The Essence of Chi Kong (Qigong)

Treat the Body, Treat the Mind

By WILL MEECHAM, MD, MA

This past weekend my wife and I participated in a Qi Gong retreat, which we found quite energizing and healing.

Ever since my decision to train as a physician acupuncturist, I’ve worked to learn more about bodywork. In addition to my Chinese medicine studies, I’ve dabbled in movement-based healing practices. I’ve done more yoga in the past year than ever before, I’ve tried a few Hindu-derived breathing techniques, and I’ve joined a Feldenkrais class.

Qi Gong is a natural extension of this exploration, and is more relevant to acupuncture since it is based on the same meridian theory. I’ve tried it a few times before, and I’ve also practiced a little bit of Tai Chi, which is a subspecies of Qi Gong.

None of these activities come easily to me. Years ago, first as a graduate student and a little later in medical school, I took yoga and dance classes in alternating sequences. However, neither became regular practices. As I think back on why, it seems likely that my brain demanded too much dominance in my life. I had no problem reading or studying for hours, but even a fifty minute movement class felt like too much effort. And no way was I going to exert myself physically when no one was watching. My life seemed too busy to allow what I imagined an unproductive use of time.

It may be that my subsequent problems with neck arthritis and back pain were partly the result of this resistance. Perhaps if I’d taken flexibility training and movement more seriously, the musculoskeletal problems would not have progressed so far. Who knows, maybe I’d even still be a practicing surgeon.

Those choices reside in the past, and can no longer be changed. But I do have a decision going forward. My current age (52) is a time when most of us still feel relatively robust, although we can’t help but notice the looming shadow of old age. There is thus a motivation that I never felt before. My senior years could be relatively vital, or I could descend into decrepitude. Which direction my body goes depends somewhat on the choices made back in youth, but probably will be determined even more by how I behave from here on out. Do I continue to pursue a fairly sedentary lifestyle punctuated only by a few trips to the gym a week plus dog walking? Or do I commit to a healing movement practice like Qi Gong, and take my body seriously?

When I first began my acupuncture training, I had the plan of applying needles to mental health problems. It never seemed likely I’d make much progress treating severe psychiatric crises, but it seemed quite plausible that those with run-of-the-mill depression and anxiety might find significant relief. I soon learned that people aren’t yet inclined to pursue acupuncture for mental health. Instead, my business does much better when I announce treatment of musculoskeletal problems. But I still believe holistic, body-based healing has an important role to play in the future of psychiatry.

Indeed, more books about integral and alternative mental health approaches get published every year, and most of these treatments are directed at the body at least as much as at the brain. Not only do somatic therapies and especially movement practices help with psychiatric problems, but research also suggests that physical activity reduces the incidence of dementia. Physical stimulation is good for the body and good for the mind.

This past year, the first that saw me seriously pursuing movement for healing, was also a year in which my neck pain declined for the first time in a decade. Not only that, but I’ve enjoyed more stable moods than ever before, and I successfully tapered off the last of the psychiatric medications. The somatic work has strengthened both body and mind.

In Chinese medicine, and Eastern philosophy in general, there is less tendency to see mind and body as separate than there is in the West. Cartesian dualism grew out of Western thought and never propagated to Asia, or at least not until modern times. One effect is that mental illness was never seen as a separate condition in China to the same extent as here. This unification of bodily and mental disorders in Chinese medical culture was abetted by societal stigmatization of blatantly psychiatric conditions, especially under Communist rule. Prison or other punishments often awaited those judged psychiatrically unsound, so emotionally-stressed people in China became far more likely to complain of bodily symptoms such as digestive discomfort rather than pure mental distress.

Chinese doctors know to ask about physical symptoms in addition to emotional ones. Historically, at least, a person with complaints of sadness would never be given a simple psychiatric diagnosis. The doctor would explore somatic issues and ferret out the ways the patient’s body manifested the turmoil. Treatment would be directed at the broad spectrum of dysfunction, and not at some narrowly defined ‘mental’ disorder. We all know that severe emotional issues seldom occur without some bodily counterpart, but in Western psychiatry clinics the physical symptoms get largely ignored. Not so with the practice of Chinese medicine.

