“Whatever moves on earth is a living thing.”
Lailah Gifty Akita
Keep it moving; Preventing and Eliminating Stuck Energy:
This is one of those times it is much easier to think of Qi as blood. We call Qi “stuck” whenever blood is not moving freely. In Traditional Chinese Medicine we have our own understanding of how blood circulates throughout your body and it shares many similarities with the same concept in western medicine.
Similar to western medicine you have larger “highways” that blood circulates in that run up and down your body like viens and arteries. Also similar you have smaller “backroads” that blood circulates in closer to your organs, skin, muscles, and joints.
When blood stops flowing freely the body stops thriving, toxins build up, and symptoms can occur.
Traffic Jams, PotHoles, and Damaged Roads:
There are 4 common ways blood stops moving freely:
- When there is not enough blood moving down a “road” on a regular basis.
- The road does not get enough attention from the body to be maintained and it starts to break down. This leads to “traffic jams” as “cars” start getting stuck in potholes.
- If there is too many “toxins” in the blood.
- It damages the road which leads to traffic jams
- If there is any kind of damage done to the area the road becomes damaged.
- This can happen from an injury, surgery, bruising, and unhealthy movement such as “lifting with your back” at the gym.
- Finally, one of the most common causes of blood getting “stuck” is simply not using or activating the area enough in general.
- We all have patterns in our lives where we lean towards doing certain things to often and other things not enough.
- It could be a physical issue such as sitting to much and standing to little (in fact unbalanced ways of moving our bodys’ and joints is the number 1 reason for chronic pain in my clinical practice).
- It could just as easily be eating too much of one type of food and too little of another
- Too much activity and not enough rest
- Overeating
- Oversleeping
- We all have patterns in our lives where we lean towards doing certain things to often and other things not enough.
*Side Note* Whenever the mind “fixates” on a thought or emotion this also causes blood to get stuck. This is an incredibly common issue but would be addressed by helping the mind thrive not the body. Find that information here.
What Can You Do To Keep Blood Moving?
- Qigong/Tai-Chi/Yoga
- All three of these were designed specifically to get energy and blood moving freely throughout the entire body. Find some great information under the Qigong/Tai-Chi/Yoga tab. You will find some additional great exercises, stretches, and movements under relevant “Pick Your Struggle” topics.
- Balance your eating habits
- This is a topic we are going to be covering in amazing detail with specialists in different aspects of nutrition scattered throughout the blog and also under the relevant “Pick Your Struggle” topics. To get a great head start head over to the “My Relationship With Food” tab.
- Move, exercise, and be balanced in your activities.
- This is the core of the “Pick Your Struggle” series. You will find suggestions from myself and other specialists under your relevant topic.
Anytime we don’t have a balanced life or activity we cause Qi to either become depleted or become “stuck”.
Build on your understanding of the Body and Qi with the post:
Phases of the Body: Do I need more energy or do I need to get my energy moving?