Reality checks also welcome.

I used to do a few basic yoga poses first thing in the morning. Physically can't do those now (hip won't bend that well) but I still stretch and do a few light quasi-calisthenics. Dunno about chi, but I know that blood flow and movement clear away the night and distract me from the coming day.

I used to do the yoga and then 3 miles of walking, but that's not working with the hip, either, so.... I am channeling that sense of "chi", I suppose, into the small routine chores as if my dust rag and broom are somehow Tools of Inner Peace.

Yup, my left hip is on my geezer-outage list, too. Yup, I am also finding that routine chores can provide allot of grounding as well as stretch enough to get at least some of the ache out of that hip or whatever other part is showing its miles today.

I think greater appreciation for little things is my favorite thing about aging.

I need to get back to training, it's pretty crucial.

Ah, yes. I wish I could blame being a geezer, but for me, it was gravity and concrete and medical idiocy (hence my Medical-Related PHobias and PTSD).... It literally won't go, so I go around it...

The day I could bend down enough to use a dustpan, my hubby and I cried for joy.

The day I walked without one cane, and didn't fall over? We sobbed like we'd been given a winning lotto ticket.

Yep. Appreciating those small things, because they're really important in the end. To be able to dust a shelf, to reach down to get something from a cupboard (even if the hip won't bend and I have to be creative).... I've only had that back for 2-3 years depending on what is specifically under discussion, and when people say "Well, for someone with all that, you move well," I want to scream. I do two hours of exercises a day to be able to walk without a cane. I have to focus on every footstep, or I risk falling. I can be more exhausted *mentally* by needing to concentrate on my gait than I can be tired physically by the actual walking!

Utterly OT but maybe not.... Getting that sense of "flow" returned? Precious blessing.

Absolutely Right On Topic, Leo. As I understand the concept of the "Chi" exercises (Tai chi, Qigong, etc.) the goal is to integrate you physical and energy needs. One shapes the other. The goal is not the boot camp logic of becoming. It is a simple integration of being.

As I understand "it." A wish to understand better is the motivation of the post.

Thanks for the dialogue.

The other day a person said to me ..."But you are Healthy".... the person does not know squat about me..BTW..thank you Leo for your comment/another post.....one of the "Bubble people". ...no clue...it use to make me mad....now I just "sigh"....how many months it took me to use a computer again...10 minutes max a day...trying to coordinate my eyes/brain/hands to work together without severe lay your head down pain/fatigue...my first email ever, I was so proud of myself for not giving up.....I called my best friend to give her it..she did not want it..."sigh" again. Somewhere along the line I realized it was enough that I knew how big a deal it was..how I have to continue strengthening my brain connections daily with games that aren't just fun times, they are rehab, and this does affect my entire being, my entire body...and that's another thing...as I healed that part of my brain....Hello...out pops the PTSD just waiting...aarrgghh!

This is a pretty great topic. As you probably know Chi is what acupuncture is all about. It is about helping the chi to flow where there is illness body, mind, and spirit.
I love your story Leo because you and I are close on age and I get the same responses that you all do. Like you are young and healthy got vet that or you and the one you said. It used to make me angry now I dont do it. They are ignorant of the fact that I have a @o much metal in my body with a rod and six screw and two bran new shoulder replacement and the list goes on. One day this really young woman got on the elevator with me and I bet she wish she hadn't by the time she got to her floor. She started to complain and it was about some small as thing and I had it with people complaining that morning so I said told her my list of things that were wrong with me including cancer and I don't complain about those this. I get about what I have to do about it. Then I said you go have yourself a nice day now.I told my therapist when I got to her floor a d didn't she laugh cause that is so unlike me. I just love the simple things of life too. The mean allot to me. Some days its all I can do to get a simple reply out like this one. I hope it can be ubderstood.

Thank you, drangon. Yes, I probably knew that acupuncture was developed around Chi (Qi) philosophies, but I had failed to make the connection. I don't have any first hand exposure to acupuncture, at all.

High fiber chew, simply put. Thank you.

I have loved acupuncture for tension and minor pains. (I doubt it'd work on major pains like human nature, LOL.) To me, it was very releasing and I miss being able ot afford it. (Current health plan won't cover.)

It's a whole thing for me. I know if I push emotion aside, body suffers, and if I ignore body, well, hey, duh, all of me suffers, so....

I love to lie barefoot on sunny grass and just *feel* it. Sometimes I still don't feela ll of my right foot, so when I can feel, it's a nice thing.

Stop and smell the small flowers, not just the roses. Everyone's at the roses... ?

Chi is amazing and I swear by it. I took a course on Blurr dancing not quite two years ago that revolved around the concept of Chi and Chakra movement and it really does help (I find it ties into mindfulness). It allows me to shape the emotions I can control, and my physical/mental manifestations of them. While I typically end up exhausted it really can help. :)

Am I doing "Closet Chi" this morning? Or is that, "Closet Qi?" The pinyin CHI and QI seem to be used interchangeably (?) on the Spanish and English websites. Each website uses only one, but websites using the each of the pinyin words often cover the same material. My Mandarin profie tells me they vary more in tone than phonetics. Tone has a formal place in Mandarin grammar.

The dictionary I use to study Chinese calligraphy has 12 characters for the pinyin, "Chi" and 21 for the pinyin, "Qi." !Me duele a la cabeza!

My project of the morning is removing tile from the closet in the Master Suite. The main room of the master suite is still being used as a storage locker by Youngest Son and his family, but the closet is finally accessible. I have been removing saltillo tile from the floor. As tedious a job as humankind ever created. Ripe for contemplations of important matters like "Chi" and "Qi."

In Arf World, a closet is a small room. You can craft a minor crafting right there in my craft closet. You can research the day's field find without leaving library closet. Is it fair to call that, "Closet Chi?"

So far the ambiance in the master suit closet says, "No wonder you got such a good deal on this house." The ceramic tile shower had been leaking for ALLOT of years with a few disasters from the AC closet on the other side of the toilet wall. 4+ years ago, that seemed like a small compromise for the affordable mortgage.

Still not sure where any of this is leading. Just babbling?

one of my doctors wants me to do chi, and I would love to do it but its expensive. I don't do well trying to follow a video workout. I notice I am three moves behind once I look up at the tv.

I would like to at least get one of those balls and do stretches. Acupuncture has also been suggested with massage. I think I could listen to the music and watch the guy/girl do it and fall asleep, lol

When I asked my Mandarin profie (a woman from Beijing who is younger than my youngest son) about, "Chi" and "Qi," she responded, "They are very 'Kung Fooey." This is her standard response to places where she feels the cultural misconceptions are too profound for a language class. She believes there are ALLOT of those misconceptions flowing to and from both cultures. I believe her.

Kinda freed me a little further to take televised exercises as suggestion more than gospel. It settled as validation for the meditation mentor who told me, "You ain't meditating 'till you have a style all your own."

Um..the hitachi magic wand has some rather adult uses. What it's sold for.
No comment on that.

However...I have found that it's a great massage tool, and you can reach your back with it. Very nice.
Gets the muscles breathing.