Happy Tuesday to You!
I had a full-on day yesterday. I got to work before 6:00 AM and stayed very busy until 6:00 PM.
In the morning, I took a break from my work to hit the gym.
After a couple days lifting stones, my body was well tuned, toned and balanced so I thought I’d take advantage of that and put some weight on the bar and do some deadlifting off the box.
I had a lovely, efficient workout of four sets of 4 at 365 lbs. coupled with reptilian crawling.
I left the gym feeling better than when I walked in, which is always a good indicator or physiological and psychological readiness.
After work, Rory and I headed home for a great tai-chi session with the setting sun.
While meditating with the sun the day before, I had a vision that I wanted to draw so I made that my evening play.
A cool serendipity occurred around my drawing that I will share below when I share my art.
Today, I’d like to share a few simple tips that can really decrease stress and add vitality to your life:
BAREFOOT MEDICINE FOR FREE!
Most people tend to think of their bodies as physical entities. But the body is really a physical expression of complex energies.
All bodies begin as energy before physical embodiment; your body came by way of sexual energy moving through your parents, which laid the foundation for your physical appearance.
Some have a hard time with the concept of energy before body because science has done a great job of creating a mindset that doesn’t view anything as “real” unless it can be weighed or measured.
Theoretical quantum physicist, Amit Goswami, addresses the energy or body question beautifully.
In response to the many scientists in the field of consciousness research that are adamant that consciousness is the product of brain chemistry and neural activity proposes a question.
Goswami stated (in paraphrase), that brains are very recent in the evolution of species. Therefore, we must ask what created brains?
Obviously, the level of technology required to make any brain, let alone a human brain is far beyond our current capability.
Therefore, we can safely assume that the formative forces are pre-physical.
Those of us practicing energy healing work are well aware that energy is the basis of all material form and that addressing the physical aspects of a patient’s disease often has very limited results.
When a therapist has the skills to read the patient’s energy field (or aura) and identify energetic (emotional or mental) imbalances, correction at the energetic level often brings long-term resolution of physical problems.
As you can see in the image above, man is a conglomeration of energies, which are expressed as a wide variety of frequencies.
These frequencies are grouped into octaves (like a piano keyboard). These octaves, in relation to a living body, are called chakras.
The sunlight creates a positive energy polarity that creates levity relative to the earths negative energies.
It is the sun’s positive energy polarity that draws plants, trees and animals upward, out of the earth.
In order for energy to flow through our body-mind construct, we must be grounded to the earth, creating a living bioelectric circuit.
When we are not grounded to the earth, our bodies can’t discharge energies in frequencies that are not harmonious with our sensitive internal circuitry.
The result is an abundance of incongruent energies and frequencies that get trapped within the body.
This energy pollution can, and often does cause “noise” in our internal systems, often resulting in confused communications between cells and systems.
The net result of being disconnected from the earth is fatigue, which leads to illness and eventually, disease.
In the above image depicting the human energy field and chakras from Martin Brofman’s excellent book, Anything Can Be Healed, you can see how the red root chakra energies (equal to the low notes on a piano) connect us to the earth, allowing any excess or chaotic energy to bleed off into the earth.
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When we are barefooted on the earth’s natural surface, we are in circuit with the earth and any energies discharged from out bodies are absorbed and used by the earth.
When we wear shoes, we are typically wearing materials that are electrical insulators.
Insulators do not conduct electricity, or bioelectricity. They insulate us from the earth, trapping the energies the body may not want within.
The ancient yogis knew this long before modern science made such conclusions. This is expressed in a saying used by wise old yogis: To a man with leather on his feet, the world is covered in leather.
As a therapist, I could restate this truth by saying, “A wo/man with shoes on feet is disconnected from the circuit of life.”
If you look at this reflexology diagram, you can see the map showing where the pressure points are that relate to each of the glands, organs and body parts.
These reflex points are access points to the specific bioelectric circuits exemplified by your organs and meridian pathways.
Just as you can tap into another car’s electrical system by hooking jumper cables to its battery, putting your car in “circuit” with another car, allowing a transfer of energy, putting your feet on the ground puts you “in circuit” with the earth.
When walking barefoot, each of the points represented in the foot reflex diagram can come into contact with the earth.
When “in circuit”, each of the organ, gland and body systems can either decrease energy (earthing it), or increase energy potential by drawing yin or negative energy into itself.
This natural balancing mechanism is completely disabled by any shoe made of an insulator material.
The result is similar to what happens if your cell phone isn’t put back on a charger; it progressively looses charge and eventually, the charge reaches a critical low point at which time, internal software begins to malfunction.
Your body essentially acts the same with regard to its electronics and internal software systems.
Additionally, the foot is designed to feel and conform to the surface of the earth.
The information gained by the foot is essential because the feet are like eyes that are always surveying the environment and sending the information to the brain quickly so it can make crucial decisions about balance and muscle recruitment.
If the foot is weakened and deformed from wearing shoes (most common in females from wearing constrictive shoes), your body becomes progressively blinded and reaction times become dangerously slow.
This leads to a LOT of orthopedic injuries, among the most common of which are ACL injuries to the knee.
Simple Solutions:
As I’ve highlighted in previous blog posts, stones both hold, and conduct earth energies. Stones also come in a myriad of shapes, allowing us to use them as tools for healing when we understand their benefits.
Walking barefoot on stones allows you to feel which points in your feet are sore. Sore points on the feet typically come in two varieties:
– Hard fibrous points that indicate energy chronic energy deficiency in the body-system they are in circuit with, and
– Soft swollen points that feel like a pea under the skin and are often very sensitive. These points typically indicate excess energy, heat, or toxic buildup in the body.
