Massage therapy is the process of manipulating deep and superficial muscle layers along with connective tissues so as to bring about healing, promote relaxation, enhance function, improve reflexes, eliminate hyperexitability as well other benefits. Some people have turned to massage as a recreational activity while others found it to be a healing practice.
Massaging involves the use of pressure applied to various body parts either manually or by the use of devices or aids. Massage may be applied to joints, muscles, skin, tendons, connective tissue, ligaments, nerve points or various organ systems. It can be applied using the hands, the feet, the fingers and through mechanical aids.
Professionally, a massage is usually done with the patient lying down on a flat massage table, sitting down on a massage chair, or lying down on a mat. A bed or the floor may be used in some settings. The client may be fully or partially clothed or unclothed.
There are many types of massages. Accupressure is a type of massage from ancient Chinese times which was derived from acupuncture. It involves the use of acupressure points where physical pressure is applied by the massager using the hand, the elbow or various mechanical devices. Another type of massage is aquatic bodywork in which movement stretching, massage and joint manipulation are performed in warm water pools. Variations of aquatic bodyworks include Watsu, Water Dance, Jahara technique, Healing Dance, Aquatic Craniosacral Therapy, Aquatic Myofascial Release Therapy, etc.
Anma is another type of massage in which there is kneading of muscles and deep tissue work. It is a type of traditional Japanese massage. Another type of massage, Balinese massage, involves the acts of kneading, stroking, skin folding and other techniques. The aim of this massage is to make the client relax as well as to improve blood and oxygen flow. Hot stones may be used in this type of massage.
Barefoot massage is a type of compressive deep tissue massage that uses deep tissue massage, myofascial release, trigger point therapy, transverse friction, compression, tension, shear, proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF), stretching, as well as parasympathetic response. It involves the use of the foot to massage the client. Another type of massage is Bowen therapy, which involves the use of a rolling movement on the muscles, joints and ligaments. It aims to improve circulation and lymphatic flow.
Breema massage is a type of massage done while the person is fully clothed while employing stretches and rhythmical movements. Champissage massage, on the other hand, focuses on the neck, the head and the face to balance the chakras. Other types of massage include craniosacral therapy (massage to the face, the skull and the spine), Esalen massage (joint exercises), foot massage, hilot massage (from the Philippines), pediatric massage (massage for children), Kum Nye (Tibetan massage), Lomi Lomi (Hawaiian massage), and medical massage. Medical massage is a type of massage used in the medical field that claims to help treat and prevent various illnesses. Examples of medical massage include decongestive therapy used for lymphedema, pain massage, and carotid sinus massage for heart problems.
Still other forms of massage include metamorphic technique (a type of foot, hand and head massage), myofascial release massage, shiatsu and many others.
Massage, Circulation and Muscle Soreness
A recent study from researchers of the University of Illinois at Chicago found out that massage therapy may improve blood flow and relieve muscle soreness after exercise. This study, published in the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, was also able to show that massage is able to improve vascular function in people who have not exercised. All in all, the researchers were able to deduce that massage can benefit people with all forms of physical activity. Thus the researchers have concluded that massage may have various benefits in exercise and injuries.
Original article and pictures take www.corespirit.com site
“Acupuncture and cupping, more than half of the ills cured,” is a famous Chinese saying, supporting traditional Chinese medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine brings to mind acupuncture and the use of natural herbs as healing remedies. Cupping is a lesser-known treatment that is also part of Oriental medicine, one that can provide an especially pleasant experience. One of the earliest documentations of cupping can be found in the work titled A Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies, which was written by a Taoist herbalist by the name of Ge Hong and which dates all the way back to 300 AD. An even earlier Chinese documentation, three thousand years old, recommended cupping for the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. In both Eastern and Western cultures, cupping evolved from shamanistic practices that held the belief that illnesses and infirmities can be sucked out of the body
Cupping was established as an official therapeutic practice in the 1950s across hospitals in China after research conducted by Chinese and former Soviet Union acupuncturists confirmed cupping’s effectiveness. Prior to the 1950s, cupping had also been practiced as an auxiliary method in traditional Chinese surgery. In recent years cupping has been growing in popularity, with celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Aniston, David Arquette, and athlete Michael Phelps drawing public attention to the traditional Chinese therapy technique.
