I intend to take each part of the Recipe, physical, mental, and spiritual, and explain why it is in the Recipe and what it is doing for you in your recovery, deeply drilling down to the how and why it is helping you recover from Parkinson’s. Today is the fourth part: Qigong for clearing liver wind.
For those of you new to the blog, when I say “the Recipe,” I am talking about the Parkinson’s Recipe for Recovery®. Click here to review the full version of the Recipe.
Qigong for clearing liver wind.
This is a sitting form of QiGong exercise It is for strengthening the liver and clearing internal pathogenic Liver Wind.
1. Sit upright with legs crossed. (For those of you who cannot sit cross-legged on the floor, this can be accomplished sitting in a chair. Sit forward in a chair with your back straight and feet on the floor pointing forward, and then perform the other parts of this exercise).
2. Your palms should be face toward your Dantian (below your navel) and your hands should be placed so your fingers are loosely interlocked only as far as the first knuckle.
3. Twist your body to the left and to the right 15 times in each direction.
4. Fully interlock your fingers and turn your hands facing away so you are looking at the backs of your hands and interlocked fingers.
5. Push your hands out and up (to just above eye level) 8 times.
6. Chomp your teeth together and then swallow your saliva.
7. Meditate quietly.
As you know, I view Parkinson’s from the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Your liver is in a weakened state, unable to clean toxins from your body properly. As a result of being in this weakened state, it gets invaded by wind…wind makes things shake…tremors. This Qigong clears “liver wind.”
Here is the liver:
1. Sit upright with legs crossed. (For those of you who cannot sit cross-legged on the floor, this can be accomplished sitting in a chair. Sit forward in a chair with your back straight and feet on the floor pointing forward, and then perform the other parts of this exercise).
What you are accomplishing here is keeping your lower body stationary.
2. Your palms should be face toward your Dantian (below your navel) and your hands should be placed so your fingers are loosely interlocked only as far as the first knuckle.
This focuses your energy inward and centers you. The lightly interlocked fingers assist you in twisting you body as a whole unit.
3. Twist your body to the left and to the right 15 times in each direction.
If you look at the picture of the liver above, you will see that when you twist in each direction, you are twisting your liver. It is like wringing out a towel.
4. Fully interlock your fingers and turn your hands facing away so you are looking at the backs of your hands and interlocked fingers.
5. Push your hands out and up (to just above eye level) 8 times.
After you wring out a towel, you need to pull and stretch it back to its original shape and form. That is what you are doing here.
6. Chomp your teeth together and then swallow your saliva.
As you are “wringing the wind” out of your liver, toxins flow down and up, so your mouth will have excess saliva. Chomping your teeth and swallowing sends it down for elimination.
7. Meditate quietly.
You have given your liver quite a workout. Meditating quietly for a short while calms the system. I closed my eyes and did ten long inhales and exhales.
That’s it!
You are worth it!!!
I will be back soon.
All my best,
Howard
Howard: Thanks for these valuable explanations… I always wondered what I was really doing with this exercise. One of my instructors said ” The liver is like a multi dimensional factory that makes everything from high tech computers to kids bikes and cleans the streets, too”
Like everything you do, you are thorough and caring. You are my Hero.
Dear Howard,
thank you for explaining. I understand the exercise better, so I can visualize more what is happening.
With Love
Dear Howard,
I love the picture of the liver. Thank you for your time and efforts in my behalf.
Have a Fantastic Friday
Debbie
Hi Howard, thank you again. It’s amazing how this deeper understanding of each exercise changes the way I am doing The Recipe, these posts are so valuable to all of us. Bless your little cotton socks as someone else said.
With Love and gratitude.
Karen xx
Mayarita hope you made it to wake earlier this morning to do The Recipe.
Karen where are you in Ireland? I was born in Dundalk… I was over there in 2008, we toured the west coast, from Cork to the ring of Kerry…
Thank you Karen bless you. I have managed to get up and do just a little bit of the recipe and I am trying to fit in little bits here and there. I hope you feel more stable on your feet, tis nasty when you take a fall I use a stick on wobbly days. One trick i have to walk better is to imagine I am on a cat walk! It helpsXxx
Thank you Howard
Hi Joseph, I am in Athlone, Co.Westmeath, the heart of Ireland ( the very centre)