- This topic has 10 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 14 years, 11 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
I’ve read that Healing Tao can reduce your cold and flu’s but it doesn’t seem to work for me. I’ve caught 3 colds in the last 8 weeks. It has been cold here in Tianjin, China (around -7 during the day) but all year around i get sick nearly every month or two.
I’ve been practicing 3 years with the last 1 year very intensely (2-6 hrs a day) since i’ve had alot of free time here in China. But i still get cold and flu’s rediculously easy.
A psychosomatic problem i have with my eye which i realise now is due to me tensing up my neck/chest/shoulders is slowly improving but my colds still persist.
I practice IronShirt I & III MCO, Fusion I, II & III and started Lesser Kan & Li not too long ago. I eat plenty of fruit and veges and i do a 4km run twice a week, gym 3 times a week and bit of tai chi on the weekends.
My wife does bugger all exercise, never meditates and rarely gets a cold…. it’s not fair! haha
Anyone had any luck stopping colds and flu’s with healing dao? My symptoms do get better when i practice but an hr or so after practice the symptoms return.
Many people get colds or the flu when their immune system gets weak. If you are doing a lot of iron shirt III or tiring yourself out through too much excercise, that could contribute towards draining your kidney (jing) qi.
I think the most beneficial for healing the body are practices that draw up earth qi, and practices that cultivate neutral force like kan and li.
I have noticed that my resistance has dramatically increased, but it takes a while for your body/energy body to change, and what practices you focus on. I do mainly kan and li through primordial qigong and related things. I often function at an extreme sleep deficit meaning that my resistance should be lower, but have not yet gotten sick this year.
It also helps if you are able to prevent loss of jing qi through ejaculation. Some good herbs to aid in that are schizandra, cornus (mixed with he shou wu and goji) as a tonic (not intended to treat anything) and gynostemma tea. Schizandra and cornus are both astringent herbs that help to root the jing more deeply in the body.
I concur with a lot of what singing ocean said.
Given my past, being a person who used to catch a lot
of colds/flu, I have a few things to add:Colds/Flu are caused by three necessary ingredients:
1. your body being run down
+ 2. exposure
+ 3. weak immune systemIf you only have two out of the three, you probably
won’t get sick.Regarding #1 (your body being run down):
In general, doing qigong will reduce the likelihood of getting
a cold, but this is in large part because qigong relaxes you
and gives the body a rest. Therefore, you are less likely
to be a state of being run down. However, if you are practicing
intensely and doing a lot of physical exercise, you can
wear yourself down from practice; thereby counteracting the
health benefit. This doesn’t mean you can’t practice intensely,
but you need to know your limits and give your body a rest
from time to time.Regarding #2 (exposure):
Number 1 rule here is to WASH YOUR HANDS REGULARLY and thoroughly.
There are plenty of things we touch that contain viruses, and
then we touch our eyes or scratch our cheek or stick a Q-tip
(we put viruses on) into our ears. Most of us are trained to
wash our hands after we use the restroom, but its a good idea
if you have a big bladder/colon to wash your hands periodically
even if you don’t need to use the bathroom. This is one of the
major reasons doctors don’t get sick a lot even though
they see tons of sick patients. They wash their hands after/before
each patient. Plenty of places to pick up germs you wouldn’t
think of. Doorknobs are obvious, but elevator buttons,
public computer keyboards/keypads, and retailer pens used to sign
store receipts are other places ripe to spread germs.
Of course, don’t be a germ-o-phobe/fanatic about contacting germs
as that creates a fear-based energy likely to increase your odds of
getting sick, but just be mindful of washing your hands regularly
and thoroughly.Regarding #3 (weak immune system):
Some of this is genetic, but one of the most effective ways I’ve
found to strengthen the immune system is by taking
Probiotic capsules DAILY. Your gut’s flora is basically your
front line defense against germs. Prior antibiotic use, eating
a lot of sugar, and other miscellaneous things can destroy this
front line defense. I stumbled onto this after I noticed an
ex of mine almost never getting sick, yet she ate large quantities
of yogurt every day. I figured that due to my genetic makeup
I probably needed a stronger dose of probiotics, so even though
I eat yogurt now, I also daily take a strong dose of probiotic
capsules. Doing this created the most significant change
(that I noticed anyway) in how frequently I get colds/flu.
Just last semester I noticed how a lot of my students (same ones) got
sick with a cold THREE different times during the semester, and
many times the whole class was sick. I only caught a cold once
during my constant exposure and only lasted three days.
In the past, if someone got sick near me, I was guaranteed to get it.
Not now. Of all things I’ve done, this one created the most
significant change for me.Of course, once you are unlucky enough to catch something, then
doing things like Deep Healing Qigong, taking ginger & garlic
(antiviral compounds), and good ol’ fashioned bed rest
can speed its departure.Steven
Thanks alot for all your comments.
I do find garlic, echniasia and green tea work great when i’ve got a cold and dairy definately does mess it up worse.
