Chinese Medicine and Rudolf Steiner

Warning: Traditional Chinese Medicine and Antroposophical Medicine(based on Rudolf steiner's indications) is a knowledge of observation. Diagnosis made in these disciplines are made on the basis of individual assessment. It is not a mandate and this article does not replace consultation by a health practitioner


We certainly have experienced something blocking our energy in our body. It may happen during Tai Chi form, standing meditation(zhan zhuang)and many of our daily activities.A very rough summary of possible causes of energy blockage through a viewpoint of Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM). We need to acknowledge that TCM is a knowledge of observation.

Nowadays, many aspects such as acupuncture have become accepted by science through a rationale of electrophysiology. Sports science start to recognize the effect of low stances(quadriceps workout) to increase the heart rate, weight shifting exercises to prevent falls in the elderly or smooth forward and backward movements to relieve pain in osteoarthritis.

There are a few problems which may cause blockage of energy(qi) in our meridians:

Emotion
Unbalanced emotions, especially when it is suppressed by denial, is the biggest cause of blockages in the body.Over-excitement and excessive enthusiasm will effect the energy in the heart system. When a person is over-excited, the energy will burn the heart first. It travels to the head but the distance between head and liver is very short. Exactly like an overfilled balloon, this may result in some sort of energy explosion

Anger and anxiety will effect the liver system. Too much angry energy is collected in the liver. The German culture for instance has one saying:" The stress enters the liver". It is very interesting how many different cultures like Chinese or German are consistent with modern findings. Angry people very often have higher values in their liver parameters.

Our ancient wisdom advices us to stay calm all the time to keep the Yin and Yang in good balance. Tai Chi Chuan is a good opportunity to keep our body moving from the center and stay mentally balanced.


Food(nutrition)
Part of our qi(life energy) intake is through food. When we do not eat healthy, it affects our balance. Too much spicy affects the liver, too much acid the stomach, too much sweet especially refined sugars affect cardiovascular health. Food needs to be adjusted to somebody's individual condition. It is good to eat locally produced food because the body and nature become one


Changes of weather and season
In sub-tropical countries like Australia or the Mediterranean countries, there are much less complaints about weather sensitivity. The latter is taken very seriously in the middle European countries and parts of the United States. The weather change is so sudden, that some people are unable to make proper adjustments. I have seen severe changes in students who just arrived to Europe from a warmer country

In general, TCM states that:
The spring time induces liver energy imbalance
As summer comes, the heart system may be disbalanced
As the autumn comes, many people get lung problems.(asthma)
As winter comes, the kidney energy can be affected

I found it very interesting that the teaching of TCM is very consistent with anthroposophical medicine(based on indications by Rudolf Steiner). While Rudolf Steiner suggested curative eurhtyhmy, Tai Chi Chuan or qi gong helps us to adjust better to weather changes. Since I am practicing Tai Chi Chuan on a regular basis, I hardly have any problems with jet lag. I can overcome time zones as though nothing has ever intruded into my life


Environment
Pollution or lack of hygiene will result in many different types of medical conditions. However, a person with a healthy mind and strong immune system will not be too much affected by unfavourable conditions. There is the teaching of Feng Shui where the energy of the house will affect your energy. But when your energy is strong, then you will affect your house and environment. We can feel it ourselves: a person with strong qi will make us feel comfortable and safe. As I met Grandmaster Chenxiaowang and later his son YIngjun, I did have the feeling that their qi is transferred to me.


Wrong medication
A lot of pharmaceuticals have severe side effects. Although prescription of these drugs is sometimes life-saving in agressive conditions, unnecessary medication should be avoided. Despite very successful studies in blood pressure lowering drugs, the practicing physician needs to assess individual possibilities in each patient.


Injury
Any type of injury blocks the qi like cuts, sprained ankles, torn muscles, broken arms and even just a pulled muscle. A person with strong qi and immune system has faster wound healing properties and may recover from surgery much quicker.

Elective surgery such as cosmetic or Lasik surgery should be reflected carefully. One should try the best possible conservative methods like sports or nutrition for a better figure or contact lenses for refractive errors(bad vision).

Which type of exercise or martial art will help regulating qi(energy) in the meridians?
Tai Chi Chuan, qi gong, many martial arts such as pencak silat or curative eurhythmy(a non-martial body/mind exercise) all have the same effect. They regulate and balance the energy flow in the meridians. Most of my students and friends experienced some "opening" of the important energy gates like laogong(in the middle of the hand palm), baihui(in the middle of the head)or dazhui(7th cervix).

Why do we sometimes experience physical and emotional pain after practising?
During deep meditation in zhan zhuang(standing meditation) or even form practice, many people are confronted with the depth of their emotional and physical imbalances.Tai Chi chuan may become some sort of psychotherapy when the surpressed emotions rise to the surface. Even physical pain can occur due to adjustment of the body. This happens very often after acupuncture treatment.

