Energy Articles
My Turn: GREEN HEALTH WORKS!
"The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patient in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease." –Thomas A. Edison
As hospital doors creak open to “natural” approaches, it’s more than a matter of fish oil on the hinges. There's a behavioral seed-change brewing. It's affecting bottom lines, personal preventive health measures, and, if we are smart, health insurance coverage.
At the outer edge of the Cleveland Clinic kingdom where I teach Tai Chi for Health, I hear two prime drivers in my students: #1 -"There must be a simpler way.” #2 - "Since I am facing illness, aging, and body changes, I'm going to be the one who finds my prevention solutions."
Those who hunt usually find.
Their attitudes also hint at a soft skepticism that Main Stream Medicine (MSMed) will ever voluntarily look beyond high-tech expense and side effects into integrative modalities that work. Like explorers in a high-stakes country, they become health detectives. As to #2, it’s amazing how survival triggers determination. Even in medical institutions.
In the economics of health care, less invasive, simpler solutions are receiving more consideration. Folks often vote “alternative” with their pocketbooks, and it’s been quietly affecting MSMed’s bottom line.
Complementary Alternative Medicine (CAM) research centers throughout the country set a serious challenge for members of the frozen old guard. If a patient reports that a mode of CAM has helped him or (usually) her, physicians are far less likely to be dismissive and risk losing a customer. "Good for you" encouragement is flowing. Co-operation and support does work.
While it's difficult to quantify the impact of holistic care, massage, reiki or tai chi on a patient's quality of life and speed of recovery, it's easy to hear in their personal assessments. At the end of tai chi class, comments like "My knees are better" and "I'm calmer" trump statistics.
Research grants continue to flow into CAM, and among the results (if not the stated research goal) are reports of improved quality of life: it’s easier to do household tasks, climb the stairs, stand without pain. Low-cost, low-tech, high-touch is making a real dent in patients’ lives. Medical coverage, take notice.
A gastroenterologist once told me, “We see the sickest of the sick; the other 80% get better on their own.” He usually asks his patients, “What’s going on in your life?” The answers yield more insight into their guts than do lab tests.
I see that 80% "playing" tai chi. When the other 20% finish their “official” therapy, they often come to tai chi and stay. Some enter bravely as a last-ditch effort, wanting to "do something" to relieve a chronic condition. Prevention and recovery always dance hand in hand.
The 80% are not built for Bally’s and usually have no taste for sweat, changing clothes or getting down on the floor. Life-style change no longer pales in the face of purple tabs. They roll their eyes at TV ads, saying, “I’d rather not take anything with death as a side effect."
“I’ll try anything but surgery,” is an attitude that frequently walks in the door. When aches and pains start disappearing, they are more than willing to be more active.
They’ve seen Oprah and PBS and heard Drs. Oz and Roizen lay out simpler roads to health. They are empowered with new habits of label-reading at the grocery store. “Buyer be aware” is the healthy, practical thing.
I tell my students we walk around in remarkable vehicles filled with natural medicine ready to release sophisticated technology. Unblocking Chi lets us enjoy the flow, increase our rate of healing and boost immunity. The equipment is built-in and it's free.
They can’t remember what arthritis felt like, so they tell their friends and hopefully their doctors. They take movements for back-pain home to husbands who wouldn’t ever come to class.
One student with 10 years of diabetic neuropathy below her knees is slowly recovering sensation down to her feet. After catching her balance when she tripped over a curb, she said, "That wouldn't have happened without tai chi."
One recovering from multiple sclerosis and a stroke now consciously floats her "disconnected” arm and steps forth without her walker.
At the Cleveland Clinic Chronic Pain Rehab, a young man wearing a Harley shirt and withdrawing from mega pain meds said relief with tai chi was “instant."
