The Ancient Art of Qigong
... Qigong ...
... (pronounced 'chee kung') is an extremely Ancient Practice ...
There are over 2000 forms of Qigong ... however, Spring Forest Qigong is probably the simplest form to learn, and yet it is among the most powerful. Due to its simplicity and its results, beginning Qigong students get to feel its effects almost immediately.
Qigong and its offspring Tai Chi are considered 'meditation in movement'. You will try to think of nothing other than healing. When meditating, one tries to empty one's mind.
If something comes into your mind during meditation, acknowledge it, push it aside, and continue to focus on your breathing, focus only on your breath.
Though you can practice Qigong anytime, the best time to do it is between 5 and 7 in the morning, or between 11 at night and 1 in the morning.
... To Begin ...
Posture
Stand with your back to the sun, feet apart the width of your shoulders. The feet should be pointed straight forward and parallel to each other. This will feel as though you are standing pigeon toed. Relax. Your knees should be slightly bent. Your arms relax at your side. The chin is held slightly back and up so that you are looking straight forward. Your tongue is touching the roof of your mouth; its tip is just behind the teeth at the point where you would form the letter "L." You stand straight, but not stiff, as though your body is a dangling chain of pearls.
Breathing
Most Qigong breathing is different from the breathing related here. Tan Tien (located [approximately] one and a half inches below your navel, and one and a half inches inside for most people) breathing in Qigong is focused to your approximate center of gravity ... As you breathe in, you breathe down and tighten the stomach.
My breathing technique is slightly different.
Qigong has many teachings. I've taken issue with some, and some have taken issue with me. However, in qigong (and in practically anything we do, if you think about it) intent is everything. Therefore, the breathing issue becomes a matter of choice.
I choose to do 'baby breaths' (deep breathing from the diapragm) because it is the same breathing technique I use in meditation and in martial arts.
Breathe through your nose taking what is referred to as 'baby breaths'. If you watch a baby when breathing, its tummy will rise with each breath, not the top of its chest or shoulders. It seems that as we get older, we begin breathing up in our chests, and so lower diaphragm breathing ceases, unless we consciously choose to deliberately breathe that way.
You will breathe in focusing that breath, aiming that breath, at your lower 'tan tien'. The lower 'tan tien' is your center; your body's main energy center, according to Chinese medicine.
It is located (approximately) one and a half inches below your navel, and one and a half inches inside for most people; the number of inches inside dependant on how much cushioning you have acquired. It is there you will focus your breathing.
When you inhale, picture the air coming in through each pore in your body. When you exhale, send that breath to the ends of the universe. It is best to practice this breathing a bit before getting started. If while doing the exercises you find yourself breathing out of the top of your chest, just take time to focus on breathing into your diaphragm. Watch your tummy expand as you breathe in, and watch your tummy contract as you breathe out.
Preparation
Breath deeply and silently through your nose. Relax. Now it is time for an affirmation. You may or may not know what an affirmation is, but a French man once initiated a change in millions of people simply by having them state each morning: "Every day in every way, I am getting better and better." That is an affirmation.
The affirmation you will say (either out loud or silently to yourself) is an affirmation of your oneness with the universe.
Where is the center of the universe? According to Albert Einstein, if you were to measure the distances all around you to the edges of the universe, and then hop in a space ship and travel at 300 times the speed of light for one year, get out and measure again, you would find that the measurements are still the same. You are always at the center of the universe.
The affirmation I was taught by my Master, Master Chunyi Lin, is: "I am in the universe. The universe is in me. I and the universe are a single entity." You may say this, or anything that says for you that you and your universe are one, such as: "I and my Creator are one," or "I and my universe are one." The point is, we confirm our oneness and open ourselves to the infinite possibilities of our fabulously perfect universe, created out of unconditional love for all things.
When you are ready, your right hand will move to your upper chest and your left will cover your lower tan tien. Neither touches your body. Your hand movements come from the elbow. You are relaxed. You are about to mix the energy from above with the energy from below.
When two rivers run together, have you ever noticed the little whirlpools created by their junction? That is what we are about to do. We are going to help create the whirlpools from the mixing of these two energies.
