Chinese Healing Exercises (33 page)

Authors: Steven Cardoza

Tags: #Taiji, #Qi Gong, #Daoist yoga, #Chinese Healing, #Health, #medicine, #remedy, #energy

Similarly, almost every aspect of this posture has a specific purpose in addition to being a part of the synergistic whole. For example, keeping your shoulder blades spread away from your spine releases tension in the muscles between your shoulder blades and allows the vertebrae there to separate slightly. The spinal nerves that exit that part of the spine innervate your heart and lungs, so the separation of those vertebrae removes pressure on the nerves, and your heart and lungs will function better. The back Shu points of the heart and lungs, specific acupuncture points on the Urinary Bladder meridian that influence the function of those organs on a qi level, are also located between the shoulder blades in that region of the back. The softening of that muscle tissue, combined with the slight stimulation from the stretch, encourages more qi flow to the heart and lungs. As an example of synergy, the lengthening of the spine, by pointing your sacrum to the ground while simultaneously lifting your head toward the sky, increases the benefits to your heart and lungs from the spread of your shoulder blades, by increasing the separation of the vertebrae and the flow of qi through the back. Take this as encouragement to incorporate each aspect of the Standing body alignments as precisely as possible.

While you are learning this Standing posture, your mind will necessarily be working to keep track of all the alignments, and to make sure your body stays relaxed while doing so. That's a normal part of this process. At some point, in maybe weeks or months, it will begin to feel very natural to you, and you'll find you won't need to think about it much if at all. You'll feel when you are out of alignment, and will adjust your posture accordingly. When you get to that point, if you want to increase the benefits of Standing, you can include the Follow Your Breath meditation as part of the practice. This will help to further quiet your mind, and by focusing on your breath, you'll be bringing in more qi from the air (qing qi), your immediate environment, in addition to earth qi and celestial qi. In this case, some of your awareness must still remain on your physical posture.

Twenty minutes is the recommended minimum amount of time for Standing, and many qigong masters encourage their students to stand for an hour or more. In some schools, a teacher may even demand that hour. I know at least one Chinese master who insisted his students do nothing but that, Standing for one hour a day in class for one year before he would even begin to teach them anything more. It is considered that important a practice. You may find Standing to be unexpectedly taxing, though, and in the early stages, if you can only stand for five or ten minutes, that's fine. Do your best to increase that amount of time. The benefits will increase exponentially, not additively.

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Appendix

Exercise Prescriptions for Common Ailments

All Chinese health systems, including acupuncture, herbal medicine, qigong, Chinese dietetics, and the self-care exercises contained here, treat the body holistically. That is to say, while a person may complain of an obvious problem in one part of their body, the cause of that problem may be in another, seemingly entirely unrelated part of the body. The condition of the whole body must be taken into account in order to effect the most complete and stable resolution of the problem.

Accordingly, Chinese treatments usually make use of the principle of “root and branch.” The branch is the obvious symptom, while the root is the actual cause of the symptom. Both are treated simultaneously to alleviate the discomfort in the short term while curing the cause, which can take much longer. In acupuncture, one approach to accomplish that is through the use of local and distal points. In that case, to treat a headache, the patient may be needled in the head, but other needles may be inserted in the feet or hands, for example, in points on meridians related to the location of the cause of the headache. In an herbal formula, some herbs are included to treat the main manifestation, the symptoms of the discomfort or disease, some will target the root source of the imbalance, others target a secondary but related issue, while others ensure that all the herbs work together in concert within the body. This is a necessarily simplified description of these holistic treatments, but gives you the basic idea of what can be involved.

The reader who practices Chinese medicine professionally will recognize those principles at play in these exercise prescriptions. For example, in the case of hearing or other ear problems, the ear exercises will be the given first, but exercises that support the kidneys are also included, since most ear problems are related in some way to kidney function. A strained joint may require attention at the involved joint, but exercises that address the liver and gall bladder are included, since those organs dominate (or have a special relationship with) tendons and ligaments. When those principles are understood, the practitioner of Chinese medicine may freely create other prescriptions in addition to the ones presented here.

For the reader less familiar with the principles of Chinese medicine, the above may help to explain why exercises that seem unrelated to your main complaint are sometimes included in the prescriptive exercises. It's not so important that you understand why each exercise is selected, only that you practice them as described to the best of your ability. As everyone is a unique individual, do read the entire book carefully. You may find that you resonate with some exercises that have not been specifically recommended for your condition, and your intuition may be guiding you to other helpful practices. There's never any harm you can do to yourself by adding more of these exercises to your regimen.

Those wanting a deeper understanding of the Chinese way of viewing health holistically are directed to
The Web That Has No Weaver,
by Ted Kaptchuk, which offers a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective, or
Between Heaven and Earth
, by Harriet Beinfield and Efrem Korngold, which presents a Worsley Five Element perspective, slightly different lenses through which to view Chinese health practices. While containing some technical information, both are suitable for the lay reader. Similarly,
The Foundations of Chinese Medicine
, by Giovanni Maciocia, is a more professional-level book for Chinese health care providers, but is written in a straightforward and engaging style so as not to alienate the uninitiated reader.

What follows is a list of common health problems that can be helped by these exercises. The exercises can be used for many more conditions than are presented here. Keep in mind that prevention of a health problem is always preferable to curing one. These exercises work best in that preventive capacity. With that understood, some of the conditions listed below may be completely resolved by these exercises alone, with no other intervention. Some of the more serious conditions like cancer and diabetes cannot be resolved by the use of these exercises alone, but they are useful additions to other therapies and lifestyle modifications. All are extremely beneficial as adjuncts to other therapies used to treat these and many other conditions. All of these exercises may be safely combined with any other medical intervention you may elect to use for your health concerns, conventional Western medicine and alternative approaches alike.

Finally, while this will be common sense to most readers, for others looking for a miracle cure, please keep in mind that if you are doing things that you know are bad for your
overall health or a specific condition, adding these exercises will not likely improve your
health very much. You have to give yourself every opportunity to improve your health and remedy a health challenge. If you want to lose weight, for example, but continue to eat a high-calorie diet and make other poor nutritional choices, the weight-loss exercises won't help you lose much weight. But if you are following good dietary practices and find you still can't lose the weight you want, these practices will give you the edge you need to achieve your previously elusive goals. Similarly, if you can't sleep because you have noisy neighbors or your spouse snores, your bedroom is too warm, or there's light shining in your window all night, the insomnia exercises won't provide much help for you to get better sleep. If you address those external circumstances and you still can't sleep, the exercises will help you then. The same principle applies to any health challenge you may want to improve.

While the
Whole Body Vibration
and
Standing practice
from chapter 11 may be included as specific recommendations for some conditions, they are so powerful that you should consider including them for every condition.

Exercise Prescriptions

Various conditions

Aches and Pains, General