7Qi Essentials: Qi 4 - Feelings
What you really need to know about the workings of your feelings (Qi-4) and how other Qi affect your feeling(s).
Topics:
1. What are your feelings?
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- Connecting 7Qi and sensation experience
- Feeling models, naming types of feeling
2. Energetic meanings/functions feeings
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- Connecting meter and thermometer of all 7Qi energy and sensation experiences
- Love and fear-related feelings and way of life
3. Symbolic meanings/functions Feeling Qi
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- Connect
- Heart
- Love (related symbols)
- Fears (related symbols)
4. Disruption of feeling: blockage
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- Hypersensitive
- Insensitivity (suppressing or ignoring)
- Imbalanced feeling energy
5. Therapy
1. What are (your) feelings?
Connecting, probing and measuring, and then increasing connectedness or releasing/disconnecting.
Feelings Qi is a connecting energy or disconnecting/disconnecting energy. We connect inner sensation-experience from our other Qi (see Chapter 2) and from our Qi with our environment/others and translate this into connecting or repelling. .
Feelings are inner sensations (of heat, pressure, smell, color, light and sound, for example), and of emotions (discharge), beliefs, moods, thoughts, inspiration or inspiration.
In fact, evolutionarily speaking, feelings were the first principles of survival. From “ok/safe to not ok/dangerous. Even before our brains began to develop.
Feeling follows our evolutionary development. From no brain interference (brain development is evolutionarily later than neural-muscle development) through reptilian brain interference (fight, flight, freeze), through limbic brain interference (more developed / nuanced fight, flight, freeze and empathy/[mother/child] connection) to more rational 'colored' feelings: conscious and unconscious. To moods and spiritual 'high sensitivity'.
Feeling is like a meter and thermometer. It measures connected Qi energy and gauges the intensity to translate this into an inner sensation. Pleasant or unpleasant. Fear (rejection) or Love (recognition) based.
Feelings can have intensity. Neuroticism is the scale for internal sensations and external emotional “discharge. We could scale as e.g:
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- Empathy to ecstatic love
- Self-love to pride
- Surprised to overwhelmed
- Dislike to hate/loathing
- Concern to fear, panic, anxiety
- Anger to rage
- Sadness to despair
- Attracted to horny (overheated)
Feelings have a wide scale of intensity nuances (degrees of connection): Therefore, it is very difficult or impossible to give a complete list of feelings. Our mind tries to define feelings and the ego tries to 'concentrate' or make experienced feelings indistinguishable. To make them more “black and white. But all definitions are only a very rough indication of these very subtle (and sometimes subtle though intense) experiences. Different cultures have different terms for them. (Pali, for example, speaks of 'metta': loving attention).
The final 'feeling-conclusion' can be: stay connected or connect further/deeper or, on the contrary, disconnect or repel/dissolve. If something doesn't feel good, unpleasant or painful we want to get away from it. But unpleasant feelings make sense: a mirror that we carry inner painful (7Qi) connections or that someone else does. Conversely, we always long for a feeling of connection and acceptance. When this feeling is confirmed we want to maintain or deepen the connection.
We feel in the NOW. We can trigger feelings by thinking about the past or the future, but the feeling is just here and now though our awareness of our feeling or feeling intensity takes time. So an (un)conscious stored memory or body trauma can trigger a feeling or cause a mood.
Feelings models / types of feelings
Paul Ekman (psychologist ) classified the universal main feelings in the 1970s:
Joy
- Feelings of joy, pleasure and happiness.
- Recognizable by a smile, sparkling eyes.
Sadness
- Feelings of loss or disappointment.
- Recognizable by a downcast look, trembling lips, and sometimes tears.
Fear
- Feelings of danger or threat.
- Recognizable by big eyes and raised eyebrows.
Anger
- Feelings of frustration or anger.
- Recognizable by a furrowed brow, tense jaw, and sometimes red cheeks.
Disgust
- Feelings of disgust or disgust.
- Recognizable by a raised upper lip and crooked nose.
Amazement
- Feelings of wonder or surprise.
- Recognizable by large eyes and open mouth
The Feelings Wheel of Gloria Wilcox
After that, many more models followed. The best known are Wilcox's wheel of feeling and Plutchik's wheel. Brene Brown has written a fantastic book “Atlas of the Heart” with a nice format. Useful if you are trying to put your feelings into words.
