Khadro's Seminar

The following are the notes I took at Khadro’s Chi Nei Tsang Seminar at Pure + simple King Street West on September 13^th

Chi is information that is transformed by communications. Information /Chi is useless without transformation.

Symptoms are information and have meaning

A common symptom like bloating is communicating an important message from your body to with you.

What would it look like if you did not look at it through the lens of conventional medicine? If you change your perspective you will change the paradigm.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the pancreas, spleen and stomach, organs of the Earth element, are an important part of digestion. The 5 elements; Earth, Water, Fire, Metal and Wood; are the essential energies of the universe. These 5 elements are the essence of our own make up as the microcosm of our body reflects the macrocosm of the universe.

Earth governs self-confidence and security therefore the pancreas, spleen and stomach along with other body tissue like muscles determine our sense of ourselves.

How does the earth element within us become unbalanced?

As children we believed we were entitled. School, culture, society puts limits on us and we become fragmented causing us to become conflicted about who we are.

Therefore digestion is greatly influenced by our sense of self and of course visa versa. When we don't feel good about ourselves we can affect negatively our digestive organs resulting in poor digestion, bloating, gas, acid reflux and constipation/diarrhea.

Good digestion supplies nourishment for good vibrant health. The stomach metabolizes the food we consume with digestive juices to produce chime, a watery nourishing substance. Chime is further metabolized pancreatic enzymes and bile to prepare it to be absorbed in the small intestines. We assimilate what nourishes us and eliminate what we do not need or what is not good for us in the intestines.

When we do not digest our food and our ideas we have a tendency to either store or eliminate everything indiscriminately. Constipation occurs when we store what we cannot digest. How we digest life determines how well our earth organs function.

When we are constipated it affects the lungs. The lungs are connected to the large intestines and both are part of the metal element. If we breathe properly through our diaphragm we can relieve constipation. The Metal element gives us the courage to get rid of things.

No matter what the quality the food we eat, if we are toxic emotionally we cannot assimilate the food effectively.

Focusing on the symptoms of bloating, constipation or indigestion with natural or pharmaceutical solutions, just masks these symptoms. This delays or cheats us the fundamental healing of the mind body and emotions.

Symptoms are information being communicated to us. Masking the symptoms desensitizes us and therefore ill health remains within us. The result is symptoms intensifying or changing making us feel frustrated with the stubborn and or multiple symptoms. While the symptoms appear to be unrelated, they are really caused by the same root cause.

A person suffering migraines, high cholesterol, arthritis and weakening eye sight; will visit different medical specialists which results in that person taking multiple medication to be free of these ‘diseases’. Without understanding the root cause of these diseases, one will not know that these symptoms are common to a toxic liver. And therefore unaware that the cure to all those symptoms is to detoxify their struggling liver and therefore live medication free. For more information on why organ detoxification go to my past blogs on each organ.

The liver filters out what is not good for us along with producing bile for fat digestion and also stores excess sugar.

Liver imbalance can lead to increased anger and visa versa. Anger can be caused by subconscious patterns. There is nothing wrong with your anger. There is a reason you get angry. To find out why we cannot control our anger by uncovering the subconscious.

An anger pattern can have developed during a moment of emotional crisis. The anger may have allowed one to survive the emotional pain. But now we no longer associate the emotional with the initial pain because we have numbed out to survive the emotional pain/memory. When one senses the feeling one gets angry.

We can reset the reactions of our nervous system once we know the cause of the unwanted reaction.

This is an opportunity to become more conscious of your mental and emotional situation. Wood affects the nervous system. The Liver along with the gallbladder and the nerves are organs of the wood element which influence rational thought. Thinking clearly encourages growth in things. Meditation can greatly improve the liver’s function. Meditation will quiet the mind and aid one to become in touch with the self.

Being in touch means you are taking NOTICE. Consciousness is the beginning of understanding how these symptoms originate in your SUBCONCIOUSNESS . THEREFORE BRIDGING THE CONSCIOUS WITH THE SUBCONSCIOUS.

