I understand that when we breathe in the energy of the universe we are supposed to breath out the stagnant or bad energy by visualizing it as smoke. But is it okay or even effective to visualize it as something else?

This probably sounds pretty weird and artsy fartsy, but it's easier for me to visualize the stagnant energy or excess energy, turning into colorful butterflies that leave my body and travel to the ends of the universe. No trying to invent anything new here, it's just that one of my hobbies is photographing butterflies, and the colorful imagery comes more easily to me by far than smoke. Well, if it's a bad idea I'll stick with the program.

All replies are welcome and appreciated.

Hi JayK, I just started practicing SFQ recently and also had a very hard time visualizing energy leaving as smoke. I think it's because I see smoke as stagnant, and it took a lot of energy to visualize it going to the end of the universe (as Chunyi says), and sometimes serves as a distraction during practice. Then I ordered the Butterfly meditation recently, and...WOW. I have to admit with the butterfly theme I was expecting something very light, but the effects have been very powerful - in particular, my body twitches after the meditation and I can feel my channels open, in a way I can only compare with an acupuncture treatment but on a deeper level. So for me visualizing excess energy as transforming to butterflies flying away from the body is not only much easier, but more effective than smoke. And, I believe Chunyi absolutely supports replacing smoke with butterflies (or whatever works best for you) during practice.