« Qigong Methods for Quick Energy - When The "Devil's Cup" Won't Cut It Anymore | Main | Qigong, Tachycardia and "Instant Courage" »
September 5, 2005
The Mechanics of Living: Qigong, Katrina, Being Prepared and The Art of Crisis Management
I thought I had time and I thought I had enough gas...but suddenly woke up to realize that I was still twenty-five miles away from the airport with only half an hour before they would close the flight.
Almost simultaneously, the red light bleeped on to show that I was running on empty. It was a cheapo rental and I had no real idea how much gas and mileage I had to play with. If I stopped to fill up, the delay would mean certainly missing my flight. If I sped up, I was more likely to run out of gas and might also get pulled over for a speeding ticket.
If I didn’t get gas, I might suddenly run out in the left hand lane of the freeway, with the possibility of either getting rear-ended at speed or being stranded the night and wasting both time and several hundreds of dollars in extra expenses.
What did I choose to do, how did I handle my “crisis” and what was the final outcome?
I will tell you in a minute…
I had been at a qigong retreat Tuesday through Sunday morning, immersed in practice. I had arrived suffering from a certain level of busy-mindedness and resultant preoccupations. By the time the retreat was over, I was feeling connected, fully in my body and serene.
In fact, I slowed down so much, felt so good that I let go of carefully planning my return trip to the airport. How much time did I really need to allow? What time should I absolutely leave by? Did I need to fill up before the journey? Could I afford to stop on the way?
Immersed in my contented wash of pleasurable feelings, I left it late to pack, drove off late, continued at a leisurely pace, stopped for coffee and chocolate at a cute roadside coffee shop and generally dreamed my way toward my destination.
The result was that I set up myself up squarely for the little crisis I described above… entirely of my own making… entirely avoidable.
All the time of the retreat, the monumental crisis of Katrina was unfolding. I am not going to belabor what you must all know already: that it has always been a question not of if but when a hurricane would destroy New Orleans, that despite this knowledge no comprehensive plan had been developed to deal with that eventuality, that the crisis opened other floodgates of rage, blame, horror, terror, rape, murder and disease…
When I was taking an MBA course in accounting my teacher scratched up a glib homily on the chalkboard: “When you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
I always like to think that qigong is there to help us restore balance to our lives, make us more resilient and responsive, more vital, more capable to handle life in general.
However, there are many dimensions to balance in life that qigong needs to address besides the obvious. They include a healthy respect for nature’s capability to harm as well as heal us… and an understanding of how to exercise proper care to protect ourselves as best possible for crisis.
I didn’t take proper care on my journey home and I am fortunate not to have paid the price.
How did it turn out? Well, I made it to Budget with seven minutes to spare, my needle well below empty. I wouldn’t have been remotely surprised to hear that Budget were unable to restart the car, for lack of gas… Running all the way with my luggage, dodging through the crowds, I arrived at the ticket counter two minutes before they would have closed the flight.
I made it.
And this is a guy who likes to normally arrive at least ninety minutes before his flight is due to depart!
But I do give myself high marks for how I handled my self-manufactured crisis. Every time I felt myself start to clench the wheel and tense up, thinking about my situation, I breathed deep, exhaled and relaxed out of it. I mentally accepted and prepared and surrendered to the possibility of missing the flight and resolved to make that an enjoyable experience.
When I finally knew I was safe, I sighed with relief but I had managed to keep my equilibrium more or less intact. I feel my longterm qigong investment paid off on many levels.
And yet I was reminded of how we have to remain eternally vigilant and not let our guard down, when it comes to protecting ourselves from possible harm. Sometimes, as with Katrina, the forces and surprises can be so powerful we are simply overwhelmed. But we can stack the deck in our favor by taking care in all aspects of our daily life.
See all of John Du Cane’s qigong resources.
Posted by james at September 5, 2005 6:19 PM