How to Detoxify with Tummy Massage

Healthy Modern living requires Detoxification. The core of our wellbeing is reliant on the healthy functioning of our internal organs.

Whether your symptoms are irrational behavior, excess moodiness, acne or muscle soreness; the source of your condition is toxic organ(s).

Organs can become overloaded or fatigued from physical, mental and emotional stresses. And visa versa. Physical conditions like blurry vision; mental disorders like attention deficit; negative emotions like excess anger or lack of self confidence can be the result of poor functioning organs.

In my pursuit of "fixing" my allergy to healthy foods with high sugar content and high blood sugar, I stumbled onto an ancient healing modality called Chi Nei Tsang.

Literally translated "Chi" means your internal life force. And "Nei Tsang" means internal organ massage. For my earlier blog entries of about Chi Nei Tsang go to http://our-metamorphosis.blogspot.com/2011/01/chi-nei-tsang-what-is.h

Gilles Marin defines Chi Nei Tsang more elegantly in his book "Healing from within with Chi Nei Tsang ". http://www.chineitsang.com/cnti/Healing_From_Within.html.

He writes, "Chi Nei Tsang translates into working the entry and programming of the internal organs" or "transformation of the visceral attitude". A wholistic approach to massage therapy within a Traditional Chinese Medicine paradigm, it integrates a person's physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual energy.". To learn more about Gilles and his courses go to http://our-metamorphosis.blogspot.com/2011/01/gilles-marin.html

Gilles' Master, Mantak Chia's description may shed more light for those of us, who are less knowledgeable of Taoism and Traditional Chinese Medicine. He reveals that, "The Taoists discovered that most maladies could be healed once the underlying toxins and negative forces were released from the body. They developed the art of Chi Nei Tsang to recycle and transform negative energies that obstruct the internal organs and cause knots in the abdomen. Chi Nei Tsang clears out the toxins, bad emotions and excessive heat or heat deficiencies that cause the organs to malfunction."

Therefore a happy healthy harmonious life is greatly affected by the health and purity of your internal organs. And that Chi Nei Tsang is a holistic way for you to maintain them.

Learning to be a Chi Nei Tsang instructor means learning about the affects of the body on the mind and the emotions and visa versa. Advance training includes learning how the energy of each emotion can affect another emotion. Yes Einstein would have loved it because it makes the concept that "we are energy" more approachable to those of us with less scientific or mathematical minds.

I have been practicing on staff and clients and no stomach massage happens without discussions of how we can revive the balance of our internal organs mentally and emotionally along with diet and exercise. Somehow the tummy massage makes us more susceptible to healthy advice.

On the CD " Harmonizing Our Inner Earth", found at http://www.chineitsang.com/cnti/Inner_Earth.html , Gilles shares how you can strengthen the pancreas to better digest food and metabolize sugar. He also teaches how we can customize our diet and do meditations that help you ground so that you can increase your feeling of security and self esteem while decreasing the need for approval.

At http://our-metamorphosis.blogspot.com/2011/01/normal-0-false-false-false.html, I share Gilles' advice on how to not to fear or hide from the sun and become more healthy. The sun's energy is so vital to us that the skin colour we consider characteristics of of ethnicity is really just our bodies response to sunlight and the geography of our ancestors.

I will share more about my experience with Chi Nei Tsang and go through the ways you can detoxify each individual organs slong with their affects on your physical, mental and emotional health in subsequent blogs.

I also finally got an appointment with Dorothy Ramien, of the Khadro School of Chi Nei Tsang http://www.khadrochineitsang.com/content/who-khadro. It was quite a feat as she is busy with international teaching. I have had treatments from Gilles and Cynthia in San Francisco but Dorothy is the only certified practitioner in The Greater Toronto Area so I would like to share that experience with you in July after my treatment.

