Next up on spirituality demystified is…

CHI ENERGY

I’m referring to this one as “chi” instead of the lower chakras,

’cause I tend to believe it all bubbles up from the same place.


(Close… But like, slightly higher.)

Whatever you call it, don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. ’cause this one’s been of interest to me since the first day I felt it myself and almost leapt outta my skin. It’s hard to accurately describe chi because it’s so far expanding in what it can do: relax areas of your body, mind, and spirit that you couldn’t all your life one moment – and then impart brute mother-picking-a-car-up-off-a-kid strength unto you the next. But, more importantly, before all of those things, there’s also this general sense of well being you get showered over you once you’ve got it pumping. And how?

How do you do this?

The best way I can describe it is to 1.) Start breathing, deeply, normally, and relaxed with your peepers’ shades drawn. 2.) Once you’re relaxed imagine you’re about to do a posterior pelvic tilt. It sounds silly, but I imagine this kind of a wheel turning in my tummy – rotating with its front to my belly, and its back to my lower spine. You see, you don’t actually do the tilt. You just take your mind through that feeling it has right up to the point when it’s about to contract a muscle. I get it, if you’re rolling your eyes instead of some imaginary abdomen wheel. But I encourage you to try. Why? Because science. Scientifically speaking, the Vagus Nerve is the one thing we’ve got known to issue that same sense of well being I’m talking about. They even suggest stimulating it in depression patients. But since doctors can’t make any money off’a you DIY’ing, they create all these pills and contraptions to mimic it.

That way, they can keep you (and your wallet coming back).

So we know the vagus nerve’s a tried and true access point to happiness and tranquility. But what’s gut got to with it?

1.) we’ve got neurons in our tummies.

2.) the vagus nerve’s in our tummies.


(Hey look, there it is!)

And 3.) This:

“Scientists were shocked to learn that about 90 percent of the fibers in the primary visceral nerve, the vagus, carry information from the gut to the brain and not the other way around”
-(Scientific American)

So by focus-stimulating our vagus through our tummy, are we maybe able to generate our own inner valium? Do we have a whole pharmacy in our gooey centers that we’ve been ignoring? At the risk of losing anyone who was on the fence to start with, I’ll pose the following idea as well for those of you who do like a bit of the out-there theories: the idea’s still being tossed around in the field that we don’t use all of our brains. What if Albert Einstein’s spooky connection between neurons theory applies here? Like, what if that other bit of brain is being used – but more like as a receiver of sorts – to the neurons in our abdomens that are communicating with it when we wake ‘em on up? Where the “well being” part of chi-flow could be explained by the vagus-connection, could the “crazy, unexplainable strength” (dudes chopping stacked lumber in half with their skulls and sans concussions) part be explained by an Einsteinian cell phone convo going on betwixt our brain and belly?

Gives a whole new meaning to “food for thought”, hmmm?

(Read on for “Demystifying the heart chakra”)