I remember my first lesson when my teacher deliberately did not correct me. The next day I had lower back pain. He smiled and said that he wanted me to have back pain, so I could feel the difference between correct and wrong posture. One of my students currently experienced some sort of left blockage despite being relaxed. Corrections by many good teachers were not really successful until he increased his zhan zhuang practice from 1/2 to 1 hour.

As we grow older, our motor or muscle memory will adjust to the bad posture and erroneously perceive it as correct. Tai Chi Chuan taught by a good teacher is an excellent way to bring us back to our natural alignment we had as we were still a baby.

Traditional Chinese Medicine is not rooted in the teaching of physical organs as we know in present science. It is more or less a wholistic organ system. However, it is assumed that the physicians in those days were able to develop understanding of inner organ anatomy by treating severely injured patients with open wounds.

The Tai Chi properties or directions

The principles seem so easy to understand, especially when it is listed and standardized the way Yang Cheng fu did. However, the understanding of principles, directions and guidelines are different in different people which needs a lifetime to understand. I am still going my journey by practising and asking curious questions to experienced teachers.

1. JIng or mental serenity.
It is a description of the mind being cleansed from the everyday problems. Some people use visualisation or guided imagery of a tranquil forest, beautiful beach, pleasant previous experience etc.

2. Song or falsely translated as relaxation
In my previous article, I already explained that when we hear the word relax, we think of a mindless couch potato. There is nothing more erroneous than this. On the contrary, we do need a certain tension of the postural muscles to maintain our good posture. Without this tension, we probably would only be a heap of jelly pudding.

The best way would be to start imagining the spine vertebraes stretching, loosening and separating from each other, our whole body becomes taller and upright as though suspended by a string from above.Imagine our shoulder, elbow, hip, knee and all the rest of our smaller joints stretch, loosening and finally separating from each other. We imagine our body is as strong but soft like a young tree. My teacher Chen YIngjun always pulled a stem from a young tree to demonstrate the Tai Chi body

Chen or sinking, pronounced chuen
This has been one subject that all my teachers extensively modulated during zhan zhuang or standing meditation as well as posture holding. Guided imagery of the qi really sinking while we are song(pronounced sung) have been of utmost significance

Huo or flexibility and agility
We do need a flexible and fast body. Without the jing there will be no song, without song there will be no chen, without anything above of course there will be no flexilibility and agility.

Yang Cheng Fu has standardized the 10 essential principles and I will add the three inner and outer harmonies. With a good teacher and diligent practice, you will develop understanding of these teachings as you proceed........

Dealing with ( excessive) tension in Tai Chi

This article is not based on clinical trials but rather personal experience as well as reports from patients and students.

The word "relax" in Tai Chi class very often causes the wrong perception. When the students hear the word "relax", their body becomes toneless like a wet noodle. "Relaxation" has some negative taste like total lack of awareness. In Tai Chi or any other type of martial arts, focus without overconcentration is most important. The Chinese word is"song", but students are confused enough with the teachings, so we better don't torture them with Chinese words.

One of my colleagues, Tai Chi and karate master Steve Rowe, suggested the phrase:" Get rid of excessive tension". I like that. We do need a certain tension or tone to maintain our posture and balance, otherwise our body will be just a heap of soft pudding on the ground.

How can we apply our practice in our social and work environment?

Life can be very stressful in a fast-paced world. Many people come to a Tai Chi class hoping they could reduce their stress and tension. But first we need to look for the reasons as to why we are tense. It is genetically determined that one person is more tense and thus more prone to stress than the other.

Basicly there are two types of personalities:

1. The A-type of person, primarily determined by the sympathetic nervous system with a high adrenaline activity. These people are more agressive and the negative forms tend to lead to uncontrolled anger and tension. The positive traits of these people are ambitious approach of everything they do and a tendency to perfectionism

2. The B-type of person is more determined by the parasympathetic system and lower adrenaline activity. These people are more laid-back and not easily provoked

A-type people are mostly very professional and have reached high achievements in their lives. Tai Chi Chuan has a high impact on both the sympathetic and para-sympathetic system. An easy-to-understand explanation would be the relaxing components of the slow, flowing movements and the deep abdominal breathing enhances the para-sympathetic system. The more active parts like kicks, punches and fa jing(explosive whole-body force exertion) supports the sympathetic system

Let us look at the slow movements as the relaxing yin components and the active fa jing(force exertion)parts as the yang . This means that there would always be the yin within the yang and vice versa. Tension within relaxation, relaxation within tension is one method which is also practised in the Jacobsen relaxation techniques.

There are two different types of stress:

1.Positive stress or Eu-stress. One example is the type of stress we experience on completing a difficult task. When we master this task, we experience an immediate reward which makes us feel that the stress was worth going through. Eu-stress may become necessary for us to meet the challenges in life.
2.Negative stress or dis-stress. Stress which is destructive like abuse by family members or job with high effort and low reward.


