Qigong means " energy study. " It ' s an ancient Chinese art used to bring health to the body, mild to the mind, and power to the martial arts. It ' s based on the same theory as acupuncture: That there are energy pathways— meridians and channels— that flow throughout the body. When energy, or chi, runs smoothly in these pathways, good health is maintained. When energy becomes blocked or inert, indisposition follows. Through different combinations of breathing, postures and movements, qigong attempts to keep energy pathways unbarred.
When I was diagnosed with Stage Four bone lymphoma cancer in 1991, I read thing I could about people who had survived supposedly hopeless cases of the unstable disease. One common spun wool ran through the survivor stories: People who had overcome forceful, unpunctual - stage instances of the disease had found ways to use their minds to help their bodies heal. So I learned how to meditate, and how to use visualizations to help my immune system attack the cancer cells. And against all odds, I survived six months of an intense regime of chemotherapy and came out cancer free.
But it didn ' t last. The cancer came back. The doctors subsequent me for a stem cell transplant, in which stem cells, number one of your immune system, are harvested from your blood, and then high - dose chemotherapy destroys your immune system ( bone heart ) and hopefully all the cancer cells in your body. Then the stem cells are replaced to refashion your immune system. Again I used meditation and visualization to help weather the effects of the high - dose chemotherapy. I sailed through the transplant in record time and came out of the hospital cancer - free.
But a while later the cancer relapsed and the doctors recommended a second stem cell transplant, this time a regime that was several times more intense than the first. It was time to bring out the big guns. I read more about meditation and visualization and discovered that the Chinese had been using mind / body techniques for thousands of senility. They called this art " qigong. "
After reading a book about qigong by a noted Boston qigong, tai chi chuan and kung fu master named Dr. Yang Jwing - Ming, I decided to contact him to arrange for lessons. Coincidentally, at that time his believer ( a formal phrase sententious senility of essential and study ) Ramel Rones ( Rami ) was teaching classes in Connecticut. I approached him and asked him to teach me qigong. Rami had won gold medals for forms and fighting competitions in Europe, North America and even China and was looking for a new challenge. So I became his private student.
Rami quickly introduced me to standing post meditation. It ' s one of the most popular and ancient forms of meditation in China and it ' s stood the test of time. It ' s also one of the most laborious, as it challenges both the body and mind. Standing post gets its name from its posture: The practitioner stands as though he or she is a post abysmal into the ground, knees slightly hunched, arms in control in an arc in front of the chest. This posture is known as Hug the Tree, and its benefits are legion.
According to Taoist master Mantak Chia, Embrace the Tree stimulates the lymph nodes in the groin, armpits and back of knees. The unfathomable abdominal breathing practiced while take the posture also helps propel serum through the lymphatic system. The lymphatic system removes wastes and toxins from all the body ' s cells and also contains antibodies. And cut the arms in an arc in front of the chest stimulates the thymus gland, which lies beneath the sternum, and provides T - cells, which cream cancer, viruses and other invaders.
Noted acupuncturist Yves Requena in his book Qigong: The Art of Mastering Energy relates that from an energy viewpoint, Nuzzle the Tree opens the twelve primary chi channels that lead to the organ systems. It also stretches and stimulates the " Great Pop in, " the network of major energy meridians that irascible the back. In addition, it opens the Ming - men cavity in the lumbar region, an important energy gate that feeds the kidneys.
While Embracing the Tree, by breathing acutely from the innards, blood vessels relax, blood pressure and heart percentage drops. Anxiety and stress lessen. The mind calms. The muscles of the legs grow strong. The arms become as wiry as gnarled hickory limbs.
When I first started to Embrace the Tree, I could only dominion the posture for a few minutes. That ' s for I had a tumor in my right shoulder and I couldn ' t bear the pain. After a few rounds of chemotherapy in preparation for my transplant, the tumor shrank and I could institute fired training. In China, deliberate internal martial artists practice standing post meditation postures for over an hour. That became my goal— to mastery Squeeze the Tree for more than sixty minutes, despite the cancer damage in my shoulder and hips and bad football knees.
