there only by permission. Power is a loan, not a gift or a right.

So there are three aspects, not two, to a position of power: 1. a leader 2. followers or the led, and 3. the relationship between the two. 1 & 2 are visible but 3 is a matter of consciousness. Without that bridge, 1 & 2 cannot exist, just as a tango cannot take place without the dancers, and there are no dancers without the tango.

The world may be alarmed at the choice of president of the American people. But it was their choice and was a product of their collective consciousness. He was put, and remains, in power by the mandate of ordinary folk.

Why we must help create a peaceful collective consciousnesspower common good

We may feel pretty helpless to do much to influence the way of the world, yet there is much we can do. And the main thing is that we have to find our own peace.

If we take care of our own consciousness and make it strong and peaceful, we contribute to the consciousness of the whole. It’s automatic, like pouring clear water into a muddy pool. If enough of us do that, the muddy waters become clearer and lighter. That’s much more useful than stirring the mud with a dirty stick.

Find your heart first

It may well be that we need to act, to speak, to protest or just do things differently. But we have to do so from a position of inner peace. If we are in touch with our full presence, we can help very much. We will be guided by our intuition and less likely to make mistakes. Passionate we may be, but from the heart, not the gut.

Living from the heart, we harm no-one nor wish harm. Only the good of the whole is of interest. Fearlessly able to love and be loved, we exude peace. Then we influence. Now that’s real power.

There’s more on finding peace for the good of the whole in this book.

Related posts:

  1. Heart: why we have to listen to what it says
  2. Attachment or love? Why we have to let go
  3. Sex or celibacy – which is better for the soul?
  4. Mindful living isn’t easy but it’s worth it

Violence can never be the answer

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Violence is never the answer to any problem. It is the province of the insane. High profile cases such as the Pulse attack in Orlando earlier this week and the murder of UK Member of Parliament Jo Cox yesterday hit the headlines and make us think how awful such things are. They are indeed terrible and it is almost impossible to imagine the grief and impact on the lives of the loved ones of the victims. Shamelessly cruel events happen all the time across the globe. We can and do blame the perpetrators because the human trait is to blame someone when things go wrong. But violence is a symptom of general insanity, a sickness shared by the whole human race. Isis is committing genocide, according to the UN. Unthinkable. But have we stopped it? Do we even know how to stop it? It seems not.

Violence starts in the mind

We normally associate violence with harmful actions and angry words. But before those words and actions, there are thoughts. The process may happen very quickly, so we may say someone acted without thinking. There have to be thoughts, though. Arms and legs don’t move by themselves. The mouth doesn’t enunciate without brain activity.  It all starts in the mind.

Where do the violent thoughts come from? A psychologist will be able to identify a million and one causes. However complex, there is always the underlying cause of separatism. With a belief that we are different, we see the other person (or race) as less human than we are, or not human at all.

Can there be justified violence?

If we are attacked, it may be necessary to use force to defend ourselves. Even so, most would agree that force is a last resort. A true martial artist would rather walk away from trouble than use his or her fighting skills. A military general might argue the benefits of a preemptive strike to prevent an attack. By and large, however, violence is a recipe for trouble and merely sows the seeds for retaliation at a later date.non violence gandhi

Non-violence

Mahatma Gandhi proved that non-violence can achieve enormous results. Corporal punishment of children, once considered essential, is now generally regarded as primitive, cruel and unnecessary, in the west at least. Not all societies follow that view and there are many countries where barbaric cruelty is still meted out, and not only to children. In the long run, do we want our communities to be run on the basis of fear? Or is it better to have kindness and mutual respect? If it is the latter, the place we have to start with is ourselves.

 

The importance of love in the conduct of business and politics is developed in my second book Awakening Heart: The Blissful Path to Self-Realisation

Related posts:

  1. Light lies ahead – we just have to see it
  2. World peace is fragile – it’s no joke but we can all help
  3. Mindful living isn’t easy but it’s worth it
  4. Chaos: How using the breath can rescue us and restore stability