I would love to say I can share an experience at Master Chia's Tao Garden resort in Thailand. But no such luck. But if you are looking for a very reasonable, exotic and healthy vacation explore http://www.tao-garden.com/. If you are so fortunate to visit, please share your experience with us

Is your Pancreas Worrying You?

Conventional wisdom says, “You are what you eat.”

But more accurately, my Ayurvedic Teacher Dr. Shanbhag says it is, “You are what you digest.”

But if you really want to get to the root of your digestive problems you need to heed, Chi Nei Tsang Master, Gilles Marin, who takes us deeper into the significance of our organs of digestion. The stomach and pancreas are organs of Earth Energy. Earth energy within in us creates a sense of stability and when in balance can strengthen the function of our other organs and when in imbalance can amplify their dysfunction.

According to Master Marin in his book, “Healing from Within with Chi Nei Tsang” he tell us that, “Symptoms are usually an attempt from disregarded parts of ourselves to be heard: alarm signals telling us to pay attention to very personal needs.” Pg 53 “Chronic symptoms are generally a sign a part of ourselves has been repeatedly shut out, isolated and /or mistreated to the point of dissociation, breakdown and revolt.” Pg 55 “Symptoms that appear unrelated very often are different expressions of the same meaning. pg 56

When things are not well with these Earth organs, more than poor nutrition occurs. Symptoms start in the skin first. Congested skin can be the first signs of poor digestion.

As symptoms intensify; acne, rashes, and wrinkles can appear around the mouth. Evidence that I have pancreatic issues is seen on the corners of my mouth. At times it is a inflamed eczema and at other time a dark almost black pigmentation.

You can also experience nausea, hiccups, acid reflux, bloating and tightness in the abdomen. Many of us have large bellies due to gas and bloating and not over eating. Your appetites can also become dominated with cravings.

With poor digestion, you can also experience mental muddiness, blurry eye sight, gum disorders and negative emotions like anxiety, insecurity, worry and a sense of disconnection.

So while detoxification by other means like fasting and herbs can be helpful, Chi Nei Tsang can also help you begin to listen to your body.

When Earth energy is balanced you feel secure and become more in touch with yourself. This leads to spontaneous, sharing behavior, fair mindedness and the ability to be in harmony with others.

And you will notice your Earth energy in flux when you start to become obstinate, possessive, disconnected and envious. You will find your other negative traits like worry or insecurity more pronounced.

Clammy hands are a symptom of unbalanced Earth energy becoming stuck in the body’s extremities.

Problems with the stomach and pancreas can be varied and complex. I recommend you find a good naturopath or TCM to start you on your way to recovery. I found that it starts with eating a diet that is best for you. This would be a diet that includes foods that increase your energy and immunity and avoiding foods that you are allergic to and foods that inflame your organs.

We are fortunate, at least in the major cities, as people no longer react negatively to people who do not eat what is considered a “normal” diet.

Supplement stores have much that can help improve the functioning of our digestive organs. But without understanding the root cause of our uncomfortable symptoms we can purchase digestive enzymes, probiotics and other expensive supplements with little real results.

After over 40 years of poor digestion, I have found good results with changes in diet and in some physical therapies like massage and exercises like yoga and meditation. But since my symptoms of bloating, indigestion, acidic stomach persisted, I discovered the ancient and little known healing of Chi Nei Tsang.

While Chi Nei Tsang is an overall healing for the whole person using mainly Abdominal Organ Massage, it an ideal healing method for those of us with digestive problems.

The abdomen’s organs do more than digest food- they also digest emotions and thoughts and I am amazed at how much my organs can teach me about myself.

My first appointment I learned that my inability digesting thoughts and emotions were being reflected in my congested pancreatic/stomach area and my indecision in choosing what was beneficial for me caused the constipation in the left descending colon.

Because Khadro, had to go to Australia to teach Chi Nei Tsang for a couple of weeks, I have enough time to practice sorting out things in my life and in the basement of my house. Yes, I practiced making choices.

