To enhance your life energy article from Bill Ryman of towardharmony.com
Bill is a qigong and tai chi teacher.
Illnesses, injuries, and surgeries all mean one thing to your life energy levels.
They drop – sometimes precipitously.
So what can you do about that?
Of course, there are specifics about each case, but there are three overriding general principles you can follow: 1) don’t push things; 2) do much less than you think you could; and 3) don’t fully stop, if possible.
Think about it. Your body uses life energy to heal. So when you become ill, injured, or have surgery, your body pulls energy to the places in it where healing is needed. Such places are like life energy black holes; they pull energy from near and far in the body in order to become whole again.
The energy that they pull in is the same energy that you rely on for your day-to-day activities. This is why your energy levels drop. The energy that you usually have for your activities in the outside world is going inside to try to fix what’s broken.
Some people go ahead and push forward anyway with their daily lives. This is a bad strategy. You’ll either draw energy away from the healing that’s needed so things heal very slowly or poorly, or you’ll begin to draw down your life reserves – energy that you have stored in your body in reserve for times of emergency. If you use your emergency reserves foolishly, then they won’t be there when you really need them.
So how do you know when you’re pushing too hard? It’s hard to tell. So err on the side of caution. At the beginning, take what you think you could do and do about 10 or 20 percent of that. Notice how your body reacts. If your healing proceeds well and you feel good, then test another level of activity. If not, then cut back and see how things go.
An alternative would be to just stop and wait until the healing is all done. For some situations, this may be what’s called for. But in most situations, it’s helpful to stay a little active. How much is a question of judgment.
By staying active and keeping moving a bit, you help keep your life energy circulating through your system to the places that need it. When you get it just right, you’ll circulate just enough energy to support your healing, without interfering with it.
If you have any doubt about what level or type of activity would be detrimental to you or your healing, be sure to consult with your doctor or other medical professional.
There are some exercises which are particularly good at circulating energy. Walking is one. Within qigong, there are very good ones such as the Cloud Hands movements in tai chi forms or in Opening the Energy Gates qigong or the movement called Dragon & Tiger Meet in the Dragon & Tiger Qigong system.
Such exercises can be adapted for use even in extreme situations like confinement to a wheelchair or a hospital bed. Here you make your movements much smaller, but you still try to keep moving, even if it’s just a tiny bit.
So the next time that you become sick, injured or have a surgery, remember: don’t push, do less than you think you can, and don’t stop, if possible.