But in the context of 7Qi essentials it is especially important to understand the energetic connection with your 7Qi. You can read more about this in the next chapter
2. Energetic meaning/functions feelings
Connecting, measuring, positive/negative feeling conclusion, charging or discharging other Qi
Feeling connects basic sensation with love (recognition/connection) or fear (repulsion/flight).
But it can also be a memory of a basic sensation/situation that causes a feeling! A feeling can be aroused!
A specific feeling: Love, is unconditionally connecting (Me AND you, or together) and different from Ego energy (me OR you).
Love and Ego work as a +/- energy combination. Attract and empower, repel and condemn. Possibly generating a 'learning energy' though (a potential learning experience for both). Particularly meaningful combination thus! Without +/- 'the light bulb' does not go on.
Depending on brain-part blockages, your feelings fall back to survival/anxiety/comfort. When stressed, your neocortex (reasoning/planning) cannot reach your limbic/reptilian brain. Your feelings are then controlled by your lower brain parts that want to survive and go from feeling “not pleasant” to feeling “pleasant. This is why, for example, you know it's best not to snack, but still just run to your fridge when stressed or suppressed or subconscious stressed (during a Netflix movie). Or that you seek affection and touch from your partner when you feel insecure.
Feeling nuances. The more we feel “connected” to our feelings or the more we try to focus on them, the more we tend to seek nuances as we express them. Consequently, when we express ourselves, we try to 'connect' as much as possible between ourselves and our listener. The rational speaker can be very “black and white” or “true and false,” the speaker who is connected to the heart will express nuances and check to see if it is well received, looking for a shared (connected) vision and feeling. (using many sounds like “eh...” or trying to make comparisons, and using the verb “feel” (“It doesn't feel right does it? It feels like ....” etc.).
Nuanced energy is connected to other Qi to weaken or to strengthen. If iet feels good, health (growth and recovery in body) arises, other positive or helping beliefs, thoughts or a clearer picture of life mission / desired way of life / learning & growth experiences or connection to everything arises. The reverse happens when something doesn't feel right.
As soon as our feelings become very intense, our emotion valve, our energy valve starts working to discharge built-up feeling energy.
When we lose touch with our feelings, we can become hardened (by our ego (negative / limiting beliefs). We can ignore important signals from our body and become injured or overtired. We may lose passion and joy in life. We will find it difficult to connect. Internally and externally. Hardness is a feeling. In this case of a wall around our heart which makes empathizing with other Qi difficult.
7Qi connection, measurement and sensation experience
Ultimately, feeling is a -measurement and (intensity) sensation- of your own 7Qi (or disruption of connection between one or more of your 7Qi) and/or energy sensation of 7Qi of others or your personal experience (environment/nature/matter).
Sensation: physical sensation (body). Pain, pressure, stuffy, sick or just enjoyment, space, healthy etc.
Basic reactive feeling: charge (emotions) rising anger, dissatisfaction, or just ecstasy etc.
Mood, reactive and gut feeling: appointed feeling (Ego): normative outcome of (subconscious) beliefs in fine/not fine, good, not good etc.
Feelings-feelings: experienced (feelings) sensation from love and connection to bliss
Mentally related feeling / state of mind (thinking): mind relatedness (likeminded) to connectedness or distancing experience.
(Soul) Dharma feeling / destiny feeling / feeling conscience (Soulvoice): deep sense of meaning, utility or value in experience
Intuitive feeling (Inspiration): prompted feeling, without being traceable to trauma or subconscious thoughts.
Love and fear based feelings
Fears
Fear of death. The most profound fear is that of death. For ceasing to exist. Existential fear. Therefore, one of the most important questions in your life is: do you believe in an existence (of something) after death? As a belief (scientific, conviction, thought) or in a spiritual sense (consciousness, inspiration and inspiration). If not, you only have this life, and you will focus on maximum quality of life in terms of safety and enjoyment. If you do, you will explore how this life can be meaningful for the afterlife. Spiritual or religious norms and values will play a role in this.
Fear of rejection is a very old in our genes “programmed” unsafe feeling. We feel comfortable when we are 'safe' and accepted in a group. We want to be part of a tribe or group. This stems from the time when we could not survive without our tribe protecting us from danger. Rejection is still a punishment within groups. Rejection from the tribe, religion, region (exile) or imprisonment. In essence, by doing so we “punish” and do not build positive feelings or (self) confidence or change the underlying cause of the behavior we want to prevent. Therefore, in some cultures, prisoners are carefully guided with love and attention to return to the community, with more chances of changed behavior.
