Rami's Blog

Like the Yin-Yang, Eastern Martial Arts and Western medicine are two halves of a whole. My mission is to preserve the ancient mind-body tools and pass them on to you.

 

Harness the Placebo Effect

I found this link in my Twitter feed today about research into the placebo effect and its correlation with certain genes. Very interesting!

But I have been teaching my students to harness the power of the placebo effect for years now. I believe the placebo effect is simply the power of the mind to heal the body. Of course, this doesn't just happen by magic: there are genetic factors and neurotransmitters and hormonal responses and reactions involved that are well worth studying. However, why wait for the research to tell us that the mind-body techniques we are already doing will work? We know they work! That's why we do them.

The placebo effect was originally examined as a response by people who had received sugar pills instead of real medication. Those people who had a condition, but who were given pills that were (unbeknownst to them) just sugar, somehow saw improvements in their condition, just like the other people who were receiving real medication.

Is this due to the healing power of sugar?

No, of course not. It's due to the healing power of the mind. When we believe we are going to get better, and when we believe that any tiny improvement is part of a larger trend of improvement, and not just a random moment of feeling better, we actually start getting better.

It's the power of positive thoughts and beliefs about your mind, body, and health.

By meditating, and by focusing our mind on our bodies, we can choose to our healing not as temporary or fleeting, but as the beginning of a great process of healing.

So use that brain and tap into your placebo effect. When the research finally comes out, you can learn about just what it was that your mind and body were doing that made you feel so much better.

Good luck!

What the Science Doesn't Tell You

Every day, dozens of new medical studies are written about by science journalists, explaining in laymen's terms where the cutting edge of health care is at this very moment. Often, these findings are big news, and they give hope to millions of people who suffer, or whose loved ones suffer, from these illnesses.

However, these articles always end the discussion at who the treatment helped. The fact of the matter is that all studies, even very successful ones, have outliers: people who do not respond to the treatment.

In a study of 100 patients, if 90% saw an improvement in their symptoms after using drug XYZ, that means 10 people didn't get any better while taking the drug. It is only recently that scientists have become interested in why some people in every study don't respond to treatment like most people do.

Antidepressants are a perfect example. Some people respond so well, that, after a year or two on pharmaceuticals, their depression becomes treatable without drugs. Other people are helped by the same antidepressant for a couple years, and then grow resistant to it, and require additional treatment. Still other people have no positive reaction to the antidepressant at all, and have to go through six weeks of trying the drug out before realizing it just isn't helping them.

This is all to say that medicine, yes, even mind-body medicine, is not a one-size-fits-all situation. But, mind-body medicine does has some distinct advantages when it comes to making unique treatments for each individual.

Mind-body medicine has no "trial period." If you don't feel good in the first one or two days of Tai Chi, then it's on to another mind-body treatment. Mind-body medicine also gives the patient  incredible control over their "dosage," so to speak. You can do 10 seconds of mindful stretching, 20 seconds, 27 seconds, 1 minute, or however long it helps you relieve the soft tissue tension without creating soreness. It's cheap, too.

So don't feel defeated if one treatment doesn't work for you. Whether it's a drug or and exercise or something else. Consider all your options, and know that you aren't alone. There are a lot of other people in your exact position, looking for treatment that works.

Quick reminder to come to my two functions this Sunday and Monday! Sunday is a meditation workshop at Yang's in Andover, and Monday is the Integrative Therapies Fair at Dana-Farber. Hope to see lots of you there!

Mind-Body Workout #5: Stop Stiffness in your Upper Body

It's been a while since we released a Mind-Body workout, so here's one for all you folks who are defrosting after this long winter and preparing to go out and do some yard work soon.

Mind-Body Workout #5: Stop Stiffness in your Upper Body

Relax your Neck and Shoulders: We start with a stretch for releasing tension in your neck. Relax your muscles and your mind while doing this stretch, so that you can prepare to make the rest of the workout a real mind-body experience.

Short, Basic Motions: Now we will work our way into the joints. By doing these simple, repetitive motions in a gentle manner, you not only focus the stretch on the muscles around the joints, but also bring your mind into the stiff areas.

Turn and Twist: This motion is for your shoulders, neck, and even your spine. It's also a great mind-body exercise. Make it slow and steady and meditative!

