We can all mostly agree that a steamy shower, beverage, sauna, bath, or even foods will rejuvenate our bodies. It gives us that “loved” feeling. In medical terms you can find many reasons for this and here is one more. It is a boost of nourishing Qi. Early Chinese writing depicted the word Qi as a bowl of rice with steam flowing from it.
Ok, so what is this Qi thing that I keep talking about? The most common translation you hear in the English language is “energy”. However, I have a few friends in the Feng Shui community that would strongly disagree on that translation, but they do agree that it is a force, specifically a life force. All living matter has Qi.
When we are born we acquire Qi naturally from our parent’s DNA. Once our life begins we need to replenish that Qi. Qi is produced with yin and yang, positive and negative forces. When we sleep we support our yin, when we are awake we support our yang. As you know we need some other natural forces to help us maintain our life force.
The number 1 requirement of Qi replenishment is water. Our body can only go without water a few days. Food is another one of our needed sources. Hot foods are more beneficial than cold foods because it comes with steam. Steam produces the right balance of hot (yang/positive) and cold (yin/negative) force.
As we all know steam is another form of water. Water is the resting place of active Qi. We have learned from the masters that Qi is retained in water. This is considered to be a fact that practitioners rely on with their Qi enhancing practices.
Finally we also need air. Another translation for Qi is “breath”. So you see all our requirements to maintain our life force – water, food and air, are all sources of Qi. Now it only goes to reason that if we add essential oils to our bathing routines you can also get the added selective therapeutic benefits of the oil(s) you use.
Essential oils are concentrated life forces of plants. By selecting oils with specific therapeutic benefits you can enhance specific body organs. In Qi Planning we can pick specific oils that support specific areas of our bodies. It was Hippocrates, the father of medicine that said: the way to maintain good health is with a warm bath and an aromatherapy massage. I couldn’t agree more!