If i change around diets and do a fruit/vege diet for a week that can bring on a cold too – not detox feeling a proper cold.
Same if i’ve been eating alot of veges then i eat a heap of meat that can do it too.My wife took me to some real good TCM doctor here that people line up for hours and wake up at 4am to line up to see him and he said it’s not real sickness just some internal heat or just cold symptoms. If my lungs are real sore and cough up yellow phlem lumps though my doctor in Australia would say thats a chest infection. I get sick so often though i normally don’t even bother going to the doctor just wait a week till it’s gone – by the time they give you medicine and it starts to work the cold is gone already.
Maybe i am exercising too much, maybe i can give gym a rest for a while and just do some cardio. I can never go 6 weeks of gym without getting sick and it slows down my gains… maybe i’d be better off doing 2-3 weeks then a week rest or something.
Thing is i remember when i was 22 or so (i’m 27 now) i downloaded some navy seals training thing off the net and i went gym, swam and ran every day 6 days a week, i was fit as a fiddle and i never got sick. I could feel part of a cold comming in but it couldn’t take hold i had so much energy i didn’t get any symptoms.I’ll try getting some vitamins and a bit more rest and take it easy. Maybe i can stretch instead.
Strange thing is relaxing, and ‘taking it easy’ is not easy for me at all, it’s one of the hardest things for me to do. I want to strive and achieve as a wood type should. I want to be fitter, faster, stronger but my body is holding me back!
I used to get lots of colds and flus. I was also surprised that they continued to occur despite practicing HT. For the last two years I have barely gotten sick. What happened? I got divorced, and got into a relationship with a wonderfully deep and loving woman.
Now, I am not suggesting that you get a divorce too! But, you might want to examine the outer forces in your life – environment, work, relationships etc. I do not believe that inner work (e.g. meditation, alchemy, qi gong, psychotherapy)can get us into balance with all outer forces in our life. Sometimes we need to practice external taoism, and move away from those stresses (in my case, my ex) and move towards conditions that are more healthy for us (in my case, Wonder Wendy).
best of luck!
Chris
Maybe you should go through your overall practice and see if you mess with your wai qi (outer, protective qi). Maybe you exhaust it with your gym or running (just an example)…
Watch your inhalation/exhalation rate! Exhalation longer than inhalation should build wai qi (and vice versa).
Iron Shirt III (i.e. Xi Sui – Bone marrow washing) draws your energy inside and shouldn’t be done too much over winter, but Iron Shirt II (i.e. Yi Jin – Muscle and tendon change) is suitable for cold days since it moves energy on the perifery of the body.
Al least, that’s what I’ve heard from Jang, Jwing Ming’s video (I am actually a beginner and do not do these practices yet.)Best regards!
O
>>>NO chocolate
What? OK, you lost me there.
I think I’d rather fall into a wood chipper
than give up dark chocolate.Plus it’s got plenty of antioxidants.
And it’s yummy. 🙂
In all seriousness, probiotics are the key.
You can skip the yogurt for mucus reasons, just take the probiotics.Thanks for mentioning about the water quality;
that’s good to know.S
>>>Strange thing is relaxing, and ‘taking it easy’
>>>is not easy for me at all, it’s one of the hardest
>>>things for me to do. I want to strive and achieve
>>>as a wood type should. I want to be fitter, faster,
>>>stronger but my body is holding me back!I tend to be the same way, so I understand this idea.
But you don’t want to have the idea that
“your body is holding you back”.Creating negative “me against the body” attitudes,
not only harms the body, but makes it even more difficult
to get your wills in alignment, i.e. it will be more
difficult to get healthy if your body doesn’t feel like
it’s good enough or it doesn’t measure up.Better to adopt the attitude of telling the body you want
to work with it and support and nurture it. Give it love.
Doing this will strengthen the body. Negative attitudes
will weaken it.Just reframe your attitude . . .
Relaxing, destressing, etc. should not be viewed as “not
accomplishing something”. If you want to have an
achiever attitude you can view it as you are listening
to your body, supporting its growth, so that you can
better enjoy the present moment and life itself. It
becomes an act of self-love.Love your body and it will love you back.
Smiles,
StevenYeah i have been getting a bit better with this idea. Now i look more at my sick time as a chance to just veg out, watch movies and get cosey and be lazy. Thing is i also indulge in chips and junk food during this time which isn’t much good for my cold but at least i don’t resent getting sick so much as i used to.
I think the healing tao is more useful for changing your thoughts so you don’t care so much about your health problems rather than actually fixing the problems – what i actually originally thought it would do. I guess it’s better than nothing though 🙂
Besides there are still heaps of other non-health benefits of practicing.
not caring and accepting
hello zoose,
i noticed you said “I think the healing tao is more useful for changing your thoughts so you don’t care so much about your health problems rather than actually fixing the problems”. there is a difference between not caring about your health problems and accepting them, which brings about healing. smile =)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.