Falling into Good Habits
A reprint from my article for DaoUSA.org.
It is autumn. The weather is changing. Birds are migrating. Hmmm. We aren’t squirrels, but we know they are storing up food for the winter. How do they know that there won’t be any acorns until next year? It Just It. The Dao follows nature. Farmers are harvesting, processing, selling and storing their crops and celebrating their hard work and their bounty with festivals and fairs in their local communities.
So, what will you store up for the long winter months? How about some extra Qi?
Chinese medicine says that what you cultivate (or not) in the spring and summer sets the stage for how you will fair (good or not so good) in the winter. Let that sink in.
Habits are just habits. In order to create a habit, you have to repeat it over and over again until the neurons in the brain override the “old” habit with the new. It is like working a crossword puzzle where you have written the wrong word and upon discovering the correct word simply write over the letters over and over again until the new word is legible (dominant). Repetition. That’s all.
Fall into a new habit by starting your day (each and every day) with something as simple as breathing. Fall is the season of the metal element and the lung and large intestine. Intentional work with the breath is the nourishment it craves. [pause now and give yourself a moment to look back on the health of these two organs. They could surely use some nourishing]
The lungs also love to have the chest expanded and opened. Think of the breath like a bellows, blowing to generate heat in a furnace/ cauldron (lower belly / aka dan tian). Perhaps think of an old movie where the blacksmith is working a bellows to get his coals hot enough to work the iron into something. Since my brother IS a blacksmith, I have learned a bit about different sources of fuel which create different temperatures in order to "work" different metals. This is a similar concept... It’s alchemy!
In any case - different breathing exercises (10,000 rays of light or Hard fire /soft fire ... or many others) serve many functions while accommodating the abilities of the practitioner. As in can you multitask or stay with a single task.
A beginner might start with 10,000 rays of light exercise or an exercise even simpler. The lower the energy of a person and the more severe the debility, the simpler you can be while still accomplishing a lot. That is - to gently and continually increase the heat of the furnace and increase the "BTU's" (power) of the engine (kidneys) to have the ability to store more energy (Qi) to create more stamina and better health.
Liken this to the difference between the heat from a single match vs heat from the bonfire that the match ignited. Negligible vs sustained heat. And THIS is what dedicated practice means as well. This is a HABIT.
So, what will your habit be... or... become? There are endless things to choose from. Will it benefit your health and healing? Find one ... or...learn one that you like and just DO IT EVERY day WITHOUT fail. Build the foundation. Build the fire (of enthusiasm) which adds fuel (everyday practice) to generate vibrant health.
Do not be misled by feeling better after a short time of doing your practice. Just keep at it, making it a habit as natural as brushing your teeth ... everyday / even twice a day...
Dao Qi Chang Cun
Comments