The Microcosmic Orbit Qigong Meditation – To Nourish Life

There is a Qigong meditation called “The Micro-Cosmic Orbit”.  This Qigong meditation is designed to bring energy to your spiritual self and through this process, you nourish life.

This is an ancient meditation. The history of the Microcosmic orbit dates back to prehistoric times in China approximately five thousand years ago and can be found in the I-Ching.  

This meditation has you focus your efforts on guiding the Qi up or down the Governing Channel (along your back) and Conception Channel (along your front).  It is also designed to nourish certain acupuncture points along this path that are major points associated with the major organs in the body.  Because you are connecting to certain places that are acupuncture points that connect to your major organs, and you are focusing your thoughts to nourish those points, you also end up nourishing your vital organs with Qi.

PREPARATION 

• You can sit or stand in this meditation.
• You can have your eyes open or closed.
• Your hands may be relaxed at your side.

GROUND AND CONNECT WITH THE EARTH
You begin with grounding and connecting yourself to the earth.
After you feel the connection with the earth, take a deep breath so your abdomen rises.

DEEP BREATH
You can take several of these breaths to signal your mind you are beginning your meditation.

VISUALIZE MOVING OF ENERGY AROUND THE ORBIT OF YOUR BODY
Visualize energy coming from the earth into you’re the middle of your perineum (between where you pee and poop).  This is where yin convergence occurs. This point calms the spirit. (Ren 1)

Visualize this energy of the earth moving up from your perineum to right before your belly button. Pause and feel the energy nourishing your body (Ren 6).  This location helps the energy for physical and mental exhaustion, including depression.  Nourish the energy at this point and feel the energy nourishing your body, mind, and soul.

Now visualize the energy moving to your chest, pausing a moment to nourish the point between your nipples (Ren 17).  This point benefits the chest, breasts, and heart. This point helps asthma.

When you feel ready, visualize the energy now moving up to your neck, known as the “window of the sky,” your spiritual center (Ren 22)

Visualize the energy going to below your lower lip.  Pause, and visualize this energy nourishing this point (Ren 24).  Visualize the nourishing of your stomach and intestines, along with relieving pain and helping with your ability to communicate.

Next, visualize the energy going to your forehead, between your eyes (Yin Tang).  This area quiets and nourishes your spirit and your mind, as well as helps with insomnia.  

Next, visualize the energy moving up to the top of your head (Du20).  Visualize energy nourishing this area and it helping your mind, your spirit, your heart.

Visualize the energy moving to where the back of the head and neck meet (Du 15).  Visualize energy nourishing this point.  This point helps the joints and vessels and clears the spirit.

When ready, move down to the middle of the shoulders, along the spine (Du 14) and focus on sending the energy to this area of the body.  This point will help energize the heart, lungs, and the whole body. It will also help to quiet and calm, as well as nourish, the spirit.

Next, move down to the narrow of the back and nourish the area here (Du 4).  Allow the energy to nourish this point.  It will nourish the blood, channels, and also regulate qi.

Now, move down to the area between your tailbone and your anus (Du 1).  Visualize the energy balancing the energies within your body, mind, and spirit.

You have now completed one orbit around the body, nourishing the main acupuncture points that can nourish all parts of your body, mind, and spirit.

You can repeat the process for another orbit if you choose.  You can speed or slow down your visualization based on what you sense you need.

ENERGY FROM THE HEAVENS
Another option is to visualize the energy coming from the heavens into your head rather than up from the base of your body.  In this meditation, visualize the energy coming from the heavens and nourishing each of those same points but with the energy from the heavens.

REVERSE CYCLE
You can also visualize the energy in a reverse fashion from the earth or the heavens.  Notice the different results and sensations you have when you go in a different direction.

SUMMARY
This is a great meditation to use each day, especially if you have a chronic illness, including cancer.  This is also a great meditation to help you clear your mind and help you focus on resolving a problem that is troubling you.  You can often get the answer you are looking for in the meditation, or shortly after the meditation.  In addition, this meditation helps nourish your spiritual energy reserves.  So if you are looking to have spiritual experiences, this meditation is for you.

The Microcosmic Orbit Qigong Meditation – To Nourish Life

Using Qigong for Self Healing

Patients can become healed through Qigong treatments, but long-term and more permanent treatments require patients making changes in their lifestyle.  