Your right hand will move out and down as your left hand moves in and up. You will coordinate this with your breathing. As your breathe out, your right hand moves down. As you breathe in your right hand moves up. There is no pause in the movements. The movements are one continuous flowing action. Let your right had control your breathing. Let your breathing control your right hand. Breathe deeply and slowly.
Picture the energy coming out of your chest, down your front, into your tan tien, out your lower back, up your back, and into your upper back.
If something itches while performing this exercise, do not scratch it. Focus on your healing. While maintaining the proper stance, maintaining tan tien breathing, you may talk to yourself: I am healing. I am perfect. My kidneys are healing. My liver is healing. I am completely healed.
Now, remember that question just a paragraphs back: How does the energy know to attack only the cancer? Here is the reason ... Mind Intent, or Will Power is a difficult concept for us, as Westerners, to grasp, but perhaps if we compare it to prayer, we can learn to understand mind intent.
Scientists have performedstudies concerning prayer that our . Yes, prayer has made its way into the laboratory. Apart from the feeling that the laboratory doesn't seem like a proper place for prayer, have you ever wondered how a prayer makes its way from the pray-er to the pray-ee? Studies have shown that prayer passes through the thickest objects. Studies have shown that the distance between the pray-er and the pray-ee does not lesson the effect of the prayer. Studies have shown that prayers reach their destination. Why? Perhaps it is because of this thing called Mind Intent ... Te Power of Focused Thought ...
For now, just be open to the possibility .... Acceptance will come with practice of this simple exercise.
How long should you do this exercise? My daily Qigong routine lasts fifteen minutes to half an hour. The minimum time you should spend doing the exercise (below) is five minutes, with fifteen to twenty minutes being a pretty good optimal length. However, to experience the healing reported in the study mentioned on previous pages, keep in mind that the cancer patients in the experiment did Qigong exercises two hours each day. Is two hours of your time worth the results they experienced? That is a question only you can answer.
Ending The Exercise
If you are female, your right hand, as it comes down to the tan tien, will slow and stop, hovering over the lower tan tien. The left had will continue its course and arrive to cover the right hand. Neither hand touches the other, nor do they touch your body.
Men will drop first their left hand, followed by the right hand that will cover and hover over the left hand and the tan tien.
To the Chinese, left is yin (female) and right is yang (male).
Take three deep but silent breaths and focus the energy of your hands into your tan tien. Now comes the exciting part. You are about to feel your qi.
Some of you may have already felt a tingling sensation in your hands while doing the exercise. Some may have felt warmth, or fullness. It really depends on the person. When you do this exercise again, pay attention to those feelings. There are, I'm sure, Western explanations for these feelings, but the Chinese call it simply energy.
So now, let's feel our qi: as you take in a breath extend your hands outward (keeping everything relaxed). Allow your hands and arms to flow like seaweed under water. Now, as you exhale, slowly bring your hands back together (in front of your lower 'tan tien') and feeeeeeel .......
* Note * There has been a bit of misunderstanding concerning the ending of this exercise. When you bring your hands together on your exhalation, you will keep your hands facing each other. Do not bring them closer than 6 to 8 inches apart. The idea here is to reach out and gather the qi into the space between your hands. Touching your hands together or even pointing your fingers at each other will act like letting the air out of a balloon and you'll feel nothing. Do this three times, each time reaching out to gather more qi. You will feel it, eventually.
If you feel nothing, do it again: breathe in as you expand your arms, and bring your hands together as you slowly breathe out. Try to feel. Make sure that your hands are facing each other as you bring them together and that they are relaxed.
Some say they feel warmth, others an electrical charge, however, most will feel, as one student put it referring to the tension she felt as 'an invisible spring' between her hands.
If you feel it, then play with it. Continue your breathing and playing with the energy. I've witnessed so many astonished smiles on students faces, that I would love to see everyone's first experience feeling Qi.
Again, if you feel nothing, it is probably because you don't know what your are supposed to feel, or you might have your hands a bit too high. Keep them level with your lower tan tien. Also, for you who do feel the energy, perhaps you would like to experiment with "mind intent." Do this: raise your hands as you bring them toward each other, to about chest level. You should notice that whatever you felt with them lower, in front of your lower tan tien, is lessened, or even non existent. Now, tell the universe to send energy there, and continue to spread your arms on with an in breath, and then together to feel the qi on your out breath. Keep focusing the universal life force into this area, and surely enough, you will soon begin to feel it. When you've accomplished this, you will Know (with a capital K) that you can send loving energy to any part of your body when doing your daily Qigong exercises.
