Wellness Therapies by Dr. Weil

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/ART03176/Qigong-Dr-Weils-Wellness-Therapies.html

What is qigong?
Originating in China, qigong dates back nearly 5,000 years. The name derives from the Mandarin words qi, meaning energy or life force, and gong, meaning work or skill. It is a mind-body practice as well as an energetic form of movement done to enhance the flow of qi in the body. By integrating posture, body movements, breathing and focused intention, this practice is designed to improve mental and physical health. Though its roots date back before Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), it has been incorporated into the system of practices that TCM practitioners use today.

The existence of qi - an energy force that can move through, yet exist independently of the body - is controversial in the West, as it does not lend itself to independent verification and analysis via scientific instruments. The skeptical view of qigong holds that any health benefits it conveys are due to the acknowledged benefits of gentle exercise, the placebo effect, or both.

What conditions is qigong used for?
Qigong can be used by nearly everyone. Bill Douglas, founder of the International Health Education World T'ai Chi and Qigong Day, who is also Dr. Weil's expert advisor on the therapy, recommends qigong as a highly effective stress management tool. Along with decreasing daily stress, he contends that qigong may boost immune system function, improve balance, tone the cardiovascular system, lower blood pressure and modulate disorders of mood.

Different forms of qigong have a unique focus, each with varied indications. For instance, medical qigong concentrates particularly on improving qi to strengthen the body's organs, tissues and systems (respiratory and immune, for example) for the purpose of achieving optimal health and lessening the effects of aging. Spiritual qigong is done to lead the individual closer to his or her spiritual source,  whatever they presume that to be, and to enhance those cultural and religious practices with which they align themselves. Martial qigong, better known as tai chi, is used to increase strength, flexibility and balance by bringing qi into the muscles, bones and tendons through specifically designed routines.

What should one expect on a visit to a practitioner of qigong?
Qigong is done as either a movement practice or hands-on therapy. The movement practice is typically taught in individualized or group settings by a qualified teacher. Qualifications can be ascertained by looking into the teacher's training and medical background. Those with TCM training are often well-suited to teach medical qigong. Videos can often be effective teaching tools and useful alternatives when one can't find the right instructor.

Hands-on medical qigong is similar to other forms of touch therapy. The patient dresses in comfortable clothing and sits or lies on a massage table. The practitioner will apply hands on or in front of various places along the body where "energy blockages" are discerned. Slow, deep breathing is encouraged, and sometimes a practitioner may recommend certain guided imagery exercises or visualization during therapy. Heat may be felt at the site of treatment, usually coming from the hands of the practitioner. Afterwards, feedback may be requested about the therapy and home exercises may be recommended. Due to the deep states of relaxation that energy work can often cause, one should always be cautious and get up slowly after a treatment and drink plenty of water afterward.

Are there any side effects or situations where qigong should be avoided?
Bill Douglas has taught qigong to professional athletes, corporate executives, maximum security prisoners, drug rehabilitation patients, the wheelchair-bound, elderly individuals with advanced Parkinson's disease, children with ADD, students with learning and developmental disabilities, and people with AIDS. Anyone with an existing condition is well advised to consult their physician before beginning any exercise program, but qigong is an extremely gentle practice; it does not even necessarily require the individual to stand, as many movements can be done while sitting. Consequently, it can often be used for even the most delicate conditions with minimal, if any, side effects.

Is there a governing body that oversees or credentials practitioners in qigong?
At present, there is no international standard for certifying qigong practitioners. An ongoing effort to set standards has involved several countries, orchestrated by the World Academic Medical Qigong Society in Beijing. However, a standardized program of training in qigong has yet to be agreed upon.

Two organizations provide direction in finding practitioners and training programs. The International Institute of Medical Qigong (IIMQ) offers training programs and certification based on a curriculum from the Medical Qigong College at Haidian University in Beijing, China. The National Qigong Association (NQA) also offers professional certification for their members as an opportunity to enhance and highlight the experience of affiliated practitioners. Both organizations offer databases to help in locating practitioners.

Are there other therapies that might work well in conjunction with qigong?
Qigong is often used within the system of TCM, which includes treatment modalities including acupuncture, Chinese medicinal herbs, and aspects of a Chinese system of bodywork called Tuina. Craniosacral therapy and other forms of osteopathic or chiropractic manipulation along with other types of bodywork can  work well with qigong. Other mind-body therapies and stress management strategies like breath work, guided imagery and visualization can also meld well with qigong practices.

What is Dr. Weil's view of qigong?
Dr. Weil recommends both qigong and tai chi as part of a program of health maintenance that is suitable for nearly anyone. In any city in China you can see thousands of people of all ages practicing these movements throughout their day. He believes that qigong promotes flexibility, balance, and good body awareness. It is beautiful to watch and to do, and may be particularly good for the elderly because it can reduce risk of injury from falls.

