"...letting all of the voodoos of ambition sleep."

Recently I came across an unfamiliar phrase: “unconditioning the body”. It sounds like what happens during a nice, long vacation, doesn’t it? But the author was referring instead to how we can change unhealthy, conditioned physical habits by moving, breathing, and thinking in new ways. We hold many subconscious habits and patterned behaviors in our muscles and fascia, often as unnecessary, energy-wasting tension. Usually we don’t realize this until we redial our awareness and tune into a different station, so to speak. Once we do, a shift occurs, and it can be astounding! Being in nature really helps get us to this powerful and more tuned-in place.

A few days ago, I experienced “unconditioning” in a vivid way. I woke before dawn and walked to a nearby beach. As Taoism teaches, watching the sunrise, standing near a large body of water, and being barefoot on the ground are three ways to gather qi from nature. Combined with my pre-coffee state, it was a perfect opportunity to “uncondition”. Standing there I was able to effortlessly soak in the energy all around me. Breathing the fresh morning air and lulled by the sound of the waves, I could sense unconscious rigidities held in hidden corners of my soma beginning to melt and dissolve. “The voodoos of ambition” were still asleep: I had no agenda but to be present. I began to do “Opening the Flow” -- the simple Qigong exercise of floating the arms up and down---and the movements blended seamlessly with the quiet rhythms of the waves, the breezes, the rising sun, and my breathing. As in Mary Oliver’s poem, “quiet as a feather. I hardly move, though really I am travelling a terrific distance.” In those moments the distance I travelled was from my future-tethered, anxious mind back to the nurturing present.

You can do this, too. By playing/practicing Qigong, we learn how to “open the doors” and liberate all the lifeforce that is locked up in our unconscious, exhausting, conditioned tension habits. All it requires is practice, patience, and trust in the process. Take Mary Oliver’s sage advice: “…Take the day off. Quiet as a feather…Stillness. One of the doors to the temple.”