Taking one of Lee’s powerful immersions is many things: An exploration of self, a reclaiming of power, and broadening of possibilities, just to name of few.
In the west, we’re quick to focus on outcome rather than process. While it’s certainly wise to consider the future when making decisions, it’s equally important to understand the process that will get you there.
We’ve dedicated a few different blog posts to all of the wonderful opportunities and benefits of completing the Five Elements and Three Treasures immersions. Today, we will look at a first-hand account of what it’s actually like to go through these programs.
Exploration
One of the first profound experiences of Lee’s Five Elements immersion is through observing the increased attentiveness to what is taking place within the body. We all know how to breathe, circulate blood, digest food, and feel emotions. Most of the time, these things just happen, without us really being aware of what is taking place within.
As consciousness deepens, we see how easy it is for the mind to make fallacious distinctions between various parts of the whole.
In fact, because our conscious mind is often completely unaware of our internal body, most people develop a subconscious belief that we are separate from our inner workings. This belief is reflected in the language we use when referring to parts of the body. Saying “my heart,” implies that there is a “me” (my), and then there is a “heart” that is somehow distinct from the voice that is talking about it.
In the Five Elements, we learn how to bring awareness to the organs and energies that power who we are. In practice, taking the immersion feels like waking up parts of yourself that you didn’t know could be accessed.
Your lungs, liver, heart, spleen, and kidneys all play critical roles in your health, but how often do you get to directly nourish those areas? As you learn the practices for each organ and element, you can feel a rush of vital energy circulating throughout different parts of your body. Qi Gong becomes more and more fun, as you’re sensitivity sharpens and your energy strengthens.
Through this process, the immersion takes practitioners on a path to both deepen your awareness of self, and to harness your unique power to positively influence your elemental energies. As students transition to The Three Treasures immersion, the lessons continue to progress on the journey of personal empowerment and cultivation of self.
Reclaiming Your Power
When you think of power, what comes to mind? Many think of power as money, physical strength, and influence over others. We often learn that power is something external, and is based on our ability to affect the environment that surrounds us.
In truth, we all have limited power over our external world. We cannot control the seasons, the traffic, or how others think and feel. Often, when we seek to control something outside of ourselves, the result is suffering for all those involved.
Where we do have power is within ourselves. Just as the Five Elements helps us learn how to cultivate the elemental energies that fuel our body, the Three Treasures empowers us to understand who we are at our very core.
Body, mind, and spirit represent three powerful sources of energy that we each possess, yet often go unrealized. By learning the Qi Gong practices that cultivate and integrate the three Tan Tiens, practitioners can begin to transform and circulate Qi for health and happiness.
In practice, the experience of practicing the Three Treasures is profound and transformative. Through Lee’s immersion, you truly start to feel how thoughts and emotions influence one another, and how physical energy can be used to nourish feelings and thought. While it’s easy to talk about mind-body connection, it’s often difficult to find a way to bridge the gap between different parts of ourselves. The practices that Lee teaches truly empower students to skillfully work with all parts of your being for full integration of who you are as an individual.
Each person is a microcosm of the entire universe, and so clarity and truth have a way of appearing when your inner world finds harmony with that which surrounds. When mind, body, and heart are aligned, you experience a deep feeling of meaning, purpose, and truth channeling through you. Lee’s Three Treasures immersion is like a “truth-finding” workshop and helps participants tap into their guiding spirit.
A Transformed Practice
Like all practices in Qi Gong, the written word will only graze the surface of the felt experience of learning the Five-Elements and Three Treasures. Having gone through Lee’s Teacher Training Immersion myself, I can only say that it has truly and deeply transformed my confidence in understanding who I am. If you’ve taken one of Lee’s classes, you know how it touches and nourishes you. Imagine that but as a deepened, intentional, congruent journey that teaches applicable practices to truly live the lessons we all resonate with. Understanding heart energy, spirit consciousness, and physical vitality are aspirations we all seek, and Qi Gong can help us realize that awareness.
As the journey unfolds, practitioners learn to embody the answers to life’s most important questions. Where am I? Who am I? What do I want? Realizing all parts of ourselves starts to bring and integration between our beliefs, intentions, and physical existence. Through clarity, purpose, and confidence, life takes on a new light as we embrace our path with renewed vision.
You already commit a lot of energy to influence your external world to support who you are. Make a commitment to yourself to look inside and spend some time in the place you have the greatest power over your experience of life.
Check out our Five Elements and Three Treasures pages below to learn more or to sign up.