An Experience in Healing

In Acupuncture school, part of the program includes being in the clinic and caring for patients. This semester I am signed up for the evening Qigong clinic, so once a week after my regular work in an office, I go the night clinic to provide Qigong treatments to patients who are willing to have an acupuncture student be their caregiver.

If there are no patients, we sometimes practice Qigong treatments on each other. This week there there were not enough patients to go around, so I volunteered to be the patient because I had one doozey of a headache and no matter what I had done over the last 3 days to try and relieve the pain, it still lingered. It was becoming disabling and I rated it about an 8 on the pain scale (migraines I usually rate as a 10).

My fellow student, who is also a fellow nurse, led me into her treatment room. I laid down on my back, closed my eyes, and she then started the Qigong treatment.  She followed the usual protocol but then seemed to stay at my head, focusing and directing energy into my head.  I could feel her hands on my head with her hands spread across my scalp on specific energy points on my head. I started to feel the energy change in my head and my throat and could actual feel the Qi moving.

She stayed in this position at my head for a long, long time, and then moved to my feet. At my feet she began to touch the pressure points on my feet that are associated with the head.  I knew these were the points our instructor had directed her to focus her attention on and direct energy into those points.  But with this awareness, I came to realize it felt as if there was someone still at my head and directing energy there. I could feel their fingers on my head and I continued to sense the healing energy being directed into my head from someone perched there.

I thought we were alone in the room, so I opened my eyes to see who was now at my perched and continually to hold my head. There wasn't anyone there, but I continued to feel that same pressure being applied to 10 different points surrounding my skull. I closed my eyes again and just assumed this was additional unseen help being provided for this healing.

My fellow student finished the treatment and I told her my headache was now a "2". I then shared my experience of feeling the treatment on my head continue, as if someone was there. She related how she felt like she should have stayed at my head as if this is what my body needed, but she knew she had to follow the protocol of the instructor so changed and started working on my feet.

We discussed how part of using and directing energy to heal is being sensitive to listen to what the patient’s body needs and is trying to communicate to the practitioner. Listening to those messages is an art of the healing process. The better practitioners learn to listen to those communications and act on those impressions. A big part of Qigong is learning to recognize the messages and to trust your impressions.

We both left the treatment room and by the time I walked out the door, my headache was totally gone. I was absolutely amazed.

This experience felt rather remarkable to me. It also was a great lesson on the power of healing energy. It was also a good reminder to trust impressions which can guide you to improve the healing experience for a patient.

An Experience in Healing

Metal Becomes Water

In Chinese Medicine, one of the foundations is understanding the 5 Elements Theory. The 5 elements include Fire, Water, Wood, Earth, and Metal. The 5 elements can be places in a cycle to help understand the connection and relationship of all the relationships. It is this relationship that is used to help a practitioner translate how the organs relate to each other in the human body.

One of the relationships is called the “Generating Cycle” and it connects the five elements together in a circle. In this model,

• Wood is the fuel of Fire
• Fire creates ashes that become Earth
• Earth yields metal ore
• From the refinement of metal (water boiling) we get steam
• Water becomes wood which grows

Each of these are easy to understand except how metal becomes water. Every student struggles with this one.   How does metal become water????

At a workshop, Dr. Suzanne Friendman explained the history of where this concept originated:

“In ancient days, water was thought to come from metal. Now days we know this is not true, but long ago people would see condensation forming on their swords or metal cups and believe that water could come from metal”.

Ah hah!

It wasn’t until after she explained the roots of how this concept originated that it made sense to me how metal fit into this generating cycle; condensation appearing on metal.

Metal Becomes Water

Healing and the Mind - The Mystery of Qi (Chi)

A friend sent me this information about a visit Bill Moyers took to China where he was exposed to Chinese Medicine.


Amazing video of a Qigong Master using Qi.

Healing and the Mind - The Mystery of Qi (Chi)

Protecting Your Personal Energy when Interacting with Draining People or Situations

I went to a Qigong workshop and learned a nifty trick I wish I knew when I first became a nurse.  I, along with many nurses, ended getting burned out and ended up leaving the profession.  I was at my limit in how much caring and giving I could do.  I had no more energy left so switched careers.

I was not aware there were ways to safeguard your own personal energy and keep others from sucking you dry.  But in the Qigong training, protecting your own energy is considered step number uno.  Qigong caregivers learn how to protect themselves before they interact with patients.

Here is a modified version of the exercise we learned to keep our own energy safe and secure.  It iss called the “Column of Light” preparation exercise.

