Blog entries dealing with Healing:
Training Intention
Learning to make a clean intention takes practice. It is a skill that does not come easily for everyone. If you don’t exercise your power of intention throughout the year, you may not be in shape to make it stick on January 1. It’s like entering that 5K race after spending the year eating Cheetohs on the couch.
The Healing Power of Elbow Jin
My old friend David suffered a near-fatal stroke a year ago. His right side was paralyzed and the prognosis from his doctor was not good. It's been a year, he was told to expect a decline. But that's not how David and his wife Susan roll. Both are taijiquan teachers and are not about to let the pessimism of a doctor to rain on their parade. Susan has been agressively assisting in the rehab and both are convinced that recovery is going to happen. When I called a bit over a week ago, David had...
Reclaiming Lost Territory
Reclaiming Lost Territory is a set of exercises I have been developing over the past 25 years to get the qi moving, repair deteriorating joints, and train efficient movement. I came up with the idea as a way of healing my own body from various injuries, and then it became the default warm-up set for my classes. It is evolving to meet the needs of my students…and me. Those of us fortunate to have survived past the age of thirty gradually become aware that we have to do some maintenance and...
Chapter 9 “Coherent Energy” from Taijiquan: Through the Western Gate (Part 2)
What is Energetic Coherence? What is meant by coherence? Generally, it means things are functioning together in a clear and efficient way. It can mean an ordered patterning within one system, or synchronization between multiple systems. In physics it means energy has waves with a high degree of similarity of phase, direction and amplitude. Coherent energy is effective because a system is pulsing as a unit. It is “in phase,” like a rowing team that practices very hard to get the timing of their...
Chapter 9 “Coherent Energy” from Taijiquan: Through the Western Gate (Part 1)
I have been reviewing Taijiquan: Through the Western Gate lately. That book was written fifteen years ago, and it's time for a sequel to record some of the discoveries made since then. (Many have appeared in blog posts.) So I've been going over TTWG to get a feel for my mindset when I wrote it. When I reread Chapter 9 "Coherent Energy," I was stricken by how crucial the information it contains is to all my research and development since then. So I thought I'd publish it in a blog to get it...
Three Steps to Diaphragmatic Breathing
My last post made the case for awareness of your blood oxygen level. A healthy oxygen saturation (94-100%) is important for optimum health. Even a 1% improvement is significant. But in the time of COVID-19, "hidden hypoxia" may trigger pneumonia and you don't even know it. It stands to reason that improved capacity and efficiency of breathing could be a powerful asset in dealing with this global pandemic. Robust good health may be your best defense. Get comfortable with diaphragmatic...
Your Blood Oxygen Level May Not be Optimum
There are countless ways to breathe, and some ways are more beneficial than others. And sometimes we think we are doing it better than we actually are. Your blood oxygen level is an important indicator of how efficient your breathing is. And it may be an early warning for non-optimum health.Is there an easy way to tell how much oxygen is actually getting to your cells? Breathing is something we’ve all been doing for a good long time and many of us don’t really care much for unsolicited advice...
Coherence and Cortisol in the Time of COVID-19
These are certainly challenging times for us all. I don’t think that “global pandemic” and “social distancing” were on many of our New Year’s To Do lists. But here we are, and the whole world is encountering uncertainty on so many fronts. Resilience is one thing I’ve learned from decades in the Chinese internal martial arts. In the “soft arts” it is more important to be able to neutralize a punch than to throw one. And from decades of energy healing, I have learned how we each need to be...
Niwan and Spinal Health
I have written a lot recently about the importance of reaching with the crown of the head, the niwan, to open the Jade Pillow Gate. My emphasis has been primarily on its effect on your qi and as a quick and dirty access to superconsciousness. (See Opening the Jade Pillow Gate, Part 2 and related posts.) The Jade Pillow Gate at the base of the skull is a major energy gate that is often closed down by the position of the head. This results in a serious "kink in the hose." When we REACH with the...