Recently, I came across Dr. Andrew Weil’s comments about Tai Chi, which appeared in his Good Morning E-mail Newsletter on July 9, 2003. He stated “Tai Chi is a great form of exercise, especially for those with osteoarthritis. It can help you build your leg muscles, strengthen your posture, and improve your balance, flexibility, and mobility. It also can teach you to relax and focus, even while executing the moves, is a way to harmonize the coordination, and can reduce the risk of falls common with the elderly.” I was really impressed and appreciated his inside knowledge and advocacy of Tai Chi practice. His words are encouraging to people who may try Tai Chi for any health reasons. True, Tai Chi has been used in China for hundreds of years for internal martial art and fitness training. It’s a unique blend of martial and healing art. The foundation of Tai Chi as a healing art is rooted in traditional Chinese medicine.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, healing can be defined as bringing the yin and yang energy into balance. In further detail, healing involves restoring energy flow in all meridians. If you easily catch cold, your lung meridian is weak; the energy flow in your lung meridian somehow impeded. By regularly practicing Tai Chi, you can strengthen the lung meridian, and you won’t get colds easily. There are total 12 main meridians that form a comprehensive network covering all over the body. It’s not an easy task to keep the energy flow unimpeded in all meridians. Any blockage of energy flow will cause health problems. Tai Chi is a great form of exercise to keep all meridian energy flow.

“Silk Reeling” is a characteristic form of movement in Tai Chi. It is named from the practice of pulling silk strings from their cocoons in spinning motion. In our Tai Chi practice, we can understand that “silk reeling” is twisting and elongating/extending. Let me use rotating forearm as an example to explain how “silk reeling” is achieved. Extend your right arm forward in supine position (palm facing up, elbow points down). Now, keep your elbow down, pronate your palm (turn your palm facing down), your forearm is now twisted. Meanwhile, point your fingers forward, as if the forearm is extended. The sensation you get is the result of “silk reeling” of the forearm. The twisting motion of the forearm actually elongates the muscles, which activates the energy flow in all 6 meridians in your arm. They are lung meridian, heart meridian, pericardium meridian, large intestine meridian, small intestine meridian, and triple heat meridian. When we do Tai Chi correctly, the whole body is doing “silk reeling”. Other 6 meridians in and out of legs and upper body are stomach meridian, spleen meridian, gall bladder meridian, urinary bladder meridian, liver meridian, and kidney meridian. “Silk reeling” differs Tai Chi from any other forms of exercise.

There are different styles of Tai Chi practiced by different groups of people. My favorite is Chen style practical method, which emphasize the precision of each movement, with the sensation of “silk reeling” all along the body. Keep this in mind, you can check if you are doing right. Chen style practical method is the one that keeps the “silk reeling” in every form. It requires the “silk reeling” shown and felt when you are practicing the form. Most important, you know how to achieve the “silk reeling” by the correct method, a combination of physical movement and mindfulness. Thus, practicing becomes more meaningful. Suddenly, you feel you’re energized, because your liver, spleen, and gall bladder meridians are no longer stagnant. You feel your body becomes lighter, because your urinary bladder and kidney meridians are open, and toxins accumulated in your body are eliminated. You don’t remember when was the last time you got sick. Gradually, your overall health has been improved.

Like most Chinese classical writing, it is difficult to understand. Why and how can bending and straightening happen at the same time? How do Yin and Yang separates and fuse? What are Yin and Yang which Tai Chi refer to? In the end, how does it all relate to your body movement when you are doing Tai Chi?

The common symptoms of cold invasion is sneezing, stuffed sinuses, and running noses. Most people refer to it as allergies. Well, western doctors also say so. So don’t argue with it.

Wind cold invasion can attack different parts of body. If you back is exposed to cold, your UB meridians may be hurt. If cold accumulates, your upper back may form a thick layer of fat, which is your body’s natural response. If your frontal part is exposed to cold, your lung meridians and its related stomach meridians will be affected. If sides are exposed to cold, GB meridians will be affected. Cold Qi accumulated in GB meridians can cause Gall Bladder function drop, further cause difficulty of digestion.

