Unlocking the Power to Do: Qigong for the Liver
By Paul Cavel
Many people don't know that it’s possible to survive with a liver that is only half functioning. As the largest of the internal organs, it takes prominent position on the right side of the abdominal cavity, and performs a whopping 500+ metabolic and vital functions. Stress, the number one cause of modern diseases, working to exhaustion, poor diet, pollution, excessive eating and drinking (especially of alcohol) — all of these factors and more negatively impact the liver’s ability to carry out its myriad of tasks to optimum effect.
The good news is that you can regenerate your liver rather quickly as your body naturally digests your liver and rebuilds a new one every year. That’s the magic of the subconscious mind ticking away in the background. Unlike the other internal organs, which take years to repair and rebuild, any positive changes you make in the form of diet, exercise and reducing stress can have an almost instantaneous effect on your liver, and by extension, your overall health and wellbeing.
The Power To Do
In Chinese medicine, the liver is one of the five primary organs and it’s associated with the Wood Element. A healthy liver gives you physical and emotional power, the power to do the things you want and need to do. Conversely, when the liver stagnates or becomes overloaded with toxins, it becomes sluggish and saps the ability to do and stay on track. And a trend in motion … continues.
So if you want to buck any ruts and make some positive changes to your physical, emotional and mental health, a great place to start is to focus on your liver. You can regenerate your liver and transform it into a well-functioning organ in a relatively short space of time. Yes, it will require some effort and, until you start a new trend in motion, you’ll have to reconcile how to make progress while you work through your stagnancies. Keeping your diet and consumption in check can help.
Five Element Qigong: The Energy of Wood
In the Water Method, we use Heaven and Earth Qigong to directly target the liver and balance Wood Energy. But ongoing practice of Heaven and Earth can do so much more for you. With a little bit of daily practice of this simple yet profound form, you can make contact with your liver, dredge up and release stagnancies, overcome personal hurdles and stay on your path.
The two-part Heaven and Earth exercise:
Creates referred internal pressures that squeeze and release the liver. Neigong techniques expel physical toxins stored in the liver and drive the blood deep into the liver. Where there is blood, there is life.
Creates energetic movements in and out of the liver as well as circulation within the liver itself, which refreshes the liver and increases its functionality.
Directly pulses the liver, which amplifies detoxification, blood and qi circulation within the liver, and dramatically increases regeneration.
Returning to the Beginning
When my teacher, Taoist Master Bruce Frantzis, met his main teacher, Taoist Sage Liu Hung Chieh, Liu took Bruce all the way back to the beginning and re-built the form from the ground up. At that time, Bruce was already considered to be an advanced practitioner of Heaven and Earth Qigong. Still the return to the beginning is what enabled Liu to instruct Bruce on the nuances, correct errors at ever-more subtle levels and lead him towards more meaningful insights.
What holds a practitioner back are the invisible errors within their form. Applying the circular nature of learning is precisely what allows the errors to be corrected and for practice to be upgraded in all aspects.
Heaven and Earth Qigong in California
For the New Year, you can learn a highly efficient and effective practice passed down by Taoists for 3,000 years to heal, strengthen and unify the body, mind and qi.
I’ll kick off my 30th year of teaching with Heaven and Earth Qigong in Yucaipa, California on January 11-12. This is an excellent opportunity to receive input from me on the fundamentals, as well as personal corrections to learn or refine your Heaven and Earth Qigong form.
I’ll also teach methods for connecting to and positively affecting your liver from both the external form and the internal neigong. The weekend training itself will serve as an excellent opportunity to detox — do a bit of a clean out after the Season of Indulgence to bolster your practice and come back to your centre.
I hope to see you there!