Column of Light
1. Stand with the left and right pinkies touching and the left and right thumbs touching.  The hands are held in front of the lower abdomen.
2. Energetically sink and root your energy into the earth.  Visualize yourself sinking into the earth’s core as all stress melts out of the body deep into the earth.
3. Once you are rooted, visualize a column of energy or light coming up from the earth and surrounding you completely.
4. While surrounded by the column, see yourself growing so tall that your head reaches the stars and the column of light that surrounds you ascends and connects to the heavens above.
5. Sink your focus back down and root your energy into your abdomen.  At this point you are surrounded by a column of dense energy (or Qi) that strengthens you and acts as a boundary between the earth and heaven to prevent the patient’s energy (or Qi) from invading your own tissues.
6. Next, expand the column of light around you as if it were a bubble around you.  This bubble will be your portable protection as you interact with patients or those who may be drains on your energy.  You are now secure in a bubble of protective energy.

You may release the bubble of energy by taking some deep focused releasing breaths and / or brushing your shoulders and abdomen with your hands and visualizing the stuff you may have picked up from day, along with the bubble, being released and cleaned along with returning and being reabsorbed by the earth.

Or the process can be automatically relaxed and the energy released with sleep (unless you visualize the continuation of the bubble while you sleep).

You can do this little visualization each day as well as several times through the day as needed.  In fact for Qigong, the recommendation is to do this exercise before each and every patient (along with some visualization for the treatment room).

What is so cool about this process is how you can also use it for every day interactions, too. For example,  I tried this exercise the other day prior to going to one of my dreaded meetings at work, so before going to the office I did this column of light visualization.  When I got home later that day, I was surprised how much energy I had and how I wasn't drained.  This exercise worked even for my everyday office interactions.

You may want to also try it for yourself and see if it changes how you feel that day.  If you feel better, try making it part of your daily routine and see if things start to improve even more..

(Special thanks to Dr. Suzanne Friedman who taught this visualization exercise to our class).

Protecting Your Personal Energy when Interacting with Draining People or Situations

The Human Body is Microcosm of the Universe

Chinese Medicine views the human body as if it is a microcosm of the universe.  What is happening outside our body affects inside our body.

In Chinese Medicine, everything is connected and has a relationship to everything else.  The earth, water, wind, fire, and metal are a part of nature.  They are also a part of ourselves.  We observe the affects these elements have on each other and based on these observations, we can understand how these elements interact within ourselves.

The Human Body is Microcosm of the Universe

Food Flavors are Part of Good Health

In Chinese Medicine, food is often considered medicine.  Food is the primary means of providing us with the energy and a key source to help our bodies function correctly.

What I find rather interesting in the Chinese medicine way of thinking is that even the flavors of the foods are important in considering a prescription for good health.

There are five different flavors identified as having different purposes in maintaining and contributing to ones health.

• Sour
• Bitter
• Sweet
• Pungent
• Salty

Each of these different flavors have different functions in contributing to balancing or providing good health.

Sour flavor, for example, is an astringent and can generate liquid. You use this flavor when there is a fluid deficiency.

The bitter flavor is used for purging or reducing excess.  It is indicated for fever or when there is damp retention, like edema.

The sweet flavor is for relaxing, toning, and harmonizing.  It is used if there is a deficiency pattern and is also used to help relieve pain as well as calm the mind.

The pungent flavor helps stimulate digestion and gets things moving.  This flavor is used for phlegm as well as to stimulate Qi, get food to move, as well as help blood stagnation.

Salty flavors are used to soften and is used to help goiters, cysts, lymph nodes, and abdominal masses.

I find this aspect of food flavors being part of maintaining good health rather fascinating

Food Flavors are Part of Good Health

Possible Radiation Fallout?

Concerned about possible nuclear radiation fall out?
You can eat food high in iodine, such as:
Seaweed.
and
Shitake mushrooms
and
Fish.

All of these are high in iodine.

Possible Radiation Fallout?

Asthma, Coughing, Skin, and Hair Problems Can be from Grief

In Chinese Medicine, each major organ has an emotional component as part of the organ.  The lungs emotional component is associated with grief and sadness.  If you have unresolved sadness (such as when someone has died or if you were part of very sexual assault) your body can respond with symptoms of asthma, respiratory problems, skin problems, as well as problems with your hair.  In Chinese Medicine, all of these symptoms are associated with lung problems and one of the key reasons for this can be unresolved grief and sadness.

These symptoms are associated with Qi stagnation in the lungs.  There are ways to help you resolve the stuck Qi; acupuncture, Qigong, herbs, and diet can all help get the Qi to flow again.  Some of this you can do on your own, but you may want to see a professional to assist you if the problem is long term or chronic.

