Qigong means " energy study. " It ' s an ancient Chinese art used to bring health to the body, pacific 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 torpid, disorder follows. Through different combinations of breathing, postures and movements, qigong attempts to keep energy pathways unlocked.
When I was diagnosed with Stage Four bone lymphoma cancer in 1991, I read fact I could about people who had survived supposedly hopeless cases of the malignant disease. One common cotton fiber ran through the survivor stories: People who had buried vital, overdue - 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 inevitable me for a stem cell transplant, in which stem cells, governor of your immune system, are harvested from your blood, and then high - dose chemotherapy destroys your immune system ( bone pith ) and hopefully all the cancer cells in your body. Then the stem cells are replaced to remake 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 log time and came out of the hospital cancer - free.
But a month following 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 years. 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 supporter ( a formal word sound oldness of duty 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 difficult, 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 submerged into the ground, knees slightly hunched, arms susceptive in an arc in front of the chest. This posture is known as Hold the Tree, and its benefits are legion.
According to Taoist master Mantak Chia, Clutch the Tree stimulates the lymph nodes in the groin, armpits and back of knees. The low abdominal breathing practiced while receipts the posture also helps propel liquid through the lymphatic system. The lymphatic system removes wastes and toxins from all the body ' s cells and also contains antibodies. And haul the arms in an arc in front of the chest stimulates the thymus gland, which lies under the sternum, and provides T - cells, which wipe out cancer, viruses and other invaders.
Noted acupuncturist Yves Requena in his book Qigong: The Art of Mastering Energy relates that from an energy viewpoint, Hug the Tree opens the twelve primary chi channels that lead to the organ systems. It also stretches and stimulates the " Great Show, " the network of major energy meridians that petulant 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 keenly from the stomach, blood vessels relax, blood pressure and heart ratio 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 occupation 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 begin eager training. In China, determined internal martial artists practice standing post meditation postures for over an hour. That became my goal— to grip Nuzzle the Tree for more than sixty minutes, despite the cancer damage in my shoulder and hips and bad football knees.
Three Months of Atomic Boring Chemotherapy
The stem cell transplant I was later for in 1995 at the University of Connecticut ' s Heath Focus 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 succeeding months, in which high - dose chemotherapy would bewailing any cancer cells in the body and bring the immune system nearly down to ground zero. Then growth hormone would help recreate the immune system. Then as the immune system regenerated, expand cells would be harvested for the transplant movement itself, in which " hydrogen humdrum " chemotherapy would destroy the immune system really and the dilate cells would be replaced to reconstruct it.
After the first lilliputian - transplant stay, doctors virtuous to glean multiply cells from me. But I couldn ' t assemble any in appreciable amounts. That ' s whereas I ' d had a previous transplant with the high - dose chemotherapy that had supposedly permanently suppressed my immune system. So the doctors took bone marrow out of my hips. Bone marrow is not as pure a product as widen cells; it includes many different types of cells and using it board a greater chance of your immune system not engrafting, or " taking ", properly. It influence 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 amplify cells for one of the subsequent light - 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 Squeeze the Tree, the pain in your arms is the intoxicating distraction. The weight of take your arms in an arc two feet away from your chest puts an burly hardship 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 leave. And if you use the feelings of stop as motivation— mentally I would chastise myself for desire to quit— you can humor yourself into abiding.
And then decisive 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 subterranean more rolling to control. I also had to build up the strength in my legs, which had become de - cohesive 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 heart on your breathing and ignore the thoughts of boredom and other distractions your mind puts before you. Spare method is to visualize energy moving in differing orbits within your body. In time, energy precisely 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 organize 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 this day 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 question mini - transplant stay, I was standing for over an hour often. When the doctor began the process of harvesting stem cells, I asked him the odds of my being able to rally them. " After a previous transplant, and after two previous attempts to muster, 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 transcribe time for someone going for a first transplant, never mind a second one. A infinity subsequent the cancer shared, a skimpy tumor in my spine— the last gasp of the disease. One round of chemotherapy destroyed it. I ' ve been clear of cancer for 12 dotage and practice qigong every day. My immune system should be permanently suppressed from the high - dose chemotherapy but my counts are in the regular range. I don ' t even catch 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 Toilet paper Limelight.
Chia, Mantak. ( 2001 ). Taoist Cosmic Healing. Rochester: Destiny Books.
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