Though news outlets were quick to criticize celebrities chasing the newest medical therapies and techniques, recent studies have shown cupping’s effectiveness in reducing pain intensity and providing positive short-term benefits.
What Is Chinese Cupping?
Cupping is the term applied to a technique that uses small glass cups or bamboo jars as suction devices that are placed on the ski to disperse and break up stagnation and congestion by drawing congested blood, energy or other humors to the surface. In dry cupping, the therapist will simply place the suction cups on the skin. In wet cupping, the practitioner will make a small incision on the skin and then apply the suction cup to draw out small amounts of blood.
There are several ways that a practitioner can create the suction in the cups. One method involves swabbing rubbing alcohol onto the bottom of the cup, then lighting it and putting the cup immediately against the skin. Suction can also be created by placing an inverted cup over a small flame, or by using an alcohol-soaked cotton pad over an insulating material (like leather) to protect the skin, then lighting the pad and placing an empty cup over the flame to extinguish it. Flames are never used near the skin and are not lit throughout the process of cupping, but rather are a means to create the heat that causes the suction within the small cups.
Once the suction has occurred, the cups can be gently moved across the skin (often referred to as "gliding cupping). Medical massage oils are sometimes applied to improve movement of the glass cups along the skin. The suction in the cups causes the skin and superficial muscle layer to be lightly drawn into the cup. Cupping is much like the inverse of massage - rather than applying pressure to muscles, it uses gentle pressure to pull them upward. For most patients, this is a particularly relaxing and relieving sensation. Once suctioned, the cups are generally left in place for about ten minutes while the patient relaxes. This is similar to the practice of Tui Na, a traditional Chinese medicine massage technique that targets acupuncture points as well as painful body parts, and is well known to provide relief through pressure.
The side effects of cupping are fairly mild. Bruising should be expected, but skin should return to looking normal within 10 days. Other potential side effects include mild discomfort, skin infection, or burns. However, a trained health professional will apply an antibiotic ointment and bandage to prevent an infection.
The Philosophy Behind Pain and Cupping
“Where there’s stagnation, there will be pain. Remove the stagnation, and you remove the pain.”
The old Chinese medical maxim holds that pain results from the congestion, stagnation, and blockage of Qi, or vital energy, vital fluids, lymph, phlegm, and blood. If pain is the essence of disease, then suffering is a result of obstructed or irregular flow in the body. Chinese cupping is therefore a method of breaking up the blockage to restore the body’s natural flow of energy.
Cupping Combined With Acupuncture
Generally, cupping is combined with acupuncture in one treatment, but it can also be used alone. The suction and negative pressure provided by cupping can loosen muscles, encourage blood flow, and sedate the nervous system (which makes it an excellent treatment for high blood pressure). Cupping is used to relieve back and neck pains, stiff muscles, anxiety, fatigue, migraines, rheumatism, and even cellulite. For weight loss and cellulite treatments, oil is first applied to the skin, and then the cups are moved up and down the surrounding area.
Like acupuncture, cupping follows the lines of the meridians. There are five meridian lines on the back, and these are where the cups are usually placed. Using these points, cupping can help to align and relax qi, as well as target more specific maladies. By targeting the meridian channels, cupping strives to 'open' these channels - the paths through which life energy flows freely throughout the body, through all tissues and organs, thus providing a smoother and more free-flowing qi (life force). Cupping is one of the best deep-tissue therapies available. It is thought to affect tissues up to four inches deep from the external skin. Toxins can be released, blockages can be cleared, and veins and arteries can be refreshed within these four inches of affected materials. Even hands, wrists, legs, and ankles can be 'cupped,' thus applying the healing to specific organs that correlate with these points.
Other Benefits Of Chinese Cupping
This treatment is also valuable for the lungs, and can clear congestion from a common cold or help to control a person's asthma. In fact, respiratory conditions are one of the most common maladies that cupping is used to relieve.
Cupping’s detoxifying effect on skin and circulatory system is also significant, with a visible improvement in skin color after three to five treatments. Cupping removes toxins and improves blood flow through the veins and arteries. Especially useful for athletes is cupping’s potential to relieve muscle spasms.
Cupping also affects the digestive system. A few benefits include an improved metabolism, relief from constipation, a healthy appetite, and stronger digestion.