Now before you run and get dressed for the day, we must complete the session with a self massage.
Here you wil be instructed in the minimal massage. You will use this after your Qigong exercises, after your meditations, and after any healing session with a Qigong practitioner.
First rub your hands together (to build a little friction and warmth) and wash your face (three times minimum).
Then rub (wash) your hands and pat the top and sides of your head from front to back (three times minimum).
Finally wash your hands and work on your ears. Squeeze and press every inch of them. If you find a tender spot on an ear (that is not a pimple or injury to the ear), squeeze it three times hard, then three times soft (yin/yang) over and over until you think you've done it enough.
End your ear massage with three tugs. Grasp the entire ear and pull your hands down, sliding over the skin, all the way to your earlobe.Now, give thanks and go get dressed ....
~ THE TAO ~
Six to ten thousand years ago the Chinese codified a system of observation they called Tao (pronounced dow). The best translation of Tao is 'The Way'.
The early Chinese 'scientists' observed and noted the Way of All Things. The object of their observations (concerning the human body) was to learn 'The Way' and eventually reproduce and reinstate 'the (right) way' when 'The Way' has been lost or gone wayward.
K-Now ... Chinese medicine began, according to most accounts, approximately four thousand years before the birth of Christ. Chinese medicine focuses on the balance between the yin and the yang; yin being the female energy from the earth, and yang being the male energy from the heavens. The body lives because of its 'life force' or Qi (chee), sometimes referred to as 'Chi'. We are born with a certain amount of Qi created at conception. We cannot create qi, but we gain it from our foods, herbs, air and water, and from the earth's and the heaven's subtle energies. This 'life force' flows through our bodies in a system of meridians. Once thought to be only a Chinese notion, western scientists have today mapped the entire meridian system using high-tech equipment; the same meridian system the Chinese masters discovered six thousand years ago using only their senses.
Conditions in a body that is out of balance are considered either cold or hot (yin or yang) ... for example, treatment for a cold condition, 'hot' herbs are recommended. Energy imbalances occur at points in the body where energy is either blocked (cold), or flowing too heavily (hot).
The organs are categorized either yin or yang. Each organ system has a color, a season, a compass direction, a sound, and an element assigned to it. The yang meridians flow down the body; the yin meridians flow up. At twelve noon, when the sun is high in the sky, picture yourself down on all fours (like a dog). The areas the sun hits are the yang meridians and the areas shaded (inside) are the yin meridians. These meridians are where the acupuncture points are located and treated by Chinese health care professionals using acupuncture, acupressure, shiatsu, and Qigong (not to mention nutrition and herbal remedies, but these affect the points indirectly). These points are also used with great effect by martial artists. Certain combinations of accurate strikes can injure lightly, seriously, or even kill an opponent, depending on which points are struck and in what order
Spring Forest Qigong was developed by Master Chunyi Lin, now residing in Chanhassen, MN. Master Lin's expressed idea in the development of Spring Forest Qigong was to devise a form that was easy to learn, yet powerful enough to be felt immediately.
How Spring Forest Qigong Works
Since everything is energy that means you are an energy being. Your thoughts are also a form of energy. Sickness, whether it
manifests physically, mentally or emotionally, is also a form of energy.
Energy can’t be created or destroyed but it can be transformed. Simply put, Spring Forest Qigong healing is accomplished by
manipulating and transforming the energy that is the root cause of the sickness.
As an energy being, your body was designed to have its energy always flowing smoothly and in perfect balance. The energy flows
through the many energy channels or meridians in the body. (Acupuncture is based on the exact same principle but acupuncture
requires the use of needles by a skilled professional.)
You can think of your body’s energy system like water flowing in a river. When the water is flowing smoothly in the river, everything
is fine, everything is in balance. When something happens causing a blockage in the river that’s when problems start. Upstream the
water overflows the river’s banks and there is flooding, while downstream the river dries up and there is drought. Remove the
blockage and everything returns to its natural balance.
