What is Qi or Energy?

To appreciate how the energy in the environment influences you, it is necessary to understand what it is and how it moves within your own body.

All things have Qi and are made up of Qi. We are born with a certain amount of energy, passed on to us by our parents and we make new Qi/energy through the air we breathe and the food we eat. One can see how important it becomes to eat and breathe right.

Qi, the vital energy, flows through our body through pathways called meridians or channels. There are over 20+ channels on the body that distribute Qi to our organs, tissues and every cell. You can compare these channels to an interconnected system of rivers, streams and creeks, supporting a given area of land and its life.

Traditional Chinese Medicine tells us that the body will remain healthy, as long as its vital energy stays balanced, flows unobstructed and freely and will be replenished. Pain and illness result from blockage or imbalances of Qi. You might ask how does energy get blocked in the first place. The reason our Qi gets out of balance or blocked includes injuries, sustained imbalanced emotional states and poor life style amongst others. Life style here includes our living conditions, such as the house and the climate we live in or the emotional circumstances that affect us via our living and/or work conditions. 

While Qi carries thoughts, ideas, emotions and your dreams in life, it also carries some of the energy from the environment. Therefore, what you think and where you think it will have a direct influence on the cells in your body. The influence of the mind on physical health is well established. Many people have experienced the benefits of positive thinking and some claim to have used it to recover from serious illness. Similarly, people have been healed by moving to a new location. Traveling to spa towns or locations with special healing properties has a long tradition.

Many factors affect the Qi that comes into your body - among these are food, weather, and the people you are with. In Feng Shui terms, the primary influence is the energy of the environment. This includes your home, your place of work, and the surrounding landscape. A building itself also has an influence.

Being in a large ornate building such as a museum or cathedral can be inspiring, exciting and stimulating, whereas a small cozy place such as a cottage, café or bar is more relaxing and intimate. A building's location also helps shape the kind of Qi that enters your body. The energy in rural areas is different from that in a city, and traveling to other parts of the world also gives you the chance to experience very different kinds of Qi.

Of greatest importance here is to realize that environmental energy affects us and that it is within our power, through the use of Feng Shui, to ensure that it will impact us in the most positive way.