Long-term treatments include helping patients through five stages of healing awareness that can help them develop their own medical qigong self-regulation therapy.

Dr. Suzanne Friedman, author of “Heal Yourself Through Qigong” recommends guiding patients through the following self-regulation steps: 

1. 1. The patient is taught to increase his or her awareness of the body and its current condition.
2. 2. The patient is taught to cleanse and purify the body’s energetic fields ridding the body of qi stagnation and toxic pathogenic factors.
3. 3. The patient is taught to strengthen and recharge his or her body to replenish the qi.
4. 4. The patient is taught to circulate the qi internally and externally, moving any stagnant qi and strengthening the body.
5. 5. The patient is taught to dissipate any excess qi from the body with self-massage.

If you are a Qigong instructor, I highly recommend Dr. Friedman’s book, “Medical Qigong Exercise Prescriptions.”   If you are a patient, the book “Heal Yourself Through Qigong” is a great resource to learn about Qigong exercises.

Using Qigong for Self Healing

Progress Report of the Broken Heart

A woman came for a Qigong treatment who I have treated before.  This woman had originally come feeling depressed and blue due to her husband’s death.  During her initial treatment, I could feel the presence of her husband in the room and he filled her heart with lovely valentines.  Now that she had a return visit, I was looking forward to seeing what would happen during this treatment.

During the start of her Qigong treatment, I didn’t feel the presence of her husband in the room; in fact it felt like it was going to be a normal Qigong treatment with nothing special occurring.  But then I got to point where I was replenishing the energy within her heart and at that time, I felt her husband’s presence and once again could see and feel valentines of love filling her heart. 

This time her husband’s presence was more subtle and not as pronounced as in her former visit.   The message I received in my mind was this time he didn’t need to be as pronounced because she was now accepting of his energy and his presence.

At the end of the treatment she seemed radiant.

It was fun to see how much she had improved since that first treatment.

Progress Report of the Broken Heart

My 2012 Plans

In 2011, I started going to school part-time to learn Chinese Medicine, and this year I will continue to stay on that path, but it will be a modified path.  I've decided to NOT become an acupuncturist.  Instead, I changed my focus to just doing Qigong and Energy work.

I found I have a real knack for Qigong and Energy work. I can see how it really impacts and changes people's lives.  I see such dramatic affects during and after the Qigong treatments so have decided this is where I want to keep focused.

I even set up a Qigong treatment room in my home so I can give Qigong treatments on a part-time basis to people who get referred to me.  I still work in the corporate world by day, but in the evenings and weekends, I refocus my attention to this new love I have; Qigong.

I feel pretty lucky to have found something I have a passion and talent for.  I can see how all the steps took me to this place and destination.  For me it began with an acupuncture treatment for headaches and I saw people in the room who were not physically present. Who knew that this newly opened door would lead me to this place?  

So, I will continue going to Chinese Medicine school part-time at nights to learn channels and points, but stay focused on doing what I love after work; Qigong!

My 2012 Plans

Update on the Healing of a Broken Heart

I have been giving Qigong treatments.  Sometimes I have a rather remarkable experience happen during the treatment and sometimes the patients do.  But often, some of the most memorable and amazing things happen after the treatment.

In one of my first Qigong sessions with a volunteer patient, a friend of mine brought another woman with her to get a Qigong treatment.  This woman was suffering from deep sadness, having lost her true love a year ago with a sudden heart attack.  She was having a difficult time getting over the loss of having him in her life and that feeling of love she had come to expect.

The Qigong treatment, for me, was very powerful and I could feel her husband's presence in the room. During the treatment, I could also see valentines flowing with the energy to her heart while I worked on the pain in her heart.  I wrote about this experience in a prior blog; it was very powerful to me.  But for her, she didn't feel much during the treatment, which rather amazed me and also made me kind of sad.

But I recently heard from my friend with an update of how this woman is doing.  My friend reported how this woman started to feel different the very next day!   The first change she noticed was that she no longer felt the need to sit and cry.  She also didn't feel that constant hurt in her chest and that unbearable sadness that use to be so overwhelming.  She was starting to heal.

After a few more weeks, she even started to become more excited about life. She shared with my friend how she now could feel the presence of her former spouse around her at different times.  She no longer felt alone. She even started to dream again.

My friend said this woman now considers herself to be healed, and after just that one Qigong treatment!

Pretty cool, huh?
I was so delighted to hear this update.