My second appointment taught me more. My poor digestion is due to the congestion in the triangle area where my ribs meet but also the area where the ducts of the liver and pancreas deliver digestive enzymes and bile to the stomach and small intestines to digest food.

While my digestion has improved I have much to improve in making clear judgements in my daily life. To supplement my mental and emotional growth, I am using my Tummy tool to massage the diaphragm area concentrating in the triangular area to help keep the ducts of the pancreas and liver clear so that the digestive enzymes and juices are able to get to my stomach.

So I am finally touching my pancreas which was the inital goal that instigated this journey with Chi Nei Tsang.

Detoxing Your Way to Sanity

-->

Why refrain from eating your favourite foods or forgoing any food for any frame of time?

Or, why have reflexology and shiatsu massage to improve organ function?

Annual and semi-annual bowel, liver and other internal organ house cleaning is widely accepted as beneficial for physical health. But according to Asian health followers it is also good for our psychological and emotional health.

Mantak Chi (it’s hard to define him so follow the link) advocates that psychological treatment with Chi Nei Tsang (Chi Internal Organ Massage) will give clients better results

-->described in his book and that of his disciple, Gilles Marin .

Conventional medicine supports this theory in the New York Times best seller, The Second Brain by Neurobiologist, Michael Gershon

I have personally experienced this while doing Julia Chang’s Liver Gallbladder Cleanse. Even though I have been doing internal cleansing since I was in my twenties, I still experienced facial breakouts and increased anger and irritability in my day to day encounters as my repressed anger is being cleared as well. It is common knowledge in Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine that the condition of the liver and gallbladder can affect the emotions with increased anger, bitterness, irritability and frustration. And excess anger and bitterness can affect the functions of the liver.

“"Sickness of the liver," the Nei Jing tells us, "causes...people... to have fits of anger." Anger causes Qi-and tempers-to rise. Maciocia reminds us that anger can be considered to include irritability, frustration, rage, indignation, animosity or bitterness. Anger, when expressed appropriately, may not cause harm; when chronic or suppressed, it may become pathogenic. (quote from Qi: Journal of Traditional Eastern Health and Fitness”

Other emotional / organ partners are fear / kidneys, grief and sorrow / lungs; worry / stomach; joy / heart. (for more information see the Qi: Journal of Traditional Eastern Health and Fitness)

If you do not like to do internal cleansing with diet, you can do it with massage and exercise. Yoga postures are an excellent way to stimulate and detox the organs. While all Yoga exercise stimulate your organs to detox, I find the meditative, restorative yoga of Iyengar as taught at the Yoga Centre of Toronto may be more fitting for this purpose than the more aerobic or energetic schools..

While Yoga postures can be customized to your body and flexibility, some people who are not very flexible (many males), who are elderly may prefer to practice Tai chi at the Taoist Centres in Toronto. http://toronto.taoist-tai-chi.org/content/standard_ca_to.asp . Here you will be encouraged and guided patiently through the Tai Chi sequence of over 100 movements. If done correctly these movements are designed to strengthen your core as well as detox the organs. This may explain the popularity of this organization with those who are elderly or recuperating from major diseases.

Those who want to combine organ health with martial arts can learn the original Tai Chi practiced by the Shao Lin warriors. This is being taught worldwide by Master Wong Kiew Kit. He travels over the world and come to Toronto regularly but you can learn from his Canadian group of teachers by going to his site.

If you prefer to detox when completely relaxed then order a Lymphomaniac Facial at any Pure and simple and receive a stomach reflexology massage with your facial treatment. If you ask (nicely ;) the esthetician will help you design a stomach massage routine you can do daily each morning to give yourself a great start daily.

If you are too sensitive for direct stomach massage or would like the added benefit of better foot and leg health, get foot reflexology massage. You can even receive this treatment in the comfort of your home or office with Jean Louie (http://jeanlouiereflexology.com/ . Her rates are competitive with in clinics treatments.

