Last weekend, I was privileged to be asked to do a presentation
on energy and healing at a cancer fundraising initiative called, "Cup
For Cancer". However, you're probably wondering what would a guy
who teachings self-defence know about the healing aspects! Well, it just so
happens that I really do have a fascination for the healing arts. However, it
is always somehow related back to my field of preference, namely self-defence,
as you will see.
In my presentation, I explained that the healing art is used
to balance my martial arts side. I imagined it like the Yin and Yang symbol
that represents balance through duality. As much as I am fluent in the martial
arts, I too need to be balanced with the healing arts too. With this
understanding, as well as my natural inclination to rather heal than hurt
people, I explained that I studied a number of healing arts, including acupuncture, Applied Kinesiology and Kyusho Healing. Furthermore, by understanding how to heal a
person, in reverse, I would also be able to use that knowledge to hurt a person
more efficiently and more effectively!
I thought it would be beneficial to open my presentation
with some traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) concepts, one of which forms the
bases on which all TCM which is built on, namely that the body has the natural
ability to heal itself. For instance, acupuncture
treatments uses needles directed at certain nerve points to open up or unblock
"chi" blockages and thereby allowing it to once again flow through
the body and restore balance back to it. Now, there are many skeptics out there
that would doubt the existence of chi. I explained it as energy, or the electrical
impulses that the body generates through its nervous system and sustains life.
I even went and called it the "Force", in recognition of the source
of energy that both the Jedi masters and Sith lords are able to tap into in the
Star Wars universe! I further went on to explain how this chi or energy is
directed by the mind, and more importantly, through intension (or as per TCM,
by "Yi'). This was important to highlight as it explained the powerful the
connection between the body and mind is. With the risk of sounding too new-age
guru-like, "what he mind can conceive and believe, the body can achieve"!
This brings me to my Applied Kinesiology studies. Applied Kinesiology is used
in the complementary health or natural medicine field, and is defined primarily
as the use of muscle testing to identify imbalances in the body's structural,
chemical, emotional or other energy. It also gives us the ability to tap into
the subconscious mind and understand what sabotaging beliefs hold us back from
achieving our goals.
As you can imagine, this all started to sounds freakish,
cult-ish and witch-crafty to my audience! Rather than just give theory, I then
proceeded to demonstrate how energy can be practically applied in both a
healing and martial application. For the healing demo, I used acupuncture
points (without needles, hence acupressure) to remove an audience member's
headache within 60 seconds. Thereafter, I again used acupressure to help another
audience member by relieving her sinus congestion. Then, to demonstrate the powerful link between
the mind and the body, I went on to test how strong another audience member’s
belief was in her weight-loss goal. Simply put, what her conscious mind said
was not congruent to what her body believed it could do. Using some very simple
kinesiology techniques, I was then able to remove a goal-sabotaging belief and thereafter,
allow her to truly believe in her goal at a subconscious level! True, for many, that last demo may be a bit
too much to accept in their conventional mind-set, however, I was able to show
this through kinesiology’s muscle testing techniques which gave them physical
evidence of what I was doing. The next best thing would be to actually have that
audience member reach her goal weight in 6 weeks (Cathy, I am keeping my eye on
you)!
On the martial side, I wanted to illustrate how energy can
be enhanced when applying a wrist lock on someone. The nice thing about the
martial application of energy is that it induces pain! And with pain, one is
able to gauge when there is more energy or not - More energy = more pain! I
went on to illustrate that energy really is just electricity and that there are
ways to move from positive and negative poles, to grounding and ungrounding of
this energy – all of which are basic principles of electricity! Again, with the
help of an audience member, I was able to illustrate this with a simple wrist
lock and induced pain via the nervous system (and not due to the tightening of
the joint in the wrist lock).
The objective of my presentation was really to provide some
understanding how interlinked all of these concepts of healing arts, martial
arts, chi, energy, and the body and mind are. This is particularly true for the
self-defence that I teach as it incorporates all of the above mentioned
concepts as we goes through an understanding at a subconscious level are you be
willing to defend yourself in the direst of situations. Once we can past that
mental hurdle, the physical skills training will enforce those positive beliefs
and enable the student to defend themselves when or if the need arises in those
situations.
To conclude, I can’t stress enough the importance of having
the balance between Yin and Yang, the positive and the negative, the healing
and the martial arts. Neither is good or bad, but TOO much of either can be detrimental
to your physical, mental and spiritual well-being in the long run.
Till next time.
Be EDUCATED. Feel EMPOWERED. Live a FULLY-ENGAGED life.
P.s. If you are a Facebook user, please download my 1st eBook entitles, 120 Practical Self-Defence Tips" FOR FREE! Do so by liking the Defence Unlimited Page, and clip on the "120 Self-Defence Tips"! Click here to go there immediately!
Other resources:
This blog post is written in honor of my teachers:
John Kehoe: http://www.learnmindpower.com/about_john_kehoe/
Dr Frans Kromhout: http://www.franskromhout.co.za/
Dr Michael Lan: http://www.jing-an.co.za/
Evan Pantazi http://www.kyusho.com/
Gary Rooks: http://www.kyusho.com/
Mark Kline: http://www.kyusholibrary.com/MarkKBio1.html
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