Update on the Healing of a Broken Heart

What are the Benefits of Qigong?

The goal of Qigong is to improve the balance and flow of energy between the body, mind, and spirit.  As the energy and flow improves, a person can start to see as well as feel changes in not only their body, but also their mind and spirit as well.

So what can a person expect to feel when they start to either do Qigong exercises or start having Qigong medical treatments? 

These are just some of the benefits and changes a person will start to feel in their life when they start to balance their energy and improve the energy flow with Qigong:

CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MIND

• Easier to come up with solutions or see things more clearly
• Become more motivated
• Have a better memory
• Easier to make decisions &/or the decisions are more sound
• Ability to control emotions
• No longer sad or depressed or afraid
• Feel more peace and harmony and balanced.  Feel an inner glow.
• Seem to have greater insights and understanding

CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS IN THE BODY

• Feel less pain or even no pain
• Mobility is improved
• Feel less stressed out
• Find it easier to breathe
• Feel energized and not as fatigued
• Experience more meaningful sex

CHANGES IN THE SPIRIT

• Feel more connected to life, nature, other people
• Feel more love, both the ability to give love and receive love 
• Experience richer and deeper meditations, dreams, as well as insights
• Seem to understand people’s motives & behaviors more clearly
• Have more spiritual experiences with what you feel as the Divine
• Feel a greater sense of personal power and strength 

I have heard these reports of changes from many of my volunteer patients.  I'm now going to start collecting more of this type of data so I can better report and quantify the outcomes and changes being experienced.

What are the Benefits of Qigong?

Learning to Feel & Experience the Subtle Energy of Qi

Qigong is about using and directing the subtle energy called Qi (chee) through focused intention.   Most of us in the Acupuncture school I attend have been raised and educated in the West so even knowing about Qi is something some of us may have never even heard about before going to Acupuncture school. 

One of the first things our instructor had us do was to partner with a fellow student, stand face to face, and with our outstretched hand, approach the other person until we felt what she described as their energy field.  At first, most of us didn’t feel anything. We then started to focus and then repeated this process over again until we did feel a change when our hand slowly approached the other person’s body.  

We could feel the change of energy as our outstretched hand slowly approached their body.  Sometimes it was a few inches from their body.  Sometimes it was several inches from their body.  Sometimes it was even a few feet from their body.

We then switched partners and repeated the process until we felt the energy field around this person’s body, and then again would switch partners. 

We did this for over an hour and by the end of this experience, we were all excited how we were starting to pick up on different people’s energy field.

In our next exercise, our instructor had us partner with someone new, stand face to face, and have one person be the “receiver” and the other person be the “sender”. The receiver would stand with their eyes closed and the receiver would stand with their hand outstretched and concentrate on a specific color, such as “red.” 

As the sender thought and visualized their chosen color, the sender then focused SENDING this color to the receiver.  The receiver would then state what color he/she was receiving.  

At first this felt like guesswork, but as we continued this process, ALL of us began being correct in what color the sender was sending.  ALL of us!

What I learned on my very first day of Qigong training was

• yes, there is an energy field around the body and you can even feel it, and
• yes, you can focus your mind to send colors and even receive the color message

For me, even on that very first day of Qigong training, I walked away totally amazed.  I am a nurse and didn't even know about people's energy fields around their body.  I had heard of auras but had discounted them as not being real because I had never seen or felt them.

But all of this changed during this very first class, especially after one of my fellow students visualized sending me a color and I said "I see pink, but that perfume or lotion on your hand is a bit overbearing!" And she said, “I don’t have any lotion on my hands nor do I even wear perfume.  I was sending you pink roses in my visualization!”

The steps our instructor took on the first day of our day-long class are things probably most people would be able to do if they took the time and effort to experience it.  Feeling a person's energy field, and then practicing sending and receiving colors is a good initial step to learn about this subtle energy we call Qi (chee). 

Learning to Feel & Experience the Subtle Energy of Qi

Emotions Can Stagnate Qi Energy Flow

I had an interesting experience while giving a Qigong treatment to a man that had a great deal of financial stress and insecurity in his life. While I worked on his third chakra (which is the one most associated with emotions) I could feel his solar plexus change temperatures quickly and dramatically, depending on his current emotional state. 

