Stay healthy during a pandemic: The understanding of Righteous Qi (Zheng Qi, protect, defend and support)

We are facing a pandemic. As of 1 April 2020, the city of Great Geelong has 43 cases tested positive for COVID-19. When facing the same viruses or pandemic, some people are affected badly whereas others do not suffer from many signs and symptoms. A healthy body system is often the reason behind. The people are affected the most b COIVD-19 are the older people over 70 years, people who have pre-existing conditions, such as asthma, heart disease, diabetes, or people’s immunity is comprised due to chemotherapies, organ transplants etc.

In Chinese medicine, disease occurrence is the result of the fight between Righteous energy, or factors (Zheng Qi) that protect and support us to heal, and Evil energy or factors (Xie  Qi) that try to invade our body and conquer us. When Righteous Qi is strong, one may be able to prevent the Evil Qi entering into the body or minimise the impact of Evil Qi. Righteous Qi is not simply equal to Immunity. The fight between Righteous Qi and Evil Qi is similar to the fight between Obi – Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader.

To ensure we are healthy, in particularly during a pandemic, it is essential we maintain strong Righteous (Zheng) Qi. Knowing the factors impacting on Zheng Qi will help us develop good strategies.

• Environmental factors: This include the weather and living environment and the contaminated living environment. So it makes perfect sense that we must stay inside, practising social distance during a pandemic.
• Emotional factors: During a pandemic and facing the possibility of being infected and uncertainty, people are fearful, anxious or even angry. Tension is building up fast. Yet those emotions bring down, but not boost up our Zheng Qi. So it is essential for each of us to maintain a calm, peaceful and harmonious status within ourselves and with others.
• Lifestyle: This includes diet, sleep routine, exercise, habit, work arrangement and sexual activities.
• Physical Injuries: Injuries due to trauma or gradually wear and tear negatively impact on the status of Zheng Qi.
• Constitution: Each of us inherits Zheng Qi from our patients at birth. This has a large impact on the level of our Zheng Qi after birth. However pre-natal contribution is not the only factor. Zheng Qi inherited from patients could be supplemented or further drained by what we choose to do in our life, as indicated in the above four factors.

We will discuss each factor and what we can do to strengthen our Righteous Qi (Zheng Qi) or defence in blogs of the coming weeks.