Simon Cheng and Jenna discuss how Pique is modernizing the tea industry by utilizing a 1,300 year old process to extract the maximum benefits of tea leaves and funneling them into a product fit for our fast-paced lifestyle.
We spend the majority of our time walking through Simon’s incredible mindfulness practice, including his healing Qigong meditation, how we can use breath work to not only stay present and grounded but as the pathway to self-discovery, as well as how learning how to access and listen to our inner voice reveals the answers we are seeking.
Key Learnings and Highlights
- On Pu’er tea trees: “The trees are completely symbiotic with their environment — the plants, the fungus, and the insects. There is no need for human intervention. If you were to fertilize them or use pesticides it would do nothing because their roots grow so deep into the ground that they are twice the height of the trees themselves. They draw trace minerals and beneficial compounds from the earth that almost no other food source provides for us today.”
- On Qigong meditation: “…It’s similar to Pranayama, where you are channeling energy to different meridians and chakras. The difference in his approach was his first step is to focus all of the energy in your solar plexus. In that process, your entire gut and digestive system are the first to be nourished, optimized and boosted. Once you have optimized that it will make your practice much more efficient because all of the inputs to your body will have a much higher level of absorption and utilization. Everything about your digestion is optimized which leads to the second step which is the amassment of the tremendous amount of energy in your sacral chakra…Eventually there is so much that it’s like a reservoir that overflows and spills into the central meridians of your body forcing their unblocking. It’s just like water when you think about it. The reservoir overflows and it flows into the path of least resistance…The biggest river fills first and subsequently all of the streams get filled and all of the blockages along the way get removed. That’s what leads to health. A process of circulation happens where there is a major meridian down the front of your body and the back of your body. Those two channels get reconnected and it is a huge breakthrough when you are able to start circulating as opposed to just channeling.”
- On staying true to your mindfulness practice: “Time is a zero sum game and nothing can change that. We work inhuman amounts of hours. The more you practice this stuff the more you are able to access the state of cultivation, meaning the faster you are able to get into a meditative state where the circulation or accumulation of the energy starts to happen. Now, I can do it faster and faster because of the amount of the time I have been doing it. Even if I only have 10 minutes in the car or if I’m feeling weak on an airplane, I’ll literally do it the duration of the flight. Or, before a huge presentation if I need to collect myself. The ability to access that state increases dramatically and you are able to do it with more versatility over time. The second thing is a far more increased sensitivity to your body’s energies, strengths, and weaknesses. All of these things become much more apparent with the practice because you are ultimately increasing sensitivity with your internal energy. I can sense if I’m feeling run down or having weak immunity far before I was able to in the past. As result of that, if I am able to feel it, I can take action aggressively to practice more and I can avert dipping into the negative zone much more effectively. These two things have been the most important takeaways because nothing is going to give us more time. Today, I still practice five to six times a week but my definition of practice has evolved. One has to be realistic towards the limitations of time and it’s impact toward our progress.”
- On tapping your higher energy: “Along with syncing your chi to deal with microscopic things, like doing a presentation, comes clarity on a more macro level of your true potential or what your vision is. I think when you have that clarity, however you acquire it, you develop a tremendous amount of conviction in what you are doing because you know it’s true to the universe, the world around you, and ultimately yourself. When you feel the alignment of those things the feeling is invincible. It’s beyond courage.”
- On seeking answers within: “The truth is inside of us. In the same way that God is inside of us – We all have Buddha nature inside of us. It’s really a matter of whether we can see it, access it, and recognize it. I think the answers really are there. It’s a matter of cultivating ourselves…Mindfulness practices are absolutely invaluable in removing the noise and the chaos and distractions in our lives away from our process of thinking and ultimately of self discovery so we can find the answers that are literally waiting there for us.”
- On coming into and sharing our own stories: “…When you ask other people for feedback on your story you’re just going to get dilution. You’re going to get adulteration. All of the things they could possibly say to you will only bring you further from the truth because only you know what that is. It’s so refined and intangible. It requires so much finesse to tease out. It’s one of the things that can only be discovered solo. I would say that to anyone who wants to do anything. Start there. Start with that seed of inspiration and understand it. Then, grow and cultivate it yourself.”