Things are getting heated on this planet. It feels as if changes are being forced on us (although they're all results of the law of cause and effect), and people take this more, or less, personally. Some seem to only just be discovering that human society runs on abuse and exploitation as well as co-operation, and there's quite a bit of aggression about as people feel both threatened and powerless - never a good combination. Plenty of people are reacting with compassionate action too, but they often get burnt out.
If the world continues on this trajectory you don't have to be either a genius or particularly depressed to predict disaster on ecological and financial fronts, and that's the ground of our stability, so social cohesion is the next in line.
life energy, cultivating the chi
For all these reasons, I think it's now a necessity to plug into the power of nature - the life energy from which everything is made (known from ancient Chinese medicine as 'qi' or 'chi'). Cultivating and feeling the flow of chi in nature and in your own mind and body removes the sense of powerlessness, works against aggression, is the opposite of disconnection and denial. It heals, and it's the only true remedy for burnout.
We'll need to invent some new structures and webs of care fast. The linear logic of capitalism - endless growth, accumulation and consumption, and a world view in which only the individual counts, has led to a situation in which the planet may very soon become uninhabitable for humans.
We need plenty of power to care for each other and the earth. Luckily, everything is made of it.
The world needs chi warriors, now. Not to fight on one side versus the other, but to stand up for what's all-encompassing, generative and primordial. What's so much bigger than people and their debates, and yet is perfectly individually expressed in each of them.
Consuming and 'having' energy practices - be they Tai Chi, Reiki, or forms of prayer - for your own personal comfort or entertainment isn't appropriate anymore, if it ever was. There needs to be intention and purpose, a collective use of the energy and a personal one to strengthen you to change habits (could be as small and literal as having the motivation and strength to cycle rather than drive to work), to stay compassionate to those who need it most, and to envision different ways of living which are not at the expense of other people, animals, or nature itself.
I wish everyone a big surge of the chi – right now!
Sarah
PS. If you'd like to read what more I have to say on the theme of energy, The Chi Book: Reiki from the Roots, will be out on September 7th from Wayward Publications and available everywhere that books are sold online
Sarah Luczaj, PhD
therapist, writer, artist, reiki master, creative regenerator and co-founder of terrealuma.
offers online reiki healing/chanting sessions, here