Butterflies - anxiety - heart rate up, shallow breath, sweating and shaking are all symptoms that occur when blood goes to part where it is needed (state of emergency). And they are informing you, you are in state of emergency.

Get Grounded with Kidney Strengthening

Fall has been with us for 2 weeks now. We have just experienced from a distance the turbulence of Hurricane Irene. These 2 things increase the instability and lightness within us.

For those of us who have Vata Prakriti (genetic characteristic to be light, flexible and spiritual) or Vata Vikrati (an imbalance that could manifest as indecision, turbo-speed, and nervous disorders), this can cause extreme imbalance in our behavior and health.

To counteract this very light, fast, dry energy, I recommend including Kidney Chi Kung in your morning practice. It will strengthen the and detoxify the Kidneys a weakness with Vatas and it will help ground you for the day.

It was taught to me by my Chi Nei Tsang Master Gilles Marin along with other useful Chi Kungs like Sleeping Chi Kung, Sunning Meditation and Bone Breathing Chi Kung
The Above Photos will help demonstrate the following instructions. # 1 corresponds with the first photo and so on.

1. With your back facing the Sun - Breathe in and stretch arms up. opening the front of your body
2. Breathe out while simultaneously pulling Chi into your body
3. Continue to breath out as you bend over with length of torso on your thighs
4. Then push your tail bone up as far as you can without releasing your torso from your thighs. Feel the Chi of your Kidneys in this position
5. release and start to open front of body as you breath in and stretch arms upwards. Go to #1 and start again

It is important to have your back face the sun so that the sun's infared rays can nourish your kidney area.

You can add another step to intensify the cleansing of your kidney. Half way in #5 stop and tap your kidney area gently. You are still feeling the rays of the sun on the Kidney area. sometimes you feel the rays more intensely in this position.

The healing infared rays of the sun are known for healing. It is being used in Japan to cure cancer. Infared saunas are used for detoxification.

You can purchase infared devises to heal all sorts of diseases. I recommend this Chi Kung and infared equipment and devises to help balance Vata and Kapha Prakritis and Vikritis.

Getting the Chi Nei Tsang Experience

Are you a bit frustrated with a chronic affliction despite your healthy lifestyle and choices? Me too.

From Naturopaths and Traditional Chinese Doctors to educating myself in Ayurveda, I have seen my health improve from severe allergies, extreme brain fog and low energy to my current “almost normal” health. I could carry on with the small inconveniences.

But my inability to digest legumes, grains and dairy make it impossible for me to attain my goal of becoming vegetarian. While I love the taste of meat, I am not so comfortable with the consumption of fellow beings as well as the inefficient cost of it on our already stressed environment.

So on my journey to better digestion I encounter Gilles Marin, Chi Nei Tsang and now to Kadro, a teacher and Chi Nei Tsang practitioner in Toronto..

Kadro, like Gilles is a student of Master Mantak Chia. For more information about Khadro and her classes and treatments go to Khadro's Facebook page

Chi Nei Tsang is not like most healing modalities where the practitioner takes charge of your healing. Khadro encourages my participation during your treatment and between treatments I have my homework.

I welcome this as I want to be in charge of my health and to not depend on the skills or goodness of others. But the real reward is self discovery on all levels of mind body spirit. At least that is my experience with Kadro.

Kadro started with exploration my abdomen and quickly discovered congestion in my stomach/ pancreas area meaning an imbalance in my Earth energy. She further explored and revealed her suspicion that the congestion is very old maybe even from my past life.

My digestive problems have been with me since I remember. And I discovered Chi Nei Tsang when I wanted to touch my pancreas and see if I could influence its function manually. I blogged about this at Chi Nei Tsang

She found that there was blockage in my sigmoid colon. That is the right side descending colon where I have complaining to medical doctors who have prescribed numerous colonoscopies. Their prognosis? Nothing -- I was normal. Since I was not feeling normal I came to the conclusion conventional medicine with all its expensive hi tech equipment, was inadequate in keep us really healthy.

