Finding Your Chi

Chi (or Qi) as called in Chinese culture, and Prana in Hindu philosophy is the same. The main source of Chi is the air element, to which, being the primary source of living, becomes the focus of attention. Your life force, that flows within your mind and body, can be the focus of your concentrated energy to vitalize your daily living. A balanced Chi or Prana, is believed to provide you with a balanced approach of energy concentrations within yourself.

Like anything you generally know, addressing your Chi or Prana, requires practice. It starts with you making sure that your place of living is not cluttered, as the same to your mind and body too. In one sense, addressing your Chi simply means addressing the creation that this Universe provides to the beholder. Of course, this means in reality, on this planet Earth, you are provided with basic five elements, which are, Air, Water, Fire, Earth and Ether.

What really interest me is the Ether element, which relatively means ‘Emptiness of Space’. This mysterious void that seems to exist in the literacy within Yogic practices, Chinese traditional medicines, and significantly at higher level of martial arts practices, are well recognized as an attainable form of energy. You have the possibility to harness by the practices of breathing techniques, exercises, balanced food intake and meditation. If you remember reading my earlier blogs, all these four basic elements to your daily living were already mentioned.

A blocked Chi is similar to a blocked vessel leading to your heart. The congestion that the heart suffers, will lead to existential damages to your daily living. Anger, depression, excess stress, physical weakness, distorted thoughts, extreme fears is some of the negativity that can relate to blocked or weak Chi or Prana. So, if you are directing yourself to channels that can help you in your self-recovery process, visualize your personal Chi within your mind as a simple ball of energy. This form of energy, when you are focusing, should feel comfortable and relaxing within yourself.

Let me take you to some basic exercises so that you can be able to focus on your visualized ball of energy:

1. Step 1: Sit somewhere where you are not distracted, keep your body upright, your left feet, comfortably crossed over your right feet. Bring both hands rested below your belly button, with your right palm over the left palm, having both thumbs touching each other at their tip. Close your eyes gently, focus just above your nose, with your chin slightly up.

2. Breathing: You should now slowly inhale for three seconds, then exhale slowly for three seconds. Repeat this for twelve times. Do not inhale and exhale suddenly and hold your breath for three seconds. Just inhale by feeling your chest expanding from the point of your belly button upwards. Then exhale by feeling your chest recessing towards your belly button.

3. Visualization: At this stage, imagine that there is a small energy thrust within a straight line, which is actually your spinal cord, that transmits your energies from your base of your spinal cord to your mind and back. Do not worry about not feeling any spinal energy or inability to visualize this focal energy in your mind. The primary task is for you to learn to relax, and proceed with these exercises first.

4. Step 2: Now, repeat step 1, but change by crossing your right feet over your left feet instead. Have both hands rested below your belly button, with your left palm over the right palm, having both thumbs touching each other at their tip. Close your eyes gently, focus just above your nose, with your chin slightly up.

5. Breathing: You should now slowly inhale for three seconds, then exhale slowly for three seconds. Repeat this for twelve times. Do not inhale and exhale suddenly and hold your breath for three seconds. Just inhale by feeling your chest expanding from the point of your belly button upwards. Then exhale by feeling your chest recessing towards your belly button.

6. Self-Check: At this stage, without any stress to yourself, do not overthink, just ask yourself, if you feet any difference in energy within your mind and body, when you changed the positions of your legs and palms? In both different positions, you initially should feel a mild shift of energy within you, and then as you breathe, you will find it will slowly balance itself, and the spinal cord will feel lighter, less tensed, and your mind and body will drift away from the focus of your crossed legs and palms.

7. Caveat: If you did not feel any shift of energy within you, don’t worry at all. Learn to recognize your mind and body in these given exercises. Just repeat them over time, when you can, at least once or twice a day, if you are in your office, at your study table, whilst taking a break from watching television or playing video games. Keep practicing.

