Have you ever noticed how the wind affects you beyond blowing your hair and clothes? I never really did until Hurricane Irma when the wind blew my chi away! Mostly I practice tai chi and qigong outside, usually as far from WiFi and other EMF signals as I can get. For years I had practiced in various windy conditions and never had any noticeable “bad side-effects.” In fact, I always felt more empowered after a session outside, be it in the wind, rain, snow, scorching sun or picture perfect day.
As my tai chi journey progressed from years to decades of practice, I continued to read more about chi arts. In various readings I would encounter words like, “Practice not in a draft as it can lead to depletion.” In Traditional Chinese Medicine, which qigong is one part of, wind is one of the six external factors that lead to disease. In fact, wind is considered the primary external source of disease setting into the body. It’s been believed for thousands of years that wind acts internally on the body just as it does externally as we see in trees. When wind blows, tree branches sway and move about in ways that push, pull and strain the tree’s core strength and roots, making it more difficult for the tree to hold it’s ground or maintain itself. So it is in the human body. External wind can enter through any of the body’s eight gate and cause disturbance or “uprooting” of the normally still systems within. Eventually this leads to various forms of illness and dis-ease. (To find our more about the effects of wind in Traditional Chinese Medicine, check it this comprehensive article in PubMed from the National Library of Medicine: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5234349/)
Like many Westerns, I’m stubborn and unless I understand or see how something effects me in a negative way, I typically ignore wise advise. So despite having read these warnings about the wind for years, I still continued my breezy practices because no ill effects were obvious to me. Being a native Floridian and sensitive to energy, I really feel charged up by the excitement in the ethers surrounding hurricanes. Yes, I practice (or used to) outside in the wind even during hurricanes. Call me crazy. Hurricane Irma, though, opened my eyes to why these cautions about the wind persist throughout the literature on chi arts and Traditional Chinese Medicine.
It was 2017, near the height of hurricane Irma’s 130+mph winds that I was practicing tai chi in my brother’s back yard where I had hunkered down on the mainland in Mims to get off the beach during the storm. Other than the storm it was a “normal” day. Nothing about how I was feeling was unusual. The only unusual things about this practice session compared to the hundreds of prior sessions were the extreme winds and bands of rain that power-packed Irma was sending out. I had barely started, maybe 10 minutes into my personal practice around 9:00 or 10:00 in the morning, when I was suddenly overwhelmed by exhaustion. For no apparent reason, I felt so tired I simply had so go sit down or I could tell I was going to fall down.
Since my chi arts practice is about maintaining health and well-being, I had no problem stopping my exercises to do what felt right for myself in that moment. I went in my brother’s house and collapsed on the couch. My limbs felt like lead. My eyes were heavy as though I hadn’t slept in days. It was difficult to move at all, requiring all the energy I could muster just to raise an arm or adjust a leg on the comfy couch. So I sat there for a very long time certain that at any moment I would regain my usual strength and return to practice. That didn’t happen. In fact, for the next 3 days I was utterly depleted of energy. No fever, no pain, no “symptoms“ other than exhaustion. It felt as though the wind had blown my chi away, leaving me a shell of my former robust, healthy self.
Truly, I was astounded and began to give credence to the words of warning about the wind I had encountered so many times. I did fully recover all my former vitality within just a few days but now I paid MUCH more attention to how the wind affected me overall, not just in my practice. Slowly I started noticing that whenever it was excessively windy out, I got aggitated easily and had a much harder time managing my very fiery energy. It took some time, but I became convinced that limiting my wind exposure was a good idea for maintaining better harmony and peace within myself. Having practiced limiting wind exposure now for a few years, I can personally attest that protecting oneself from the wind does make a difference in how we feel overall. Before I tuned in, I had never noticed how even being out in a little wind for a long time leaves me feeling slightly shaken. The contrast of going indoors after exposure is where I noticed it the most. When I got in out of the wind, I immediately felt less “disturbed,” even though I had noticed feeling disturbed while out in the wind. Contract helps us notice. That’s part of the benefit of noticing “yin” while engaged in “yang”. ☯️
Now, I take precautions when out in the wind, whether it’s to do my tai chi/qigong practice or even just out for a walk. Even when it’s warm out, I cover most of my skin to protect my pores from absorbing that disturburing energy. I now frequently wear ear plugs to block the wind from entering my ears, one of 8 gates of the mindbody. When not teaching classes, I wear sunglasses even if it’s not bright out, to keep the wind from entering the hole/gate in the eyes known as the pupil. I try to keep my mouth shut with the tip of the tongue on the roof of the mouth behind the two front teeth to protect from the wind entering this particular gate. If you’ve come to any of my classes, you know this is something I saw every single class: keep the tip of the tongue on the roof of the mouth behind the front teeth AND keep a light lift in the pelvic floor muscles. There are other energetic reasons for this besides wind protection but the lift in the pelvic floor also closes this particular energy gate so wind cannot enter and cause a disturbance.
Since the disturbing experience of Irma blowing my chi away, I now also modify where I practice when it’s extremely windy outside. I go out of my way to find where I will be protected from the wind within my surroundings, maybe it’s behind a group of trees or further up into the beach sand dune where the plants block some of winds coming over the ocean. While most of the classes I lead still take place outdoors, now we may change from our normal practice spot to take advantage of the gazebo blocking a wind from the north or some such scenario.
What it really boils down to is we humans are most definitely affected by the environmental conditions around us whether we choose to acknowledge that or not. Many of us refuse to even walk to the car when we see a little sprinkle of rain but think nothing about going out for long walks in windy conditions. Personally, I’ve never gotten sick from getting wet or rained on; nor has practicing in 100+ temperatures ever hurt me. Even the snow and cold that I detest have never impacted me adversely for days the way Irma’s warm winds did. If we only pay attention to that which we can see (rain, ice, heat waves), we may miss how much we are affected by that which we cannot see, like the wind.
So I invite you, patient reader, to not take my word for it or even the wise words of ancient wisdom passed through the centuries for our benefit; instead, notice how the wind affects you, not just your physical self, but your emotions, your interactions with others and your overall sense of peace and tranquility. For if we truly want peace in our lives and our world, we’ll notice that which disturbs our peace and do what we can to offset that disturbing element. Peace in the world starts with finding and holding peace and calm within ourselves. And if a little thing like wearing ear plugs in the wind will help me stay calm and centered, then I’m popping in the silly earplugs!
If you do take up the invitation to pay attention to the wind and how it affects you, I’d really love to hear about what you noticed. Please, drop me an email (BeachsideQi@gmail.com) and tell me your observation or experience with the wind. And just one final word because I care about you: DON’T LET THE WIND BLOW YOUR CHI AWAY!
Comments