Qigong and Meditation: Relaxation is the Key

MEDITATION and QIGONG

by Glenn Gossling

Qi Magazine - Issue 20 (1995)

Meditation and the movements of the forms are yin and yang aspects of Qigong. You need both to balance your study. The movements unblock channels, open acupoints and stimulate the organs. Meditation allows you to center and collect energy. The stillness of your meditation posture also allows you to feel the effects of the forms as Qi circulates around your body. The combination of the two exercises will give you completely different experiences to meditation on its own.

It is essential that you maintain good posture during meditation. Initially this may be uncomfortable but you should not give in to backache or other irritations. It is only by committed regular practice that you can improve your posture and remove the root causes of these problems.

Correct posture and breathing are interlinked. If you allow your shoulders to hang forward they close the chest. If you sit in a slouched posture your rib cage compresses your abdomen. Your posture and breathing also affect the way that Qi flows around your body. Poor posture and restricted breathing will cause Qi to stagnate. Once your posture is correct and your breathing relaxed, meditation becomes an engine for clearing problems. Deep breathing and relaxation are difficult without good posture.

Some people with previous experience of meditating find Qigong meditation difficult because we use no mantras or visualization techniques. Visualization and mantras are often used badly, as a way to ignore what is happening in your body and mind. It is not healthy to suppress these things. You should just let your emotions and physical sensations arise so that they dissipate or you can deal with them. Mantras and visualization techniques focus the mind and can cause side effects if used too much. Any mental techniques will eventually upset the stomach if used too much. In Qigong, a thorough knowledge of our physical selves is the foundation from which we advance to higher levels of study.

Some people wonder whether this might make us too body orientated and not mental enough. It should be remembered that in Chiense medicine there is no mind/body dichotomy. It is well known that the heart rules your shen (spirit) and the liver harmonizes your emotions and so on. By concentrating on your physical sensations you are dealing with your mind too. 

In Qigong we lightly focus on the Dantien or breathing. The trick is just to relax and let it all happen. For sure, to begin with, you are going to find that your mind floods with all kinds of thoughts - what am I going to have for tea? What is the sound? How long have I been sitting here? etc. If you persist in your study eventually these thoughts will settle down. Then you will be able to observe yourself. This is the original use of visualization - you concentrate on an image (such as the meeting of a tiger and dragon, which are symbols of yin and yang, a visual metaphor for the process of meditation) just long enough for the mind to settle and then you get on with the real process of meditation (listening to your body). Don't simply expect the mental visualization to do the work for you.

It can be very hard to maintain this 'unfocussed' concentration. It is all too easy to let your mind wander. One possible solution to this can be to keep a meditation diary. Knowing that you are going to have to write something down at the of your meditation can help keep your thoughts on what you are doing. It gives you a record so that you can examine how your experiences change and develop over a period of time. It will also allow you to discover patterns in your experiences which add to your knowledge and understanding of Qigong.

Relaxation is the key to meditation. Once you are in a relaxed state you can 'watch' what happens and experience the different effects of Qigong. By keeping still you let your Qi flow naturally to any part of your body that needs it so that you can heal yourself. Over long periods of time you can store your Qi in your Dantien to raise your energy level. Eventually maybe, you might even form a crystal there. 

Excerpts from 1980 Yoga Journal on Tai Chi Ruler

Bob Flaws. "Tai Chi Ruler: Practice Makes Perfect." 

Yoga Journal, September 1980, page 14

For Full Article Click Here

        Begin by standing with both feet shoulder width apart and parallel. The knees are slightly bent. Hips and shoulders face square to the front and the head is held up on a horizontal plane. Now begin to rock from side to side until you feel your weight fall evenly from the crown of the head directly down the midline of the body, to extend between your legs and out into the ground. Next rock slightly back and forward from toes to heel. Try to find the place where the weight of the body is equally distributed between the heel and ball of the foot. Lean forward slightly from this point as if peering over the edge of a cliff to compensate for the fact that most of us are habituated to carrying our weight back on our heels. Grip the earth with the toes and a hollow should open in the arch of the foot. Take note of that hollow, it is called the Well or Bubbling Spring. Now relax the toes and let the weight of the body fall down through the Well in the center of each foot and visualize it dropping like a stone to the center of the earth.

            Mentally go inside the joints of the body and open them like a key turning a lock. Open the ankles, the knees, the hips, the wrists, elbows, and the shoulders. Allow the joint where the backbone meets the pelvis to open (5^th lumbar), the space between the kidneys, the point where the rib cage ends (lumbodorsal hinge), the space between the shoulders, the seventh cervical, and where the skull meets the spine (Atlas/axis). Moving to the front of the body, mentally relax and open up the abdominal region. Let the belly go and allow it to just hang out like a baby’s. Relax the solar plexus and the heart area. Relax the throat and between the eyes. Next, imagine that the centers of the palms have opened,  just like the center of the soles, and that the center of the crown of the head (Ni-wang Kung or Gate of Nirvana, in Chinese, the Door of Brahma, in Indian yoga) also opens like the aperture of a camera, and that these five openings relate to each other.

