Sleep: the descent into ourselves

Sleep is the process where a person's qi retreats from the world into the inner cycle of five. The outer cycle is about interacting with the world, but the inner cycle flows through the body alone.

When we fall asleep, the energetic flow contracts into the body. We close our eyes to fall asleep and then our senses dull while we're asleep. Loud lights or noises can intrude into us, but we stop seeking connections and energetic input from the outside world. Wood, which normally pushes out into the world, settles into itself, content with just pushing up within the body, but not above it. During this time, the Wood and Metal cycle through the earth of our body to aerate and clean it.

Fire, which is connected to the flow of qi in the world around us, connects instead to ourselves. It sinks down from our heads, and above our heads, into our physical heart and connection with ourselves. In our hearts, we also find a connection to God. Our dreams reflect ourselves, though some dreams go beyond ourselves through our internal spiritual connection to God.

Metal descends qi and moderates barriers to the outside world. When we are falling asleep, deep breathing helps us to descend into ourselves and fall asleep more easily. Lying down changes the orientation of the descending qi so we are no longer descending into the Water roots of the ground beneath us, but our whole body sinks as one. We sleep not connected above and not connected below, but flowing gently through ourselves.

When we wake, our bodies are contracted, our spines are shorter than at the end of the day. The transformations that normally extend us above and below are just starting again to connect us fully to the world.

Photo courtesy of onkel wart

The Fire receiver that is our head

Our heads are very interesting places. Four of our five senses are there, and this reflects the preponderance of the Fire element in our heads. Fire is connected to the world around us, but the energetic flow is inward, geared towards reception of qi from the weave around and between us. The classical sense-element correspondences are: Smell is connected to Metal/Lungs, hearing to Water/kidneys, sight to Wood/liver, and taste to Fire/heart.

Senses are, by their nature, receivers of information. They are located at the top of the body. When wood qi rises, it pushes out into the world and connects to the qi around it. Then the Fire receives qi from the connection. The direction of senses is inward.

When we smell, we inhale and activate Metal qi. We take in qi from the outside while pushing our internal qi out to meet it. The respiratory system is one big filter to help us allow good qi in, while keeping bad qi out. Smells are the first part of that system, designed to alert us to danger or nourishment.

We hear with Water. Water is still qi, rooted below. Hearing is most acute in silence and stillness. Though our ears may move slightly, there is no action involved in hearing.

We look out our eyes with Wood qi. Our eyes are poorly adapted to examine things  that are extremely close to us, but prefer to look out into the world for things to interact with. You can watch a baby examining the world and he engages with his eyes and then moves to interact with something based on the visual contact.

When we taste a food, we connect to it. It is the moment when the food ceases to be something outside of ourselves. I had a client who had temporarily lost his sense of taste and he told me he had lost his connection to food. It looked good, but he no longer wanted to eat it or make it a part of him. Without the connection, things remain apart and can never nourish us.

Fire is all about reception and connection, and our senses allow those two things to happen. They are located at the top of our bodies, which is the place of power for the Fire transformation.

Note: I will talk about touch and Earth Qi in a later post, as touch is built into the weave of our bodies and is both reception and nourishment at the same time.

Photo courtesy of gullevek