Your Energy System can
Change Pain into Energy
In ancient China, sage-healers taught that pain goes when energy flows. This idea inspired hands-on energy treatments and the development of healing techniques such as: acupuncture, acupressure and Qigong.
Today, millions of people have benefited from, easy to learn, acupressure, shiatzu, tuina and anmo (amma) massage. The idea of a life force called Qi is basic to all these healing methods. It’s important to understand Qi (Ch’i) energy in order to relieve pain and cure disease.
If the ancient Chinese are correct and pain is injured Qi, that changes everything, including the way Westerners evaluate and treat pain. If pain is our life force working to heal injuries and infections, then suppressing pain will have tragic consequences, such as chronic debilitating pain and disease. Now is the time for a reevaluation of how we treat pain by learning more about energy.
The Chinese written character for Qi includes two images—that of steam above grain . Steaming grain, the image of cooking, represents the most common life-transforming activity people perform.
The idea behind the word Qi represents the "life force" as a process rather than an entity. Observing the stages of a process differs from examining things and their parts. When examining parts in ever-increasing detail, a machine-like theory of life evolves. The Western metaphor views the body as a machine. In contrast, the Chinese metaphor views the body as an energy system.
The study of process reveals functional activity and the interaction of parts within a whole. Activity uses energy over a period of time. Through careful study of the transforming nature of Qi energy, the practice of Oriental medicine was developed. Chinese physicians diagnose the patterns produced in the struggle between health and disease.
The Experience of Qi Energy
Pain is blocked energy called injured Qi, whereas the feeling of energy flowing in the body is called Got Qi (DEQI sounds like "duh chee"). It is defined as the experience of bodily sensations following the application of therapeutic pressure, acupuncture, or heat. The changing, moving sensations can feel like tingling, numbness, aching and soreness. After awhile a subtle, glowing, flowing feeling along the length of the body may be noticed.
If at first you do not feel energy sensations (deqi) when your acupoints are pressed, keep trying. It may be you need more practice at finding the points or it could be your Qi system has atrophied because of inactivity. The energy system will atrophy like other body systems when not used.
Just as play and exercising keeps muscles strong, and reading and learning keeps the mind sharp, exercising your energy points allows you to feel stronger energy sensations. When you begin exercising after months of inactivity, muscles will complain and refuse to work. Then as you persist you become stronger until what was once difficult becomes easy. It takes knowledge and practice to develop skill.
A Chinese proverb implores, "Bugs do not nest in a busy doorway."
Listen to your body as it talks about injured Qi (pain) while you look for Qi points to release golden energy. Locate known energy reserves and learn to free trapped energy. It is natural to hold, rub and press where it hurts. Pain will teach you all you need to know about your body’s energy system.
While learning, start with the easy pains that release golden energy. This takes about ten minutes. Listening to your body and locating energy points works best in a place where you will not be disturbed so you can relax as much as necessary.
If you have a sore or painful place on your arm or leg which is easy to reach, start there. Otherwise, start examining your neck and shoulders. Rub and press painful spots until you find that the pain subsides as you hold it. Rub and press gently at first. Slowly rub all around the most tender spot.
Then focus on the most tender spot and press there. Press for about one minute. Press hard enough to feel the pain but not hard enough to cause tension in your body. Press into that gray area between pleasure and pain where the most energy can be released. The appropriate pressure will reduce the pain, which will release golden energy. It seems curious, but the best golden energy points are usually not very sore at all.
If at first you don’t succeed try, try again. Keep exercising your energy system. If you are having trouble feeling energy, try using fewer stimulants and relaxants including painkillers, alcohol and coffee. They are numbing and result in the disruption of Qi.
Specific points on the body, called acupoints, will easily release golden energy for health and healing. Some of the most powerful points have been used since ancient times. An acupoint is usually the most tender spot in an area.
These same acupoints become hypersensitive when corresponding parts of the body need help. However, it is interesting to note, even when acupoints are surprisingly hypersensitive with dark energy disease, you might not notice these points if you were not looking for them. This book describes in detail, twenty-eight acupressure acupoints that warn of disease and supply the body with golden energy.