A 2015 report published in the Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine noted cupping as an effective alternative method of treating acne, pain, facial paralysis, cervical spondylosis, and herpes zoster.
As health practitioners and researchers continue to study the benefits of cupping, this traditional alternative care technique will gain further acceptance and wider practice across holistic healthcare centers in the U.S. as an effective treatment for a wide variety of ailments.
The Neo-Confucian and Taoist scholar Kunio Miura concluded in his research, which happens to be one of a handful of serious studies in the West on the contemporary Chinese Qi Gong practices: “The modern age of science and technology has brought changes in the understanding, description, and evaluation of the practices. Transcendence or immortality is out of the question. Spirit and spirits don’t play any significant role any more. Trance states are discouraged, since traditional ways of understanding and controlling them have been lost. Scientific man shies away from the supernatural.” (Miura, 357)
Based on the contemporary textual sources and his personal public observations of the practices, Miura defines the meditative Qi Gong to be the practices of scholars, and gymnastic or dynamic Qi Gong to be the practices of the working masses. Moreover, what puzzles Miura is that he cannot define whether the Qi Gong practices is science or religion. This characteristic of the traditional Western approach, namely the notion of the separation of dualism can be reconciled with what Maurice Freedman called the “rather tired intellectual world of the Great and Little traditions” 20 years ago. (Freedman, 37) In this formula, Confucianism (now Buddhism and Taoism) were “Great,” or learned culture, folk religions and practices were “Little,” or popular culture. From this standpoint, the traditional sinologists treated Chinese popular cultural practices in a dismissive spirit as gross forms of superstition resulting in a rather shapeless tradition. (Chan, 141) In effect, however, the “Great” and “Little” traditions are not oppositional but necessarily related, engaged, and overlapping in the same discourse and practice. The cultural practices, such as Qi Gong reveal a full range of Chinese cultural properties. Its substance always reflected the rich culture shared, not splintered, by all Chinese.
The separated, or elite approach in the understanding, description, and evaluation of the Qi Gong practices indeed reflect how the recent Chinese who were influenced by Marxist socialistic ideology, and the Western observers thought that the traditional Chinese cultural studies and practices have become. Mao Zedong 毛澤東 was inspired by Marxism (a Western thought) at age 25. He criticized sitting meditation for being too spiritual and not active enough, because “Human beings are active animals and they love to be active. Human beings are also rational animals and thus they need a reason for their activities.” (Mao, 39) It articulates a fundamental battle: the battle has been between spiritualism and rationalism, between idealism and materialism in China since 1911.
After the fall of Qing dynasty (1644-1911), there has been a hope for China to create a new synthesis of government that would transform China into a modern nation-state. This hope largely depends on the ideology of moving China away from its “feudal” past, and releasing China from its “economic backwards” into a new and advanced level of development without the ills of the capitalist system. Under such a social and political background, the meditative and gymnastic practices along with other traditional cultural practices are inevitably considered as superstitions and anti-science. In terms of Qi Gong, the battle was resolved by a shift to more moments in practice, stripping the traditional cosmological and spiritual agents, and the closed-door lineage-transmission to ways of physical treatment that involves more activities between physician and patient, and of general public entertaining activities.
In the 1950s, Liu Guizhen succeeded in curing his stomach ulcer by practicing his family long transmitted Qi Gong technique, which was in fact more of a meditative practice, and decided to publicize the method to the masses. He directed several medical clinics and treated a large number of patients with a success rate of over 80%. He was rewarded by the State Ministry of Health, and received formally by Chairman Mao in 1956, which echoes the traditional honor of having an audience with the emperor still deeply rooted in the mind of common people. In 1957, his breakthrough best seller “Experiences in Healing with Qi Gong,” which of course disassociated with the traditional cosmological and spiritual agents, was published. Unfortunately, he died rather early, at age 64, and there was hardly any evidence to prove that other practitioners performed his method as effectively. The dispute then is: can Qi Gong be a scientific or rational method divested from the complex notion of spiritual attainment or the ideas of magic power, and the lineage transmission?