Fear of loneliness. Loneliness is a sign of inner lost connection (connection to self). Being alone is different from being lonely. It is important to say that we are never alone. We are all connected (energetically) to each other. Experiencing loneliness is a sign on your “dashboard” that your feeling-Qi may need a detox from stuck energies. You may be a bit alienated from a very important part of your Qi. Your feeling-Qi may be 'locked up' behind walls of mind and ego. Perhaps out of fear of pain or being hurt. Or you suffer from negative or limiting beliefs. Resulting in (inner) disconnection. Not having enough energy to feel/experience connection with All.
Fear of rejection and fear of loneliness are actually fears of denial or damage to our 3 basic needs:
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- recognition for who we are,
- recognition for what we do, and
- recognition of our feelings and emotions as such
The feeling of LOVE
Since pure love is “unconditional,” it is impossible to define the connected feeling (from pink cloud feelings to ecstasy and biss) because any description would be “conditional". The connecting power of feelings (heart chakra) Qi connects all layers of feelings and causes the wonderful state of love.
Do not confuse this state with what we often mean with 'being in love' as this feeling van vary depending on the balance in a persons 7Qi. Many of us project their dreams or convictions on a newly found partner and cause feelings of inner bliss with that. But this is different from the unconditional feeling LOVE.
Love connects your higher and lower Qi and with this, supports kundalini (7Qi connection). But love also connects you to life goals and with others.
Love is different from a relationship. A relationship is conditional. You have relationships with your partner, your work, your teacher, your parents, your (types of) friends, your environment, your property, etc. To love your partner is to love this partner how he/she is. With all the growth challenges and all the things that make you happy.
Unconditional is a limitless energy. We sometimes “trick” our system by “demanding” unconditional love (that is opposite of unconditional! It is fear based). We confuse it with the fear of not being recognized in our true essence (or ego biased essence...). “If you really love fish, you don't eat it. You grant it to swim freely! If you love flowers, you don't pick them, you grant them to live wonderfully and show their splendor.”
Fear or love based lifestyle
Although many people think they are the “product” of DNA, upbringing, culture, experiences or programming we always have a choice (to avoid ending up in some form of perpetrator or victimhood): the choice of a fear-based lifestyle or a love-based lifestyle.
Of course, certain basic fears are helpful! Otherwise, reckless behavior arises. And lacks the important energy of courage: overcoming your fear! Which is a very important factor in building self-confidence and empowerment towards love!
- If you choose a fear-oriented lifestyle then Ego-Thinking Qi prevails:
- Polarizing, judging and condemning.
- Pride (fear of insufficient appreciation),
- Greed (fear of insufficient matter),
- Lust (fear of insufficient touch and sex),
- Anger (fear of insufficient recognition),
- Gluttony (fear of insufficient food),
- Jealousy (fear of not satisfying),
- Laziness (fear of insufficient energy or inner truth) will prevail or you will use it as a mask for your underlying fears.
- Ultimately this leads to unstable pleasure or unhappiness. Shame, blame or guilt.
- If you choose a love-based lifestyle then Heart/Feeling Qi prevails:
- Connection, Perception and Acceptance
- Modesty (confidence in yourself and others),
- Generosity (confidence in everyone),
- Chastity (confidence in sufficient connection),
- Patience (confidence in sufficient time),
- Moderation (confidence in contentment),
- Generosity (confidence in enough for everyone) and
- Diligence (confidence in your ability and will and and the outcome of your doing).
- Compassion (extending a helping hand) is your means of connecting and sharing your infinite loving energy
- Ultimately, this leads to sustainable life happiness and sustainable quality of life. Connection, understanding and fulfillment
3. Symbolic meaning/functions feelings
What are symbolic meanings of your feelings?
Why would you want to know symbolic meanings? Your subconscious mind often works with images and symbols. A kind of summary of a combination of things, feelings you had with them, or ideas and beliefs you have with them. Once this comes to the surface or appears in your consciousness (e.g. during therapy sessions) it can help to clear up confusion, create clarity or bring desires or fears into focus. Or to bring concrete life goals into focus.
I list a few frequently used symbolic meanings of Qi4-Feeling
Connecting with known or unknown people/animals/things
From your subconscious, a need for connection, less isolation, friendship or relationship can be signified by feeling associations. All symbols of connection (unless being tied down) are a sign of desire for connection. A sense of belonging.