Tai Chi's healing simplicity isn't a hard sell. My demo-dilemma has been "proving" to MSMed folks the great results of tai chi practice. Young doctors tend to get it. It helps that, at clinical conferences, I always get them moving. Then they feel the difference in their bodies. Stress relief, anyone?
How could movements so beautiful, slow and un-sweaty improve chronic pain, blood pressure, balance, bone density, breathing, depression, inflammation, circulation, concentration, relaxation, joint function and boost immunity to shingles by 50%? That’s just in the research so far (see www.pubmed.com).
While big research bucks go to silver-bullet studies, I’m not using Big Pharma product. Chi is actually bigger. If it fit in a bottle, they would sell it
Follow money, follow results, and the quiet, unhurried attention of hands-on human presence and a quiet mind. We'll know money-saving approaches have won when tai chi classes, massage, reiki and meditation are routinely offered for recovery and routinely covered by health insurance.
It's working when a PhD in Nursing Research at Cleveland Clinic calls me with to collaborate in giving the National Institute of Health the “opportunity” to give its imprimatur to a tai chi study for African-Americans with arthritis. We’ll recruit folks in the neighborhood around the Clinic and hold classes in church basements. Tai chi’s effects will be compared with guided imagery. My vision is both modalities will win, along with the elders. Folks love melting their own aches and pains.
As the Chinese say, motion is medicine. Their verb is “to play” the tai chi. As you feel it working, it’s working. Skill to Chill is most empowering!
I’m not a purist. In a catastrophic health event, I am grateful to be living in the Clinic’s shadow. Yet what I see every day is ordinary, brave people unblocking their bodies’ own healing capacity. I am grateful to have the honor of teaching hungry folks to fish.
The opening and closing ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics showed the world a beautiful mix of yin and yang, tai chi and kung fu, structure surrounded by flow. That is their poetic image of the healthy body. Would such a practical people have kept tai chi going for centuries if it didn’t work?
The People’s Folk Medicine is pure gold. So may I humbly suggest tai chi as a most valuable, healthy way to address current American imbalance of payments . . .
(Susan Cady, M.M., C.T.C.I., teaches Tai Chi for Health in Cleveland, Ohio, for her own health and balance, mental and physical. She sometimes sings tai chi directions in class, just for fun.)
Susan Cady, M.M., C.T.C.I.
"Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God." I Corinthians 6:19
A Jesuit priest once said to me, "Healing is the unpaid dues of the church." How so? "Two-thirds of the stories about Jesus involve physical healings, and by and large, the church ignores them as models of service." Consider the story of the woman touching the hem of Jesus' robe and 'power' going out of him. His touch carried God's compassion and re-unified those cast out of community. Is it possible that our healing touch can do the same?
OUR STEREOTYPES
When we compare the media stereotypes of theatrical healing services with how quietly and matter-of-factly Jesus showed us how to heal one another, we might discover a deep calling and reclaim a holy mission. Setting aside suspicion and skepticism, we may be able to look at the Fruits of energy and touch healing, and trust One Source. A Kingdom that includes healing is not divided against itself. Yet we may be accused of healing on the Sabbath.
Interest in all forms of energy healing is rising, both experientialy and experimentaly as part of integrative medicine. As many people look beyond 'pound and kick' forms of western exercise toward holistic integration of mind, body, and spirit, energy healing appears to serve a deep human need. The ageing boomer population is seeking gentle, quiet techniques for health maintenance. The National Institutes of Health fund research to explore complementary and non-western therapies that boost immunity and achieve emotional, spiritual, mental, and physical balance. Imbalance not a given as we age. The solution is addressed in traditional Chinese medicine which states that "Blockage leads to disease." It implies that when the body's chi (energy) is balanced and flows without emotional or physical blockage ("motion as medicine"), we are healthy.
If it hasn't happened already, one day it will. Your doctor will catch up on his reading about stress reduction research, nutritional and behavioral interventions, and suggest a reiki treatment, therapeutic touch, or that you try tai chi to help you relax, boost your immune system, and teach you techniques to stay that way. Please, don't panic. It's not expensive, it's priceless!