Kadro believed that the imbalance in my earth organs resulted in improperly digested food. And this further resulted in my chronic constipation.

We cannot not eliminate that what we have not digested whether it is food, ideas and emotions. This can result in us hoarding things; mind body spirit. Hoarding is one of the hallmarks of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), which I have been diagnosed with. Hope Chi Nei Tsang will keep me off the reality shows J

Dorothy said that I may tremble if the session assists me in releasing. During the second half of the treatment, I felt I uncomfortable and wanted to conclude the session. But instead I remain still. After that feeling left and I felt a clarity in my body and mind, I realized that I had experience the trembling she warned about.

Kadro said it was a behavioral pattern that was probably created by early undigested traumatic experiences where I used numbness as a solution to avoid emotional pain.

So I left understanding myself more and the feeling that my mind could take my physical health to better digestion.

My homework was to start digesting events in my life and start to make decisions where I sort things etc into things that are beneficial to me that I want to keep, things that are neutral and finally discard things I don’t need. She also advised me to treasure the things I keep.

So what am I doing to improve my digestion?

Daily, I am strengthening my Earth Energy with the help of Earth Chi Kung that is taught on Gilles Marin’s CD. Find it at Harmonizing Our Inner Earth

I am taking the time to consciously eat without distraction and chewing my meals more thoroughly.

I am trying to unclutter my life by making decisions what I want to keep in my life.

Each of us will have a difference relationship with Kadro or any of our healers because we all come from different experiences and have different needs.

Along with working at your health beyond the physical, a Chi Nei Tsang practitioner may make us uncomfortable by revealing what our bodies saying. To put up defenses and ignoring the advice is neither better nor worse than taking the advice and running with it. Chi Nei Tsang teaches us that we can only deal effectively with the information when we are ready.

For the experiences of other CNT clients go to Experiences

Why Clean Your Colon First

Keeping your colon clean should be your priority for optimal physical health. The proper functioning of your other organs depends greatly on their ability to dump their waste into the colon.

While daily bowel movements should do the job; for most of us stress, sleep deprivation, unconscious eating and our toxic food and environment overloads our colon.

Therefore we need to detoxify on a regular basis and colon cleansing is the first step in any detoxification program.

How often should we detoxify and cleanse our colon? A toxic colon can be seen in the blemishes below the cheekbones and above the jaw line. Acne is more serious when a toxic colon affects liver function. Other symptoms of deeper organ toxicity are chronic skin redness and puffiness. The areas that are affected tell you which organ is being stressed out.

Other organs are affected when we observe deeper symptoms of impure blood like chronic muscle pain, brain fog and blurry vision.

Our colon needs to be clean to effectively absorb nutrition from the food we consume.

A constipated colon will not only affect blood purity but will cause internal dehydration seen in dull finely lined skin.

You have many ways to detox the colon. Choose one that is most agreeable to you.

The most popular way to keep your colon clean and functioning well is adding fibre like psyllium or chicory to your diet.

The next step is to reintroduce good bacteria back into your colon by taking Acidophilus. You have the choice of different types of pro-biotic and the choice of the source from dairy to vegetable. Choose one that will increase your health without allergy.

While laxatives are not recommended, herbs like Senna and Triphala can help with emptying the bowels effectively. Senna is quite aggressive while Triphala is gentle and it has the added benefit of increasing the overall health of the colon. My favourite source for Triphala is Banyan Botanicals. Pure + simple used to carry the high quality organic Ayurvedic herbs for our clients but due to new rules from Health Canada we are not able to do this anymore. So order yours at http://www.banyanbotanicals.com/prodinfo.asp?number=1051

Another way to detox your colon is to visit a colon therapist for a colonic. This deeper version of an enema will super cleanse your colon. It is also a great way to start and finish a detoxification or fasting program.

