Qi or Chi is the energy of life. If your body and brain are under stress, your inner chi may be blocked or flowing sluggishly. In the world of Traditional Chinese medicine, freeing up chi can be done via acupuncture, meditation, and physical exercises such as yoga and tai chi.
Free Up Your Body
Visualizing chi can often be easier if you see the energy in colours. A basic understanding of our energy chakras to successfully visualize the energy. In particular, visualizing these colours in more intense and brighter shades can do a lot to help you focus on health problems.
For example, you may struggle with stomach trouble and a sluggish gut. You may choose to visualize the area around your tailbone in a warm red light. As you work through yoga poses designed to free up this portion of your spine such as the tree pose, you can encourage movement in this area of the body to heal a troubled tummy. As you exercise, you can focus on freeing up the tightness in the pelvis and find that your diet changes. Your focus on a sluggish gut may make it easier to remember to eat more raw foods and fresh produce.
Free Your Mind
When we think of freeing our minds, many of us strive to shed all negative thoughts. We try to get rid of phrases such as
- I can’t…
- I should not…
- I don’t have any ideas on how to…
- I could never…
The trouble with trying to fill your mind with only positive thoughts is simply not balanced. We all have to go through really tough events; no life is free of suffering or struggle. If you’re trying to figure out how to harness your chi and find that your brain is spinning plates but making no progress, try clearing your head instead.
Meditation is functionally sitting and focusing on your breath as it moves in and out of your body. While this sounds really easy, it’s actually challenging to enjoy having an empty mind. Our brain seeks out something bright and shiny to focus on or looks for a worry to poke at.
If you want to let an unlimited flow of chi clear your head,
1) Set a timer so you don’t have to look at the clock to see if you’re almost done
2) Light a candle that you can stare at and lose visual focus
3) sit somewhere comfy and fairly erect; you don’t need to sit on the floor to meditate
4) Place your feet flat on the floor and your hands on your knees so your abdomen can engage as you breathe deeply and stare at the candle.
Thoughts will sneak in. You may think about a tough relationship, your hardware store list, or lunch. Gently guide your mind back to a nice empty spot and keep breathing. Practice will improve your experience; if you can meditate for ten minutes a day, you can free up chi to cleanse your mind.
Healing Old Hurts
Chi can get blocked at old trauma points. Bruises fade, but chi blockages don’t without work. You may have old physical or emotional hurts tied to trauma from childhood or dangerous relationships that no longer impact you.
Tai chi is a wonderful way to shed these toxic blocks. Many think of tai chi as a moving form of meditation. Your moves during this practice will be quite slow. Each move focuses on balance and circulation.
You may find that tai chi is a wonderful way to warm up before you go to the gym or get on the running trail. Throughout your tai chi movements and poses, a great deal of focus will be on the abdominal breath.
Train Your Body to Belly Breathe
To learn to belly breath, start by laying on your back and putting a book on your navel. When you inhale, move nothing but focus on moving the book toward the ceiling. As you exhale, the book should drop back toward the mattress. Practice releasing your abdomen as you inhale.
Each of the exercises above focuses on breathing. Of course, you know how to do that. However, learning to breathe deeply and effectively, all the way down into your torso, can be incredibly relaxing and energizing.