DOES "CHI" WORK?
One might wonder how slow movements from China or therapeutic massage do so much for the mind-body system? Driven by reliance on drug treatments, surgery, and technology, western medicine has created a climate of experts who are deemed to hold the keys to health. Other parts of the world are far more populist. The Chinese community gathered for tai chi under the trees, is practicing a folk-art tradition that integrates and strengthens both body and community. Awareness of the energy or chi flowing in all living things, in architecture, in interior design, and especially in the human body, lets holy symbols of interconnectedness abound. The awareness also carries a principle of wellness.
In our culture we usually speak in secular terms about energy imbalance in the body. We feel 'drained,' or 'filled up.' Who among us hasn't looked at the high level of Life Spirit in children and said, "Wish I could bottle that?" That may be the problem. We have too often put a lid on connecting to the body's own energy, finding healthy ways to relax, grow peaceful, and help heal mind, body, and emotions. Peace is not a high priority when we're moving too fast to focus, which is an affliction with which many doctors can identify. Yet peacefulness is a physical and spiritual priority and the ability to relax a major gift to our health.
I would like to step out of a secular, linguistic box to freely acknowledge God's Gift of Life's Energy in the body. Athletes and artists speak glowingly of being "in the zone" or "in the flow" where everything works smoothly and feels right. We can take their words as a metaphor for the flow of the Presence of God, and being "in sync" with the Holy Spirit? I hear also an echo of the Fruits of the Spirit, the effects of prayer, and the peace that passes understanding.
I am aware that words like "energy healing" and "chi" cause discomfort among many in the church. It is natural to wonder at the unknown, to question integration of mind-body-spirit through techniques borrowed from other cultures. But since our culture has given us little experience in these areas, we may need to relax and consider what results occur for the one seeking healing. For anyone who questions using so-called 'eastern energy' for healing, I would ask with my Jesuit friend, "What do you think Jesus was using to heal? And did He not say we would do these things and even greater?"
HEALING AS MINISTRY - NOTHING TO FEAR
Where did the church lose healing the body as a mission? Historically, the mind/body/spirit split occurred in the Renaissance. Science was "given dominion" over the body, while the church claimed the soul and spirit. Over the centuries the church focused on the sacred transcendent as being of greater importance than physical incarnation. Jesus repeatedly shows their interconnectedness. Over the ages, healings of the body became the sometime exception demonstrated by rarified saints. Wouldn't it be the Holy Spirit's miraculous joke to come through 'an eastern window' with healing of the body once again?
Headlines read, "Church-goers are more healthy." Those who see themselves surrounded by God's care and by community, who center themselves through prayer, are more at peace physically. The medical and health insurance establishment is not ignoring this fact. Medical schools and hospitals throughout the world are linking energy work and spirituality as aspects of healing. Physicists and doctors are currently studying the human energy field that is visible in Kirlian photography. Chi channels or meridians, mapped in China centuries ago, have been confirmed by modern research. Acupuncture is now 'hospital and HMO blessed.' Where does the church stand - indifferent, in support, or in fear?
THE MUSICIAN'S VISION & EXPERIENCE
I am a musician, a Christian, and a teacher of Tai Chi for Health. Although I teach primarily in secular venus, the core message is always the same: HOPE. My tai chi program for churches is entitled "Stewardship of the Body: A Lift for the Spirit." Over the past three years I have been guest tai chi instructor for the Complementary Therapies class at Case Western Reserve University Medical School. The young docs-in-training are eager to integrate energy, spirituality, and medicine, as well as reduce their own stress! As I share the soft, gentle patterns of tai chi, the deep breaths that calm both brain waves and the autonomic nervous system, the med students begin to feel it and they get it. It's all about flow.
