On Pain and Suffering

[ChiDragon]

Acupressure was independently re-discovered in the West several decades ago. For anyone who wants to see how Westerners explain and use Acupressure I recommend the following book (it's awesome!). Obviously since it's Western based it uses body-centric explanations Westerners are comfortable with and understand (blood, muscles, nerves, hormones, etc) rather than 'chi' or other TCM ways of explaining things.

 

The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief - 2nd edition.

 

 

The entire book has tons of diagrams mapping which points map to which areas of pain and almost all places you work on do not line up with where one experiences the pain. Anyway...it is very detailed so you can go through the entire program with your own body and even eventually use it on others as well.

 

Thanks for the recommendation of the book. As I had learned, acupressure was known by the Chinese long time ago but acupuncture was vast used in TCM. However, acupressure does use in TCM as an anesthesia, anyway, in some fiction stories. Most of the time, acupressure was used by the ancient martial artists to disable his opponent by applying a jing jin(勁) pressure to an acu-point.

Edited April 8, 2012 by ChiDragon

[Ya Mu]

Thanks for the recommendation of the book. As I had learned, acupressure was known by the Chinese long time ago but acupuncture was vast used in TCM. However, acupressure does use in TCM as an anesthesia, anyway, in some fiction stories. Most of the time, acupressure was used by the ancient martial artists to disable his opponent by applying a jing pressure to an acu-point.

Other work on tripper point therapy: Dr Janet Travell was famous for her work in this area and indeed her work is utilized in many PT clinics. I studied this work back in the 80's and found it interesting. But trigger points and acupressure acupoints are not a one-to-one ratio. To simplify this, one is based more on inflamed muscle nodules inside a muscle band and associated radiated pain and the other more on the movement of Qi. Dr Travell co-authored the book Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction. The Trigger Point Manual. I used to have a copy and IMO this was a good work.

 

And many TCM hospitals do utilize acupressure alongside acupuncture, Tui Na (Chinese massage and manipulation methods), herbs (not only herbs, over 5,000 ingredients in pharmacopia ) and medical qigong. Other hospitals have full western medicine departments and all of the other methods listed.

 

We do utilize this muscle "trigger point" concept as well as dermatomes inside medical qigong therapy.

[ChiDragon]

Acupressure was known as 點穴(dian3 xue2) by touching the acu-point with pressure.

 

At the end of this video, a chicken was paralyzed by 點穴(dian3 xue2) at 5:00; and also unparalyzed. If the chicken was not unparalyzed, then it will die in three hours.

 

Edited April 7, 2012 by ChiDragon

[David Yeh]

Other work on tripper point therapy: Dr Janet Travell was famous for her work in this area and indeed her work is utilized in many PT clinics. I studied this work back in the 80's and found it interesting. But trigger points and acupressure acupoints are not a one-to-one ratio. To simplify this, one is based more on inflamed muscle nodules inside a muscle band and associated radiated pain and the other more on the movement of Qi. Dr Travell co-authored the book Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction. The Trigger Point Manual. I used to have a copy and IMO this was a good work.

 

By the way, interesting fact, one of my (Western) Chinese medicine teachers had Janet Travell as a instructor back in the 1940's and Janet's niece as a classmate. The niece revealed that Janet's father was a missionary in China and learned bodywork from the Chinese. He taught it to Janet but warned her that she had to inject something or else Western medicine would never accept it.

 

So the whole concept of trigger points was actually imported from ... Chinese medicine!

[Ya Mu]

By the way, interesting fact, one of my (Western) Chinese medicine teachers had Janet Travell as a instructor back in the 1940's and Janet's niece as a classmate. The niece revealed that Janet's father was a missionary in China and learned bodywork from the Chinese. He taught it to Janet but warned her that she had to inject something or else Western medicine would never accept it.

 

So the whole concept of trigger points was actually imported from ... Chinese medicine!

Interesting indeed. These things are basic to anyone studying bodywork and while they could certainly be arrived at through independent study, most things have already been investigated. Humanity has been around a long time.

 

This is the same as the osteopaths utilizing manipulation techniques from Chinese medicine and the chiropractors used techniques from the osteopaths. Yet it appears that many of the western practitioners think they invented manipulation. The Chinese were doing manipulation in advanced Tui Na techniques for a very long time.

[ChiDragon]

What is the Tui Na(推拿)...???

Tui Na(推拿) involves two techniques, the Tui(推) and Na(拿).

 

1. Tui(推) is push the acupoints with pressure, back and forth, along a meridian.

2. Na(拿) is to squeeze the accpoints along a meridian with the thumb and the bent index fingers.

 

The purpose of the Tui Na(推拿) technique was to innervate the acupoints by pressure instead of using needles as in acupuncture or heat treatment as in Moxibustion.

[Ya Mu]

What is the Tui Na(推拿)...???