More specifically, disease or dis-ease is caused by energy blockages in the body. Usually this means too much energy in one place
or too little. Either way, your energy is out of balance, creating an energy blockage. Energy blockages are caused by many things
but most commonly by our emotions or by stress. Energy blockages cause your body’s natural healing system to breakdown and
malfunction. (By the way, there is no such thing as "good" energy or "bad" energy. Energy is energy. Problems result only because
there is too much or too little energy in one place.)
Remove the blockage or blockages, restore energy balance and the disease, sickness, or other problem goes away - not just the
symptoms but the root cause of the problem is removed. That is part of what is so beautiful and powerful about Spring Forest
Qigong, it gets at the root cause of the problem not just the symptoms.
Spring Forest Qigong practice can help you remove the energy blockages in your body, restore your natural balance and keep your
energy flowing smoothly, enabling you to live the healthiest, happiest, most productive and rewarding life possible ...
Majestic Meditations
Qigong Meditations are absolutely Vital ...
Yes ... you must meditate ... for it has been said, if you do not go within, you go without ...
Qigong Meditation
Meditation is an exercise that can be both the simplest and the hardest to perform. It is simple in that all you need is yourself. It is the hardest because it requires the discipline to do it. Having a partner really helps; doing meditation with a group makes the experience even easier with the added effect of the creation and exposure to the massive healing energy of the group.
Meditation has been compared to self-hypnosis. Guided meditation is very much related to (some feel it is) hypnosis. There are many tapes or CDs with a myriad of guided meditations, each one created for a specific purpose: quitting smoking, stress relief, building creativity, building intuitive/psychic abilities, praying.
Some feel that meditating is listening to your creator, while praying is talking to your creator.
Deepak Chopra, describes the purpose of meditation thusly ... 'to slip between the cracks of reality to that place of unlimited possibilities'.
In this section, we will teach you a basic meditation, the Qigong Small Universe Meditation, and probably the most healing meditation of Qigong, the Rainbow Meditation, which is used for serious illnesses such as AIDS and Cancer.
The Setting
Quiet is the key. You may choose soft music, which most people like because it does cover up the outdoor noises. There are some wonderful selections to meditate to. These days there is an enormous selection of healing and meditation music available.
Most like to meditate at night. Lighting a single candle to focus on while settling your eyes is a very good technique.
Find a comfortable chair. Your body should be sitting upright, so put something, a pillow, in the small of your back. You can sit on the floor; the lotus position (legs folded over each other) is supposed to produce the highest states, however, if you’re new to this, just crossing your legs is enough. If you are sitting in a chair, both feet must be on the ground. In the Qigong meditations, both feet must be pointed straight ahead. Your tongue is resting against the roof of your mouth, just behind the teeth. Your chin should be pulled back so that your spine is straight. The reason for the "straightness" of this position is to allow a smooth flow of energy. Your hands should rest on your legs, face up.
Breathing is from the tummy. It is called baby breathing. As adults, when we take in a deep breath, our chest expands and our shoulders rise. Watch a baby when it is breathing: its tummy expands, because it is breathing into its tummy. When you breathe in, breathe into your tummy. Let the diaphragm expand downward.
Focus your eyes on a distant point (or on the candle, if you have one), and listen to your breathing. Listening to the breath is the best possible technique to keep focused. Let the stress of the day roll off of you. If something comes into your mind while meditating, don’t scold yourself; just acknowledge it and push it aside. Then focus on your breathing.
Grounding
Though not necessary, this is a particular technique that I and many others employ: connecting oneself to the earth. Picture a chain dangling from your coccyx. It can be any color of your choice. As you begin to relax, focusing on that point in the distance, picture a chain dangling from your coccyx, write your name and date on the chain, and picture it going through the floor of your home, (through the rooms below, if there are any), through the ground, through the water table, and down to the center of the earth. If you are particularly stressed that day, when you breathe out, with each out-breath, picture the stress and negative energy being expelled down that chain to the center of the earth.
Progressive Relaxation
This is a technique used widely by hypnotherapists. You start by focusing on your feet. As you breathe in, feel the energy enter your feet. It is relaxing energy. Then progress up the leg. With each breath, pull healing, relaxing energy into the next higher part of your body, and breathe out the negative, stressful energy. Do this for every part of your body to the top of your head.
