Natural Health
Who Are You? Getting to the Core with Medical Qigong
by Christina Romo, MMQ
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We are in a Medical QiGong session and my therapist is removing blockages in my body resulting from years of accumulated anger, fear, grief, worry and guilt. As she flows through the five elements of Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and Wood and the associated organs, I begin to feel shifts in my body. At first my body responds with only small twitches here and there but then heat builds up in my chest and I start to cough. With a quick gesture she removes the energetic cluster and relief sets in. It's a sense of light-headedness, a cold wind rushing through my body and at the same time peace from within. It's that relief like after removing a stone that has found its way into a shoe. That was grief, apparently a charge leftover from the death of my cat.
Throughout the years acquired experiences, knowledge and emotions help define the person you are. The question is how much of that is reaction from hurt or pain, anger or joy, fear or confidence and how much of that is your inherent nature? Can you remember what you were born with? What your life purpose is?
Medical QiGong (pronounced “chee gong”) supports the search for our true self in a special way. By examining the flow of energy through the channels it can identify where there are blockages, deficiencies or excesses of energy in the body. Each organ has its own special characteristics with which it was brought into the world. Over time, and in conjunction with eating habits, environmental factors and hereditary predispositions, we either deplete an organ or put it in distress by accumulating emotional memories.
One of the most common excesses presented by patients in the clinic is anger. It's not hard to understand why.
From childhood we have encounters with family and friends that upset us. For example, we were hit by our friends in grade school, punished by our parents for things our siblings did, picked on by schoolmates, our favorite toys broke, et cetera. And what about the present? Maybe it's the job situation that's stressing. Is it the boss who's getting on our nerves? Or is it our parents still trying to control us long distance? Our daily life presents a constant stream of challenges and stresses and it's easy to become quickly overwhelmed. As we interpret these stressors as aggressions our “fight or flight” defense mechanism kicks in. It's apparent that these events in isolation don't really present a problem. It's when we start to pack in the unresolved issues that the festering begins and the blood pressure rises. Each time we hold onto an aggressive thought the liver heats up.
Persons with a balanced liver display kindness and benevolence. They are confident, strong, independent and intuitive. They are able to “rise above” the situation and not be caught in the exchange. Medical QiGong helps to restore a healthy liver and thereby empower a person with kindness and confidence by removing any accumulated charges. This process is called “purging.” One of the ways to purge the liver is through a healing sound. The healing sound of the liver is “shu” (pronounced like “shoe”). Making this sound.
Try it! Inhale normally and as you exhale say “shu.” As you're sounding the word try to drop it into the liver area (right side of the body under the ribs) by making the tone descend. If your hand is on the body, you can actually feel the liver area vibrate.
Returning to the core in the case of anger means looking at what we actually have control of in our life. To restore balance in the liver and allow space for the core to shine through, it's essential to come to terms with the fact that we cannot control our relationship with the environment, people and objects. Our perception of events can truly change the effect these have on our lives. There are, of course, events for which we have righteous anger, but most of our irritations in life are from perceived violations of codes of conduct that we have assumed for ourselves.
Medical QiGong treatments combine healing sounds, colors and breath work to provide a strong sense of release, relaxation and return; releasing stress, relaxing into the body and returning to the core of our being. When the five main organs operate in harmony our bodies thrive and we achieve our maximum potential. This in turn allows our true self to shine free from the constraints of pent-up emotion. Our compassionate, loving nature is free to be expressed. There is no fear of being judged or concern about the consequences. We can be who we are truly meant to be in this life: Fulfilling our life purpose and shining from the core.
Medical QiGong is a branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine and has been in practice for over 3,000 years. For more information on the benefits of Medical QiGong please contact Ms. Romo at The Rising Lotus, 1836 East Hamilton Ave., San Jose, CA 95125. www.TheRisingLotus.com or 408/220-4923.