There are no English words equivalent in meaning to the Chinese words shicheng 師承, which are commonly translated as “lineage transmission.” In the Chinese context, this expression refers to a set of assorted ideas: genealogy or the family history overlapped with lineage or the consanguineous tie; the parallels of fictive family kinship and kouzhuan xinshou 口傳心受, or the orally and esoterically body-to-body and mind-to-mind transmitted technique-bounded practices.
In the terms of Qi Gong practices, the lineage transmission indicates the non-broken genealogical line and the continuously oral-mind-transmitted esoteric techniques. It is indisputable that some of the earliest Chinese sages/philosophers conceiving the Way (ultimate truth) can be realized by practicing meditation, in Graham’s words: “training for the Way as the refining of the energizing fluids, the qi, by controlling one’s posture and breathing.” (Graham, 188) However, the techniques are described only briefly in Laozi, Zhuangzi, Mencius, and scattered in other early works. Although we are confronted with a great paucity of scholarship on the subject, and we have no sources or accounts on how meditation was put into practice as a means of realizing the Way, the writings of the great Taoist Ge Hong (283-363) demonstrated the fact that the usual sources for the notorious silence of the subject are a result of possibility of everything regarding to the actual practice only being orally and esoterically transmitted.
Ge Hong stated in his great philosophical summa Baopu zi: “In the hot summer, my grandfather always dived in the deep river, and stayed under the water until the end of the day, he then came out of the water, because he could halt his qi, and use the fetus breathing…such a technique was only orally transmitted by the True Man, and was never written on paper in words…” “People who are closed to themselves and thus trapped in depression have many sickness and short lives; people who express their emotions extremely also shorten their lives. Only those who harmonize themselves (through the meditative and gymnastic practices) can live long and healthily. However, without koujue 口訣, or the esoteric oral-transmission, no single one out of the ten thousand practitioners will not hurt or kill oneself (by improper practice) in the practices.” (Wang, 150)
Furthermore, he wrote: “Although the treatises on (the meditation and longevity techniques to attain) the Way were created in the School of Yellow Emperor 黃帝 and Laozi 老子, the original writings were rare. In the later centuries, those who were meddlesome and officious had fabricated enormous texts (on the techniques to attain the Way), so that volumes of books have been piled up like hills. Nevertheless, people of antiquity were serene and plain in writing; their treatises were without details, accuracy, and the origins of citations so that the writings were very difficult to comprehend…even the writings of sages such as Wenzi 文子, Zhuangzi, Guanling 關令, Yinxi 尹喜 were only literary. Although they emulated the Yellow Emperor and Laozi, their emulations were mystifying and deceitful. They only deduced the principles, never elucidated the practical instructions.” (Wang, 151)
Such statements still confirm the position of modern practitioners who are in a constant quandary about practice. For instance, one of the most widely cited healing technique texts—stated in the Yellow Emperor’s Inner Book—to heal the degenerative kidney illness or chronic low back pains: “Sitting down and facing the south at the hours between 3am-5am, one stills the mind, empties all thoughts, and concentrates on the breathing, and then halts and holds the breathing. One repeats it for seven times, each time swallows the breath deeply as if swallowing the hard substance. After seven times, one’s mouth will be full of saliva.” (Meng, 702)
It is impossible to see much rationale or practical instructions by simply reading the text. The unwritten texts in the practice traditionally are left to the understanding of the lineage-transmitted adept/master. Even at the level of studies and understanding, one ought to seek help from a traditional lineage-transmitted adept/master. The approach always begins with the idea that humankind is part of nature, whatever happens to the body or the mind, one should set about from the idea of harmonization between the macrocosms or the nature and the microcosms or the body. Thus, one may conclude the followings to support the text from the traditional cosmological perspective:
According to the Chinese cosmology and the Five Agents Theory, the cardinal direction south is associated with the “fire agent,” and the heart in the human body, while the cardinal north is associated with the “water agent,” and the kidneys. In relation to the theory of the ten heavenly stems, and the Chinese calendar calculation, during the hours between 3am to 5am, the “wood agent” becomes most active in time and space. According to He Tu, or the River Chart, seven as one of the primal numbers belongs to the south and stands for the “fire agent.” The conclusion thus is: the heart is nourished by the primal “fire qi” facing south, and the primal number seven; the heart is also produced by the primal “wood qi” at the given time zone.
