In the year 1988, the song “Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone)” was released by the American rock band Cinderella. I heard it a few years later, in my teen phase where rock music was totally cool. The song itself is not unique; boy has girl, boy doesn’t appreciate girl, girl leaves boy, boy laments his loss and wishes girl was still with him. I personally think that this isn’t such a great song, but the title is so appropriate to the human life story.

One of the things that we humans in the modern world do not like to openly talk about is our feces; the waste that we produce out of our bodies, from eating, digesting and creating energy as well as life-giving substances such as blood, to maintain life in our bodies. In English, we name it all sorts of names: poo, poop or kaka for kids, excrement, stools or feces for adults and of course those curse-words we use when we get mad, like shit or turd. One of the best ones that I find when someone wants to say that they have to go expel some feces but is embarrassed to describe the action, so they get a little vague by saying, “I have to go do a number 2.” We tend to get embarrassed as well as scared about our own waste, and for that matter any kind of fluid or substance we produce from our bodies like urine or sweat or menstrual blood, to the point of having to hide or mask it with perfume or deodorant. But the fact is, if we didn’t have them, we would not be able to live or function well.

In Chinese Medicine as with Western physiology, the Large Intestine is in charge of receiving the digested and sorted material, that has already passed through the Stomach and the Small Intestine. The job of the Large Intestine is to further absorb the fluids as well as electrolytes, and most importantly create the stool to expel the waste out of the body. If the Large Intestine did not do its work, our bodies would be poisoned by the bacteria and toxins that need to be released out in the form of the feces. The walls of the Colon are so intricately “designed,” like the rest of Gastrointestinal (GI) tract, it is made up of 4 layers. From inward to outward, the layers of the lumen (tube) are: mucosa, submucosa, muscular layer and, adventitia and serosa. These layers prevent the bacteria, that are transiting out of our bodies, from entering the rest of the body, and help the movement of stool with peristalsis. The layers are nourished by blood vessels, have multiple plexuses of blood, nerve and lymphatic innervations; thus, maintaining a strong connection to the immune, circulatory and nervous systems. It is only in recent years, Western science has acknowledged the gut as an organ for more than just dealing with feces; it has been dubbed the Second Brain. They are starting to realize that even emotional states, such as depression, or dis-eases such as autism or multiple sclerosis, could be linked to the GI tract.

Chinese Medicine views the Large Intestine as a partner organ to the Lung; the Large Intestine being the lower conduit and the Lung the upper, of the Metal element. The season of Metal, which is where we currently are, is Autumn. It is the season of going inward, letting go of the external manifestation, which are not beneficial to us and condensing the pure energy within. Its cardinal direction is the West, where the sun sets, once more the allusion to going inward as the brightness of the sun diminishes. The color of Metal is white, for purity; this is fascinating when one realizes that the Lung and Large Intestine both have the task to maintain purity in the upper and lower ends of the body. The emotion associated with Metal is self-confidence when the organism is in balance, and self-critical as well as grief, when not. The flavor of Metal is acrid, sharp on the tongue, like a metal sword cutting through soft tissue.

I came across a fascinating documentary about toilets, sewage and waste; how our societies have dealt with their waste across the centuries. The toilet, the appliance that we all use multiple times a day but is not really thought about, until of course it doesn’t work. And what about where our feces go once we flush the toilet? We often do not want to see, or smell, or even pay attention to where the pipes that move our waste pass through or where the sewage plant of our area is.

Next time you go to the toilet to make a bowel movement, look into the toilet bowl and see what your gut produced from the substances you ingested. Take a look at the Bristol Stool Chart, see what type of stool your colon produced. Be grateful for the ability your body has, to remove waste from your system, absorb nutrients that are beneficial to it and protect the rest of the organs from the unbeneficial bacteria that may have tagged along for the ride. Remember that song I mentioned at the start – Don’t Know What You’ve Got Till It’s Gone? Be the person that appreciated what s/he had and didn’t have to lament after losing it.
 
 







Image Bristol Stool Chart from Stanford University
Image Abdomen-Intestine by MD.ABDULLAH AL-AMIR on Pixabay

The year is 1988, I am in a pre-competition intensive training camp for rhythmic gymnastics. One of our coaches, Coach Annie is doing mental training with us. This is the first time we have ever done anything non-physical in training. She gets us all to lie down on the training carpet. She leads us through a small relaxation exercise and then she asks us to imagine ourselves performing our routine as perfectly as we can, without any mistakes. She tells us to do this as often as we can, but we never really get to this again as a group; trust a 14-year-old to do extra work outside of regular training. About 8 years later, I am in university taking a psychology-in-sport class. Our professor is telling us that research and studies are showing us that athletes who use visualization and mental training in combination with physical training perform better than those who do not. This fascinates me, as I had already had a taster 8 years before. I ask myself what it is that one is training when one does mental training. Some will say that it is training the Mind, but what is the Mind and where is it?

Interestingly, when many in society speak of the Mind, we point to our head; I was researching the Mind on the internet and Wikipedia’s first image is of a head with symbols in it. In the Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries online, it states that the noun ‘mind,’ when referring to the ability to think, refers to “the part of a person that makes them able to be aware of things, to think and to feel.” This definition does not specify any parts of the body, which is quite wise of Oxford Dictionaries to do so, as there is quite a lot of scientific evidence available these days which show us that what we define as faculties of the Mind are actually not only located in the head, i.e. brain, but everywhere in the body. Often times, what is defined as the Mind is referring to cognitive functions such as perception, reasoning, awareness and memory, psychological capacities of both conscious and unconscious, as well as feeling, motivation and behavior. The definition of Mind in the West encompasses a very broad dimension, as such it can become very vague and often times gets misconstrued as just the brain. What is clear is that the Mind is not just in the brain; hence, the term Bodymind has begun to be in more common usage over the last few decades.