8. Next Step: Once you are pretty much comfortable doing Step 1 and Step 2, you can move on to the next step.

9. Step 3: Again, find a place where you are not distracted. Sit in a Lotus Position, to which again, do not physically stress yourself, trying to force yourself to sit in this position without practice. There are a lot of videos available on YouTube for you to take a look, thus I do not need to upload videos to explain this position. If you do have any difficulties, do write to me and ask. Most people find it difficult initially, as they are not comfortable in folding their legs in such positions, especially when their knees and leg muscles feel the difficulty to do so.

10. Sitting Posture: Let me share you a secret. When you are practicing your Lotus Position, you need not sit on the floor. Instead, after a good fresh bath, wear light clothes, then go and sit on the upper center of your bed, preferably a firm bed, towards your headboard. In this way, you have a good resting position for your spine as well. Alternatively, you can put a firm pillow at the back of your body to rest on, so that you can sit upright easily.

11. Relax Your Legs: Now, fold your legs gently, with the left leg first, then the right leg over the left leg. Here is the trick. If you see the Yoga practitioners, they have their feet high up to their groin. In most cases, it takes a very long time and I will say it here; this extended position is really not needed. Just bring your left feet close to your lower groin, touching close to your buttocks instead of bringing it over your thigh. Then take your right feet, over the left leg, and have the feet resting just below your groin. In this way, you will feel both legs without strain and feeling comfortable too. What is important is that when you have placed both feet in place, your body must remain upright without hunching or having your shoulders drooping.

12. Focal Point: Now bring both hands rested below your belly button, with your right palm over the left palm, having both thumbs touching each other at their tip. Close your eyes gently, focus just above your nose, with your chin slightly up.

13. Breathing: You should now slowly inhale for three seconds, then exhale slowly for three seconds. Repeat this for twelve times. Do not inhale and exhale suddenly and hold your breath for three seconds. Just inhale by feeling your chest expanding from the point of your belly button upwards. Then exhale by feeling your chest recessing towards your belly button.

14. Step 4: Now, change the position of your hands, palms upwards, and place the bottom of your left hand over the left knee, the bottom of your right hand over your right knee. You can stretch both hands, enough for the palms to touch each knee, without your body or shoulder drooping forward. Keep all fingers close to each other, like an open leaf, with your thumbs having a gentle but slightly firm touch towards the lower part of your index finger. Each of your palm will not be outstretched, but slightly formed as if you are going to catch some water on it.

15. Visualization: With your eyes closed gently again, you will now proceed with a little bit extended exercise in visualizing your energies. Did you hear me say ‘energies’? Yes, you did. Your mind will visualize again the ball of energy whilst you focusing just above your nose, at the same time, imagine that both your palms are now holding your left and right ball of energies on your palm. As you breathe gently, slowly focus on these three points, which interconnects your mind and body as one single core source of your life force.

16. Calming Process: At this stage, relieve your mind and body from any of your problems, just focus to visualizing the energies within yourself and smile. You will in due time, I hope, find the moments to which you are engulfing yourself with an aura to which will gently calm yourself, and you will find revitalized strength to move on with more positivity within yourself. If you can practice what I have shown you here, and realize your potentials, you will know how to uplift yourself further without hesitation.

17. Summary: Why imagining the illusive ball of energy and energies on your palms? Remember Ether element where the emptiness of space was mentioned? In all that emptiness, energies exist. As empty this Universe may look, with its vast and endless creations and destructions taking place continuously in the factions of time. You, as an individual, will have the opportunity to cultivate and harness the source or energies that exist in this nature. It exists, because, you exist too.

Carry on practicing these exercises. From my personal experiences, it is the essence of you being able to provide primary focus, within your own strengths, that you may not have realized its existence.

Chi or Prana is a name given to simply address the nature of unbounded energies. Fragmenting them to simple, digestible content to understand, provides you an opportunity to learn and harness your skills, for your own benefit and others too.