A Catastrophic Loss of Qi.
This was one of my favorite phrases my father used when I was a little kid.
He would come home a little despondent, his massive 6ft4 frame shoulders slumped, burdened as if he were carrying the world on his shoulders. Technically, as a diplomat, he was. But my underdeveloped brain couldn’t comprehend the scope of all that.
So I’d ask “what happened papadoodie?”
And he’d sigh, while routinely taking off his shoes by the door, and say:
“Well honey, today I’ve had a catastrophic loss of qi.”
(As I sit here typing this at the age he was then, the drama conjures deep chuckles).
Growing up with a diplomat father was like living with a superhero who occasionally lost his powers. Rightly so: how do you carry the magnitude of perilous world events and find a way to shake them off when you come home to oblivious family members? (with dry wit to turn lemons into vinegar apparently!)
We all have our version of the world we’re carrying.
Some days heavier and some more dramatic than others.
In entrepreneurship, it’s also easy to get blindsided by the unexpected things that pull us down into mental, emotional and eventually physical anguish. Despair at times. They can come out of the blue and knock down an already tired body, like Tyson’s “everyone has a plan till…” kinda punch. They are the things that put us on the brink of burnout or bailout. We can run sub-par machines for a pretty long time, especially with mental strength, but they will eventually break down.
The “catastrophic loss of qi” is like the black swan of energy management.
I’m a big proponent of regular stressing practices to reinforce anti-fragility into our systems. This allows for energy reserves to help us keep perspective and stay nimble (not stuck in a fear state of tunnel vision and hunkering down). But some times, that battery drain is so deep, personal energy practices are not enough.
A ‘catastrophic loss of qi’ needs to be met with a spirited counter measure. Something that brings us back into deep coherence. A state where we achieve autonomic stability when the flow of information between our hearts and brains is back in sync. A big enough shift that gets the heart signaling again to reinforce our electromagnetic shields (our qi bubbles!). The governing organ for that is the heart – just not our own. Making the ‘defibrillation’ technique: co-regulation. Aka. being in the company of loving, compassionate, and familiar hearts who will bring you out of incoherence or nervous system dysregulation.
I suppose that’s why my father didn’t come home fawning fine and said what he did to get a big hug from his family (um, at least, I hope we did). This is why having people who radiate coherence in your life is so very important if you work on your own or for yourself.
A sprinkle of sarcastic or sardonic humor can help too….but not too much or this cloaking technique makes it harder to access the unexpressed feelings of sadness that ultimately make us more resilient. But a sprinkle may give a bad day the spice it needs.
Definitely adopt this phrase into your vernacular and proclaim “I’ve had a catastrophic loss of qi” (rolls off the tongue don’t it?). Then go out and be with people who replenish your soul.