Musicians are highly aware of smooth flow in breath, rhythm, and in the synergy of a group or a performance. When we sing, "Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me," what are we asking for in our mind/body/spirit trinity? We are moved by music, our hearts "open," the body changes, endorphins flow, and joy permeates the cells along with good hormones. There are metabolic shifts in heart rate, blood pressure, and heightened immune function. Publicly, we call it music therapy, but within the church we sense much more is happening. Holy Spirit, do thy will.
The first time I felt "chi" was 30 years ago in a prayer group with my hands over a friend facing surgery. Members of the group felt a distinct flow, heat, or tingling in our hands, as did our ill friend inside her body without being touched. Some of that group, including medical professionals, later trained in reiki ("ki" is Japanese, "chi" is Chinese word, for "energy").
FEEL THE GIFT OF CHI FOR YOURSELF
If you want to feel chi, rub your hands together, relax and cup them about 10 inches apart. Then bring them in slowly, palm to palm without touching. At 3 or 4 inches apart, pulse your hands slightly toward each other. Look for a gentle tingle or a sensation like two magnets pushing away. That's the bio-electric life stuff we're made of. And by the way, your hands can also feel the energy around a tree trunk without touching!
What energy is this? No theological conflict. "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." (Ps. 24:1) So too is the energy flowing through our body temples reminding us we are precious and "wondrously made."
Did Jesus ever speak of this creative, cosmic connective tissue? Consider fresh translations of Jesus' words from Aramaic, His native tongue. In his book, Prayers of the Cosmos, Neil Douglas-Klotz offers several etymologic earthquakes for the Lord's Prayer and Beatitudes. Take for example, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." In this passage, Douglas-Klotz says, that the word rukh can translate as "spirit, breath, soul, or as whatever moves, stirs, animates and links us to life." Sound familiar?
He observes that the densely poetic Aramaic probably baffled the Greek translators rendering "the image of the entire universe filled with one cosmic breath of life, the rukha d'quoodsha or Holy Breath." Western theologians offer Ground of Being, and physicists their Unified Field.
What translated as "poor" is the Aramaic word meskenaee "encompassing the images of a solid home base or resting point, of a fluid, round, luminous enclosure, and of devotedly holding fast to something--as if one were 'poor' for lack of it." Therefore, one possible translation of Jesus' words from the Aramaic is: "Tuned to the Source (healthy), are those who live by breathing Unity, the design of the universe is rendered through their form." Such a large part of Jesus' public ministry was healing, in words and deeds. We hang so devoutly on His words, why not also on His actions?
CURRENT EVIDENCE SPILLS FORTH
Dr. Larry Dossey writes extensively about scientific research using intercessory prayer. In his accounts we see science rebuilding the spiritual bridge to the body and stimulating new research into complementary therapies. Since hands-on healing in the church was so long neglected, isolated, or relegated to the category of not-present-day phenomena, evidence for the healing work is emerging elsewhere. Clinics, workshops, retreats, spas, stress reduction programs, and countless therapy tables are bearing fruit.
Perhaps Jesus' lost mission of healing is already being recovered, but in unpredictable ways. Practitioners of energy work, in and out of the church, stand in awe that focused healing intention and "laying on of hands" causes such profound changes. It is also clear to that a healing gift returns to the giver who fills up with chi and feels more and more physically and emotionally whole. We are all capable of using the healing power of touch - we already do it. Ask our children and our cats and dogs.
Since many western physicians have overcome their resistance to new approaches and now believe that we have something to learn from the rest of the world, can Christian churches do the same? Can the Church bravely hold up the mirror of Jesus' living example of healing? Since we know that God uses a physician's or surgeon's skill for healing, can we not let our own prayerful hands be used for blessing? And can we let ourselves receive what is so freely given? If we inquire honestly and without judgment, there are probably sitting in the pews of every congregation a few quiet souls who have already stepped out to take energy healing training or who just know deep inside that they can do it.
