Day 59 - The forces of nature

The forces of nature surround us, nourishing us and supporting us if we allow ourselves to let them in. Yet they are impartial, and not ours to control. We are simply energy bodies which vibrate, and this vibration can be trained to become aligned with external energetic forces in our universe. How magical life is!

Day 58 - A year in the life ...........

Keeping up a blog for a year  is no mean feat, and I put other things ahead of keeping this blog going last year. After returning from Thailand. I went house-hunting, visited family in the UK, bought a house with my partner and moved in, went to the UK again for almost three months to be with my mum, dad and family through mum's tragic illness and death, then came home and quietly enjoyed our new home surrounded by nature while allowing the grief of losing a parent to ebb and flow through me as I digested last year's experiences bit by bit. Of course, it is an ongoing process, but being consistent in my qi cultivation practices has helped me to keep an even keel and remain grateful for all the wondrous things that life has and is providing to me and those around me. 

Revisiting this photo gives me so much joy. The life force of this ancient being is so steady and sturdy, and runs deep. I draw on the example of elephant qi today to give me the strength and majesty to meet all my daily tasks efficiently and graciously! 

And I draw on the love of my mother, now and always ..................................

Day 56-57 Add oil!

I have been getting up early to do my practices since the beginning of the year, and this week has been no exception, even though I am back at work. I have noticed, though, that after three days of work, it is harder to motivate myself in the evening to finish a few of the exercises I missed this morning! The Chinese have a saying jiāyóu, which is an expression of encouragement to keep you going when the going gets tough. One translation would be 'Add oil!'

In qi gong, adding oil is also talked about, in the sense that a lamp cannot be lit without a sufficient supply of energy - in this case coming from oil. Our human energy is finite, too, unless we learn how to multiply and store our life force energy. It really is possible, and that is what fuels me to get up early in the morning to do the practices, and that knowing is what will fuel me to get off the computer now to go and finish my exercises! 

jiāyóu!

Day 54-55 - Tantra

This video interview, given by Dr Thomas Daffern, is well worth watching for an exploration of the origins, philosophies and practices of Tantra across different cultures.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8a7xY_flT4&feature=em-share_video_user

Day 50-53 - The Universe does not revolve around you! :-)

This is one of my biggest lessons, and an ongoing one. I remind myself of this on a daily basis, particularly when I can feel myself beginning to get het up about something. It helps me to gain perspective, and to become the observer again. There is great harmonic potential in acknowledging one's place in the universe!

Days 45-49 Who is in charge?

As I awoke this morning, these words were forming in my mind: "I have no authority, but I am sovereign of the vessel"

Essential to cultivating the Tao is knowing who or what is in charge. Do we really think we have any authority, spinning around in space on a little ball of earth, subject to a myriad of happenstances, subject to the material world and its corresponding laws of nature? In cultivating deference to the laws of nature, the universal prerogative, a little more freedom of being is attained, freedom of the soul; indeed, even though we have no authority, we do have free will, and the ability to choose how to respond to life's rich pageant.

In his work "Man's Search for Meaning", Viktor Frankl said that “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe2R_R0kVaY

As Lao Tzu puts it, "Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them - that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like"

Day 44 - "That's how the light gets in"

"There is a crack in everything;

That's how the light gets in." 

Leonard Cohen - Anthem

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ma5tF6TJpA

Our vulnerabilities, our weaknesses, our suffering, do not need to be fruitless. They are, in fact, potential catalysts for positive change and forward momentum if we can but embrace them to ourselves, and own them. Ownership is the first step towards transmuting & transcendence. Once we recognise that we alone are responsible for changing our relationship to the way we experience the world and those around us, the light begins to sneak through the cracks, and the healing process begins.