Return to the Garden

I went to see my acupuncturist Saturday. I haven’t been sleeping well and usually a treatment by him will do the trick to alleviate this condition. The first thing he asked me was if I were under stress. We talked about that for a while and I explained that I had encountered some people this week that just seemed to hurl their negative energy at me while draining me of my own. He replied, “You need to be transparent and just let their energy flow through you.”

I’m not surprised that he would tell me this. There is a concept in Taoist thinking called wu wei. Basically, it is a state of being active through inaction. It is bringing change through non-resistance. In this case I would take the action to deal with my internal stress by being inactive towards those who are inflicting their negative selves onto me. This notion of non-resistance is not limited to Taoist thinking. What comes to my mind is that classic teaching from the Sermon of the Mount where Jesus tells his followers to not resist an evil person and to turn the other cheek.

As usual, a concept like this grinds against the grain of my essential personality. Those who know me know that I tend to respond to provocation especially when I feel like I am being treated like a door mat or personal punching bag. So this will be a little experiment for me in energy mastery. I’ll keep you posted in how transparent I become and how successful I am in letting bad energy flow through me.

I told a friend about this conversation and how I basically need to become a piece of glass. He said that I was not a mere glass, but a piece of fine crystal. I appreciate that. I just hope I don’t crack and shatter in the process.

Lori G. (c) 2008

I have found this video meditation quite relaxing.  Enjoy:

Courtesy of YouTube.

Here are the results of an “aura” scan I had about five years ago.

Let me preface my comments by saying that I do believe that there are energy conduits that are utilized in acupuncture and other energy medicine disciplines. I do believe the theoretical existence of chakras.

However, I do not totally ascribe to modern technology being able to measure and visually present these energy systems… at least not from a person offering this service from a movable stall in a shopping mall. I would like to see some scientific evidence derived from controlled experiments that would verify that such technology is accurate and not a scam.

That being said, let me tell you what I was told about this image. First, my aura is “blue” which means that I am “caring, sensitive, intuitive and loyal”.  The little color dots are my chakras. The crown and root chakras (the white one and the red one) are strong and steady; however, the rest of the chakras are stressed and out of balanced as evidenced by their blurry, undefined boundaries. Particularly, the green heart chakra is extremely out-of-whack. I was told that I do too much for other people, that I needed to keep some “love for myself”.  Finally, the lighter blue above my crown chakra means that I have a connection to a higher power.

I have to admit that it was beneficial to sit for twenty minutes and have a kind, friendly person confirm the things that I already knew myself and lead me to consider ways to make changes to my life— much like any therapist would do, only a bit cheaper.

I did the scans a couple of times but then the proprietor raised the fee and I decided that the cost far outweighed the entertainment value. If, someday, the scientific evidence is presented that validates this technology, I may do it again.

Please excuse the skeptical tone of this post. Let me say that my utmost respect goes to true intuitives who read auras and chakras “the old-fashioned way” with their minds, hands, and hearts, based on thousands of years of accumulated wisdom and tradition. I’m just not ready to have it packaged and sold to me in a mall.

Lori (c) 2008

My thanks to Imogen for giving me the idea for this post. Please see the lovely video she posted at Enchanteur’s blog.

My acupuncturist is a really smart guy. He knows that wellness is more than just physical, and he always takes a few minutes during each session to assess my emotional state and how it may be affecting my body.

For example, today I told him that I had to deal with several annoying people this week and that I felt my energy sapped because of it. He validated my feelings by explaining that negative energy from others often does disrupt one’s own “Chi”, or vital energy.

In my own profound wisdom, I smugly stated the obvious: “I guess I’ll have to change my attitude towards those people since I sure can’t change their behavior.”

He laughed and then simply said, “Smile.”

“Excuse me?”

“The next time someone causes you stress, smile at them. Good energy changes negative energy. After a while, they will stop doing those things that annoy you.”

Pretty trite and simplistic I thought, and if he really knew me then he’d know that teaching me the art of smiling at irritating and obnoxious people is like teaching a squirrel how to drive a semi-truck. It’s going to take a very long time and a lot of people are going to get run over in the process.

However, I’m open-minded and agreed to give it a shot.

In the meantime, while I’m learning how to “smile”, I’m getting a t-shirt that reads: Don’t mess with my chi……

Image: “Qi Mandala”, 2006

Text: Lori G. (c) 2007