Fasting for a day or two will also give your colon a rest and allow it to clean out. Clients and staff of Pure + simple have reap great health benefits from short fasts that include the Master Cleanse and Juice Fasting. Fasting needs to be accompanied with lots of liquids to be successful and to be healthy for you.

I have tried all of the above and will continue to use them. But now I have discovered a great accompaniment, Chi Nei Tsang. This is more than stomach massage. It is a means to getting to know yourself better, inside out. Finally you know where your colon is and how to stimulate it to evacuate. You start to understand the effects of stress on your organ’s function. You also become aware of how relaxation can reduce any negative symptoms of the overloaded poorly functioning organ. And if you choose, you can begin a journey of emotional healing as your emotions affect your organs and the state of your organs affect your emotions.

In the words of Mantak Chia, founder of the Universal Tao “Chi Nei Tsang can help the skin, lymphatic system and organs handle the overload. You will be doing their work with your fingers. Massaging these systems. “jump-starts” them and gets them moving.”

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

Wrinkles : Not the Only Sign of Aging

Wrinkles can really motive us to do some very silly and some very risky things. It has been reported that many young twenty something’s are acting "proactively" by getting botox now.

If you too are contemplating Botox, facial fillers or surgery to minimize wrinkles to look younger, you are just taking care of one sign of aging skin and you can be causing yourself other health and anti-aging problems long term. To solve a problem, one needs to look at the facts.

Firstly, consider the other visible signs of aging on your face like loss of tone, chronic redness, dullness and pigmentation.

Secondly, the root cause of all of these major signs along with wrinkles is poor performing organs that in turn impair the circulatory and lymphatic system. When your circulatory system is impaired, you will suffer dehydration. This occurs because skin cells are deprived of fresh nourishing blood. The redness we see in our skin is the result of inelastic capillaries that do not return to origin after dilation. So the impaired blood flow feeds itself. A sluggish lymph system is easily seen in dull congested skin. When redness is chronic and long term, pigmentation occurs.

How fast this occurs and how fast a treatment can reduce it depends on genetics and the person's overall health.

Therefore while you may worry about how young your skin makes you look, it also is a very good indication and an early warning of issues happening internally.

So while I do not advocate obsessing about your looks or encourage a fear of aging, I do encourage good skincare and understanding your skin so you can better maintain good overall health.

You skin can give you information of how your organs and others are doing. It takes 10 years for a overly toxic organ to manifest disease like cancer. so your skin can guide you in appropriate changes in lifestyle and keep your wellbeing balanced and consistent.

So if you are suffering from skin problems, detoxification can help. There are many ways you can choose from fasting, purging herbs, massage or all three together.

There are many books on fasts from juicing to mono food fasts. Local herbalists or a naturopath can customize your detox herbs to your concerns.

Diet and exercise that is health promoting for you will help maintain the benefits. A holistic nutritionist or get a good book on Ayurveda will help you customize your meals.

You can get a stomach massage treatment known as Chi Nei Tsang. For a description of Chi Nei Tsang go to http://our-metamorphosis.blogspot.com/2011/01/chi-nei-tsang-what-is.html. I will write more about this very holistic health massage soon. I personally have been trying to connect with Dorothy Ramien, the lone Chi Nei Tsang practitioner and teacher in Toronto, to get an appointment.
So why not look young because you are truly young inside out. Use your skin symptoms like redness to guide you in your daily diet and activities. Use it also as a guide to rebalance your habits.

Wrinkles: What is Your Body Saying

Wrinkles are more than a sign of aging. They tell you a lot about your state of health. Ignore its messages by trying to eradicate them at your peril. After all your mission is a futile march against time. It is also precious time and resources wasted on expensive, symptom-focused treatments and creams.

A more effective long term way to have a good relationship with your face is to learn what your body is saying with those undesirable lines.

