Cultivating Ki Flow and Mindfulness, Manifesting Mind
Author: Charlie Badenhop
Starting Line
This article is the second in a three part series. In
my first article in this series I talked about "Energy, Spirit and
Mind" and introduced how these terms are used in Seishindo. In this
article I am going to talk about how to cultivate "ki" the energy
that is the source of all life. If this is the first article in this series
you are reading, you might want to first read my last article, so you
have a better understanding of how we think about "ki" in Seshindo.
No one has absolute knowledge (except through faith)
of where ki originates from and no one knows where our personal ki goes
to after we die. Ki springs from the depth of the universe as well as
from the depth of our soul. The way of ki is a gigantic and fascinating
mystery, and one that is well worth exploring. In studying ki we can come
to a deeper understanding of ourselves, our relationships, and the world
we live in. Our study of ki can help to liberate us as we become better
attuned to the music and poetry of our heart and soul.
Having an experiential understanding of the nature of
ki leads us to encounter a natural, creative intelligence, that far transcends
the abilities and powers of any one human being. Ki is the common denominator
we share with all of life. I believe that ki is essentially, expansive,
mutable, and supportive of life, and that it can adapt to an endless variety
of forms and functions depending on how it is received, shaped, and utilized
by our system.
I wrote above that ki is "supportive of life"
and I want to explain this a bit more here. Ki supports life when our
system is able to let it flow unimpeded, like when when our immune system
spontaneously heal wounds or illnesses. Ki also has the potential to be
destructive in nature when it's flow becomes either stagnant or blocked,
as in the case of the body being ravaged by cancer. Noguchi Sensei, the
man that developed "Noguchi Sei Tai" (a Japanese system of health
management) used to say "Illness is due to excess energy being trapped
in the body. The stronger the illness, the more energy there is trapped."
One of the main purposes of Noguchi Sei Tai is to facilitate the release
of excess energy held in the body so that the body can operate freely,
and without impediment. This is also one of the main functions of Seishindo.
When the body is stable and able to move freely, our thoughts patterns
and emotions will be stable and flowing, and health and emotional balance
will be fostered. In my first article I wrote "The quality of our
life is not dependent on the circumstances we encounter. The quality of
our life is dependent on what we learn from the circumstances we encounter."
In this issue I will say, "The quality of our life is not dependant
on the quantity of ki available to us. The quality of our life is dependent
on our capacity to maintain a free flow of ki throughout our system."
Our belief system, as well as the way we facilitate the generation and
flow of ki within our system are the major determinants of the quality
of our life. Free flowing ki energizes and nourishes the body. Blocked
ki can damage us and weaken our ability to adapt. The cultivation of free
flowing ki is thus an important activity to explore because the manner
in which we cultivate, use, and expend ki, is what determines our health
and well being, and who and what we become over time.
One of the main functions of Seishindo is to help people
cultivate the ability to be calm, fully present, and feeling one's emotions
and bodily sensations, without the need for internal dialogue. When we
are at one with our self and our experience there is no need for internal
dialogue, for there is no "other one" to talk to. Present in
one's body, present in one's brain, and aware of and connected to one's
emotions and the environment, but not requiring or engaging in internal
dialogue. This is a very special way of being. A way of being that can
help us to fully actualize our self in the world. This is a way of being
that can help us to deeply connect to our ability to respect, love, and
heal, self, other, and the world around us.
Main Course
At every moment in time the ki within your system speaks to you via a
somatic language that is as refined, systematic, and complete as your
verbal language. This transformation of ki into somatic language is the
basis of the non-cognitive wisdom that we call "intuition."
Becoming fluent in this language can help you maintain your health and
well-being, foster more heartfelt relationships, and assist you in expressing
your creative and healing gifts when working with others in various contexts.
When you do "just enough" and nothing more or less, you will
create the context for your body to be structurally balanced, flexible,
and free to move. This is the way you are designed to be, and at such
times your ki flows freely. Structurally balanced, flexible, and free
to move and change, mentally, emotionally, and physically.
We have a chemical-electrical-muscular response to events,
other people, circumstances, and the intake of energy via food, sunlight,
water, and other sources. People further react to: presently occurring
events, thoughts about possible future events, memories of past events,
and internal dialogue. To a large extent, the responses we have to the
energy we encounter and generate are dependent on: 1. The way we use our
body (structure, movement, flow). 2. Our system of beliefs, and 3. The
default neuromuscular biochemical pathways that we have developed over
time due to a tendency towards habitual reactions.
The changes that take place in our body and brain are
highly systematic in nature, and these changes determine the quality of
our emotional responses, and our ability to think in a creative manner.
Something occurs, and we spontaneously feel, think, and react in a specific
manner, all of which leads to our somatic-emotional experience. For the
most part we have limited awareness and understanding of what actually
changes within our system, to cause a change in our somatic-emotional
experience. We generalize the "feeling tone" of our experience
and we give these generalized feelings rather unspecific verbal labels
such as "happy" "in love" "ill" "hungry"
"depressed."
You can think of our various somatic-emotional reactions
to life as "recipes". Increase the blood pressure ever so much,
restrict the flow of blood to the extremities a certain amount, increase
the speed of your heartbeat, induce certain chemicals into the bloodstream,
breathe more shallowly, and think about what could go wrong, and you have
created the recipe for "fear." We each create these somatic-emotional
recipes outside of our conscious awareness, and without the conscious
knowledge of what the "contents" of each recipe are. Most of
this activity is coordinated by what in Seishindo we call "somatic
intelligence," the intelligence of the mobile brain within the body.