You will find after a while, or perhaps right away, that you can actually feel the healing, relaxing energy enter the part you focus on.
While focusing on this process, your eyelids will get heavy, your focus on that distant point will waiver; just let your eyes close and continue on.
The Meditations
Once relaxed, now what do you do? Nothing. This is the purpose of meditation: to go within and simply listen. Again, if something comes into your consciousness, acknowledge it and push it aside. You can think about it later. For now, you are merely concentrating on your breathing and listening to the universe.
The Small Universe Meditation
This meditation fills your body with earth (yin) and heaven (yang) energy. It recharges the two external meridians (not associated with any organ systems) called the Governing Body and the Conception Vessel, both of which hold recharging energy for the organ systems.
When you are ready, relaxed, and focused, picture energy traveling progressively (like the progressive relaxation) up your legs, thighs, hips, etc. Feel and picture the energy recharging, filling the organs; in your mind you can name the parts. As the energy reaches your perineum, that point between your genitalia and your anus, picture it meeting the energy coming straight up from the ground to that point. Continue up and when you reach the shoulders, picture it going down your arms and up out of your hands. When that energy reaches your shoulders, continue up your neck, face, to the top of your head, where like a water sprout, it spills out (a foot or so) above your head then splashes over you and through you back to the earth where it starts the cycle over again.
Next you will picture the heaven energy coming down through the top of your head, neck, shoulders, into your back, down your back, and when it reaches the hands, comes into the palms of your hands (which are face up) and up your arms to your shoulders where it travels down your body to your perineum. At this point, it continues straight down the ground and down your legs. It finally spills out your feet (about a foot or so) into the ground where it splashes up and through you and out your head where it starts its journey again. The really tough part of this meditation is to try and picture both energies traveling through you at the same time. Spend five, ten, fifteen minutes picturing this flow of energy through you and about you.
The Governing Body and Conception Vessel meet in your mouth. This is why during Qigong, Tai Chi, and our meditations we keep the tongue at the roof of the mouth, to make this connection. Focus on your mouth, and then follow an imaginary line down your chin to your throat, and rest your attention there for a bit, and then to your heart. At each point mentioned, keep your focus there for a small bit before moving on. Next to your diaphragm, then to the Tan Tien (pronounced Dan Tien; just an inch below your navel), then to your perineum. Next to your coccyx, then lower back, mid back, between your shoulders, base of the neck, back of the head, top of the head, forehead, and back to your mouth.
Take your time during this exercise. You are not in a hurry.
Finally, take a deep breath and spread your hands out to your side (as you do at the end of Spring Forest Qigong), and as you breathe out, bring your hands together gathering energy between them. If you’ve felt this energy during Spring Forest, you will probably feel it now. This is a time to do some specific healing. If you have a part, an organ, something that needs healing, in your mind, take it from its place and put it (with your mind) between your hands, and let it recharge within the energy of the field between your hand. Do this as long as you feel it necessary. Then, before returning that part to its normal place, send healing energy to the area around it, healing the edges, and return it.
When you end your meditation, some like to lean forward with both hands and touch the ground. Sort of a small grounding gesture. Then, as always, you will do a self massage, the minimum being the face, hair, and ears.
The Rainbow Meditation
Color is very healing. Many hospitals have redecorated to avoid the white, sterile, hospital look and feel. Here we will be using the full spectrum of the rainbow for a deep, deep healing.
After you have relaxed, done your progressive relaxation, your eyes are closed and you are focusing on your breathing. Picture a rainbow off in the distance. As you gaze and meditate on the colors of the rainbow it begins to turn. Rainbows don’t turn. We see them only in the 'broadside' view. But this rainbow will start to turn. One end will recede away from you while the other approaches you. It gets nearer, and nearer, and nearer. Finally it is resting over you.
The energy and color from the rainbow pass through your body (very much like the heaven energy does in the Small Universe Meditation), goes into the ground and comes up at the other end of the rainbow, again flowing into you, passing through you, until this one time when the energy reaches your feet, like the graphic below, it stops at your feet and begins to fill your body with its color and light and healing. Let it slowly fill your body. Up, up, up.
When you are full, you cap it off and bask in its energy. Feel the color and light and energy and grace fill every cell in your body, healing every cell in your body. Meditate on this.
The Secret to Healing is Intent.