Tui Na(推拿) involves two techniques, the Tui(推) and Na(拿).

 

1. Tui(推) is push the acupoints with pressure, back and forth, along a meridian.

2. Na(拿) is to squeeze the accpoints along a meridian with the thumb and the bent index fingers.

 

The purpose of the Tui Na(推拿) technique was to innervate the acupoints by pressure instead of using needles as in acupuncture or heat treatment as in Moxibustion.

I think that is a pretty good explanation. I learned the words as push-grab. But my understanding is this "push grab" technique evolved to include manipulative therapy. Perhaps it was just a convenience to have a category to put such techniques under. There was this one doctor in the Tui Na department of the Baoding TCM hospital who was a Tui Na specialist and he had a technique involving having his assistant hold the patient's arms while he held their legs. They then lifted the patient off the table and the doctor introduced a sine wave like snap that went all the way through the patient's body. DANG! The patients felt much better afterwards. You could hear every single vertebrae align as the wave traveled up the patient's body.

[Mokona]

It's not exactly pain, but I find it interesting because I am subject to it... Emotional and/or psyche problems. How powerful is chi kung to healing something such as deep seated anger? i've had limited success on others when I have tried Reiki, but no self progress. Also, for the self taught - i'm feeling that even if knowledge isn't imparted transm ssion

would be or is needed. It is just my personal opinion - it's difficult to keep up chi kung practice at the beginners level and I am one of those who pursue it for self healing as well as spiritual exploration.(difficult because I personally experience a one step forward two steps back dynamic)

[Everything]

Hi, Marblehead! =)

 

I just read your post and thought... WoW I have just about the exact opposite experiences with physical pain, so maybe it would be good to share! Perhaps its good to know that all people have diffrent experiences to grow from in diffrent ways. They are all equally valid.

 

I had emotional issues.... I loved physical pain as some sort of distraction. It was addictive... I recall, I liked pain to keep my heart calm and relaxed. Well, as the emotional issues resolved, the addiction was still there. Still attracted all kinds of physical pain into my life, in synchronistic way. It slowly faded away.

 

Thats about that.

 

Currently, I only experience subtle physical pains when I worry too much or for longer periods then 15 minutes. The pain is usually very subtle, and I am sensitive to it. Other then that, I just don't experience pain at all.

 

Currently, when negative believes start to creep in, I just feel tired instantenously. Instead of pain, I become tired. Exhaustion is more subtle then pain, but it serves me aswell in reminding my self to let go of things that do not serve me. Somehow sleeping is subconsciously related to letting go of that which does not serve me and potential allowance of my preference(the moment of awakening), by letting go of reality alltogether in the first place(moment of falling asleep). Having become aware of this, I now close my eyes, breath in, let it out, open my eyes and I'm done sleeping. Thats it! Now I am refreshed and open to that which I prefer to experience.

 

So exhaustion is my personal achilles heel, and not pain. Tiredness is my personal indication of my suffering. The cure is "letting out and letting go of that which does not serve me." Sometimes I have dreams where I piss for 5 minutes long. Because I just love to let go of things. Its like a rubber band, stretched into darkness, snaps back into the light. Feels wonderful.

[Marblehead]

It's not exactly pain, but I find it interesting because I am subject to it... Emotional and/or psyche problems. How powerful is chi kung to healing something such as deep seated anger? i've had limited success on others when I have tried Reiki, but no self progress. Also, for the self taught - i'm feeling that even if knowledge isn't imparted transm ssion

would be or is needed. It is just my personal opinion - it's difficult to keep up chi kung practice at the beginners level and I am one of those who pursue it for self healing as well as spiritual exploration.(difficult because I personally experience a one step forward two steps back dynamic)

Actually, IMO, this is the 'suffering' part of what I wanted to bring in thoughts and suggestions about.

 

Of course, there are time when this suffering is rooted in something physical and I think that this should end up within the category of pain.

 

But the emotional suffering is something all by itself. Most often it is because of some traumatic experience and these are difficult to get to the roots of because of our acts of denial.

 

Also, these problems are most often very individualistic so each one must be explored individually.

 

I think that in self-healing, if we can learn to use our mind as a mirror without letting our ego get in the way we can find the 'real' reason we are being tormented by the past. This would be the second step in the problem-solving technique. The first step, of course, is acknowledging that there is a problem.

[Marblehead]

I have just about the exact opposite experiences ...

Yes, a perfect example regarding our individual uniqueness and how one process will be bad for one person but good for another.

 

I will again suggest that emotional suffering is very difficult to deal with. I am glad you found a way that worked for you.

[Everything]

Yes, a perfect example regarding our individual uniqueness and how one process will be bad for one person but good for another.

 

I will again suggest that emotional suffering is very difficult to deal with. I am glad you found a way that worked for you.

Yeah it is indeed difficult to have emotional issues. Thats why I no longer have them xD