            Now imagine that your weight and chi completely drop to and through the feet to make a taproot right into the center of the earth. Let the mind and breath drop to the Lower Tan-tien, the second yogi chakra, approximately three inches below the navel and a third of the way into the center of the body. The Lower Tan-tien should be visualized as a cauldron or pot. The mind and breath should fall like a leaf. Whenever the mind strays from this spot, it should be placed back there like placing a book on a shelf. Next allow your tailbone to drop as if a thousand-pound weight were hanging from it. Along with that, let the chin drop in and down as if a lighter weight were attached to it. Relax the anal sphincters, and the muscles of the mouth and jaw. Let the eyes be softly open and the gaze fall in the direction of the tip of the nose. Let the mind’s eye, however, look back up that slope to the third eye, between the brows, approximately one inch into the head. This is called the Yellow Door or upper Tan-tien.

            Imagine that there is a rough, slate-grey sea at the level of the base of the spine or coccyx. From this sea a dragon rises up with stream and roiling, in a full panoply of dazzling colors. This dragon, which represents one’s spirit, flies up the spine and out the top of the head through the Ni-wang. You should have the feeling of hanging from a gossamer thread from the center of heaven, like some celestial puppet. You should feel your head effortlessly floating up and, at the same time, the full weight of your body falling through your feet right into the earth. You should visualize yourself as a clear channel with the chi flowing unimpeded throughout your body. Now just stand in this position for a moment savoring its full feeling and sensations. Do not try to hold all of the images simultaneously, but go from visualization to visualization. Keep the mind circling from one to the other and stay with your feelings. In trying this out the first few times, you will find it helpful to have a friend read these directions to you as you assume the posture.

            So far we have spent four paragraphs describing how to stand before even doing the first exercise and yet, over and over, I have said what a simple system Tai Chi Ruler is! It is simple. At the beginning it is hard to remember all of these imaginings, but soon they come effortlessly. Remember that from another point of view, you have simply been standing there, and if you have followed the instructions consciously I am sure you have noticed a change in your experience. In our classes at Blue Poppy, we spend up to an hour initially teaching how to stand. We start all of our classes with from five to 15 minutes of just this sort of standing. It is this way of standing which forms the basis of all the rest of the Tai Chi Ruler practice!

            The benefits derived from the regular practice of Tai Chi Ruler are similar to those from any yoga system. Your outward body will become relaxed, soft, and pliable. You will find relese from chronic tension and gain improved structural realignment. You will feel grounded and, at the same time, very up. There will be a spring to your step and strength in your legs, the human foundation. There should be a greater fluidity in your movements, more rhyhtm, balance, smoothness, and poise. Your skin will become very soft and smooth, and your eyes will sparkle. Internally, you will need less sleep, have more energy, be free from disease, feel tranquil and composed, light and buoyant. You may be able to eat and drink large quantities with no ill result or cut down your intake of physical food to almost nothing. In Taoist terms you become very yin on the outside and very yang on the inside. It is said you become like an iron bar wrapped in cotton.

            Master Chao Chung Tao, who lived to be 118 and credited that longevity directly to his practice of Tai Chi Ruler, said that if you practice for just 120 days your whole life will be revolutionized. When my close friend, Sifu Gardner, was studying with Sifu Chan in New York, Master Chan said over and over again: “The benefits of Tai Chi Ruler are so wonderful, so effective, so immediate. The system is so simple. It’s so simple, it’s boring. It’s boring and none of you will do it. What a shame!” To everything there is a season, and it is my prediction that the words Chi Kung will become as well known, in the next ten years, in this country, as pranayama and perhaps yoga itself. 

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Bob Flaws (born 1946) is a well-known practitioner of and prolific author and translator on Chinese medicine. He began his study and practice of Chinese medicine in 1977 under the late Eric (Xi-yu) Tao of Denver, Colorado and continued his Chinese medical education at the Shanghai College of Traditional Chinese Medicine from 1982 to 1986. In 1982, he and his wife, Honora Lee Wolfe, established Blue Poppy Press which eventually grew into Blue Poppy Enterprises, Inc. of Boulder, Colorado. Some of Bob Flaws' best known titles include:

• The Treatment of Western Diseases with Chinese Medicine
• The Secret of Chinese Pulse Diagnosis
• Statements of Fact in Traditional Chinese Medicine
• Chinese Medical Psychiatry
• The Tao of Healthy Eating
• A Compendium of Menstrual Diseases in Chinese Medicine

Up to 2009, Bob Flaws had written, translated, or edited almost 100 books on all aspects of Chinese medicine. He has also published hundreds of articles in both popular and professional journals all over the world.