Which group of people is more likely to experience negative stress or dis-stress ?

1. When an A-type of person works in a stressful environment with virtually very unhealthy, small and one-sided movements, tension is hard to control. Dentists and those who work with the computer have an unreasonably high exposure to this type of movements.

2. People who have been traumatized in their childhood and low stress-tolerance

3. Those with low stress tolerance who are experiencing loss of loved ones or constant abuse


Which home remedies may possibly help?

Good Tai Chi chuan needs a relaxed mind and body to execute the forms correctly and develop martial skills. Many students who live and work in an unfavourable environment are tense before they come to class.

Massage treatment and full bath with essential etheric oils are so-called passive stress management interventions. During these treatments, one can practise mental clarity in a light meditative mental state. It is a good opportunity to cleanse the thoughts from everyday problems and focus on breathing or how pleasant the experience is. Remember this positive experience and the feeling you get afterwards. Continue to remember it and transfer to physical TAi Chi practice later on.


Additional practice outside direct Tai Chi practice:

As my teacher Chenxiaowang put in his numerous seminars:" Tai Chi is abstract and not concrete. One should not fully concentrate because it will cause tension and too much obsession on just one aspect. The mind should therefore consist of one part considering the form, the other part should be free and enjoying the practice." Practising this type of mindset in the bathtub, at the doctor's surgery, in the plane and bus or even in front of the computer will support direct Tai Chi practise

The mind is the general who works out a strategy and gives orders, the body is the army who carries them out.When the mind is tense the body will be tense up. However, when the body is tense due to movements against natural physiology, the mind will receive it back. Exactly like a bad general who is the head of a good army or a good general whose orders are not understood by an incapable army.

Zhan zhuang or standing meditation, posture holding, reeling silk qi gong, sitting meditation in the plane, train, at the computer or when sitting in a doctor's surgery are very good means to achieve mental clarity. Brisk and nordic walking is considered to be the best sport to train posture, balance and internal connectivity. Chen Yingjun recommends walking to most of his students.

Relationship with a Tai Chi teacher

Why do you do Tai CHi? Why do I do Tai Chi? Some people do Tai Chi because they have seen Kung fu movies, some are looking for a better life, many do it to destress, to teach themselves to become more patient, to develop more body/mind awareness and a great deal for health and therapeutic reasons.

Some people are not prepared to do long standing meditation, a seemingly arduous effort with no immediate gratification. It does have a significant reward on the long run, such as a better natural posture, mental quietness, the type of relaxation which has more to do with stretching and loosening than a spaghetti type of relaxation(song), clear strengthening of the postural and leg muscles.

High push hands skills is a result of regular standing practice. One needs to stand as long as h/she is able to and just 1 minute will be enough for the start. This is the way to really listen into oneself, the body, the breathing, sensation of left and right, the right posture, in fact something with an extremely high reward.

I have practiced several martial arts and they all have high health benefits. As Tai Chi became more and more well-known in the western world as a health exercise I thought that practicing this art for both martial arts and health would be the real supreme ultimate. My encounters with Grandmaster Yang Zhenduo and later my shi gong(Grandfather-teacher) Grandmaster Chenxiaowang was the fulfilment of my dream. Dr. Paul Lam has shown me a way to combine my medical skills with Tai Chi Chuan, another refreshing flavour in my path towards the ultimate balance.

All my teachers have been excellent as both teachers as well as martial artists. But what will be the case when somebody is unable to get hold of a suitable teacher in his/er area? Should this person put up with a seemingly skilled person but very poor people/s skills? Are we all not just vulnerable people with some insecurities, ordinary sinners with all needs for love and reward? If we are made to feel incompetent by a teacher, justified or not, will we develop into incompetent learners?

Push hands skills like reaching out where the "insults" come from(of course we know this), absorb them, redirect and transfer it into obtaining skills sound wonderful in theory. But.....exactly like push hands skills need a solid structure through formwork, mental push hands need a solid structure through constant efforts.

I heard comments like you emulate more to the person you like to be through long-term practice. A teacher who communicates downward does not make it possible unless you are a member of one of the Chen or Yang family. Well....I wanted to be as good as Grandmaster Chenxiaowang or at least like his son YIngjun or my teacher Jan Silberstorff. When I practice I imagine to be one of them and I really try to practice in such a way that I externally resemble one of them.

The Toastmasters'(a group of amateur public speakers) have a golden rule:PIP(Praise, Improvement, Praise). It is of utmost importance to receive praise for the efforts and the path towards better health and Tai Chi Chuan. The journey towards the goal is as important as the goal itself. A good teacher needs the right attitude and communication skills, to balance between praise and improvement.