You don’t have to believe anything, but you must be open minded. Open to the unlimited possibilities of the Universe ....
You can block Qigong healing if you want to ...
In fact, you can block the effect of antibiotics if you want to ...
The Mind is a Wonderful and Powerful thing.
Be Open, be Free, and Strengthen only your Intent ...
MAGICAL MYSTICAL MASSAGE
... Qigong Self Massage ...
... First Step ...
Now you are ready to learn the full massage. It is stimulating, relaxing, and helps your organs to detox, not to mention getting the qi flowing through your meridians, because we will be stimulating acupuncture points along many of your major organ meridians. You do not need to know exactly where these meridians are or which organ systems they are associated with; just do this full massage and you'll be sure to hit them all.
The Face
We recommended previously firstly washing the face energetically. Now we are going to work on some more important accupressure points. You are going to use the knuckles on your thumbs.
Your hands in a loose fist, tips of your thumbs captured by your pointing finger (resting/pushing against the knuckle of your pointing finger), your thumb knuckle will be bent, pointing toward you. Start at the eye socket, alongside the nose, and twisting your hands, massage up and down from the top to the bottom alongside your nose.
There are some very important points here. Do this a couple of times. If this doesn't feel right, just rub the sides of your nose up and down with your fingers.
The Eyes
Next we will go around the eyes. Using your thumbs, start at the top of the eye socket, inside and work outwards. Follow the illustration below, points 1 - 8, and simply press inward with your thumbs. Do not pull the skin, simply apply a little pressure against the points of both eyes at the same time. Then using your middle finger, do the same to the points on the bottom of the eyes.
We have learned through natural methods for reversing a host of eye disorders, including macular degeneration, that there is one of three points you might wish to work on, depending on your situation.
If you are near sighted, focus on the point colored red. With the tip of your middle finger, press in and relax, press in and relax. Do this for at least one minute.
If you are far sighted, focus on the point colored purple. It is located on the side of your face, just outside the bone of the eye socket. You'll find a slight indent there. With the tip of your middle finger, press in and relax, press in and relax. Repeat this for at least one minute.
If you require bifocals, focus on the point colored blue. Just below the center of the eye, on the bone making up your eye socket, you will find another little indent. Place your middle finger on this point and make tiny circles on this point. Again, repeat this for one minute.
If you do this daily, within a few weeks you will realize a vast improvement in your eyesight.
The Ears
Next, we will work on the ears ... starting just below and behing the earlobe, with a knuckle of your pointing finger, start making little circles, and rub (using the little circles) straight back to the top of your ear.
Your ear has some points to focus on.
Just above where your ear connects to your head, you'll find a small indent. Rub it with a tiny circle. Then right in front of where the ear connects, you'll find another small indent. Rub it also with a tiny circle. Finally, right in front of that cartilage flap of your ear, in line with the top of that flap, you'll find another little indent. Yes, rub that too with tiny circles.
Your ear contains hundreds of important points, so, massage every point, and when you are finished, pull them down three times. This was something I learned from a holistic veterinarian years ago. It is very natural to pull a dog's ears; to reach out, grab them both, and tug them (lightly, of course). It is also one of the most wonderful things you can do with your pets. Pulling the ears stimulates many points which has a delightful effect on all the organ systems. As your kids are running off to school in the morning, grab them, give them a big hug, then pull their ears three times.
For hearing problems, there is a morning routine called Beating The Heavenly Drums. There are a number of ways to do this involving snapping the fingers, but to keep it from getting complicated, I shall explain the simplest: Place the base (palm) of your hands over your ears (covering the canal) with the tips of your fingers either touching or overlapping directly behind, on the back of your head. Then, using one hand at a time, slap the other fingers three times. Then do this with the other hand. Slap the fingers. Make sure that the canal to both ears are covered. Do this for one minute, and then "pop" your hands off your ears (pulling them sharply away). Over and over we have learned (and witnessed) that a host of hearing problems can be relieved with constant application of this therapy.The Head
The top and sides of the head contain many acupuncture points, most of them are from the gall bladder meridian. Always remember: if you don't have a gall bladder, you still have a bladder meridian, and that meridian must maintain a healthy flow of qi (energy).