To include the body is the wiser practice, and one we must encourage here in the West. Although I’ve just begun my clinical work as a holistic practitioner, I’ve already seen many patients whose emotional symptoms march in lockstep with physical discomfort. With successful treatment, both psychiatric and somatic distress diminish. Treat the body, treat the mind.

Which brings me back to Qi Gong. Although I believe acupuncture has much to offer those with mental health problems, it remains a therapy administered by experts. So much better to learn to treat oneself. That is the very nature of Qi Gong and many other movement practices, wherein a primary benefit is self-empowerment. Acquiring physical techniques to boost energy and mood teaches us to take control of our bodily and mental health, and to accept responsibility for our own recovery. Personally, I find this far more satisfying than walking out of a clinic with a prescription for pills. The fact that movement helps much more reliably and safely than medication is also worth considering.

“Treat the body, treat the mind,” calls into question the fundamental assumption of psychiatry: that the mind resides as a separate entity, which suffers its own disorders independent from the body. The success of movement in alleviating emotional conflict validates the idea that human personalities arise from unified bodymind systems rather than minds that are brain-generated but otherwise disembodied, as tacitly believed in the West.

In my opinion, the most important step one can take to alleviate mental distress is to take up something like Qi Gong, Yoga, Feldenkrais, dance, or almost any other movement tradition. Simple aerobic exercise helps, but practices where the heart is drawn into the mix work even better. The mind feels healthier when the body gets moved and the soul feels honored.

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Crackers from juice pulps!

This recipe is great for people who juice a lot and don't know what to do with the pulp!

recipe from  Marie-Claire Hermans

INGREDIENTS

• The pulp of your daily juices
• 1-2 C grind flax seeds
• 1 C grind nuts to your choice
• Herbs and seasonings which fit to the taste of the pulp
• Sea salt to taste
• Some pure water or original juice, depending on how much pulp you have

INSTRUCTIONS

• If you like your crackers with a “clean” color, don’t mix the pulp of the different juices you made but separate them
• If you don’t mind mixing, stir the pulps until well mixed
• Grind the nuts you like in your crackers and throw the flour in the bowl with the pulp
• Add the herbs and seasonings you think will fit with the taste of the crackers, spicy, Mediterranean or sweet…
• Taste, taste, taste and adjust until you say “Mmmm!
• Grind your flax seeds and mix everything very well
• Now add the water or juice you need to have an easy consistency to spread out on your tray
• Spread the batter on a teflex sheet or parchment paper and make squares so you can break them easily when ready
• Place the tray in your dehydrator
• If you don’t have a dehydrator, you can use an oven on the lowest temperature, not higher than 118°F or 42°C . Leave the door a little bit open so the water can evaporate and your crackers will be crunchy
• If you put your tray in around 5 or 6 pm, you can still flip it over after 4 to 5 hours
• Let it dehydrate until the next morning and they will be perfect for breakfast
• Try out what you like. This basic principle works for every pulp and you will have fun creating your own recipes. Enjoy your creations!

Have a Healthy Immune System!

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Cashew Humus

What you need:
1 packet of cashew
1 small courgette
half lemon juiced
some himalayan salt

Put water on the cashew and let it soak for the night. Next day just blend everything together. You can put it on bread or use it as a dip. It's tasty and very healthy.

Enjoy :)

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients
* 5 or 6 large sweet potatoes, peeled
* 1 stick butter
* 1/2 tsp. sea salt
* 1/4 tsp. black pepper (optional)
* 1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup (more or less, to taste)

Directions
1. Peel potatoes and cut into quarters. Simmer in a large 3-4 quart pot of water with 2 tsp. salt added to water.
2. After 20 minutes or so, test potatoes with a fork to see if they are fully tender.
3. When cooked, drain water and return sweet potatoes to pan over still-warm burner (leave burner off or on very low heat).
4. Add butter to bottom of pan and stir until melted. Using a potato masher, mash the sweet potatoes with the butter, adding salt and pepper, to taste. Add honey to sweeten, stirring thoroughly.
5. Do not over sweeten the potatoes; the honey should be barely perceptible but it should enhance the natural sweetness of the potatoes.

