To celebrate our upcoming Peaceful Warrior Qi Gong Workshop, we're putting together a collection of newsletters Lee wrote inspired by his conversations with his friend Dan Millman, the world-champion athlete turned author of Way of the Peaceful Warrior.
We've pulled the whole series together onto a single page so you can take it in as one continuous conversation rather than pieces scattered across separate emails. Our hope is that reading it this way lets these ideas build on one another, so the through-line comes into focus and you walk away with a felt sense of what this path actually asks of us: showing up, meeting the moment, and returning to the practice on the days we least feel like it.
One quick note before you dive in. These interviews with Dan were filmed nearly seven years ago, shot guerrilla style in a hotel lobby, so you'll notice a little extra character around the edges of some of the edits. We thought about polishing it all away, but we think you'll appreciate the realness of these moments. Dan's wisdom is simply too good not to share, and getting to hear it straight from him far outweighs a little roughness in the footage.
"Heroes and cowards feel exactly the same fear. They just respond differently."
Cus D’Amato, legendary boxing coach
(referenced by Dan in our discussion)
Dan Millman shared this line with me years ago, and it has stayed close ever since.
Cus D'Amato spent his life surrounded by fear. He trained Mike Tyson, as well as several other champions before him, and observed thousands of fighters facing that critical moment just before action. He noticed something that most people overlook: the hero and the coward experience the same feelings. They both feel a tightness in their chests, a shortening of breath, or sometimes that urge to step back. What sets them apart is not the feelings of fear themselves, but how they choose to respond next.
Most of us already know that Qi Gong is effective, and we trust it. However, we often struggle to trust ourselves to remain consistent in our practice.
As a result, we create negative stories about ourselves, labeling ourselves as lazy or broken. But none of this is true. We all experience the same feelings when faced with the choice to act or not. Sometimes, it’s fear that holds us back; other times, we can’t quite pinpoint why we fail to do what we know is best for our health and well-being.
What keeps coming back to me is the idea of embodied action.
We don't have much control over what we feel at any moment. Thoughts come on their own. Emotions come on their own. But there's a decision-maker within us, and it gets to choose how we respond to whatever appears. We can be careful about what we do in a way we can't be about what we feel.
So that's where I focus my attention - on the action I can truly choose.
That's why we start with the body. It’s the simplest action with the greatest impact. You don't need to feel ready to take a slow breath. You don't need to feel motivated to let your shoulders drop.
Embodied action removes the heavy lift. You move just a little, and the resistance disappears.
Pick a moment when you feel resistance, when you'd rather do anything but practice. It may show up as grabbing your phone, cleaning the kitchen, or restlessness that won’t go away.
Don't try to talk yourself into the mood first. Just stand up and take one slow breath. As you exhale, let your shoulders drop.
Then make a small movement, such as an arm circle or a slow neck roll. One movement is enough. You are responding to the resistance with a simple action.
Notice what happens after that first movement. Most days, the second one comes easier.
You don’t need to feel brave to start; you simply have to respond to the resistance with embodied action. That is the essence of the practice.
"I'm always filling you, but you keep leaking."
— From a story Dan Millman told me in our discussion in 2019
We all want more energy, and that's a wonderful thing to want. But what about the energy we already have?
When we're low and need to recharge the battery, we have tools to do it. So we do, and we feel better.
Then, most of the time without even realizing it, the energy we worked so hard to build up drains right out of us.
One of my favorite stories about this is one Dan tells in his books.
There was a man who spent years searching for more energy. One day he climbed all the way to the top of a mountain and reached up toward the sky and said, "Fill me with energy, I'm ready." The clouds parted, and a voice boomed from above and shouted, "I'm always filling you, but you keep leaking!"
Energy from the earth is a gift. It's always around us, an endless source of healing we can draw from at any time.
So it fills us up, but these days, that fullness doesn't last long.
We lose energy scrolling, feeling anxious about the future, or dwelling on a hard interaction. We lose it letting the outside world get under our skin, whether it's a mean comment or someone riding our bumper in traffic.
The earth might be infinite in its energy, but our capacity to hold it isn’t.
Picture your energy as a cup.
Every one of those interactions, those get-under-your-skin moments, opens a little hole in the side. And the water (or tea if you prefer), which is your energy, keeps trying to refill you. It comes back through the time you spend in nature, good sleep, healthy food, friends you chat with.
But when your energy leaks, it spills through the holes almost as fast as it comes in. You fill and fill, and the energy just leaks and leaks. So no matter how much you pour in, you can never quite stay full. That's the scattered, irritable, low feeling we've all known.
One of the fastest ways to plug those holes is also one of the simplest: slow down. But the hardest part is catching yourself in the moment right before the energy starts to leak. It's the smallest window, and most people never stop to notice it.
