SKYE stephenson

“In the West, people focus on building their muscles. In the East, people focus on building chi.”

            Feng Shui expert Katie Weber posted this message recently. It gave me pause for reflection. It may also for you.

            What is Chi?

Chi can be understood as our life force. This life force flows through us, and also through all creation. Chi is not our personal energy. It is not our body. It is not our mind. It is not even our soul. Chi is beyond the individual. Chi is universal and cosmic. And Chi is in constant change and transformation.

How is building Chi different than building our muscles?

            Let me give an example that at first may not seem relevant, but I believe is. It is a tale of two restaurants. Both are in Keene. I enjoyed meals at both this month.

            The first one serves Asian food, and is owned by people from that region. Whenever I dine there, I enjoy observing how the staff operate. You are always greeted when you enter, and even when the place is crowded (as it often is) they somehow manage to find a table for you. Soon after you are seated, one person will pour you a glass of water, another will check in for what you want to drink, and then a third person might come soon after to take your order.  In a word, the whole team works together in a well-rehearsed choreography. Because of this, the dining experience seems to flow smoothly and seemingly effortlessly.

            The second restaurant serves food from the Americas, and is run the way most restaurants are in this country. By this, I mean that when you enter this restaurant, a person greets you while looking at a diagram of tables. And this diagram is clearly marked in a territorial kind of way. You notice how the greeter is constantly trying to figure out how to apportion the customers to the different tables, so each waitstaff has about the same amount of people.

            In this place, like many restaurants, the person who does attend to you will often tell you their name, and try to engage you in conversation. Sometimes they will even interrupt a conversation you are having while eating just to ask how the meal is. Yes, they are checking in. And yes, they probably do this in part because they are hoping for a good tip at the end.

            You may be wondering how this connects to the quote at the start of the article. Well, restaurant #2 seems to me analogous to muscle building, while restaurant #1is more like building Chi.

            Now in saying this, I am in no way putting down anyone who builds muscles or does any type of strenuous exercise. This is of course important for our health and well-being, and of great value to many people.

What I am suggesting, however, it may also be helpful to consider how we can build up our Chi, which ultimately comes from beyond our physical bodies.

            So what can we do to enhance our Chi?

There are many ways to feel more in the Chi flow of our life, and all life. Connecting with our inner self, and giving ourselves time to do this can be helpful. So too can being connected to community. And by community I don’t just mean other humans. It can also be taking time to connect with the community of the natural world. Trees. The Moon. The birds singing. A stream or lake. Etc.

Balance is also important, as in trying to have a balanced life. And also making sure we can find balance in our own bodies. Tai Chi, for instance, is a lot about balance. When you have done Tai Chi for some time, you begin to notice that you have more balance (even in the physical sense.) For instance, like when you slip on ice, you can correct yourself more often without falling.

And yes, strength too is part of trying to enhance our Chi. Strength of muscle power. And also strength of soft power, and the power of flow. After all, water that always flows and can change from liquid to solid to gas and back again is the most powerful element of all.

Ultimately, nourishing our chi is not only about ourselves and our own individual well-being. Like how that Asian restaurant operates, nourishing our chi is also about the way we interact and interconnect with those around us as part of a community. For chi, like love, may just be something that the more you give, the more you receive.