Heart
Your beating heart connects everything in your body through blood vessels/blood. Your heart symbolizes your feelings. Symbols of a bleeding heart, a rapidly beating heart or just a heart stopping can indicate repressed feelings or just excitement about things.
Love and love-related symbols
An embrace or smile, healing, an angel or saint, enjoyment or beautiful things that touch you. These images interspersed with specific topics can indicate your desires or life goals. Heart/Love/Feelings have a deep symbolic connection. Because love connects, as does your heart and your feelings. Any symbols that portray love for you are a need for that love. From a protruding hand to a kiss. From a mother hugging a baby to a pair of eyes looking lovingly at you.
Anxiety and anxiety-related symbols
Being trapped, pain or pressure, running, fleeing, attacking (or a dangerous animal), anger, drowning, fear of heights, demons or devils, all symbolic images of fear. These images interspersed with topics can interpret your deep fears and provide clues to address your fears. Or tell you to face your fears and resolve them.
4. Disruption of feeling(s) / blockage
Feeling Qi is like a mirror to yourself. It attracts positive energy and repels negative energy. Other Qi can influence it positively (strengthen it) or “repel” it through fear. Why don't you want to think about something? Or not listen to an inner voice. Or deny a signal from your body? Because of a deeper fear!
Actually, our system always wants to go to a state of balance. Feelings are meaningful but can also, therefore, when hypersensitive or amplified only be discharged by other Qi and especially Emotion Qi.
Negative feelings, if they cannot be expressed emotionally can be “materialized” by body Qi and Ego Qi, cause (body) trauma, addition drive, or even distortion of body energy resulting in alteration of neural pathways in your nervous system, or uncontrollable cell growth or despair with potentially life-threatening consequences.
Positive feelings cause joy to bliss, and growth of other Qi, but if they cannot be expressed emotionally, addiction drive (desire for the same “pleasant” feeling) can occur with all its consequences.
Three forms of disturbed feeling
(Over)sensitivity
Hypersensitivity (rapid awareness of feelings, rapidly increasing intensity of feelings) can be genetic, but can also arise during (early) childhood. With unsafe attachment, a child 'trains' as it were nerve pathways to quickly connect situations to feelings (cognitive function is then still limited). Preferential nerve pathways and highly developed mirror neurons can lead to 'hypersensitivity' later in life. Being quickly triggered by feelings and focusing on feelings.
Regular focus on feelings, or frequent triggering of feelings and emotions can lead to a high awareness of your feelings. In addition, a vicious cycle can occur because feelings and emotions can trigger new feelings and emotions.
Feelingless (suppressing or ignoring).
There is actually such thing as numbness. Usually there is a combined shifting of attention/focus to other Qi (thoughts, beliefs, body movement, inspiration or inspiration) or to distraction (e.g. by exercising/sports/whatever or simply denial) or suppression (numbing through narcotics or medication).
However, feeling sensitivity can be genetic, or “trained” through exercise to less sensitivity or just alertness.
Unbalanced or sudden feeling-energy (triggering)
Suddenly arising feelings and emotions can be triggered by memories, images, smells, sounds, etc. This can have two causes:
- stored-Feelings-memories: The brain and ANS (autonomic nervous system) are connected to organs and tissue. A memory of a smell, image, sound etc. can be linked at lightning speed to the feeling experienced at the time. Suppose you had a wonderful Christmas together with your family and the smell of cinnamon in your tea is subconsciously stored in combination with the feeling you had at the time (hippocampus/tissue). If it was a nice Christmas, loving feeling sensations can arise with the smell of cinnamon/tea. If it was an unpleasant Christmas, fearful or angry feeling sensations can arise with the smell of cinnamon/tea.
- Trauma: memories of feelings and emotions stored in the body are triggered, causing a sudden (partial) release of this energy. Typical is often not being able to connect the released feeling or emotion energy with the actual mental association (the how, why, what, when etc.). Sudden moodswings, limited or severe sudden emotions (crying to shouting), sudden feelings that cannot be linked to specific thoughts can arrise when trauma is in your system.
Some well-known pitfalls
We try to deny feelings of self-worth (we are afraid to take responsibility because we do not trust or even fear that we are worthy of respect or success, for example). Or we try to manipulate others into giving us attention and love. In doing so, we muddle love-based feelings with fears. This can even lead to “anger” about love (“it's just not there for me”) or bitterness about life. This is an Mind/Ego-trap with caused feelings.