It's that millisecond before you pick up the phone, ruminate, or rush off to work. If you can find that moment, you can ask yourself a simple question.
Is this what I actually want right now?
In Taoism, there are many ways to stop the leaks, and a simple action is inaction.
It's where we pause and exist, connected to the earth rather than to the racing thoughts in our head. This is where we're meant to spend more of our time.
That's how we fill our cups and keep them full.
This is a classic thought observation meditation. All it takes is five minutes.
I like to do it in the morning, after a good night's rest, before the day gets going. Find a quiet, comfortable spot. You can sit or lie down, whichever lets your body settle in best.
Take one deep breath in, counting to five. And one long breath out, counting to five.
Now just rest and become aware of your thoughts. Watch them the way an owl watches someone walking by on a trail below.
You'll get pulled into one of them, caught up in some plan or memory or worry. That's perfectly normal. When you catch it, say to yourself, I notice I'm having this thought, and let it drift on past.
If it helps, you can bring in a visualization, each thought a leaf floating down the stream. Or you can add body movement. Lift a hand in front of you and gently brush the thoughts along as they come, the way a painter moves a brush across a canvas. Whatever works best for you.
When the five minutes are up, with your mind a little clearer, decide one thing you’ll do today to keep the energy you built up. Maybe it's a walk outside and some time in nature. Maybe it's making your favorite healthy meal. It doesn't matter what it is. What matters is that it's yours, and that it keeps your cup a little fuller, for a little longer.
"We take it for granted, the powers we all have."
— Dan Millman
We revere the masters for their superhuman feats. The healer who can locate disease in the body with touch, the monk who sits in the snow and stays warm, the martial artist who can resist being punctured by sharp objects. I spent years interviewing energy masters around the world, and I’ve seen remarkable things. As superhuman as those feats look, the people doing them are human.
Just like you.
But superheroes are all around us, especially on the big screen. Superman, Superwoman, Peter Pan; all of them with powers we could only dream of.
In my conversation with Dan, he shared a question he likes to ask his students. If you woke up tomorrow and could fly like Peter Pan or Superwoman, what would you feel like the moment you took to the air? They said things like ecstatic, excited, enthusiastic, happy, liberated.
That made me think about how my own Qi Gong students talk after practice. They may not always be ecstatic, but I've seen plenty of them come away enthusiastic and genuinely happy after a simple routine. And why is that? Because they accessed superpowers they didn't even realize they had.
We might think of ourselves as ordinary, and look at ourselves that way in the mirror. But the powers of the body, the ones you use every moment of every day, are anything but ordinary. You can feel, smell, taste, hear. You can breathe. Sit with that for a second.
Really sit with it.
Think about how amazing it is that you're here on this earth, in this body, getting to experience this life, getting to take a breath. Our existence is a miracle and so many things had to go right for us to be here right now.
One of the ways I like to remember my own innate superpowers, and invite my students to remember theirs, is through gratitude; just the appreciation of this moment, in this body, in my community.
So I hope you remember today that you are every bit as superpowered (if that’s a word) as anyone else, even the energy masters. Enjoy a smell, enjoy a breath, enjoy it all. These are the powers that make us who we are, and the best part is, we've already got them.
This is a simple Qi Gong practice to help you feel your own inner power. It’s also a great one to show friends so they can feel their powers. That power is always there, and you can access it any time. Think of this as a small reminder of what you already carry.
Seated or standing, let your spine be relaxed but relatively straight.
Bring your hands together and rub them gently, the way you'd warm them by a campfire. Keep going for about fifteen seconds.
Now draw your hands apart, as if you were holding a board between them. Don't let them touch, but don't take them far; no more than three inches.
With normal, easy breathing, pay attention to the space between your hands. You may not feel anything at first, but most people notice a warm, tingling sensation after a moment. Keep holding it there.
You can do this as much as you like. It's wonderful for activating Qi in your hands, and it's a simple reminder that we are more powerful than we might think.
"There are no ordinary moments."
— Dan Millman
The #1 thing I hear my students say is it's hard to find time to practice. I imagine them looking at their calendar and thinking, "There's no way I can fit an hour in today. I have so much going on." Or they finish a long day and say, "Oh shoot, I missed practice! I'll get to it tomorrow."
I understand because the last thing you want is to miss practice.
But there's a story Dan Millman shares in his book, The Way of the Peaceful Warrior that offers a solution.
Dan is speaking with his mentor, Socrates.
Socrates says to him, "Dan, the difference between you and me is you practice gymnastics. I practice everything."
Socrates practiced walking, breathing, and standing, all with the same focus Dan brought to the gymnastics floor.
Once you release the idea that you have to commit to a long practice session, you see that practice is simply the attention and intention you bring to each moment. According to Dan, moments are an opportunity to refine your skill and the depth of your awareness in whatever you’re doing.