For example, when this man became anxious and started to ruminate about all of the things he was afraid of (losing his job, having no money, becoming homeless, having no shoes, getting cracked feet, etc) the temperature in his third chakra and around his solar plexus would get hotter and hotter.  When this man became calm and got control over of his fears, the temperature in his third chakra and around his solar plexus would return to normal.  

I had not felt such a dramatic and swift change of energy stagnation being created in real time.  He turned on and off his fears almost as if he was able to flip a switch. This was such an intense demonstration of how quickly behavior and thoughts impact and change the energy flow in the body. When that Qi energy flow stagnates, it creates an abundance of heat in the specific parts of the body that are most associated with that specific emotion. Fear, for example, often causes Qi energy to get stuck in the kidneys and the third chakra.  Continual fear can lead to even more chronic stagnation creating problems in the joints and bones.   

Emotions really do affect the flow of Qi in the body.  Fear, grief, sadness, worry, anger - these are all emotions that can stagnate the flow of Qi.  When Qi stagnates, it also means blood gets stagnant, too (where the Qi goes, the blood follows).  When blood stagnates, this means oxygen and nutrients aren't getting to where they need to be and when this happens, a person will at first not feel well, then may feel pain, and then may even get worse, creating disease.  

Qigong can be an affective tool to help get and keep your Qi flowing and get you back to being and feeling balanced.  Qigong can even assist a person with chronic emotional problems, but chronic emotional problems will require more than just one Qigong treatment.  It will also require multiple treatments, engaging in Qigong exercises, and learning some new behaviors.  The goal will be to help prevent that stagnation from continually being recreated by that emotion and learning how to get the body back into harmony and balance. 

Emotions Can Stagnate Qi Energy Flow

Moving Subtle Energy (Qi) Can Create Some Amazing Sensory Experiences

During my first acupuncture experience, I had a rather incredible experience.  I could “see” people in the room and felt like I was in an huge operating theater with many people looking and observing me.  I reported this to the Acupuncturist.  She quietly left the room, returned, and that sensation of being the center of attention ended. She shared how she usually asks for help before a treatment but didn't expect a crowd.  She then began my treatment.

In subsequent acupuncture treatments I have had other sensory experiences, too.  For example, after the first acupuncture needle was placed, I started to feel liquid starting to move and drip in the back of my throat.  I could feel a "drip, drip, drip" creating the need to swallow.  Since this sensation started every time the first acupuncture needle was place in my body, I started to realize this sensation was the subtle energy (Qi, Chi, Chee) starting to move and flow.  This was a physical sensation to a subtle energy experience; the placement of an acupuncture needle.

At other times during an acupuncture treatment, I would see different colors dancing and moving in my mind.  Other times, I saw images and events playing out, almost as if I were in a waking dream.  Other times I felt as if I were in a conversation with an unseen person.  There was even an episode when I saw my dead parents and grandparents, and eventually saw an old Chinese Master assisting with my treatment.

Acupuncture turned into an amazing adventure for me and I wanted to know WHY I was having these incredible experiences during a medical procedure.    

I enrolled in Chinese Medicine school and learned there are additional types of energy work available in addition to acupuncture that works on the subtle energy of the body; Qi-Gong and Tui Na.  I learned these treatments also created similar sensations and experiences, too. The sensations didn't just happen with acupuncture.

So why do these sensory experiences happen with energy work?  Why do they happen during Acupuncture, Qi-gong, or Tui Na?

What I have concluded is because energy work actually does move the subtle energy within the body.  When energy moves, it will have an affect on the physical body. Moving energy creates and causes some type of physical reaction. Remember physics?  Every action creates a reaction.  There is always a cause and an affect.  For example, subtle energy moves blood. Blood moves and engages the nerves and neurons in the body. Nerves and neurons trigger and create sensations. Sensations become interpreted by the mind and when all five senses in the body becoming engaged, well, that will create quite the physical sensation and experience.

Sometimes a person will see things, feel things, hear things, or even taste or smell things during an energy work treatment.  I have concluded that when a person has these sensations during a treatment, it is a good sign.  It means the subtle energy is moving.  It means blood is moving.  It means nerves are engaged.  It also means the person is sensitive enough to pick up and experience what is going on in and around their body.  They are tuned in.  

Energy work uses and directs subtle energy to help balance the body, mind, and spirit, and this may produce some fabulous and amazing sensations!  It is VERY cool!  

Moving Subtle Energy (Qi) Can Create Some Amazing Sensory Experiences