Written by Andres Vergara, Dipl.OM, L.Ac. and Michele Collins Vergara, RH (AHG), MPH
Anxiety often represents an advanced progression of various smaller imbalances and thought patterns.
In Chinese medicine various symptoms are used as clues to understand how to easily and practically address the reality of anxiety. In order to best help we ask clients to breakdown how does anxiety feel in their body. Are there heart palpitations? Is there a shortness of breath? Spinning thoughts? Sleep trouble? Anxiety will show up differently in different people and breaking the phenomenon into simple understandable parts allows for a heart felt approach that sees the individual as just that, a person having a unique experience.
This is one of the key strengths of Chinese Medicine, the ability to customize and tailor acupuncture, herbal formulas, and medical qi gong treatments to exactly where that person is at a given moment in time so as to achieve maximum healing. Anxiety does not exist by itself. There is a body, a life history, an accumulation of thoughts and ideas that go along with the person who is experiencing anxiety. The heartfelt and practical approach of seeing the person as a whole beyond a simple label is part of what makes Chinese medicine so effective. Chinese medicine identifies a pattern picture, unique to the individual, that is not a permanent condition, but one that can evolve and change as the individual evolves.
The seven emotions are considered to be a cause of internal imbalance in Chinese medicine. The seven emotions are anger, fear, fright or shock, grief, overexcitement, and worry. These emotions can cause great harm overtime if not addressed because they represent patterns of disharmony that manifest as physical symptoms like heart palpitations, insomnia, and nervous tension. The role of emotions in physical health has long been recognized in Chinese medicine. Because of this recognition, there are a myriad of acupuncture points, point combinations, herbs, and medical qi gong treatments that have evolved in clinical practice over thousands of years that very effectively address the internal dynamic causing the unique and variable manifestation of the feeling of anxiety.
The physical signs and symptoms show the way anxiety is impacting the person as a whole and point to the exact combination of herbs, acupuncture points, qi gong prescriptions, food choices, and medical qi gong. By addressing these physical symptoms and manifestations of anxiety the individual is then able to more easily examine the roots of their anxiety with a deeper resilience and strength. The same is true of anxious and circular thinking. Acupuncture, herbs, and qi gong can simplify and streamline your body’s organ systems and facilitate clear, heartfelt thinking and habits.
One tool that we find very helpful for anxiety and for other emotional issues is the use of a qi gong exercise called the healing sounds. There is a corresponding sound meditation in qi gong for each of the five organ systems. These five organ systems represent our key physical, mental/emotional, and spiritual functions. The sounds create a resonate vibration in the organ and helps to release any stored energy or emotions. There is a sixth sound for the triple warmer, an organ that is identified in Chinese medicine but not in western anatomy. The triple warmer represents the connective tissue that integrates the functioning of those five organ systems.
The healing sounds can help you release emotions and energy that have been stored in your body tissues, either recently or from a long time ago, consuming useful energy, that can be then freed for increased health and vitality. While specific sounds are recommended to individuals based on their unique presentation, the heart sound can be very helpful for many people at releasing any chaotic feelings of being overwhelmed and establish a deeper sense of calm.
Resources for You to Learn Qi Gong
We offer two resources to allow you to explore some of these basic qi gong meditations. One, available as a CD or MP3 downloads, is called Qi Gong for Radiant Health. This CD introduces you to an aspect of your body’s basic operating system, the five organ systems, and how to manage it for improved health. We guide you through nine individual meditations that combine several Taoist meditative exercises to deeply cleanse and rejuvenate you. You learn the six healing sounds that stimulate the five key organ systems in Chinese medicine – the lungs, the kidneys, the liver, the heart, and the spleen, a 6th sound for the triple warmer, as well as a seventh combination of sounds which can also be used for improved physical, mental, and emotional health. There are also two meditations that incorporate the inner smile, a meditation that is used to increase self love and acceptance. We offer more detailed descriptions that can help you to choose which one might best support you. Or you can incorporate them with herbs and acupuncture as part of a comprehensive approach.
The second resource is a set of meditations, available as a CD or MP3 downloads called Qi Gong for Emotional Health which builds on the practices introduced in Qi Gong For Radiant Health. There are six meditation tracks on this CD designed to teach you a step by step method for transforming unhelpful emotions into a digestable and nourishing energy that will benefit your health and longevity. We guide you through six meditation tracks, the progression of which is designed to lead you through the various steps of the process and teach you to fuse and to absorb emotions into useable qi. The foundation for these methods is cultivating your innate virtues – compassion and kindness, unconditional love and a sense of order, deep trust, integrity and strength, and wisdom and stillness. These virtues can then be used to transform and integrate imbalanced emotions, using either a more gentle approach to neutralize them or a more active approach to dissolve them. With practice and experience, these meditations can be used in real time to internally resolve charged emotions and see yourself and others more clearly. The meditations on this CD are best used once you have a good basic awareness of the 5 organs (lungs, kidneys, liver, heart, spleen) highlighted in Qi Gong For Radiant Health.
For more information about scheduling a visit for acupuncture, herbs, or qi gong you can email us or call us at 336-739-0317.
