Move Energy 

Moving energy through the body at a calm, adaptable, healthy speed is what health is.

 

The body requires the proper amount of resistance, strength, flow and direction. These forces make up the drive of energy that is the spark of life.  Additionally, for these energies to flow properly, there must be a proper balance of peace and surge, soft and firm. Too soft or too rigid, too much activity without a proper balance of peace and things begin to shift abnormally.  

 

Too much of any of them and life itself is diminished.

 

When life is diminished, the strength and flow within the body becomes low or sporadic--ebbing and surging.

 

When the flow within the body becomes abnormal, disease begins. If it can be regulated, disease leaves. Both happen slowly over years...generations even.

 

Infection can cause increased flow early and blockage later on. But even infection has no home when these forces are in proper balance. Energy, electricity, oxygen and optimal performance of all cells, fluids, systems and particles in the body is produced in a perfect flow when the forces within the body are in proper balance. 

 

Herbal and nutritional medicine is about nourshing the body in such a way as to restore this balance. The deficiency actually comes after the flow imbalance. Herbs shift the behavior of the body in some way. They use complex blends of nutrition, energy and medicinal chemistry as part of this action.

 

Many alternative medicines use other means to stimulate a response in the body to move it closer to optimal.

 

But medicine can push, pull, stimulate, trick, etc. the body into something closer to balance. For any medicine to be truly healing, however, it must bestow life energy in an optimal form. For this reason all medicine that is not alive (made of raw, living cells) is not truly healing. Medicine that just manipulates is making life appear to be better without correcting underlying causes. In that case, the body will have to still restore some function after the push toward balance (nutritional, biochemical, energetic, circulatory, etc.) has occurred.

 

So we must learn about movement inside the body and of the body itself. We must learn about movement through life and through interactions with other people. We can certainly improve health to the point that it is possible for the body to move properly using a variety of medicines but that is not optimal healing. Healing comes from proper movement and tone in the proper places in the body. All our discussion of medicine is wonderful and will save lives but if we really want to return to optimal function, we need to have optimal, correct movement in the ways described above. 

 

So the following discussion is the beginning of thinking about these subjects. I hope to convey some ideas about correct movement. I hope to encourage changes to lifestyle which are a step in the right direction, if not themselves a cure.

 

ANY physical movement also creates movement of energy.  So one reason we need this discussion is that we are much more sedentary today, working on devices (like me right now) rather than in the field.  Working and moving outdoors is the best scenario for moving energy because nature is always in a state of movement and flux and creates, simultaneously a sense of stability and placement in the grand scheme of things.  Working out in a gym
really helps, but it can become part of the problem depending on how it is approached.  Listening to loud,  stimulating music while pushing toward a goal of a timed workout can actually create energy blockages.  One must really show up and enjoy him or herself richly for the gym to work as it should.  

 

Thought actually creates movement of energy if the thought is flexible, adaptable and progressive but it must simultaneously be stable and the right amount of strong, like our discussion at the beginning about flow through the body.  If thought is redundant and defends the current status quo, it will certainly stop energy flow.  

 

However, ritual in our lives helps relax tension and blockage and helps energy flow.  This may seem contrary to the point above about progressive thought, but it is not.  One must think freely and progressively but must have regular ritual that is cherished and believed in.  This is one reason that deeply religious people tend to outlive those who are not.  The religious people free up blockage regularly with morning devotion and evening devotion and religious ritual to which they cling and in which they believe deeply and trust with faith.  

 

Of course, like the others, religion can become a source of tension and blockage if it is a point of contention or control.  Religious guidelines, like these guidelines, are to free the person by giving them disciplines of power and focus.  If a spirit of delight is the driving power, then the religious ritual and beliefs will be freeing like the gym is freeing.  If it becomes dark and forceful, just like the gym, it will block energy flow. Beliefs and faith create a sense of stability which is vital for health. We are built to need that to be well. We need a sense of something beyond this life because we are capable of contemplating on things beyond this life (which I suggest is the one irrefutable evidence of God and eternal life of the human soul). That is our stability. Nature can supply a sense of stability and peace, but it is insufficient by itself for humans.

 

Stressful situations and sense of shortage and repetitive work, especially if sitting, will stop energy flow and the person will age at an accelerated rate.  Obviously some stressful situations may arise which will not go away.  Some might go away but getting rid of them will make things worse, not better.  In other words, some things we just have to live with.  Some things we might change if we really develop ourselves.  Some things we can change
just by changing our attitude, however difficult that might be.  Some things we can readily change.  What we need are tools which help us compensate for things we cannot readily fix.  

 

So, lets draw a few conclusions about this and give some hopefully helpful guidelines for creating healthy life patterns.  

 

1.  Movement exercise needs to be done daily, in fact, the best option is to get up every 45 minutes (never go all the way to an hour if possible) and walk fast on the flat or just walk steadily up stairs for 2-3 minutes.  The time lost will be more than compensated by both health and improved productivity.  This single tool will keep you from aches and pains, slow all forms of aging in the body, improve every internal function of the body and will lead to happiness and increased success.  

