In Ki Aikido one of our principles is to “Extend Ki” or what might also be called “extending your mind”. I once heard another teacher say “shine like a lightbulb” to describe this state.
What does this mean?
One definition suggests:
“Extend Ki” refers to the practice of extending one’s energy and consciousness beyond the physical body in Aikido. It involves using the power of the mind and spirit to generate a unified and harmonious energy field to influence and connect with others, and to achieve a state of relaxed awareness and connection with the environment. This is seen as a key aspect of Aikido’s philosophy and training, and helps practitioners to develop physical, mental, and spiritual skills.”
Another definition comes form the Houston Ki Aikido website:
“Tohei Sensei speaks about connecting to the Ki of the universe. This means to let go of the conflict we perceive in the relative world around us and in us and becoming aware of the infinite stillness of the absolute world where there is no other. With a calmer open mind, we begin to truly relax allowing the Ki of the Universe to flow through us. We are extending Ki.
Extending Ki is a natural state that we knew intuitively as babies, but as we have grown up in the hectic modern society of today we have forgotten how to let the Ki of the Universe flow through us.”
There are many definitions of this type that are very wordy, spiriual and philosophical. Some Aikido teachers are prone to giving long extended lectures on these concepts. Many become very hard to understand. It does not need to be some complicated.
In my own understanding, “extend ki” refers to having a positive attitude towards our life. When we are confronted with problems, challenges and difficult situations if we allow these things to make us become negative and retreat into ourselves then we are not extending ki. Instead we should aim to extending forward confidently.
We can practise this feeling by imagining that our awareness extends out from us in all directions. You can imagine it extending to embrace your whole house, then your neighbourhood, your entire city…the whole world!
In our Aikido practise, it means that when we face an attack we do not allow the fear of the attack to make us retreat backwards or inside ourselves and instead keep our mind focused outwards towards our partner in order to create a better resolution to the attack.
When we think small, we are overwhelmed by the small details and problems of everyday life. We become more relaxed and positive when we instead focus our mind out the world and imagine our ki extending out infinitely in all directions.
To give a practical example, I used to always feel uncomfortable when walking into a room or onto a bus with people I did not know. I began a habit of always consciously extending ki whenever I walk into these new situations. This has made a huge difference for me and I enjoying doing this all the time.
If you have not made it along to the class yet and would like a bit more information about the class before you come along, feel free to book a time to speak with me by phone. This is not a requirement for attending class but it is optional.
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