Read more recipes at: http://goldendietsolution.info/

Winter warming drinks :)

As the nights draw in, try some of my top wintry drinks to keep you warm and toasty.

1) Morocco ale – spiced ginger-cakey winter warmer revived by Daleside breweries

2) Irish Coffee – one part whiskey to four parts hot coffee and a teaspoon of sugar in an Irish-coffee glass (with a handle) and topped up with a layer of thick cream poured over the back of a spoon. Sod ’em and begorrah – I’ll have two!

3) Eggnog – one egg to two parts each of light rum and brandy, three of single cream and simple syrup to taste, shaken with ice, strained into a highball glass and finished with a sprinkle of nutmeg. Omitting the cream makes it an Egg Flip. Just say ‘nog’ to eggnog.

4) Mulled wine (aka Glühwein in Germany) – the mistake people make is to ignore the fact that if you mull crap wine, you get crap mulled wine. For each bottle of big, fruity red you pour in to a large pan and heat at the lowest possible setting, add: one star anise, a bit of cinnamon, a cup of seriously strong Earl Grey tea, a small cup of dark rum, a heaped tablespoon of demerara sugar, a couple of peeled mandarins, clementines or satsumas or an orange studded with a few cloves – the peel itself is too bitter. The other mistake is overheating, which is a disaster because alcohol boils at 78ºC/173ºF and it will all have disappeared long before the wine itself has boiled. The temperature should be around 55–60ºC/130–140ºF at which point you’ll see nothing more dramatic than a few elegant wisps of steam coming off the pan as you ladle it into sturdy heat-proof glasses.

5) Grog – five parts dark rum to two parts lemon juice stirred with boiling water to taste. Serve in a rocks glass with a clove, a piece of cinnamon and one lump of sugar. What shall we do with a drunken sailor?

6) Artillery Punch – into a large bowl mix ten parts each of bourbon, red wine and strong black tea; five parts each dark rum and orange juice; two parts each apricot brandy and gin; one part each lemon juice and lime juice and chill before adding ice and slices of lemon and lime. Serve (but don’t try this at home) by gathering your guests around the bowl and dropping a cannonball into the mix from a decent height.

7) Sloe gin – I’ve never understood why it has this naughty image, as exemplified by my mum – hello, Mum! – who made it in her youth and reminisces about it with a bit of a nudge and a wink, like they do, because, surely, if a person were going to be naughty with a bottle of gin they wouldn’t put sloes in it and bury it in the ground for six weeks, would they? They’d neck it. Originating in the Basque Country, but now popular throughout Spain, pacharán – patxarán to the picky Vascos – is a strongly addictive version using sweet anis instead of gin.

8) Brandy Alexander – equal parts brandy, dark crème de cacao and fresh cream shaken with ice; strain into a cocktail glass and sprinkle with ground nutmeg.

9) Buck’s Fizz (aka Mimosa) – build, if you must, two parts chilled fresh orange juice and one of Champagne in a flute and thereby diminish both ingredients. Revivify the zombie by simple means of the addition of one part vodka to four of the mix and you have Agua de Valencia. The disingenuousness of the name greatly enhances the frisson of naughtiness surrounding the consumption of the typical jugful of it. Anybody fortunate enough to have witnessed a traditional Valenciano firework fight will have pondered to what extent the intake of ‘Agua’ will have been influential upon the conduct of the ‘fuegos’ and vice versa.

10) Champagne Cocktail – build a small lump of sugar, two dashes of bitters, one part brandy and nine parts chilled champagne in a flute glass, garnish with a maraschino cherry, a twist of orange and an unshakeable sense of superiority.

Peter Grogan is the author of Grogan's Companion to Drink.