While walking on stones, if you feel a sore spot that feels good when you press on it, it is most likely a reflex zone that needs more energy.
By pressing down on that point and wiggling your foot a little, you can use friction to break up the tissue there and stimulate the healing current of injury. By inducing a controlled, minor disruption in the hardened tissues, your bodies healing energies begin to flow to the area and reenergize it.
If you find these points, the next thing to do is pay attention to how your body feels when stepping on a dark stone (yin energy) vs. a light colored stone (yang energy).
If your body needs more female/yin energy, the dark stone will give you a sense of calm or enhance your internal sense of balance and well-being.
If your body needs more male/yang energy in that specific reflex system, the lighter (or hotter) stones will typically enhance well-being.
Typically, you don’t want to hold any point under constant pressure for longer than about 20 seconds.
If you do, you starve the cells there for blood and oxygen too long and that can trigger significant post-treatment soreness.
It is better to treat a point for 20 seconds, then move to another point. Return back to each prior sore point as many as three to five times or until the point starts to feel uncomfortable from the physical manipulation.
If you go past the point of therapeutic comfort, you will increase inflammation and loose the benefits of the treatment by dong more harm than good.
Hard points respond well to vigorous stimulation and frictioning. Soft points respond best to sustained pressure.
An ideal therapeutic pressure is obtained by pressing to the point that the discomfort hovers around a 7/10 with ten being so painful you’d have to withdraw your foot.
If you notice that your pain points come back to the same areas from session to session, that is an indicator that you need to look at what organ/gland or body system relates to that point.
For example, if your liver point is consistently sore from treatment to treatment, you are probably treating the symptoms of an overburdened liver.
If you just keep treating the points but don’t look at what diet and lifestyle factors are causing the energy imbalance, you will just wear your rocks out while you wear your liver (or related organ or part) out!
I wouldn’t recommend you tell anyone you’ve done that because it isn’t a glowing sign of intelligence ☺.
For those of you in the city or without easy access to stones and earth, simple means of balancing your body with stones is to find a large metal or terracotta clay bowl or tray like you see in the photo and fill it with a variety of stones.
The stones should range from about the size of a marble to as big as your fist and be in a variety of colors and shapes.
This allows you to choose with stone tool is best for treating any given pressure point that may be sore.
By adding some water, you will create a conductor that both enhances the flow of energy from the stones into your body and from the earth into your bowl; that’s why the bowl should be made of (unpainted or covered) metal or terracotta clay, which both conduct earth energies.
Those of you that use coffee, caffeinated beverages, sugar, or are dependent on these and other stimulants to get through your day will benefit most from adding the coldest water you can, or even ice water.
The cold water will significantly increase the yin energy, aiding your body in cooling and balancing the heat created by over-stimulating your metabolism (excess yang or heat within).
Those that suffer from hypothyroid conditions (adrenal exhaustion) may find that hot water offers the best balancing effect.
One of my favorite ways of treating my feet on a regular basis is to do this therapy on the exposed roots of a tree.
I’ve got some beautiful roots in my yard and I find the tree roots softer and less invasive to sore areas.
The wood element carries a much different energy than stones, yet it is still a beautiful, useful energy form for your body.
If you find a dead tree somewhere and can cut off a section of root about as thick as your forearm, you can lay it on your floor at home or in your office on top of a beach towel and use it regularly as a backup plan for the times you can’t get outside.
A little self-nurture goes a long way to not only feeling better within yourself, but provides regular doses of awareness.
As you track your sore points on a reflexology chart, you can learn a lot about how your body is responding to your diet and lifestyle choices.
Do this and you will cultivate a functional relationship with your body. Listen to what your body teaches you how to care for what may be the greatest gift you’ve ever been given!
As a head’s up, I’ll be speaking in London at the Barefoot Connections Conference Saturday, June 30th.
If you are in the area and want to attend, I’d love to see you there!
SERENDIPITY OF ART AND TREE
Sunday evening, while doing my tai-chi and sun gazing, I was looking at the sun through the trees on a hill across the street from my house. The sun was amazingly beautiful and bright.
It was so bright that when I looked at it through the tree on top of the hill, the tree appeared jet black to my eyes.
When I covered my eyes enough to block the sun but still see, the tree was beautiful green again.
The silhouette of the tree being backlit by the sun was so beautiful I felt compelled to draw both what I saw, and the feeling that moved through me as I gazed.
The photo of my drawing above is what came out of me last night. Once I finished my tai-chi, I went into the house and started drawing.
About forty five minutes later, this is what emerged.
As I was walking into my house from doing tai-chi, I heard my phone chime, informing me that a text had come – I didn’t want to be bothered by more busy stuff, so I ignored it and got busy drawing.
This morning, I checked my messages and it turns out that the text that came through was from Wayne Daniels (CHEK 4 Practitioner).
I opened the image he’d sent of his most recent piece of art and this is what I saw:
Notice Wayne has a sun in the background with a tree in front of it. Notice he has a cross that with a hallow heart in the intersection of the vertical and horizontal axis of the cross.
Now, you will see that I have a tree in front of a yellow sun. Then you will notice that there is a cross with a hollow circle in the same location as Wayne’s hollow heart on his cross.
Very cool ah! Great minds think alike!, as the saying goes.
Wayne wrote this poem to go with his drawing:
In this love
I become a stranger to myself
In this strangeness
I come to know who I am
In this knowing
ALL
IS.
Enjoy your day and don’t forget to get those damn shoes off !☺
Unless of course you want to make love to the world with a leather condom every day…
Love and chi,
Paul Chek