Sometimes you don’t even know why you have Qi (chee) that is stuck.  You are only aware you are having problems such as a cough that won't go away, or that you keep getting colds, or you have asthma and problems breathing.  Or you may have noticed you now have eczema, a skin rash on your body that is new and nothing seems to help it go away.  Or maybe you have noticed you are losing more hair than normal and you are leaving the bathroom with a carpet of hair on the floor after you brush your long locks.  All of these can be symptoms of “lung Qi stagnation”.

I know, because this is what I had.

For example, I had several colds, including pneumonia. I’ve also had a new rash and I noticed when I washed my hair I had more and more hair stuck in the comb rather than still on my head. I was starting to think this was part of aging, but then I took a Qigong class and discovered my symptoms were from a different cause.

After going through the various Qigong exercises in class, our instructor warned us this intense process may have allowed some unprocessed emotions to surface.  It did.

That night  I dreamed my mother was being killed and when I woke up, I knew I must have some unresolved sadness and grief surrounding my mother’s death.  My mother died shortly after I had her placed in skilled nursing facility and with her death came lots of guilt and grief.  I didn't expect this to be my issue and source of sadness affecting my lungs and stagnating my lung Qi, but there it was, staring me in the face and now I knew these problems were from this unresolved issue.

Because our bodies are designed to self heal, there are ways to use information like this to help heal.  I was now aware my symptoms were related to my grief which caused my Qi to get stuck and stagnate in my lungs.

To get the Qi to move, there are certain foods to help move the lung Qi.  There are also herbs and exercises as well as sounds to help get the Qi to move.

Foods that can help the lungs and Qi move are broccoli, citrus, pears, pork apples, and even coffee. Peppermint is also good for the lungs as well ginger.  There are also some movements and sounds that can help move the lung Qi and get it moving, including the sound of “SSS” as well as the sound of “SHH”.  These sounds are proven to open up the lungs and relieve phlegm and well as help dispel grief.

If you also have lung Qi stagnation, you may also want to try some self healing methods to get your Qi moving, too.  If your sadness and grief are long term and you have had long standing lung problems, skin, and/or hair problems, you may also want to consider seeing a professional Acupuncturist, Qigong Therapist, and/or Grief Counselor.

Chronic coughing, eczema, and hair falling out just aren't all that fun.  It also doesn't seem to go away on its own. You have to help your body heal, resolve your sadness, and get your Qi flowing back to normal.

You will be able to FEEL the difference even before you SEE the difference.  The healing can be that quick.

Asthma, Coughing, Skin, and Hair Problems Can be from Grief

Benefits of Medical Qigong

Qigong is one of the main branches in traditional Chinese medicine.  Qigong is also used in the practice of martial arts and spiritual development.  Qigong is not a religion, only a tool that uses the life force energy of the body and environment to help bring desired and focused results. As a result, Qigong is used in different disciplines.

Qi (pronounced chee) is bioelectricity.  It is also known as the life force energy of all living things.    Qigong uses this life force energy in three different types of Qigong categories:  

• Martial Qigong, the study of using the life force energy to defend, fight, and disarm your opponent. 
• Spiritual Qigong, the study using meditative internal visualization of the life force energy for spiritual for growth and development
• Medical Qigong, the study for health and healing, specifically designed for medicinal affects

Qigong is composed of three aspects to promote vitality by gently stretching and moving the body to dissolve energy flow blockages.  These components include

1. Physical exercise
2. Meditation and visualization
3. Breathing exercises

The goals of Medical Qigong practices are

• to balance and harmonize the yin (blood, body fluids, and quiescent) and the yang (metabolic functions of Qi activity) of the body.  
• to harmonize the body and mind with your environment.

According to Suzanne B Friedman, the author of “Heal Yourself with Qigong” many clinical studies have concluded that Qigong has a positive effect on various health problems, including:

• High Blood Pressure 
• Mortality and stroke
• Levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD) called anti-aging enzyme
• Sex hormone levels
• Cardiovascular functions
• Cancer
• Senility
• Bone density
• Endocrine gland function
• Asthma
• Immune function
• Cholesterol levels

Qigong is different than regular exercise.  Qigong cultivates posture, breath, and focused intention to partner with your life force energies to purge, strengthen, and regulate balances in your body.  It is simple, but also very effective.

The practice of Qigong can help you improve your health.  Often, the results can be rather remarkable and astonishing.

Benefits of Medical Qigong