Chi Fitness: A Workout For Body, Mind, and Spirit

by Sue Benton, Drew Denbaum

Chi is the Eastern term for the life force energy that makes us alive --and guides us spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Incorporating exercise and meditation, Chi Fitness is a revolutionary technique by which you can channel this life force energy and put yourself on a path toward spiritual growth, while maintaining a healthy body. Following in the footsteps of such writers as Caroline Myss and Gary Zukav, who discuss energy and personal empowerment, Sue Benton and Drew Denbaum have expanded these principles of self-development to include movements and meditations designed to help you activate the chi within you. Benton and Denbaum explain how the delicate balance of personal energy can be disrupted by personal problems, family conflicts, and work stress. Every time we allow anger or sadness to take hold of our consciousness, we give away our chi, the source of our strength. Chi Fitness will teach you the Basic Power Practices you can use to feel and manage your chi and to bring it under conscious control. You will learn about your energy centers, or chakras, which correspond to specific parts of your body and particular areas of your emotional life. Becoming aware of your chakras will help you pinpoint particular problems and focus your energy in order to achieve a more balanced life. Chi Fitness is the perfect workout for people who want to cultivate a healthy mind, body, and spirit. The exercises are designed to help you clear the energy blocks that are restricting your internal power. The Power Practices included in the book will help you explore old patterns of behavior that may be holding you back and allow you to take positive steps to reclaim your chi. Chi Fitness is a workout everyone will enjoy. People of all ages and levels of physical fitness can do the simple yet powerful exercises, which produce immediate results. This low-impact, easy-to-follow program will help you feel calmer, happier, stronger. By unblocking your energy, you will regain your personal power and achieve a sense of peace that will enable you to live your life to its fullest.

Genres: Fitness, Health

240 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2001

Reviews

[Nancy Schober · Rating 2 out of 5]

From Chi Fitness, Chapter 14 Internal Power Chakra[return]Color: Yellow[return]Focus: Self-Esteem[return]Points of Power: Solar Plexus and Rib Cage[return][return]David s Experience[return]This example from David s life is illustrative of how children, especially kids who seem brave or mature for their years, sometimes feel overly responsible for the events in their households.[return]Before he learned how to meditate and practice Chi Fitness, David probably lost more energy through the Internal Power Chakra than any other. All of his fear based emotions were fueled by self-doubt, even when he exuded self-confidence to the outside world. Growing up, he cast himself in the role of first-born family hero, attempting to negotiate peace in his household and failing miserably on a daily basis. This feeling of helplessness wormed its way into his self-image and formed an emotional block that persisted into adulthood.[return]When he explored this charka with the Basic Powers Practices, two incidents, in particular, still held the greatest charge. The first occurred when he was five years old. His brother was almost two a playful, adventurous little boy with a halo of blond curls rising from his head. But deep down, David s love for him was tinged with jealously. Before he was born, David had been the center of his parents attention. Even if that attention was a double-edged sword, offering both protective love and intimidation, he was still unrivaled for their affection. Now his brother needed their devotion, too. David was in his room when he heard his mother scream. His father raced over from the other end of the house. David followed him into his parents second floor bedroom. Somehow, his brother had climbed up onto the dresser beneath an open window and had fallen out, tumbling onto the bushes below. With his mother in hysterics, David s father called an ambulance and cradled the little boy s inert body until the paramedics sped him away. David wept and clung to his mother, nauseous with terror feeling helpless and somehow responsible.[return]His brother miraculously survived the fall and fully recovered, but a sense of guilt and impotence burrowed deeper into David s psyche. Had he wanted him to die? Was it his fault he almost did? These questions hadn t even occurred to David until he asked himself the Four Questions* and mediated on this chakra. Until then, every fear-based thought and emotion he experienced was plugged into this incident, sapping energy and undermining his self-image.[return]Two decades later, another horrific even provoked a similar reaction. David s daughter almost died at birth, and his fear rose up in helpless rage. Despite a very difficult pregnancy, his wife went into labor determined to have the baby naturally . She and David had enjoyed taking birthing classes together. He was a well-trained eager coach and she was as positive as an anxious first-time mother could be. Labor, though, went on for almost twenty hours and the baby s heart rate suddenly started to plummet. Instead of a well-planned, drug-free process, there was now an emergency. A spinal block had to be injected while his wife was in the middle of a contraction, and the baby was turned and yanked out with forceps. She was blue and motionless but clung to life. After a week in an incubator, she was able to be taken home. But the horrific helplessness David felt, watching his wife suffer and his daughter enter the world so stressfully, was fueled by the same fearful self-reproach. Even while his heart was bursting, it was his solar plexus that felt on fire. The energetic connection of fear to this chakra persisted from childhood. Decades more would pass before David recognized and dealt with it. Although he has done much healing in this area, David s knee-jerk reaction can still be to rescue everyone he loves. When he is reminded of this, he can use a power practice and back off, because once his Internal Power Chakra is energized, he no longer feels the need to save everyone.[return][return]*The four questions:[return]1. The moment I relinquish my chi, how old did I feel?[return]2. What happened when I was that age?[return]3. How is that past situation similar to the current one?[return]4. When I have an emotional reaction about this situation, where I feel it in my body?

[Shabana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book! Only this past year, I've started to become "unbalanced" literally and I could feel people's energies. Using some of the exercises and insights from this book, I can be in a room of people and not lose my footing and if need be, take back my energy or disconnect from other people's energies. I feel like it helped me find my inner strength and build a forcefield around myself to protect me from the negative energies around me.

[Regina Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful, easy to read, and easy exercises to learn and perform.