Have you ever heard the story of stone soup? It is one that has stuck clearly in my memory from hearing it as a child.
The Story of Stone Soup
The story goes that there was a traveller walking through the countryside who became hungry and decided it was time to rest for the night. So the traveller approached a large house in the area and spoke to the owner – telling them that they had a special stone that made the most amazing soup with the best flavour they had ever tasted, and if the owner would allow them to rest there that night, they would make this soup for them.
The owner was curious, so agreed to let the traveller stay and asked what was needed so they could prepare the soup. The traveller said that all they needed was a pot, some water, and a fire to heat it up, and they would make the most amazing stone soup.
So the owner gave the traveller what they needed and let them get on with preparing the soup.
After some time, the owner came back to check how the preparation of the soup was going. The water was starting to bubble in the pot, with the stone sitting in the bottom of it. The traveller took a spoon and scooped up some of the liquid, blew on it to cool it down and then sipped on it – smacking their lips together as they tasted it. The traveller told the owner that it wasn’t quite ready yet, and that it could probably use some salt to accentuate the delicate flavour.
So the owner went away and got some salt and brought it back for the traveller to add to the soup, and then left them to the preparation.
As the owner went out about their activities, they bumped into their neighbour and told them how they had this traveller staying with them and he was making the most amazing stone soup, and that it would probably be ready soon. So they both went to check on the traveller and the preparations.
Again the traveller scooped up some of the liquid from the pot, blew on it to cool it down, and then tasted it. And this time the traveller said it still wasn’t quite ready, and it could probably use a few herbs and maybe an onion to bring out the flavour of the stone more fully.
And so this process continued, each time the owner would come back with more of their neighbours, and each time the traveller would send them away to get more ingredients. Some vegetables, and even a whole chicken… Eventually the whole neighbourhood was involved, and they all got to share in what was actually a pretty great soup which they were all very happy with. And in the end, after a good nights rest the traveller packed their stone away and carried on with their journey.
Lessons from Stone Soup
There are a number of lessons we can draw from the story of stone soup, and one of the biggest ones is that there is so much potential for wonderful good things all around us (like all the ingredients for an amazing soup) but sometimes it takes a catalyst to bring them all together and realize that potential. Each of the neighbours had different ingredients in their possession that were sitting there unused, and it was only when the traveller with their stone arrive on the scene that all of these ingredients were brought out and their combined potential achieved.
Now of course in this story, it is possible that the stone actually did contribute something extra to the flavour of the soup, but more likely it was just the thing that created a focal point to bring all of the other good things together.
I think we can consciously use this power of a catalyst effectively to bring good things into our own lives as well. And much like the stone – it would be great if the catalyst we choose has some inherently positive effects for us, but at the same time it probably doesn’t really matter too much either, as simply having this catalyst can act as a way to bring in other good things that will be beneficial to us.
In this modern age, many of us know a wide variety of things that would be ‘good’ for us and that could be very beneficial for us, but we are so busy it can seem impossible to fit them in. So if instead of trying to fit all of these things in – and possibly inducing even more stress for ourselves because we feel like we aren’t doing enough, we choose on simple thing that is good for us and commit to do it every day, this can lead to a cascading flow of positive effects.
When we consciously choose to do something small that is good for us – and again, it really could be anything. It could be writing in a journal, or eating or drinking something for our health, or doing a single breathing exercise or single qigong movement for just a couple of minutes. That choice, and that moment of directing your attention inwards allows your energy to flow towards self-care (where our attention goes our energy flows). From that moment of self-caring energy flow it is likely that we will often feel inclined to do some other simple things to take care of our wellbeing, and somehow find the time to fit them in.
As we notice and take care of our own needs, our own health and wellbeing more effectively, we then also have more energy to share with others to inspire and support them as well. From making a simple small choice to do something good for ourselves, the positive benefit can flow out and effect our whole community with little expanding ripples.
What will your stone be?
As mentioned your stone for your soup of self-care could be anything, but it probably won’t surprise you to know that I think qigong practices can fill this role particularly well.
They have a number of advantages that make them a good choice. You don’t need any particular equipment or anything like that to do them. They use just your own mind, body, and breath, which you have with you all the time. Many of the simpler ones can be done absolutely anywhere, wearing whatever clothes you are wearing at the time, and they only take a few minutes to do – so you can fit them into your day easily.
In addition to this, the very nature of qigong practices is that they help us to turn our awareness inwards very effectively as we tune into subtle sensations of movement and energy within us, and can act as rich tool for self awareness and care.
If you would like some ideas of qigong practices you could use as your stone – here are a few:
Wave breathing is a simple breathing practice that activates all of our primary breathing muscles and gets them moving freely. It massages all of our internal organs and the nerves emanating from our spine, and activates and smooths the cycling of yin and yang energies within us. That’s a lot for a breathing exercise which only takes a few minutes to do once you have learned it!
Lift Up, Pour Down is another simple qigong practice which can be done to great effect in just a few minutes. It is down using a simple physical movement which guides a subtle wave of pressure up and down through our whole body, loosening tensions to clear stagnancy and encouraging our energy to flow freely from the tips of our fingers to the tips of our toes!
If you want a slightly larger stone (still not too big though), Five Waves Qigong is a sequence of simple wavelike movements that can easily be done in about five minutes or so once you know it. Each of the simple movements regulates the character of one of the five elements (Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, and Metal) within our energy. As well as simply encouraging our energy to flow freely, this can also help us to process, regulate, and balance each of our emotions that relate to the five elements.
You can find instructions of how to do Wave breathing and Lift Up, Pour Down in the free Introduction to Qigong Theory and Practice Course here, and a free video of the Five Waves Qigong practice which you can follow on and learn from here (along with several other free qigong videos that you might find interesting).
If you do just one simple qigong practice regularly, it will bring you many positive benefits just by itself. I think you will find that it also leads to you bringing other good things into your life as well – a more positive outlook, a natural desire to eat better food, other positive activities, and probably at some point a desire to do more qigong as well. At that point you might like to also check out our live streaming qigong classes here and maybe even some of our very comprehensive qigong courses which you can find here.
Yours in qi!
John Munro
Long White Cloud Qigong