Dragon’s Way Qigong® is Talking Joy
Pam is Talking Joy with the dynamic mother/daughter duo, Elaine Katen and Allie Lim who share their passion for Qigong! Meet Allison Lim: Allie is the Editor of Online Media at Traditional Chinese Medicine World Foundation in New York. And guest, Elaine Katen: Elaine is the Program Director at Traditional Chinese Medicine World Foundation in New York where she shares her passion for self-healing through Qigong practices. She is a Medical Qigong practitioner and teaches the advanced training of Dragon’s Way Qigong® instructors
ABOUT QIGONG
The life force or energy that animates everything in the universe and your body is the very essence of Qigong. It’s a Chinese practice that uses movements and postures and can create many physical healing benefits, but it’s important to realize that Qigong is not physical exercise. It moves beyond the muscle and tissue and works in your body at the level of energy, or Qi.
Literally meaning “energy work,” Qigong breaks down energy blockages and promotes the free flow of energy throughout your body’s meridian system, the invisible pathways through which Qi moves and that connect everything in your body.
Consistent Qigong practice increases and balances your body’s Qi. Working directly on your body’s meridian system—your energy body—it stimulates and nourishes the internal organs, making the energetic communication between them more efficient. And by increasing the effectiveness of all body systems, Qigong helps conserve Qi. These qualities are important to your health because TCM theory says that in order to have good health you must have sufficient Qi that flows freely throughout your body and your internal organs must function together in harmony.
“Everything that appears in the physical realm is always connected with energy flow at the invisible level.” - Grand Master Nan Lu
MEET ELAINE & ALLIE
Elaine Katen: Elaine is the Program Director at Traditional Chinese Medicine World Foundation in New York where she shares her passion for self-healing through Qigong practices. She is a Medical Qigong practitioner and teaches the advanced training of Dragon’s Way Qigong® instructors.
Allison Lim: Allie is the Editor of Online Media at Traditional Chinese Medicine World Foundation in New York. As a primary blog writer, she has been part of the TCMWF healing community for many years. She is a certified Dragon’s Way Qigong® Instructor and teaches in the Ridgewood, NJ area.
CONNECT HERE: Explore all of the resources available on our website, tcmworld.org, such as our daily blog posts, recipes, and upcoming events.
This link provides more information about our 6-week program, Dragon’s Way Qigong.
This link provides some background reading on The Five Element Consciousness Framework
FAVORITE QUOTE:
We were born with a gift—our body’s remarkable ability to heal itself. Throughout our lives, most of us have strayed away from that gift—from the source of what connects us. In reconnecting, we are able to discover that which animates us. It’s the same source that animates all living beings around us. Everything is energy!
FIVE ELEMENTS PSYCHOLOGY
If you speak with modern TCM practitioners, you will quickly discover that unbalanced emotions are the source of many modern health issues. How does TCM work with these kinds of health problems?
Chinese medicine looks deeply at the emotions as a gauge for health, yet it understands that a person’s emotional state is not only a question of emotions but is also related to organ function. By adjusting the function of the organ (or organs) involved, there will be an accompanying adjustment in the emotions. You might wonder how this is possible.
In the TCM paradigm, your body is a whole, and your mind and emotions are completely connected. TCM understands that body, mind, emotions, and spirit are linked, and that an excess of any emotion can affect the function and balance of its corresponding organ. The reverse is also true: an imbalance in an organ’s function can actually cause emotional issues.
Five Element psychology is based on TCM’s Five Element theory, which is a comprehensive system that organizes everything, including your internal organs, into five Universal interacting groups or patterns. The Five Element theory perceives that each organ has a specific emotion related to it. The expression and level of any emotion, therefore, is closely tied to and dependent on the level of its corresponding organ’s function.
Liver is associated with Anger
Heart is associated with Joy
Spleen is associated with Worry
Lung is associated with Grief
Kidney is associated with Fear