Place your fingertips of both hands on the top of your head, in a line parallel to an imaginary line running from the center of your forehead, over the top. The tips of your fingers on one hand should be only a quarter of an inch to half an inch away from your fingers of your other hand. The little finger in front, right about at or below your hair line (or where your hair line used to be), and your pointing finger is probably (since there should be a gap between each finger) nearly at the top, center of your head. .
Do this tapping (acupressure) a few times, and we can move on to the remainder of the self massage techniques ...
... Qigong Self Massage ...
... Second Step ...
K-Now ...
Firstly stand with your feet spread apart, just a bit wider than your shoulders, hands relaxed at your side, snd then begin swinging (turning) your body left and right, allowing your hands and arms to swing about. Then adding just a little momentum to your arms, begin slapping at your body (lightly). Slap your liver, your pancreas, your spleen, your tummy, your kidneys. Let the momentum of your swinging do the slapping. Send love and energy to all your organs. You are waking them up and allowing them to detox old stale energy. Do this for about a minute or so.
Next, we will work on the lymphatic system. Each exercise will be done on both sides (though the animations show only one side).
Reach across and down and make a loose fist. Tap just above and to the left of the groin area, the large indentation there. Send love and energy to that area. Always keep in mind that intent is the secret to Qigong, the secret to healing. You are stimulating (waking up) your lymphatic system. Your lymphatic system protects you against a myriad of diseases, including cancer of the prostate, colon, bladder, uterus, etc. So send it love and energy with every tap.
Then raise your dangling hand as you tap upwards to your armpit. Again, your lymph nodes there need love and energy and you will awaken them to protect you against breast cancer, lung cancer, throat cancer, liver cancer, etc. Tap away. Do this for as long as you feel it necessary. Keep in mind that were we to create an animation that shows exactly what we practice, taking as long as we practice, it would finish loading tomorrow. So spend as much time as you feel it necessary to empower your lymphatic system.
Next we'll work on the heart, lungs, large intestines, small intestines, and sexual organs (triple heater). We made this animation some time ago, and since then, we've changed our technique. Instead of using a loosely closed fist, we now keep the hand open, tapping with then entire hand to cover a larger area
So, with your hand open, slap (tap, not hard, remember, this shouldn't hurt) at the same position in the picture with your fingers extending to just below the arm pit. This will help to stimulate both the heart and lung meridians. Then turn your free arm palm up. The heart and lung meridians (yin) are on the inside of your arm, extending outward to your fingers. Tap along them out to your fingers, then turn your hand over and work your way back on the outside of the arm. When you get to your shoulders, spend a little time there. You can use a fist or the meaty part of the bottom of your thumb. We Americans tend to hold a lot of stress there. Again, do this as many times as you feel it necessary.
Now don't forget to do the other side. Some practitioners feel that if you did (say, that last part) three times on your left side, you should do it as many times on your right.
Next we just want to brush ourselves off
Pat yourself down your front a couple of times, then raise your left arm and pat down the side starting just below the arm pit. Next do your right side.
Now we'll focus on the kidneys, and work the kidney meridian, stomach, spleen, bladder, you name it. Bend over and rub both kidneys vigorously. The kidneys are your core energy system. Women are lucky, they have two cores: kidneys and uterus. Men have only their kidneys. So let's take care of them ...
Now begin tapping (slapping) down the outside of your legs, then up the inside to your groin. Again, do this as many times as you feel it necessary. When you stand (straighten up), do it in sections: keep your face pointing at the ground, bend your lower back upwards, then your neck and head. This will keep you from getting dizzy, as standing straight up can at once can cause the blood to rush from your head.
To end your self massage, gather saliva in your mouth, rinse it around, and swallow down. Saliva contains many healing properties we ignore here in the West. It contains immunoglobulins, and since you've just done a loving and healing exercise, they will be very abundant in your saliva.
Massage your entire body. You might want to start with your neck (another place we hold a lot of tension). Then your shoulders. Brush off your arms (outward, downward), your chest, back, sides, then down your legs. Then while standing simply raise each foot and shake it a bit.
Now you can do your affirmations, and hop in the shower and get ready for your days activites ...
You will very readily discover that you have more energy than you've ever had before.
Keep up this practice and you will live a full, harmonious, Loving, and Healthy Life ...
International Wellness Directory
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