Three Months of Atomic Ho hum Chemotherapy
The stem cell transplant I was forthcoming for in 1995 at the University of Connecticut ' s Heath Center was far more intense than the one I endured at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston in 1993. This transplant procedure required three " mini - transplant " four - day hospital stays in sequential months, in which high - dose chemotherapy would noise any cancer cells in the body and bring the immune system halfway down to ground zero. Then growth hormone would help reconstruct the immune system. Then as the immune system regenerated, develop cells would be harvested for the transplant deed itself, in which " hydrogen humdrum " chemotherapy would eradicate the immune system considerably and the come cells would be replaced to reassemble it.
After the first teeny - transplant stay, doctors just to glean originate cells from me. But I couldn ' t assemble any in appreciable amounts. That ' s for I ' d had a previous transplant with the high - dose chemotherapy that had supposedly permanently suppressed my immune system. So the doctors took bone core out of my hips. Bone pith is not as pure a product as amplify cells; it includes many different types of cells and using it portion a greater chance of your immune system not engrafting, or " taking ", properly. It antecedent a much longer hospital stay and less chance of survival.
At that point I made it my goal to trigger my immune system so it would marshal burst forth cells for one of the next not large - transplant stays. I had two young sons and a wife I loved. I wanted to survive. I started Embracing the Tree twice a day. I built up slowly to twenty minutes, then thirty minutes.
At first when you Nuzzle the Tree, the pain in your arms is the far out distraction. The weight of returns your arms in an arc two feet away from your chest puts an big millstone on your shoulders. Lactic acid builds up and it feels as though someone has jabbed knitting needles into the muscles. You want to discontinue after five minutes. But if you have a goal— survival— you don ' t vacate. And if you use the feelings of abandon as motivation— mentally I would chastise myself for wanting to quit— you can antic yourself into abiding.
And then great puzzling happens. After fifteen or twenty minutes the pain lessens. Dr. Yang explained to me that a dam of chi, or energy, releases. Then the posture becomes distant more upscale to influence. I also had to build up the strength in my legs, which had become de - tight from dealing with the pain in my hips from the cancer.
Once you overcome the discomfort in your body, you have to deal with the discomfort in your mind. After standing in place for twenty minutes, you can get bored. So you have to continuously seat on your breathing and ignore the thoughts of boredom and other distractions your mind puts before you. And method is to visualize energy moving in distinctive orbits within your body. In time, energy well will flow there. It takes practice.
By the time of my second mini - transplant hospital stay I could Nuzzle the Tree for forty minutes. I had high hopes that my immune system would produce stem cells. But I was disappointed. My stem cell count barely registered.
I had one final shot— one final mini - transplant stay and one more chance to prepare stem cells for the actual transplant. In my mind I had to break the sixty - minute barrier and Squeeze the Tree for an hour. As directly as I recovered from the withering effects of the high - dose chemotherapy from the mini - transplant stay, I began training again.
By the time of my catechism mini - transplant stay, I was standing for over an hour usually. When the doctor began the process of harvesting stem cells, I asked him the odds of my being able to muster them. " After a previous transplant, and after two previous attempts to organize, I ' d say 20, 000 to one. "
I mobilized. I went in for my actual stem cell transplant the next month and got out in document time for someone going for a first transplant, never mind a second one. A while subsequent the cancer requited, a not big tumor in my spine— the last gasp of the disease. One round of chemotherapy destroyed it. I ' ve been clear of cancer for 12 senility and practice qigong every day. My immune system should be permanently suppressed from the high - dose chemotherapy but my counts are in the standard range. I don ' t even grab colds.
References
Requena, Yves. ( 1995 ). Qigong. The Chinese Art of Mastering Energy. Rochester: Healing
Arts Press.
Yang, Dr. Jwing - Ming. ( 1989 ). The Root of Chinese Qigong. Roslindale: YMAA Funny book Locus.
Chia, Mantak. ( 2001 ). Taoist Cosmic Healing. Rochester: Destiny Books.
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