progress and blocks

Adel,

I am doing these practices for nearly 18 years now and I feel I am still learning from the fundamentals, even when I teach them myself I learn from it. So don’t feel hesitant to move on with the other practices. It is a neverending process of moving on and looking back, learning more and going back, walking and living the maze.

As for taking herbal formulas it sounds you are afraid of becoming dependant? Why not help your colon a bit with letting go, be nice for your body and your organs, they might need some help now, after all they have been a certain way for a long time. It is okay to help them a bit…. and for becoming dependant… as long as you take the herbs in a loving caring way as a way of helping your intestines you will not be dependant but contrary caring. Don’t take things out of fear but out of love, don’t resist things out of fear but feel if loving care is what your intestines might help right now, so herbs might be a helping tool.

After exploring your care/resistance and you still feel resistance taking it, massage your belly twice a day from right to left down and while you do it feel you let go of whatever is there, relax your anus, relax your jaw, and relax your breath when you push down and out…

good luck with your process and progress..,
Wendy

Hi Adel,

Glad to see you got a boost from your time here.
You sound much freer and joyful.

As to the smoking side-effects of constipation, etc.,
I can speak a lot about this. It’s something I’ve
dealt with many times over the years.

*Addiction* to smoking is perpetuated by the liver,
which also functions to provide peristaltic action
to cause movement through the colon. Smoking *itself*
via the lung-large intestine connection, aids the
large intestine in letting go.

What these two things together mean is:
Take away the smoking, and you get constipated.
It’s a common reaction, and I’ve experienced it personally.

But that’s not to say you should go back to smoking!

What you are witnessing is a holding pattern that
you always had that was being covered up/self-medicated
by the smoking.

In other words, your intuition about diving into the
Fusion 1 work is right on the money. It will help you
get in touch with your emotions and shen on a deeper
level and give you more insight into what you are
“holding onto”. You can always keep returning to
the Fundamentals and do them randomly mixed into
different days as you work on learning Fusion.
Fundamentals never becomes obsolete as you move onward,
they are always useful tools. Fusion just adds more
tools to the tool box.

Getting to the underlying issues that you are holding
onto and releasing them completely is really the key
to resolving these symptoms permanently. Take my advice
on this one. If you don’t face these dark demons now, then
either consciously or subconsciously, you will use this
physical and mental discomfort as an excuse to go back
to the “alluring comfort” of smoking when you are
especially vulnerable. I’ve personally fallen into this
trap, having quit and restarted the smoking habit
more times than I’m happy to admit.

But while you are on your personal journey to identify
and release these holding patterns, there are some
things you can do as stop-gap measures to get your
colon to work a little better without reintroducing
tobacco.

Here are some that I’ve found, but you’ll have to play
with them yourself and see what works for you:

For one, start making an effort to drinking more
water. Water helps lubricate movement in the colon, and lack
of it causes constipation . . . this is something you
don’t realize if you are smoking, because the nicotine
does the work of getting your colon to move the waste.

Second, some tapping on your belly/intestinal wall
would be good. In particular, tap clockwise in the direction
from right side of your body to left (direction of colonic motion).
This will help the colon to simultaneously relax its tension
pattern of holding and also help it to move things along.
Since you bought a Wire Hitter while you were here, you might
try gently using that and see if the vibrations from that help;
but if not, you can always just use a closed soft fist. It’s
worth playing with anyway. As you hit your intestines, do
the Lung Sound.

Third, qigong that activates the Lung-Large Intestine pathway,
I’ve personally found to be helpful. Riding the Cosmic Horse
is one of my favorites for this; Deep Earth Pulsing being a
second.

Also, you could try some herbal formulas if you want.
It’s true that the best way is always from inside, but realistically
that can also take some time. The question then becomes, if
it does take time, are you willing to continue to “endure” the
discomfort until then, or will you just say “screw it” and return
to smoking? There’s nothing wrong with some outside support,
such as herbals. The worst that could happen is, as you say,
you become dependent on them (should I say addicted?), but if
that’s the case, how is that any different from being addicted
to the “herb” tobacco? In other words, if the worst you can
get is “status quo”, then that sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?
And if you use the herbals as support as tender kindness to yourself
for the purpose of helping your transition, it is unlikely you
will develop dependence.

However, if you are reluctant to try the herbal route, I’d still
recommend trying the other three things, namely the extra water,
belly tapping, and qigong I mentioned, as well as diving into
your internal issues via Fusion 1.

Do an Inner Smile to your intestines.
Say “I love you intestines!!”
Tell them how wonderful they are, and how you happy you
are they are there. Tell them that you are there for them,
and accept them for whatever they are holding onto. The
key to letting go is acceptance.

OK, I’ll stop talking now; already probably given you enough to
chew on ^_^

Feel free to share any findings . . .

Warm wishes,
Steven

I wish you strength and joy for life…

Wendy

Hi Adel,

Your cat is learning how to do Chi Nei Tsang? Sounds “purrfect”!
She’s showing you love and giving you support. ^_^
Animals are very intuitive that way.

I was happy to provide my personal experience . . .
We are all in it together 😉

Best wishes on your progress,
Steven