Does it bother you?

I’m busy learning how to be more Neutral. At first that sounds like not caring, not giving a damn. But it’s really about changing my mind about what I might at first perceive to be a problem. To give credit where it's due, I learned this notion from Kam Yuen, DC, who developed Yuen Energetics – a potent healing modality.

When you work with him, and you tell him what your problem is, the first thing he’ll ask you is: "Does it bother you?" initially I remember thinking "What a stupid question. Of COURSE it bothers me." But as he kept this up throughout our two-day training at Shaolin Temple (part of a 10 day trip to China in September, 2006) and he kept talking about being neutral, I started to grasp what he was getting at.

I am not yet always able to remember the importance of being neutral by a long shot. Still, because I teach T'ai chi, I started thinking about the metaphor. In T'ai chi, we make a yang, outward move followed by a yin, inward move. In that process more "neutral force" is created – an equal balance of yin and yang energies. Neutral force carries a higher vibration than the polarized yin and yang energies that it combines. When no longer polarized, the energy literally vibrates at a higher rate, and in that higher-vibrating energy, pain and tension dissipate. In the Tao, this is known as the Wu Chi -- the state of nothingness that exists prior to form.

When we access that neutrality we make room for spirit to guide us to a solution. We no longer need to figure out what action to take. It doesn't mean there will be no action; just that the 'figuring out' part falls away. The solution seems to surface from out of the void. And often, when it does, it just seems so obvious;

it's hard to fathom why it didn't occur to me earlier. It may be that something serendipitous occurs. Or I'm led to be “at the right place at the right time, or I just happen to read something that is timely. However things unfold as a result of coming to that neutral place, I’ve ended up working less hard at figuring out a solution.