Reasoning and brooding about feelings rather than actually feeling them is a thinking-Qi trap (mind-pitfall). Talking or thinking about feelings is activity of more mind-Qi (5). When you want to focus on feelings, on your heart chakra, be in the moment and experience your feelings in the NOW.
Stuck in judging and condemning feelings. For various reasons, you can get caught in a self-reinforcing loop of negative feelings. When you feel unloved, powerless, not worthy of love.
Lonely or laden with guilt, blame or shame, pain & sadness? Try to step out of the vicious cycle that causes anxiety and start learning & growing. (self)Forgiveness and expressing regret to/compensating your 'victims' might also be key. This mechanism is eg. the essence of Catholic confession. Feeling regret, penetance and (self) forgiveness as clearance for negative feelings and a new start.
Think of the feelings as guilt, blame or shame, pain & sadness as wise body signals. Begin to detoxify negatively attached mind-Qi (thoughts/worries) and ego-Qi (judgments). I promise you that your life can be full of love.
- (Self)forgiveness and faith/hope/confidence (empowerment) is the first step!
- And embracing the principles of love the second: unconditionality, acceptance and (inner) connection. It may sound patronizing, but it is well-intentioned. Just start consciously responding differently to your victimization and your environment. We are all connected and worthy of love. You certainly are too. Fear-based behavior ultimately causes instability and a lose-lose (self-other) situation. Love-based behavior a win-win! Growth and companionship.
- Then work on breaking patterns with discipline and therapy if necessary
Anti-depressants (medication): anti-depressants can flatten feelings. As a result, you have fewer “lows,” but also fewer “highs. If your feeling baseline is very deep, antidepressants can certainly make sense. (allways discuss using them or stop using them with your health care professional!). If the pit really is too deep to see any light. You continually relapse into depression. You are too weak or limited for action. Or if you are considering destructive behavior or worse (in these cases, always contact your family doctor or psychotherapist!).
At the same time, many see antidepressants as a “cure” for episodes of bad feelings. To keep going. And ok, you suppress or blur feelings! But also the great ones! Ultimately, it's about stepping out of negativity, suffering and victimization, self-empowerment!!! Building new self-insights, learning and growing. Today is the first day of the rest of your life! You can do it! And there is therapy to help you with this!
5. (Feelings) Therapy
Healing your feeling Qi means one of releasing other (harmful) Qi. Repairing/training hypersensitivity, suppressing or ignoring sensitivity, or addressing the underlying trigger mechanism.
Psychotherapy can “unravel” mind/ego/feeling combinations and allow you to process your mind/ego beliefs with conscious use of love and self-forgiveness and eventually “merge” new beliefs with feelings. For example, with schema therapy, EMDR, Hypnotherapy or associative therapy.
Medication from GP or psychotherapist can suppress feelings (and depression) (e.g. antidepressants)
Integrative (7Qi) coaching can. apply techniques for all 7Qi feeling combinations.
Heart coherence exercises can be applied in relation to breath work and affirmative coaching.Heart meditation and meditation related to love can be helpful
Conscious training of compassion, forgiveness, acceptance, gratitude and contentment can be helpful.
A combination with body therapy or body-mind therapy can make treatment faster or more effective.
Shamanic work can do this through spiritual infusion, inspiring your body to clear entangled energies. Ayahuaska, for example, can be used in specific cases (!!!) but only under experienced and skilled guidance! (After all, feelings can be greatly magnified which can even lead to traumatic experiences if the participant is not consciously guided!)
Nature, a strong (stabilizing, neutralizing, connecting) energetic source, can do the same. Nature walks (especially beach or forest walks)
Alternative therapy such as Breathwork, Sound healing, creative (paint) therapy, (Heart) massage, gemstone or essential oil treatment can do it too.
Some healers can transmit “unconditional love” energy. Or better expressed differently: clearing disturbed fear/love combinations, by disconnecting them from other energies, and making them available to radiate and breathe in again.
Affirmative therapy can help. The following affirmations are examples that can be used:
- I am loved
- I am grateful
- I am connected
- I live in peace and gratitude
- I recognize myself in others
- I feel you and me
- I connect with my feelings NOW
- I accept my feelings, both fine and other.
- I do what makes me happy (permanently)