 

2.  2-3 times per week actually work out. This can be rolling your wheelchair down the street if that is where you are at. It can be walking.  If you are able, it should be walking up hill.  It can be more vigorous like an elliptical, a run, stair steppers or stationary bike.  It should include some load bearing exercise (weight lifting, etc.).  This makes all the difference with keeping the body moving, toned and flexible within.  It is vital that this time be joyful, liberating and pleasureful.  

 

3.  Take up an exercise which is designed to move energy. This is chi gong (I am partial to either the 8 Pieces of Brocade or CHI LEL) and Tai Chi.  Yoga also moves energy but so many people do it in a stress-causing way, that I tend to favor the Oriental arts mentioned above.  Every day, maybe several times per day, one of these should be done.  Chi Lel is fairly quick and can be done on break.  8 Pieces of Brocade can be done one piece at a time, and so kept working throughout the day.  
 
4.  Meditation should be done regularly.  Here is option 1 from my knowledge base:  Envision something you want, generally it works best if you just choose one thing per session.  Picture the thing going perfectly.  Focus only on how good you FEEL about it.  Think as little as possible.  In fact, do not choose any item to meditate on about which you have lots of negative association.  Just feel it and then let it go. When you leave the meditation session, walk away without thinking on that item again until you meditate again.  

 

Option 2 is the highest form of meditation. This is where you actually think about nothing. When you master this, your inner consciousness will rise to a level where the solidarity of this world is shown for what it is and the much more flexible powers behind it are visible and useable. Efforts to control those powers without actually knowing them personally is folly.

 

Option 1 above is actually an attempt to use those powers without really understanding them. For this reason it should be understood that cultivation of self, of character, of the quality of who you are is vital always throughout any process of improving one's self or life. Also, option 1 should be approached with as much neutrality as possible.

 

5.  Eat raw fruits and vegetables as 70-90% of your diet.  We find (and this is discussed elsewhere in detail) that the modern adult trying to go raw has troubles with cold digestion if he or she goes 100% raw.  Likewise, for clinical reasons, we do not recommend 100% vegan, even though that is the ideal diet. 

 

When we eat enzyme-depleted, heat-damaged food, we create a lot of debris and inflammation in all our fluids and tissues.  The result is slow energy flow, pain, aches, reduced flexibility, reduced joint and tendon integrity, abnormal immune response, etc.  

 

6.  Breathe regularly.  When you get up every 45 minutes, after or before or during the walk, take 10-20 diaphragm breaths (breathe into the abdomen as deeply as you can).  

 

7. Check out our YouTube video for liver, kidney, heart and stomach/spleen exercises.  At minimum do the kidney and liver exercise at least daily.  

 

8.  Notice thoughts that are fearful or which return to the same conclusion all the time.  These thoughts are highly destructive to health and should be gradually (or quickly if you can) rooted out and replaced with thoughts that go to flexible conclusions and more positive, open-ended ones. Believe in positive outcomes and that no matter what the outcome you can have joy in the journey, notice beauty around you and feel at peace with everyone and everything. There is simply no benefit whatsoever in preparing constantly for an outcome you are afraid of.  Preparation is good but it should be done with wisdom and joy, never fear and darkness.  

 

9. Learn to process emotional burdens and traumas. It is vital to understand first that one of the reasons people become locked in a pattern after trauma is a deficiency of trace minerals, B vitamins or the ability to make metabolic acids. These are depleted over time with protracted stress. For those with lots of fear, anger, tired minds, PTSD, there is a podcast on that subject which will go up soon. It is important at this point to understand that this problem may need to be dealt with.

 

Next, it is important to understand what the proper process of emotional processing is. Emotions are communication. They are a special, complex communications which are not verbally structured. When an emotion is traumatic or stressful, it must be fully processed or it will be retained and reapplied to life to try to complete the processing. When we are very young, we have a very weak ability to process strong emotions. All of us are likely, in a culture which does not understand emotional processing and which is also born deficient, to have some emotional burden. That burden is the response to emotions which do not apply to the present. Such emotions can be excited by situations which stimulate them in some way, leading to physical illness and pain.

 

Phase one must be to learn to love and forgive and to always focus on healthy, positive things in every person and situation. Part of this includes believing in people in the ultimate sense, which is that every person, if they could be at their actual best, would be good and great. We would have only one emotion toward them, which would be that we would be delighted to share the planet with them. This is part of cultivation, mentioned before. Also par of phase one is learning to correctly process emotions. Emotions are only completed when the communication they have is fully felt and experienced. It is vital to allow the emotion to pass through us and to feel it just as it is without reacting and WITHOUT JUDGING that emotion or the situation which created it. Judgements and reactions block the communication and we simply end up acting and thinking out of disjointed emotions and old patterns without ever really understanding anything. This is hard, but it is actually easy because it is the way to create health and understanding and the way to arrive at correct responses and actions.

 

Phase two is a technique. In this process, we think of one incident or type of incident which carries pain. Pain is fine but it should be transient. If it is constant, it is stuck and it is creating disease. When you have the incident, go to the podcast on emotional healing and listen to that for each emotional blockage.