Sweeping Tai Chi Motion: This exercise is at the end because it requires the most mobility of all the exercises. Only do this one if your joints are feeling a lot better (hopefully they are!). This motion gets all the joints in your arms and shoulders, even the the joint between your two forearms bones!

Happy stretching!

Sexual Health: Stimulating the Ovaries

On Tuesday we talked about an exercise men can do to improve their sexual health and energy. Today, we will be discussing another exercise, this one for women, which serves the same purpose. As mentioned last week, this exercise is found in the book Healing Love Through the Tao: Cultivating Female Sexual Energy, by renowned Taoist masters and mind-body experts Mantak Chia and Maneewan Chia. 

This exercise is more meditative than physical, and involves moving energy from the ovaries to the Ovarian Palace, a particularly important area of the uterus in Taoist practice. In order to focus on the correct areas for this exercise, you first need to find the ovarian palace.

Take a look at the image below. You can find the ovarian palace by placing your hands, palms down, on your lower abdomen. Your thumbs should touch right over your bellybutton. By touching your two pointer fingers together to make a triangle, you have found the location of the ovarian palace. Your ovaries should be located just beneath your ring and little fingers. 

Gently rub the areas where your ovaries are with your fingers. Breath in and out through your nose and visualize the energy building up in the ovaries. They should feel warm.

With the hands in the same position, visualize the energy from the ovaries moving into the Ovarian Palace (from where your little fingers are to where your pointer fingers are).

Accompany this movement and breathing with gentle contracting and relaxing of the perineum (P-C) muscles. This is the muscle of your pelvic floor, used to control the flow of urine. It is also called the "Chi Muscle" in Taoist practice.

You should experience a delicate opening and closing of the vagina with these contractions. Use the contracting, inhaling motion to pull the energy from the Ovarian Palace to the base of the pelvis, and then on the relaxing and exhaling motion, send the energy up along the back of the spine to the top of the head. Try to visualize the energy moving, and take a look at this diagram for help:

Do this exercise once a day for five or ten minutes. Each woman experiences different sensations and builds up the energy at different speeds. Go with whatever practice most helps your energy and health.

For more energetic system overviews and exercises, read more on the blog. Or, you can read up in my Sunrise or Sunset Tai Chi books, or watch my DVDs. 

Good luck!

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Introduction to the Energy Bubble

After we learn about and strengthen the energy centers, lower and upper, and learn to connect them into the energetic baton, our immune system should see the benefits. The baton is in charge of managing the functions and operations of the inner body, including the immune system. The stronger your baton is, the stronger your immune system with be.

The next step in your mind-body visualization practice is to focus on the energy that surrounds the body, which we will call the bubble. It exists about a couple inches away from our skin, all around us. It is the mechanism that interacts with and protects us from the forces around us. This bubble has two purposes: being a shield, and being a filter.

The stronger this system and bubble are, the better able it is to keep out negative energies and forces from your environment. An efficient filter will not only allow positive energies in, but it will also allow negative energies out. 

Once we fine-tune the system, remove any stagnation, build up the center, create stronger flow, and upgrade our shield and filters, we are one step ahead in promoting better health. We are in a state of prevention.

Cultivating longevity requires practice of these techniques not just when you are in failing health, but also at your healthiest. This is what will lead to higher quantity, and quality of life.

More on the energetic bubble in the coming weeks!

The Simple Way to Breath Through All Four Gates

Here is the link to the upper two gates by themselves, and here is the link to the lower two gates by themselves.

Now let's put it all together.

Once you are comfortable with each of the two gates, it is time for you to put all four gates together. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, palms facing down in front of your body about two inches below your navel. The elbows should be a fist away from the trunk. With the next inhalation, bring your mind from the four gates into the lower energy center. On the exhalation, shift your mind into the four gates. Make sure that your focus is even at all four gates.

You will notice that two of the four gates are sometimes stronger than the others. Certain people may sense the bottom two gates more strongly, and others may sense the upper two more strongly. What needs to be done is to balance the sensation and equalize it between the four gates. Move your mind more intensely into the two gates that you feel less sensation in. Eventually, you will be able to balance the four gates.

In late blogs, I will detail how to visualize the energy moving along a particular path from the gates to the energy center. But for now, practice this technique the simplified way and let me know how it works for you.

Happy meditating!