Last week I totally indulged and bathed in my own sense of wellness with a week in a wellness retreat.
My food was structured – all wholefoods, no sugar, no gluten, no lactose and limited saturated fats.
Time to move and push my muscles to WAKE UP. Are you alive?
And quiet time to go in and down-regulate the nervous system and awaken my inner zen.
And with that, a lot of time to appreciate myself and allow kindness and self love to awaken. I call this, my inner goddess.
Let me share with you the deep awakening I had in the time we allocated to spiritual connection to self.
My big wake-up call was about Western Culture. A culture that I was born into.
Unlike the Eastern and Oriental Cultures, Western cultures don’t have any fundamental spiritual practices that aren’t linked to religion. Western cultures don’t talk about your inner body’s energy system. They don’t teach you how to connect your breath to pull energy up from your perineum all the way to the crown of your head to activate inner energy. Western culture teaches you to pray as part of religion, run and exercise as part of an energy activation process and maybe if you are a “tree-loving hippie” you might do some meditation.
It's just not deep enough and it's not the type of cultural practice that is going to sustain us through our fast-paced and stressed lives.
Our brothers in India on the other hand, are the forefathers of Yoga and teach everyone about Prana – their inner energy system. Our sisters in China, have QiGong and Tai Chi, which are about cultivating your inner Chi, the word to describe your life force energy. And of course our cousins in Japan have Ki. Much like Chi, Ki is regarded as the vital force of psychic energy and is closely related to the body.
So here I am at my wellness retreat, cultivating my CHI-KI-PRANA with Tai Chi at sunrise, Yoga at sunset and thinking, these are all deep cultural practices of the East. In the West, we pass judgment on the spiritual aspect of self and characterise it as a “spiritual movement” akin to the local hemp-smoking hippie.
From a young age, I have practised spiritual rituals that are not aligned with my culture or religion. Thankfully I have been detached from the many judgments that have been passed to me as being a floofloo hippie.
It's no longer daggy or weird to practice any form of energy practice.
In fact, it's now modern, but beyond that, those that don’t have a sustainable energy practice are falling behind. And it's not because it's hip and on-trend but because it is real and it's needed.
Energy and spiritual practices like Tai Chi, QiGong, Yoga, and Trancendental Breathing are modalities of self-mastery. These modalities help you disconnect from ego and reconnect to your body. Take control of your body's energy blocks and clear them. Activate your parasympathetic nervous system and empower wellness through rest and digestion. Having an energy and self-mastery practice helps you develop your leadership. No one wants to be led by a pent up stressed out manager who cant take control of their inner world.
Cultivating a daily practice of energy management as a part of your self-mastery practice is just as important to your daily routine as drinking two litres of water. If your nervous system is dysfunctional and you are not activating that “rest and digest” and if your inner energy is blocked and your stress is rising, no amount of leadership training or turmeric lattes are going to help you.
Stop.
Turn in.
Activate your energy and self mastery practice and make it the number one thing you do daily.