The instant you bring your full attention to a moment, it stops being ordinary. Even doing the dishes can become extraordinary; like bringing your attention to the water as it glides over your hands, or noticing the slow, flowing movement of your arm as you place the dishes in the dishwasher.
And here's what that means for your practice: If no moment is ordinary, then a moment is all you need. Thirty seconds of Qi Gong, done with real presence, is a complete practice on its own. That intention is what makes the moment exalted, and that single movement or breath can be enough.
So let go of the stress and anxiety of having to squeeze practice in, and just start, with five seconds, thirty seconds, a minute, five minutes. Take your practice one moment at a time, because the extraordinary moment is already here, waiting for you right now.
This practice is called “Open the Flow.” It’s one of my favorite practices to teach students to quickly drop into the present moment.
To begin, stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart and let your hands rest by your sides. Take a few deep breaths and try to release any tension or tightness.
Bring your arms up slowly in front of you until your hands are level with your chest. Then, bring your arms down slowly until they're down at your belly.
Let your arms move in a flowing, wave-like motion, and synchronize your breath with your movements. If you’d like a visualization to help you, imagine the energy in your body melting from ice to water, and from water to steam.
To finish, bring your hands down to your sides. Breathe at your normal pace, and extend the moment. You have nowhere else to be, just here.
Notice this as a complete practice. If this was what you could do for the day, it was enough.
"We're here to not just get in touch with our higher self, but to become a higher self."
— Dan Millman
Most people seek spiritual connection in a handful of special moments: the meditation session, the yoga retreat, the weekend in nature. Those moments are real and they matter; I’ve spent a lifetime guiding people towards them. Dan Millman takes it a level deeper.
As Dan says, we are here to become a higher self, not just get in touch with it on occasion.
But what does it mean to become your higher self?
It’s not a lofty or mystical idea. In fact, it may be the most grounded lesson Dan teaches. He shares that you reach your higher self through small choices, repeated over and over, until it stops feeling like effort and becomes part of who you are. That’s what training is, and Dan, who spent his early life as a champion athlete, understands training better than almost anyone.
He describes the awareness of the self as energy that moves through the body. It begins down low, based on survival, then rises into power and control, and if you stay with your training, reaches the heart.
Becoming a higher self, then, invites us into that heart space. We can cultivate that energy through intentional acts of kindness. You can catch negative thought loops before they make you anxious, call a friend instead of scrolling, volunteer in your area, or forgive someone who you might not have yesterday.
And of course there’s Qi Gong. The slow movements, the breath, the stillness at the end of each session, all of it teaches the nervous system a steadier baseline, so the heart-centered response is the only choice.
Dan reminds us that gradual self-improvement and service are the key to becoming the higher self.
Train in compassion and kindness to others, and you reach your higher self naturally.
Stand comfortably with a slight bend in the knees, feet pointing straight ahead.
Inhale and let the arms float up. Exhale and let them come back down. Repeat that two more times.
Now inhale and bring the hands together in front of your heart, as if you were holding a diamond between your palms. This is the Diamond Flow, a practice from the Buddhist tradition for cultivating loving kindness and sending it out into the world.
On your next inhale, bring your hands above your head, connecting upward to the universe. On the exhale, bring your arms down in front of your chest, then down to your waist to connect down to the earth. Bring your hands back into the diamond formation again.
Let heaven and earth meet here in your heart, gently push your hands outward, sending positive energy out to others.
Drop the hands and begin again. Repeat that four times.
If someone you love is going through a hard time, hold them in your mind as you send energy outward. Picture a golden light pouring into them, helping them feel loved. It could also be a group, a place, the earth itself. Whatever calls to you, send a little more healing its way.
Then inhale one last time and bring the palms into prayer at your heart. Hold there for a few slow breaths. Keeping the keels of your palms together, open your fingers like a flower blossoming into your chest and receive. Open yourself to the loving kindness coming back to you.
Slowly bring the fingers back together, feel the warmth in your heart, and let the arms come down.
This page will keep growing until our live workshop on August 23. Each new newsletter in the series will be added here as we send it, so consider this a home you can keep coming back to. Bookmark it, check in whenever you like, and know there's more on the way.
If these conversations stir something in you, here's your chance to go beyond reading and actually practice it. On Saturday, August 23 at 1pm Pacific, Dan and I are coming together live for a workshop, Peaceful Heart Qi Gong, where we take these ideas off the page and put them into the body. Dan will share the heart of the peaceful warrior's path, how to meet the moment and show up when it's hard, and I'll help you feel it in your own breath and movement so it becomes something you can carry with you. Peace is something you train, not something you wait to feel, and this is where we train it together. We'd love to have you in the room. [Reserve your spot here.]
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