Your 3 Healing Energies

• A Classical Chinese Medicine Interpretation •

by Helene Anne Fortin

I am lying on the sidewalk in the dark. It’s bitter cold as we just experienced a “flash freeze.” 

The temperature plummeted in the last hour, and I’ve slipped on black ice in my quiet Wakefield (Canada) artists’ village. I am unseen in my black coat on this unlit part of the street. Unable to move, my body is trying to catch its breath. 

I’ve always found that if I understand what’s happening inside my body I panic less. In fact, throughout this fall and recovery I felt very safe.

I have learned (after years of mistrusting myself and easily handing over my healing to others) that my body and its reactions are always my best and wisest friend. Today I listen to its wisdom much more carefully.

In my Classical Chinese Medicine (C.C.M.) work I have learned that there are three levels of healing that guide us to well-being. Wei Qi’s healing energy is always the first to react. It is like command central giving instructions to all parts of my 79-year-old body.

As I am lying on the sidewalk this first defender immediately delivers fluids and blood to the area of my cracked rib helping to immobilize it. Second: Wei Qi sends me into shock. I can’t feel the pain.

Breath returns and eventually an artist’s friend, Drew, comes along and with the gentlest of hands lifts me off the sidewalk. He does not let go of me. His careful arm taking me to my destination. Notice the element of safety here. Because of my knowledge of C.C.M. and what was going on in my body I felt a deep calm throughout (and I was also in shock!).

“Wei Qi is your automatic defensive qi that moves instantly into an area to help/protect/start repairs. It immediately mobilizes whatever tools my body has at its disposal to the damaged rib and surrounding muscles/tendons.”

It is not until I come out of shock, I realize that I can’t bend over to take off my shoes. Nor remove my coat. Even though my mind has other ideas, I am being commanded to be still. All I want to do is sleep. Which I do for two days. Slowly my body heals.

I love to tell stories so that you can understand more deeply the wisdom that lies within. So that you can start to feel safer when something happens. But remember Western medical attention might also be required. So do follow through there.

Wei Qi (the first of the 3 healing energies) is your auto-immune, moving, warming, defensive Qi. It acts unconsciously in a blink of an eye. 

An example of Wei Qi at work is if you pick up something scalding and your hand opens to drop it. That’s Wei Qi. Movement without thought or pre-planning trying to protect you. It gets activated in so many ways. You sprain your ankle. Wei Qi zooms to that area.

Or you enter a country or household where there is strife. Wei Qi is activated. For example, I have a friend who recently returned from Europe to her home country. She got off the plane and instantly felt unsafe in her homeland questioning why she was living there. Within minutes, her body developed a 3-day migraine.

Wei Qi is purposely stopping her body, allowing her to transition back into place. Another client had a bad dream about her ex. She awoke with heart pounding. It took a while to realize that she was now in a safe place: actually, in her new home and he was long gone. Wei Qi quietens. Or you catch a simple cold, and Wei Qi actively attempts to protect you from external pathogens.

But Wei Qi is so much more. It moves all the smooth muscles of the body: the heart, the large intestines, the liver, the bladder, the spleen (which creates and transports the blood), the digestive tract, the uterus/reproductive organs, etc. Note: Often there is pain where Wei Qi is at play.

“A note here about safety. If I don’t feel safe, Wei Qi goes into hyper-vigilance usually hurtling my nervous system into fight or flight.

In my work with clients with chronic pain or auto-immune issues I see how Wei Qi is constantly at play. My job is to help my clients learn a different way to think about their issues allowing healing/evolution to happen. Relaxing the hyper-vigilance modes of thought and action are key to recovery as is allowing a sense of safety and hope to return to these exhausted souls.

Feeling safe is key to living a full life. Not easy with all the stimulus and fear that exist all around.

How can we create within a safe haven so that our roots are not shaken (nor stirred) by outside events? Opening up energy channels to reduce the impact of yesterday’s family patterns or today’s political ones are part of the work I do with clients.

How is Wei Qi created in your body? How to ensure that this auto-immune function works at peak efficiency?

In my work in C.C.M., I have been taught that all post-natal (created after birth) energies owe their origin to the power and strength of the digestive system. Your wonderful lungs are also part of the Wei Qi team. Functioning well, the lungs move Wei Qi energy. Hence the need for good breath. To simplify = great Wei Qi is created by a healthy energy of the stomach, spleen and lungs AND calm emotions. But, of course, healing is so much more. A balanced life, plenty of rest and play and lots of hydration and hydrating foods are key to thriving.

In this article I am focussing on the first of the three energies: Wei Qi but the other two (Ying Qi and Yuan Qi) are equally powerful and an essential part of our body’s healing self. I will write more about them in a future article.

Collectively, the three healing energies are like a tapestry. Woven together they form you. This energetic blanket, complex and beautiful, is the symphony of your body. Care for it as you would a fine instrument.

Let’s face it, stuff happens as we live our lives. Wei Qi gets excited (& activated) for 1000s of reasons: we connect to toxins like mold (and our sensory orifices start to flow – trying to get rid of the pathogen); we eat foods that our body can no longer digest and inflammation results; we forget to eat enough hydrating foods and our body becomes dehydrated and tremors start to appear; we are in a relationship that feels unsafe or a country that feels that way, Wei Qi naturally gets involved.

Know that your body always wants to protect you. Whatever happens. Whatever the diagnosis is. I think it is untangling its messages and creating more safety sanctuaries within that we need to be focussed on to heal. Healing pain and illness then becomes the catalyst for us to change and grow. Is that not the foundation for all healing and for our survival and our evolution as a species and personally.

So how do you create your safety sanctuary within? Creativity is one of mine. Gaining knowledge and understanding that Classical Chinese Medicine provides is another.  Seek out yours. Spend more time there (in person or in your imagination.) These are places where you belong, where you can become whole. Note: I am always here to help.

With love from Wakefield Quebec Canada.

Helene Anne Fortin

June 2026