starting september with mad Qi.

I extended my weekend by a day, planning to take a little time to simply exhale. The start of the school year is busy, even in the older grades, and this year's last firsts added to energy. My day quickly became filled with projects, and I had to remind myself to breathe. I headed to a late afternoon acupuncture appointment, constructing yet another list in my head of things that must be done. As I settled in, Julie (my acupuncturist) took my pulse & asked me how I was doing. I detailed the middle-of-the-night back pain that has spiked over the past few days, and explained that I just feel like there's a lot going on. She laughed quietly and said "Yep, you've got some pretty mad Qi." 

When I texted that quote to my brother later (b/c that's precisely the sort of thing that I know will make him laugh), I explained that in this case, "mad" is not good (it's not as if Julie said "Girl! You've got mad Qi!"). By the end of the treatment, my Qi had apparently settled down, but was still a bit on edge. 

I have this feeling that "mad Qi" may be a theme for September. 

I happened across the Big Goals PDF that I created last October. As I scanned the "one year" list of personal, health, work, and home goals, I realized that I've only checked off ONE thing. There's still a possibility that I'll accomplish one or two more by the end of this month….but "date a successful, incredibly handsome guy" seems like a stretch, and "lose an additional 15lbs" would take some unhealthy effort.

September is a month of re-evaluating (it's the new January, y'know), resetting expectations, and rethinking what life is going to look like over the coming 6 months. I'm disappointed that I haven't made more progress, and discouraged that Forward feels a lot like stuck. 

So, my singular goal for September is really to pay attention to that mad Qi, and find ways to clear space, to calm, and to center. 

P.S. Let me save you the google search – in Chinese medicine, Qi (chi) is your life force/energy.