REALLY IMPORTANT if you work with qi/chi/ki in your technique is to understand how the energy is coloured by areas of the body and how this affects areas of your life.

The ‘alchemy’ is the study and journey of how your emotions affect you and therefore to be able to understand them and develop emotional intelligence.

I’ve stripped away any ‘spiritual’ dogma to show how useful they are to practical martial artists.

I’ve used my keywords for each chakra here to help you see how practical this study is to help you become a more balanced martial artist.

Root Chakra – Survival
Sacral Chakra – Intuition
Solar Plexus Chakra – Fear
Heart Chakra – Compassion
Throat Chakra – Communication
Brow Chakra – Insight
Crown Chakra – Wisdom

In meditation you take your awareness to each chakra to see how you feel the energy there and how it manifests in that area of your life. Once you realise and recognise it, you can educate and alchemise it.

We deal with this journey from ‘jing to chi to geng and shen’ in my Tai Chi programme.