In Chinese Medicine, what has been translated as Mind is actually called 神 shén. The Chinese character shén has two parts, the radical on the left means god or deity, on the right it means to explain. Together they mean god, spirit or expressive. Shén in Chinese Medicine refers to the mental ability on one hand, as well as the emotional and spiritual aspects of a human being. Mental activity and consciousness are said to dwell in the Heart. The Chinese medical scholar, Giovanni Maciocia states that “five functions are affected by the state of the Heart: Mental activity (including emotion), Consciousness, Memory, Thinking, Sleep.” The Chinese medical view goes further to describe Will Power Zhì as residing in the Kidneys, Thought Yì  in the Spleen, the Ethereal Soul Hún as related to the Liver and the Corporeal Soul Pò corresponding to the Lung. Therefore, for thousands of years the Chinese have viewed the Mind as being in the body as well as in the head; this corresponds to the Bodymind concept.

When I ponder back to my time as an athlete at 14 years old, using visualization techniques to perform better physically, I realize that the seeds of Bodymind were already being planted in me. I was already being trained to view my being as a whole being, not as the sum of parts, all it needed was regular practice. Now, I still prepare my intellectual Mind for exams or presentations by warming up my body, as I did as a gymnast and dancer, by stretching and moving my physical body. Just as I still do visualizations of my Tai Ji Quan/ Qi Gong form when I am on public transportation and can’t practice it physically. For me, the Mind is the Body and the Body, the Mind.
 
 
Reference
Macioca, G. (1998). The Foundations of Chinese Medicine. London: Churchill Livingstone.
 
 
 
Image by AdinaVoicu on Pixabay

One of the fundamental basis of Chinese Medicine is Qì 氣. Qì (Pin Yin romanization, which is pronounced chee), has been described as “vital energy,” “vital force” or even “universal energy.” It’s sometimes spelled as Chi (Wade-Giles romanization), or Ki (Japanese spelling and pronunciation). In Chinese Medicine there are many different types of Qì, just to name a few: Yuán Qì (Original Qi), Zhēn Qì (True Qi), Yíng Qì (Nutritive Qi) and Wèi Qì (Defensive/ Protective Qi). Many blogposts ago, I wrote about Qì and what its Chinese character means, and many blogposts before that I wrote a little about Wèi Qì as well as how it is key to understanding allergies, such as Hay Fever.

But Wèi Qì is so much more complex than just allergies and immune system. The Chinese character for Wèi  衛  has a few parts: the first radical on the left 彳 chì means “step” and added together with the component on the right it becomes 行 xíng, meaning “to walk.” The middle character component, I recently learnt from a continuing education class, refers to “a guard” or “a man with leather armor.” All together they create “a guard who walks back and forth to protect.” Therefore, Wèi Qì refers to Qi that is always in motion to protect and defend when needed.

As a student in Chinese medical school, we learnt that people who caught colds and flus easily have a Wei Qi deficiency and that the Wei Qi is very connected to the Lung and Spleen Qi. So we would treat the appropriate Acupuncture points and give the famous herbal formula, Yù Píng Fēng Săn (Jade Wind Screen Powder). With the proper diagnosis and appropriate use of this formula, patients often got better within a month or so. One of my strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic was and still is to strengthen the Wei Qi. It can also manifest as bladder symptoms like chronic urinary tract infection UTI, which have often manifested in female patients, being exposed to cold external conditions. But through my practice and observation of different patients over the years, I have come to realize that Wei Qi deficiency is much more than catching colds or viruses easily, chronic UTIs and allergies. I started to realize that some patients would come in reporting how they felt “exposed” emotionally and physically, like they felt unprotected when they went out into the world. They would feel like they were being invaded by others energetically. I started to link this to Wei Qi deficiency and to treat them as such, often times it has worked. Also, by learning to set healthy boundaries in their lives, which is also a manifestation of Wei Qi, in my opinion, this has served to help them feel more secure within their beings.

As a student with my teachers in Tai Ji Quan/ Qi Gong/ Shao Lin Quan we learned to do some techniques of energetic practice they would call Iron Shirt Qi Gong. It is a martial arts method in which, as the name implies, one creates a layer like an iron shirt around the body, to protect against hits and attacks from opponents as well as to strengthen one’s body part to create an iron-hard effect with a punch or a hit. This reminded me of a movie which I watched in university in the 1990s, Iron and Silk, a true story of how Mark Salzman goes to China to teach English and learns Wu Shu, among other things. His master, Pan Qing Fu, is known as Iron Fist. Master Pan spent hours over decades punching a steel block; as such, his fists were as hard as iron. Though he has acted in films, this man’s skill was real, unlike a lot of Hollywood films (there is even one with this name but is not the real deal). This I believe is Wei Qi condensed into the fist. Iron Shirt Qi Gong could be used for martial purposes but I believe it is applicable to everyday life, not for assault but for protection. This, I have come to understand, is Wei Qi being activated with energetic practice.

The cultivation of Wei Qi has to come from many different aspects, not just physically but mentally as well as emotionally and energetically. It is something we need to work with our Bodyminds and not just on a material level. If there is anything that I am sure of, it is that many of the health issues of our time have a lot to do with our Wei Qi deficiency as individuals and as a society. It has been one of my aims to understand Wei Qi better. Even after years of study and practice of Chinese Medicine, I am finding even more depth to the subject. I am still on my journey of exploration into Wei Qi.




Image by PublicDomainPictures on Pixabay