Learn how to completely shift the way that you experience the sacred aspects of the earth. Qigong may have some of the answers that you find have been missing as you contemplate how to save the planet. Dr Eve Soldinger offers easy and practical approaches to shift us into the next phase of stewarding the planet.
As we experience the many effects of global warming there is a focus on what we can do to save the planet. How can we live our lives where we lower our carbon footprint? There are many approaches including: knowing the different ways to create less waste, to eat in a way creates fewer polluted streams and rivers from animal waste, and to use fewer polluting hydrocarbons. These are all important.
Yet, as we examine ourselves and our lives one questions why we would ever act in a way where we stop caring for the earth? Why are we so distant from her? How is this reflected within us? It is in so many ways. We are less grounded, sometimes lost, loosing focus and separated from each other in profound ways. Some people are now focused on changing our relationship with mother earth. For instance, if you read the bestselling book Braiding Sweetgrass there is a desire to shift and become closer to the earth and having a different relationship with the plant world. Though in general, we live in a fast-paced digital world, working with information, and absorbing information as fast as we are able.
Within the ancient philosophy of Chinese medicine there are 3 ways to approach to realizing energy and the world: Heaven, Earth, and Man. These are the energies that make up the life force. The heavens are all the heavenly bodies but is also the yang force of our world. The earth is the ground beneath our feet but also the yin part of our world. Given the proper balance of minerals, sun, water, and seeds will together allow growth of plants to sustain life on this planet. And we, women and men, are the combination of the energies of heaven and earth. As a practitioner of Chinese Medicine for 40 years, these introductory concepts are usually given preceding every demonstration of treatment strategies. Staying in the part of the original concepts is far more interesting.
Within Medical Qigong, a specific branch of Chinese Medicine, the focus is on the cultivation of energy through breath, movement, posture, and intention. The energy of Heaven and Earth and the concept of being part of Heaven and Earth becomes palpable so that each person can feel energetically what we call ‘Qi’ moving through your flesh, organs and meridians. With a daily practice a person using simple quiescent and movement exercises can heal the body/mind/spirit and become balanced and healthier. One develops over time a profound, nourishing and direct connection to the earth. It is in reality sacred energy that is a part of us demonstrating our divine nature. How could we imagine damaging something that is so crucial a part of us? I suggest that these 5 exercises are habits you can adopt to shift to a sacred relationship to the earth whether you decide to study Qigong or not. If weather permits, it’s optimal to do this outside.
Within Qigong training as the shifts occur with posture, breathe and movement, one begins to feel the flow from the earth and the flow from heaven to capture another state of being. What are the limits? It starts with being able to feel the sacred energies of the earth and heaven. Just start with abdominal breathing focusing on the area below the naval called the Lower Dantian. Let it be slow and even and find a relaxation happening immediately throughout your body. This is a part of your foundation.
Next, focus on the body with a purpose of creating a system that can have a free flow of energy. So let your joints remain open or slightly bend and pay attention to the way that you stand. Let your feet stay shoulder-width apart. Then imagine roots going deep into the earth. Allow the sacred energies of the earth to flow up to you. This can take a matter of minutes or a half hour. But it does require daily practice.
Stand in a way that puts even weight on the balls and heels of your feet. People tend to do one or the other and naturally put weight toward the heels. But if you evenly stand on your feet, you will be more grounded and have a more profound connection to the earth. Try putting weight on the heels then the balls of your feet and repeat. It is almost as if you are swaying. Go from one to the other for several minutes and you will very slowly find the center point of the balls and heels, and then the center of the feet. You will become steady and feel grounded.
Imagine going deep into the center of the earth. Once you are in the balance between the heels and balls of your feet imagine that you are moving deep into the earth. It’s as if the earth Is giving way from your weight and then as you dissolve you begin to receive from the earth.
As you become more in touch with the earth let your entire body absorb earth energy going to every joint, bone, flesh, organ, chakra and meridian. As you do this remember to focus on the breath connecting you to the flow from heaven at the same time. Your goal is to feel a sense of your own limitlessness. This is a part of your birthright. The Qigong exercises is just a specific process to get there.
As you practice more and more you will realize that your great teachers have always been heaven and earth and you will feel a sense of gratitude and appreciation bringing the sacred relationship back into being. Each person will have a different experience, but it will be expanding and nourishing. Doing this will contribute to how we live our lives and how we can become better stewards of the earth.
Read more from Eve Soldinger
Eve Soldinger, Wisdom Teacher & Sacred Wanderer
Dr. Eve Soldinger holds a doctorate in Medical Qigong and is committed to living a sacred life in relation to all things. She worked as an acupuncturist for 38 years having a clinic in Washington, DC. Since the start of the pandemic, she has offered nearly daily classes in Medical Qigong. She also offers distant healing to clients all over the US. Her many passions include her work as an astrologer for just as she studies our relationship with the earth through Chinese Medicine, she studies the relationship with the cosmos. She is the author of Unexpected Gifts: My Journey with my Father’s Dementia. Currently she is working on a book, the Flow of the Elements in the Time of the Pandemic. She now lives in Lake Worth Beach Florida, with her amazing dog Jasper. For more information about Eve please visit here.