One may conclude the following from the traditional medicine perspective as well:
The essential cause for weakening of kidneys (which contributes the symptoms such as chronic lower back pain, and the lack of energy and over all vitality) is the imbalanced or stagnant qi circulation between the heart and the kidneys. In the healthy human body, the “fire agent” of the heart circulates downward, while the “water agent” of the kidneys circulates upward. When the kidneys weaken, the kidney qi, or the “water agent” becomes stagnant and “cold.” Likewise, while the heart weakens, the heart qi, or the stagnant “fire agent” becomes “hot.” In order to heal the kidney problems, the heart qi or the “fire agent” and the kidney qi or the ”water agent” need to be harmonized across. By circulating, halting, and swallowing qi seven times as a set of repetitions to restore the down-flow of heart qi, and the up-flow of kidney qi, so that the hot energy from the heart will warm up the “cold water” of the kidneys. Likewise, the cold energy from the kidneys will reduce the “hot fire” of the heart.
According to Chinese medicine, between the hours of 3am to 5am, the lung channel becomes most active in human body. Since the lungs belong to the “metal agent,” according to the Five Agent Theory, “metal produces water.” While the lung channel is active, the “metal agent” of the lungs produce the primal “water agent,” and thus, the lungs nourish the kidneys. Simultaneously, the heart is nourished by the primal qi of south and the number of seven. If one performs the technique correctly, the saliva will be accumulated, which is a sign of strengthening the kidneys.
However, it becomes very crucial at the level of practice. According to the text, there are practically no descriptions on the body posture, breathing methods, and concentration techniques, which play the essential part in practice.
As a result of the above statements, two aspects regarding the lineage-transmitted adept/master should be strongly addressed: First, the adept/master usually has undertaken long and various trainings, he/she is capable to advise students with the specific detailed techniques to support the process of body, breath, and mind according to each student’s condition. Secondly, these technical supports are often impossible to reproduce in writings, or captured by camera, they must be provided by the master orally and personally. In other words, the adept/master has to rely on his/her experiences, and/or more importantly, his/her cultivations in qi to direct and help his/her students on body-to-body, mind-to-mind base, i.e. the adept/master has got the Qi, and the student/practitioner has not.
Hence, the issue of Qi, or the “magic power” rises. This magic power, or the Qi, is believed as matter, or concrete substance, which contributes certain difficulty in the Western understanding. Schwartz describes that it “comes to embrace properties which we would call psychic, emotional, spiritual, numinous, and even ‘mystic.’ It is precisely at this point that Western definitions of ‘matter’ and the physical which systematically exclude these properties from their definitions do not at all correspond to qi.” (Schwartz, 181)
Lineage transmission is based on the Confucian family kinship, its multifaceted rituals of ancestor worship, and the ancient method of oral transmission of knowledge. In all cultural practices, the formation of a fictive family kinship parallels with the consanguineous tie. Within the lineages the proper titles among the members follow the Chinese family structural designations, except the word shi 師 (teaching/master) is added at the beginning of the addresses: shizu 祖 (grandfather/master’s master, male/female), shifu 父 (father/master, male/female), shixiong 兄 (older brother/ fellow disciple), shidi 弟 (younger brother/ fellow disciple), shijie 姐 (older sister/ fellow disciple), shimei 妹 (younger sister/ fellow disciple), shibo 伯 (uncle/master’s older fellow disciple, male/female), shishu 叔 (uncle/ master’s younger fellow disciple, male/female etc.). In this fashion, the family structure, blood tie, and/or fictive kinship together keep the practice esoterically.
To a large extent, the development and transmission of knowledge and cultural practices relied upon the formation of family structure and unity in China. Consequently, the idea of lineages played the fundamental role in the transmission of Chinese cultural history and knowledge on the whole. In practice, the idea of lineage transmission seems to have been loosely articulated as a symbolic apparatus, modern scholars argue, it may even generate a sense of cultural chauvinism. From such Western standpoint, “lineage assertions are as wrong as they are strong.” (McRae, xix) Although the idea of lineage transmission has been reinterpreted, adapted, and subverted by the local traditions and by the elite traditions, but its fundamental intuition is never questioned. This intuition in all conceptual and operational aspects affords an understanding: the continuation of the lines of lineage transmission is the continuation of the Chinese cultural heritages and traditional knowledge and practices.
Original article and pictures take www.corespirit.com site