The task we face when wanting to live a balanced creative life, is to
heighten our ability to sense the components that make up our various
somatic-emotional recipes, so that we can continue to adapt and maintain
a system that is expansive, balanced, and free flowing. When our system
facilitates the free flow of ki, we maintain a state of health, well being,
and creativity.
1. There is a dynamic life force (ki) which pulsates through each of us.
Most people have developed a tendency to inhibit the flow of energy and
movement created by ki when presented with challenging situations. When
the natural flow of ki is inhibited, the natural flow of information available
(images, sounds, feelings, and "solutions") is also inhibited.
Allowing a free flow of energy and movement throughout our system facilitates
a free flow of information and thus high quality learning and adaptation.
2. Ki flows best in a system that is balanced in structure,
porous, flexible, expansive, and well oxygenated. Therefore in Seishindo
we suggest any and all physical exercises and mindfulness training that
helps you to accomplish just such a state. This is the kind of state that
increases your resilience, adaptive and healing powers, and energy flow.
Aikido, Yoga, Tai Chi, Pilates, Gyrontonics, and various Seishindo practices
are excellent for this. The idea in all of these practices is to increase
your awareness of what is taking place in the moment, while entering into
an experience where you "stop stopping" yourself, and your thoughts
and reactions transcend the limitations of your habituated "everyday"
pace and rhythm. When we use more of all of our self and less of any one
part of our self, our system will tend to be healthy and highly responsive.
3. Breath moves ki and delivers oxygen to the system.
Oxygen and ki are highly supportive of health, well being, and the formulations
of solutions. Every thought we have and every emotion we experience, affects
the flow of breath and thus ki, within our system. When we are able to
maintain a relaxed breathing process appropriate to the situation at hand,
we maintain a free flow of ki, our emotions tend to be balanced, and our
thinking tends to be solution oriented. There are many different disciplines
that offer various breathing exercises. Any well conceived breathing exercise
will be extremely helpful in "training" you to maintain sufficient
amounts of oxygen in your system. In my last article I presented the Heartbeat
Breathing practice. You can find this practice here.
4. Under normal life conditions, when a system receives
a "shock" it adapts and rebalances. Extreme life conditions
such as trauma result in extreme adaptations, and quite often the rebalancing
part of our recovery does not take place. Usually during times of trauma
the person's energy, musculature, and thought patterns "lock"
part way through the cycle of experience, and the natural and necessary
rebalancing back to center, does not occur. When we block the natural
flow of ki in our system, we block the flow of the "river of life."
Meaningful and lasting change requires shifts in the autonomic, peripheral,
and enteric nervous systems, to occur. Such change requires a provoking
of the natural wisdom of the body and its capacity to re-balance so that
we release the locking of our musculature, and a new higher level of systemwide
organization can be allowed to unfold.
The Noguchi Sei Tai exercise of "Katsugen Undo"
offers an excellent method to help release the system so that you can
once again open up to the possibilities of life, and facilitate the free
flow of ki within your system. (More on this later.)
5. The response of "dissociation" or numbing
our ability to feel can be quite helpful as an anesthetic under conditions
of pain and extreme helplessness. Such responses however become detrimental
to our overall health and well being when they are adopted as a generalized
response to potentially painful or frightening situations. It is natural
for our system to release the anesthetic of an operation after and hour
or so, as our system comes "back to life." It is also natural
to release the dissociative patterns learned when feeling helpless or
in pain, so that we can enter back into a life of pain AND pleasure, sorrow
AND joy. We need to discover a path for entering back into the flow of
life so we can regain access to the full range of emotions that are available
to a healthy emotionally balanced individual. When the sensation of flowing
ki is anesthetized we lose our ability to feel into the ebb and flow of
our experience. Heartfelt supportive relationships are of great benefit
here in helping us to trust that it can be safe to feel again.
6. Whatever we avoid, whatever we are unable to feel
and bring our awareness into, does not change. When our system does not
change, our ki becomes stagnant, and our life force is weakened. When
working to re-claim parts of ourselves we have lost contact with we will
do well to begin by gently feeling each and every part of ourselves, so
that we can eventually come to know that we are whole. Every part of our
self is worthy of loving attention and when we bring loving attention
to injured or neglected parts of our self, we foster the flow of ki, a
softening of the body, and the opening of our heart. Various mindfulness
exercises such as meditation, Tai Chi, Yoga, and Aikido, can be very helpful
in this regard.
The challenge of living a heartfelt healthy life is threefold:
1) Gain conscious awareness of how you generate your somatic-emotional
experience. 2) Recognize the ingredients of the somatic-emotional "recipes"
you generate as a result of your experience. 3) Change the recipes you
create, and thus change your relationship to your experience and your
life "story". If you are able to change the habituated and highly
specific somatic-emotional reactions you have to events you will transform
the way you express your emotions, think, and react.
In order to assist each person in being able to change
their consciousness we have developed various practices. These practices
are designed to make the transparent aspects of your experience more obvious.
The practices help you to notice and effect changes in various aspects
of your experience that were previously outside of your conscious awareness.
By taking part in these practices you will learn how to intuit and react
to the seed somatic-emotional experience that forms the foundation of
your verbal explication of life. In order to cultivate ki, cultivate mindfulness.
In order to cultivate mindfulness cultivate a love for all that lives,
and all that you are and aren't.
Over a period of time by performing mindfulness practices,
you will also be more likely to understand how to help others change their
experience as well.
About the author: Charlie Badenhop is the originator
of Seishindo, an Aikido instructor, NLP trainer, and Ericksonian Hypnotherapist.
Benefit from his thought-provoking ideas and a new self-help Practice
every two weeks, by subscribing to his complimentary newsletter "Pure
Heart, Simple Mind" at http://www.seishindo.org/anger/index.html
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