Check out the full interview at:
http://www.healthy.net/asp/templates/Interview.asp?PageType=Interview&Id=177 (c) Ken Cohen
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DiCarlo: How do we imbalance ourselves, or deplete the level of chi in our systems?
Cohen: This is sort of like asking me, "Why do people get ill?" I will summarize; obviously I don't have time for a comprehensive response. First of all, the Chinese say that chi is part of a trinity of energies in the body. The lowest, or most yin form of energy is the sexual energy. The middle form is called chi, the uppermost yang form is called Shen or spirit. They say that if sexual harmony with one's partner is lacking, the jing or sexual energy is lost, wasted and leads to illness. So this is one aspect of ill health that is not sufficiently dealt with in medical literature. Sexual harmony is a key to health. The chi, in this model of the body, is wasted through excess, through not observing the rule of moderation, whether it's excess eating, excess exercise-any kind of excess. Especially through excess talking. This is quite interesting. In the model of the three treasures, which I am presenting to you now, the way to conserve and accumulate chi in the body is to breathe quietly and slowly and to observe long periods of silence. That could be a very important piece of advice for many westerners, where we tend to suffer from an almost exclusive, left-brain verbal emphasis in our education.
The spiritual energy, Shen, is wasted or lost when we don't spend enough time looking within. When we are so outward and material oriented. That's one way of looking at why a person becomes ill.
The Qi Gong philosophy is very much in harmony with the philosophy presented by most holistic health practitioners. Lifestyle has a great deal to do with health or illness. Diet is extremely important also. In Chinese medicine, it is advised that one eat foods that are very high in energy but that do not take a lot of energy to digest. In other words, there is a recommendation to balance various food types but to avoid foods that are deep fried or cooked in heavy sauces or a great deal of oil because that would be difficult to digest and thus take energy away from bodily processes.
Lifestyle, diet, sexual and emotional relationships, getting a proper balance of exercise and rest-these are all important. Also, too much Qi Gong is probably worse than not doing enough. I've seen people who have developed Qi Gong diseases from going to extremes. There's an unfortunate tendency in the west to think that if a little bit is good for you, then more must be even better. Imagine if you applied that philosophy to medications or antibiotics. It's not true. There is an optimal dose. As with any medication, you have to tailor the dose to the patient. So it's important when a person practices Qi Gong that they find out what is the amount that helps them to improve their health and state of mind, and not assume that more of that is necessarily going to be even better. Again, moderation is seen as one of the keys to good health.
from:
http://www.healthy.net/asp/templates/Interview.asp?PageType=Interview&Id=177 (c) Ken Cohen
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