Five-Element Qigong,
Fusion of Emotion Transform Stress into Compassion
by Minke de Vos

Have you felt under the weather, and had trouble clearing the clouds? In a Shakespearean play, a dramatic character brews with intense emotion until the thunder rolls and the lightning flashes, sometimes with destructive force. From where do these internal storms arise? The ancient Taoists realized that our emotional atmosphere is like weather conditions which arise from our internal organs.

How can we create more balance and harmony within our internal environment? The Taoists explored this question for thousands of years and created practices called Qigong (Chi-Kung): movement, breath, and intention to cultivate the body, mind, and spirit. Fusion of the Five Elements are “Meditative Formulas”—a science of how polarities counterbalance each other. For example, water extinguishes fire, fire melts ice, peace calms impatience, and love melts fear. This is a part of the Control Cycle, which is applied extensively in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for healing and preventing excess or deficient conditions. We will also use the Creation Cycle for growing virtues into compassion. For example, water nourishes wood, and wood fuels the fire, peace nourishes kindness, and kindness gives birth to love.

We affect each other and the world around us through the emotions we emanate. Instead of “dumping” our emotional burdens, we can use the counteraction and fusion of opposites to recycle the energy, like raw material, into neutral force. When you do this inner work, you can dedicate it to resolving patterns and beliefs that stem from childhood, past life, and ancestral imprints in our DNA that have been passed down through the centuries. We fuse the energies in our core as if we have a cauldron or a blender inside our navel centre. The raw extremes are blended, refined, and fused into positive states of well-being. We form the balanced elixir into a Pearl in our centre, which centres us no matter how stormy life gets.

Our negative, sticky, and suppressed emotions can rob us of energy, as it takes a lot of subconscious effort to keep them hidden. We can liberate extensive amounts of energy from our self-created prisons. The test of this practice is how well you take responsibility for your emotions and responses to life. When the fused energy is neutralized, it has a quality of unconditional love and acceptance, which multiplies virtues and compassion. Love brings out the warmth of heart which melts the frozen, icy fears that are contracted in our kidneys and bones. The kidneys then return to their gentle and peaceful nature. The water, in turn, calms our overheated heart to make it more at peace.

We will treat our organs as inner children to bring out the purity and innocence of their true nature. We easily can give our loving devotion to children when they are crying out for attention. By listening to our organs’ messages, like children, they will tell their story and responses to your life truthfully and honestly.

You can learn practices to create optimal conditions to grow your inner child and mature your soul. Since the inner child is sensitive and vulnerable, we need to be mindful and present. It is our positive radiance that is our best protection. The glow that you have around you is what you attract. Light attracts light, and dark attracts dark. The shamanic internal animals and guardians protect your auric field and attract good Qi towards you. You will learn to activate psychic channels to clear the space around you. These channels circulate through your core and around you like whirlpools and fountains.

Absolutely anyone can benefit from this personal development.

You can learn tools to discharge and transform negativity you may pick up from those around you and transform it into healing light. You can learn skills to prevent burning out by managing your energy wisely. Learn how to build up your reserves of life-force by tapping into abundant sources of energy from the Heavens, Earth, and Human planes. Anyone involved with creative expression will be inspired by the dynamic play of the elements!

Kundalini Energy, when awakened, will work through the elements to bring us into greater wholeness. This clearing might manifest as shaking, detoxification, visions, and lucid dreams. Although the process can be strange and intense, it will create a new, more grounded, and clear reality for you. By trusting in the wisdom of spirit, like your immune system, you will awaken new potentials in every aspect of your being.

The earth is going through big changes. When we are connected with the elements we can flow with these changes with grace, centred calm, and co-creative awareness. We can all become mindful artists, playing with the full spectrum of our emotions. Through Inner Alchemy, our emotions are transformed into compassion, healing light, and vitality. We cultivate new levels of energetic harmony for the sake of all beings, and this, inevitably, ripples into the world around us. Five-Element Qigong is for anyone interested in consciously living within the Tao, the way of true nature.

Minke de Vos, Senior Universal Tao Instructor, teaches spiritual embodiment at Silent Ground Retreats, and is known as a top teacher of Qigong, Tao Yoga, and Kundalini energy cultivation. She has worked alongside Taoist Master Mantak Chia for over 20 years and teaches internationally. She inspires practitioners of all levels to live with loving presence, and is author of Feminine Treasures and Heart Qigong. For more information visit www.silentground.com or call (306) 281-9736. Please see colour display ad on page 33 of the 16.6 March/April issue of the WHOLifE Journal for her Five Element Qigong Retreat & Easter Celebration, April 22-24 at Ancient Spirals (near Saskatoon).