Let me discuss in more detail with two examples.

If cold invasion happens in frontal (as discussed above), it affects lung, can cause lung deficiency. Lung deficiency can lower the ability of body absorbing water, which in turn you lose the healthy color of your skin. This dehydration cannot be easily corrected by taking more water. In fact, in this case, more water will cause more burden to kidney and cause more problem. The person may also feel depressed. The correct way to expel cold from lung is to increase blood Qi, cultivate enough blood Qi, in other words, your body stores enough energy to combat cold and expel the cold from your lung.

If cold invasion happens on back, it affects GB meridians. You will feel pain on your shoulders and neck. Have difficulty to turn your neck. You feel your upper back is locked. Headache or migraine is also common, plus sore throat, and/or coughing. Skin scrapping is the best way to remove cold from your GB meridians. (See 1/13/08 blog)

So, if you have above symptoms, maybe you have been exposed to cold. If the symptoms persist, the only way to solve the problem is to increase your own blood Qi, which is related to your immune system, but not quite the same.

Key Concept:
1. Muscle is Yang, Connective tissue is Yin;
2. Meridians and acupuncture points are related to connective tissues;

Based on the above concept, when we stretch connective tissues, we are activating meridians. Therefore, Tai Chi and yoga (Yin yoga) are closely associated by their goals of practice–moving the energy along meridians and promoting self healing. The differences are from outside. Tai Chi is in constant moving forms, while Yin yoga is in stationary poses.

Key Practice (apply to both Tai Chi and Yin Yoga):
1. Relax muscles–let moves and poses have less Yang elements, so the Yin energy will grow.
2. Feel internally expanding–more by your mind, sometimes breathing can facilitate that feeling. That’s why Tai Chi and Yoga all require good breathing technique.
3. Twisting provides another dimension of movements which has more Yin than Yang. In yoga, twisting poses provide great benefits to central nerve system. In Tai Chi, especially Chen Style Tai Chi, twisting has another name–slik reeling (Chan Si, in Chinese). Silk reeling is the important skill in Tai Chi. Silk reeling is all over the body, which keep meridians unimpeded.

There are no “scientific” measurements to quantify (yin) energy. Do we need “science” to verify the chi? Or can we just believe the chi and practice Tai Chi and yoga? Obviously, we are doing Tai Chi and Yoga. We didn’t wait “scientific” prove. We feel great after Tai Chi and yoga. That’s enough.

UB13 (fei (lung) shu), UB15 (xin (heart) shu), UB18 (gan (liver) shu), UB19 (dan (gall bladder) shu), UB20 (pi (spleen) shu), UB21 (wei (stomach) shu), UB22 (sanjiao shu), UB23 (shen shu), UB24 (qihai shu), UB25 (da chang (large intestine) shu), UB27 (xiao chang (small intestine) shu), UB28 (pangguang (urinary bladder) shu),

UB37 (Yinmen), UB40 (Weizhong)

UB meridian is the largest detoxifying channel in the body. In order to remove toxins from the body, UB meridians have to be kept unimpeded. If the toxins are accumulated and not removed, various kinds of problems will occur in the body.

In my Tui Na routine, I will work on the whole back first (include UB13 to UB28), then back of legs and feet (include UB37, UB40, to UB67). It’s like doing the plumbing work, open this main detoxifying channel. If the person hasn’t had massage for a long time and the body has already accumulated too much toxin, he/she may feel overwhelmed by the Tui Na session, may feel sick after Tui Na. This is the normal reaction. The key is to drink lots of water and let the toxins flush out the body through urination.

UB meridian is like the sewage system. The wastes are collected. But before draining out the system, the wastes must be treated. In our body, the treatment is done by kidney and kidney meridian.