SHARING CHI WITH UNCONDITIONAL LOVE
Safe touch in our culture was once lost, but it has now been found. As tai chi students massage their tender acupressure points or move their arms in gentle patterns, they can focus on an intention for health and vitality. It is essentially a prayer for self-healing. The energy in our bodies stirs quietly and naturally, as if the body is listening, and we start to feel tingly and more alive. Lessening arthritis and back pain, improving balance and blood pressure, are icing on the cake. When chi flows unimpeded like deep breath, the larger gift is deep peace - the gift of the Holy Breath - connecting to God's energy flow, filling with joy, trust, and love.
Another characteristic of energy healing is that it does not depend on the belief system of the recipient. Energy seems to be a "healing rain" flowing through all humankind, having a beneficent effect regardless of how the Source is conceived, described, or codified. It's a blessing that simply works.
If we care to receive this outpouring of healing and embrace its manifestation as part of the Good News, we will open tremendous possibilities for service and the alleviation of suffering. Churches need not fear, ignore, brush aside, or denigrate the non-western traditions that balance, integrate, and unify breath and body, bring calm to mind and emotions, and incidentally, give a boost to the immune system. Look at the Fruit, for by this you will know what is true, honorable, excellent, and blessed.
In a recent Plain Dealer article announcing the Cleveland Clinic's Integrative Medicine Center, a post-op heart patient said after receiving a massage, "Thank you, I feel human again." That's one of the fruits of touch and energy therapy. We give and receive love every time we take the hand of someone in pain. Sometimes it's as simple as the gift of touch helping folks feel "at home" in their physical temples. I take literally, "By their fruits, you shall know them." Theological and dogmatic language barriers fall away in the Fruit of experience.
One tai chi student diagnosed with M.S. announced, "My depression has lifted." Another has gotten use of her hands back from arthritis. Instead of climbing stairs one at a time, another says, "I'm walking up like a grown-up." It is a joy and an honor for me as a teacher to share something that leaves everyone feeling flexible, balanced, confident, and glowing with abundant life. Stepping out to participate in God's energy tune-up happens to taste and feel very good. It's perhaps not as dramatic as Jesus' healing work, it takes a little longer, but we have fun feeling the chi flowing in our bodies, and I know we're on a holy playing field.
RECLAIMING THE BALM OF GILEAD
Perhaps it is not a major shift in attitude to name and claim that the Holy Spirit's Presence flows constantly in our bodies, ever present and available to help, encourage, and give peace and assurance that we are Beloved of God. For some in the church it will take courage to relax into the thought that the body's energy is the Gift of the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life. But when they do it, they open themselves and countless others to gentle, non-intrusive therapies that harness the power of the best pharmacy ever created, the human body.
The unpaid dues of the church with respect to healing, are easily forgiven. But we need follow-up deeds to go with our words. At the core, all people want to do is to be of service, to keep the flow of love going, to jump in and offer something of value. Retired nurses tell me they used to give backrubs instead of sleeping pills. Can you imagine the level of joy that could flow forth to hospitals and shut-ins if a few conscious church members started a hand and foot rubbing team? It's a hands-on ministry - and people always smile.
One student at the Sisters of Notre Dame motherhouse told our class about giving a foot massage to an elderly nun, an Alzheimer's patient, who hadn't spoken a clear word in years. At the end the elderly sister said, "Thank you, that felt so good." Something healing and wonderful connected in her brain as love's energy flowed through her body. We are invited to do all things fearlessly in His name - including sharing God's energy for recovering health as freely as we share the unconditional love of Jesus Christ. Reach out and touch - and Go forth and massage!
Susan Cady, M.M., C.T.C.I., teaches Tai Chi for Health and shares chi, as well as foot and backrubs at Cleveland Clinic Hospitals, the American Cancer Society, The Gathering Place, the State of Ohio Lausche Office Building, schools, churches, businesses, women's prison, senior and community centers. She can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . (216) 932-7717
