Spring Qi Chats | Week 11
Perception + Plasticity
How your brain interprets the world around you influences your balance, movement, pain, confidence, and even how you experience aging itself.
Where the mind goes, Qi follows…
Spring is the season of the Hun, the aspect of spirit connected to imagination, direction, and our ability to envision a future.
The Hun is associated with the Liver and the Wood element, making it especially relevant during the Spring season. While the Po (associated with the Lungs) keeps us connected to the physical body, instinct, and survival, the Hun is what allows us to grow beyond the present moment. It is the part of us connected to vision, imagination, creativity, direction, and the ability to dream about the future.
The Hun helps you imagine possibilities, make plans, adapt to change, & feel inspired to move forward in life.
This is why Spring Qi is so connected to motivation and movement. Nature itself is expressing the Hun. Seeds break through soil. Trees stretch toward sunlight. Life begins moving outward again after the stillness of Winter.
When Liver Qi flows smoothly, the Hun feels settled and expressed. People often describe this as:
feeling motivated
emotionally flexible
creative
hopeful
clear in direction
But when Liver Qi stagnates, the Hun can feel trapped. Instead of healthy expansion, you may experience:
frustration
irritability
indecision
feeling emotionally “stuck”
restlessness without direction
In modern language, we might say the nervous system has lost adaptability. The person still wants to move forward, but the system no longer feels capable of smooth transition or change.
The phrase “where the mind goes, Qi follows” reminds us that attention shapes experience. What we repeatedly focus on influences how we think, move, and respond to life. From a neurological perspective, this matters deeply because the brain is always adapting to what we practice. Attention, imagination, and exploration all influence neuroplasticity. When we engage with new ideas, new movements, and new possibilities, the brain forms richer connections and stays more adaptable. Creativity itself becomes a form of training. It keeps the mind responsive rather than rigid.
TRAIN THE HUN
As we age, it becomes easy to fall into familiar patterns. We move the same way, think the same way, and approach life through the lens of what feels predictable. Over time, this narrows both movement and mindset. Spring Qi asks us to interrupt that pattern. It encourages exploration. It reminds us that adaptability is one of the most important qualities we can preserve as we move toward Summer and the more outward, expressive energy that season brings.
This is one reason movement practices matter so deeply in Chinese medicine. Qigong, walking, stretching, breathwork, and expressive movement are not simply exercises for the body. They help the Hun move. They help restore the feeling that life can continue unfolding rather than becoming rigid or stagnant.
From a Bamboo Bodies perspective, the Hun is deeply connected to how we age. Aging well requires more than preserving muscle mass or balance. It requires maintaining:
curiosity
adaptability
emotional flexibility
the ability to imagine a future version of yourself worth moving toward
Spring is not asking you to become someone new. It is asking you to remain willing to grow. The direction of your attention shapes the direction of your energy. And the more clearly you can envision possibility, the more capable your body becomes at following it forward.
Neuro-Qi Tip o’the day!
Get Motivated
Need a little motivation? Try cross body marching. Or do a vision exercise. (demo in video)
Need a little time? One minute a day can be more powerful than nothing at all.
*Video posts every Friday by 11:30am Mountain Time