But first let’s explore the easy and the obvious ways to have a line free face.

We all agree that wrinkles are caused by skin dryness and dehydration. So lets explore the possible cause that is easiest to remedy. Surface temporary dryness can be caused by the incompatibility of your skin regime to that of your environment. To remedy this you need to understand the characteristics of your skin in relations to the weather conditions. Then use the proper skincare to supplement the deficiencies of your skin and climatic conditions. For information on skincare and the environment go to http://our-metamorphosis.blogspot.com/2009/05/enjoying-weather.html Presto Chango beautiful skin! If this is not the case then read on further to look at diet.

The second easiest to fix cause is diet. Make sure your diet includes enough moist foods for your body type. For example ; If you are very Vata with a busy mind and schedule along with a natural slimness then a treat of popcorn needs to be accompanied with a glass of milk or an herbal tea. See more about diet and Doshas at http://our-metamorphosis.blogspot.com/2009/04/ayurvedic-doshas.html Foods recommendations for Vata are at http://our- metamorphosis.blogspot.com/2009/07/foods-for-vata.html Foods recommendations for Pitta are at http://our-metamorphosis.blogspot.com/2009/06/foods-for-pitta.html Foods recommendations for Kapha are at http://our-metamorphosis.blogspot.com/2009/06/food-for-kaphas.html

If you are doing proper skin care and drinking lots and your skin is still dry then you need to go deeper. If you notice wrinkles, dark circles, and puffiness around the eye area, it can indicate your problem is a struggling kidney. Dehydration can signal an overloaded or a weak functioning kidney. Many clients find drinking water just means more visits to the toilet. If the kidneys are working optimally, it will recirculate water throughout out the body. Only acidic water will be excreted.

"The kidneys are sometimes called the roots of life. They are very important in determining a person's level of vitality and length of life. All sexual energy comes from the kidney, any sexual or reproductive dysfunction can be traced to them", Mantak Chia.

Gentle ways to detox the kidneys are an herbal formula with ursa ulva (visit Roger @ Thuna's or your herbalist) and Chi Nei Tsang (massage the area below the left ribs. For more information go to http://our-metamorphosis.blogspot.com/2011/01/chi-nei-tsang-what-is.html).

If you suffer from chronic redness, then this can be an indication that the cause of dehydration is either poor or slow blood circulation. The area is red due to inelastic capillary walls that remain dilated or is overwhelmed with toxins in the blood. Usually the blood stream is higher in toxins when the organs are too toxic to function properly and therefore are off loading onto it. It carries the excess toxins to the skin and muscles where symptoms try to communicate the situation.

If you have vertical lines between the brows (third eye area) along with a golden hue to your complexion and/or chronic acne then your problem could be a stressed out liver. It may be congested and cannot filter out impurities and toxins properly. Doing a spring liver detox with herbs is an easy way to help your liver work better. Massaging the area at the bottom of your left ribs can help to gently stimulate the liver to purify.

If skin is dull with large areas of fine lines and with a tendency to break out in the forehead and along the jaw line can be a symptom indicating poor colon function. Dehydration of the skin can be caused by constipation. To stimulate peristalsis and move bowels with healthy regularity add fibre to diet, walk after meals and relax your colon with daily stomach massage. A gentle and effective way to add fibre to daily diet is Genestra Herbal Bulk. Made with the hulls of the psyllium. Massage of your tummy is easy when you know where to massage and if you have the tummy tool.


A horizontal line at the bridge of nose and vertical lines at the corners of the month can indicate a tendency for a poor functioning Pancreas. The pancreas does not just metabolize sugar with insulin production but produces digestive enzymes. Best way to remedy this is to decrease sugar in your diet and massage the middle at the bottom ribs on left side.

So dry skin is not an isolated outcome of aging so much as holistic outcome of a poor or unaware lifestyle and stress. So be wrinkle free long term by exploring the symptoms as per above as cries for detoxification and change from your organs.