What is Qi?

We breathe slowly, slower than usual. After awhile, we feel warm. From time to time, we feel something flows in our body. We call it Qi, or air. What is Qi?

When we breathe slower than normal, we breathe in less oxygen than normal. Oxygen level in our body declines. To compensate low oxygen level, our heart works extra hard. It pumps more blood out with greater force. The whole body works harder to deliver oxygen. Hard work releases more heat. We feel warm. Body tissues relax to ease the flow of blood. We feel the flow in our body. I guess part of Qi is the increased flow of blood.

Some people might argue that the sensation is quite novel. But we don’t normally feel blood flow, although it flows all the time. Think about pressure on our skin. Air around us exerts tremendous pressure on our skin. But we don’t feel a thing. We don’t feel a thing because the constant air pressure doesn’t trigger any sensational system in our body. But if we touch our skin gently with our hand, we feel it immediately. We feel it because the extra pressure triggers our sensational system. Whether or not we feel something depends on whether or not our sensational system is triggered.

Our body might not feel anything about our blood flow at its normal rate. But if there is a change, even a small change, our sensational system may register. In Chinese medicine, this sensation is called Qi. There could be more than blood flow in Qi.

When our frigid fingers and toes warm up, we feel good about it. We think Qi exercises improve our health. This is probably true.

Qi is 氣 in Chinese. It means air.