In my years of Tui Na practice, I’ve seen different people had different reaction after their Tui Na session. For most people, they felt great. For some people, if they were in bad shape, they might feel awful, due to toxins overwhelming the body. For other people, if they drank lots of water, they might feel OK. But if they drank wine or other alcoholic beverage, they would feel sick. Because alcohol will increase the burden on kidney. It’s as if the sewage treatment unit capacity is reduced, the the sewage overflow and contaminate the whole city. So, alcohol will do strange things to your body. You may feel headache, you may vomit (another sign that the detoxification goes in the other direction), or pain on some parts of your body. But these symptoms will go away eventually. You should continue the detoxification process.

This morning, when I turned on the NPR, doctors, scientists, researchers, patients were talking about fibromyalgia. So many people are affected by fibromyalgia, so much money have been put into research and study, yet, so little people can do about it. Doctors are frustrated, because they cannot pinpoint what the causes are. Patients are frustrated, because they cannot get much help from doctors, and they suffer every day.

This is a perfect example how important the preventive and alternative medicines should take part in our lives. Chronic is not acute. The problem has been developed slowly, maybe for years. But people ignored the signs of the problem. Finally the problem became persistent, widespread, and difficult to treat with the current western medicine (pills).

Pain, based on traditional Chinese medicine, is caused by the blockage of Chi (energy) flow. Regular Tui Na (Chinese massage) can remove the blockage and allow the Chi flow freely. The pain will not stay in your body. On the other hand, if the pain is not taken care of, or the blockage is not removed, it will finally hurt meridians, and eventually affect major organs and develop much serious and complicated problems. Depending on which meridian is affected more, people have different sub symptoms besides pain. Even at this fully onset stage, Tui Na is the choice of treatment.

I have treated people with chronic pain successfully, with Tui Na, Gua Sha, and Ba Guan.

In the next a few days, I will discuss in more details about the Tui Na treatment and self care through yoga and Tai Chi.

(for your information only)

In Traditional Chinese medicine, cold and flu are related to the exposure to cold and damp. The Lung meridian is hurt, weakened, or blocked, depending on the severity. The body cannot get rid itself the toxins efficiently. So your nose is running. Your head is stuffy. Your sinuses are closed. Your whole body is aching.

Understanding that the cold and flu is caused by cold invasion, Traditional Chinese Medicine has very simple ways of treating it. Gua Sha (skin scraping), Ba Guan (cupping), and Tui Na (massage) are very effective. Two meridians–Lung (L) meridian and Urinary Bladder (UB) meridian–are the areas needed to be worked on.

Stimulating the L meridian can strengthen the respiratory function, clearing the throat, eliminating cold elements from your lung. UB meridian is the general channel of detoxification. Massaging, scraping, or cupping the UB condensed back area can move the toxins out of your body, and improve your general immune system. Your body will recover faster.

Last month I had vacation in Japan and China for three weeks. In the last two days of my stay in Shanghai, my body finally could not stand the cold and damp weather and pollution. I started to have sore throat and running nose. With the long flight back to Phoenix, my condition worsened. When I was in San Francisco Airport waiting for my next flight, I did Yin Yoga, to strengthen and improve the UB meridian. I didn’t waste time for self healing. When I finally arrived at home (after 24 hours of total traveling time), before I went to bed, I used my Gua Sha board to scrape my Lung meridians (left and right). My chest turned deep red, which was a good sign. In a simple way of saying, the toxins were removed from my body. My Lung meridians were strengthened by removing the blockage. After 14 hours of sleep, when I woke up in the morning, my nose stopped running, my throat didn’t hurt any more. I was perfectly fine.

(for your information only)

After you learn Tai Chi and yoga, you can practice every day by yourself. Through the movements and stretching, your body is realigned, adjusted, balanced, re-energized, refreshed, and tuned for optimal healing.

Regularly receiving Tui Na will have the same benefits of daily Tai Chi and yoga. A typical session of Tui Na will cover working all 14 meridians, with stretching, rocking, pressing, kneading, and rolling techniques. The healing happens when your body is relaxed, and blockages are removed.

Take good care of your body, your life will be more joyful.