Foot reflexology is an excellent ‘ two for one ‘, for seniors and those suffering from foot problems. I highly recommend foot reflexology for people with high blood sugar and diabetes. It will help to alleviate symptoms and problems from poor circulation like edema, numbness while stimulating the chi to your internal organs.

Poor Digestion? You have an Energy Crisis

Digestion requires energy. How many of us can willing sit quietly to eat? How many of us believe eating is a time to multi-task?

As urbane ambitious people we spend very little energy to digest our food. Our greedy ambitious brains grab at least 20% of our body’s energy output and we willing give it more as we read or work as we eat.

Then many of us are concerned about our weight or body measurements so we choose to lower our caloric food intake resulting in lower energy intake. To further lower our calorie (energy) utilization, we are choosing harder to digest raw or almost raw foods. A high percentage of the raw food we eat is not digested.

But diets of raw, low fat, low carbohydrate foods have become popular as we have come to believe those foods to be best for our health.

A good example of how diet demagoguery can use science to promote it. The Paleo Diet ( http://paleodiet.com/). Proponents of the diet eat the foods of our hunter gatherer ancestor. A diet that our ancestors ate sounds like an good diet for us longing for the simple life. This combination of the raw food diet with Atkins sounds inviting to those who are nostalgic about the past. With visions of wholesome unfettered food and the simple life, we start to stock our freezers with meat (guess the hunter ancestors we are envisioning were living in the ice age) and our refrigerators with vegetables ( with gathering is so much easier with a supermarket near by).

Those of us who have tried low carbohydrate or Atkins diets have found that we can become very dehydrated and those less fortunate found our kidneys really hate protein overload.

But who hasn’t wanted to eat our food in its most natural form, raw, only to find that our stomachs were not so nostalgic.

Raw food and high protein diets take more energy to digest and many of us are just not ready to change our lifestyles enough to accommodate it.

So what diet is best for us. First there is no one size fits all so seeking out professional help is advisable. Call a school of holistic nutrition i.e. http://instituteofholisticnutrition.com/ihn.asp or a directory http://www.enviromedicine.com/index1.htm

To improve our digestion, we need to get more energy to our bellies but where is that energy going to be coming from?

If you are an extreme athlete, are you willing to reduce your practice to give your digestion the extra energy it needs?

If you are on an ambitious run in your career, are you willing to slow down to improve digestion?

Or if you are a consummate thinker or worrier do you have a strategy to lower your brains demands on your body’s energy supply so you can improve your overall health?

If the answer to any or all of the above questions is yes, then you are all set to better digestion. And don’t need to read further.

But if the answer is no or if you chronically experiencing low energy, then instead of redistributing energy we need to increase the amount of energy.

We can add energy directly to the digestive system with digestive enzymes, spices and herbs and by cooking our food. Taking a full spectrum digestive enzyme (my best performing one is Genestra’s Digest Plus) with your meals will give your stomach support in metabolizing the foods you eat.

You can help digestion by starting the metabolic process outside of your stomach by cooking or marinating (vinegar, lemon as in a salad dressing) or salting it.

Yes, cooking reduces the nutritional value of your food but it will add digestive energy to the food. Cooked food is more easily digested and allows our body to utilize more of its nutritional value.

We can also increase our energy supply to our bodies which can increase our digestive energy. They include increasing the time or quality of our sleep, practicing Chi Kung (Chi Kung is the only exercise that nets you more energy), meditation and Pranayama (yogic breathing exercises) and increasing the amount of calories in our food intake.

Each one of us will benefit from some of the above suggestions more than others. i.e. cooking our food is great for those of us who are mind active while exercising the belly is better for those of us with slow digestive metabolism..

Some of the suggestions are not suitable for some of us. i.e increasing food intake is not recommended for those with slow metabolism or cooked food is not so beneficial for those of us who suffer from inflammation.

The more aware you are of the characteristics your body and mind, the more effective your choices will be. In the next installment I will try to help you choose some of the suggestions with the help of Ayurveda.