Hello and thank you for joining me,
Noel Wright,
For this Qi Yoga acupressure practice for immunity.
In Chinese medicine,
The lungs,
Which is a Yin element and Yin meridian,
And the large intestine,
Its partner,
Which is Yang,
Comprise the metal element.
The metal element is associated with the time of fall.
When we take a breath in Chinese medicine,
We are breathing in what is called Wei Qi.
Wei Qi carries our immunity,
Qi.
So we can think of the Wei Qi in Chinese medicine as the immuni Qi.
So this practice is going to help us connect with our breath and is also going to use some acupressure stimulation to keep our immunity healthy and active.
So begin by taking a nice comfortable seat,
Connecting sitz bones to your chair or yoga mat and your feet to the floor,
Lifting through the crown of your head.
I invite you to take a hand to the chest and maybe a hand below the diaphragm above the navel on the belly.
Take a deep breath in and out.
And then as you begin to breathe in and out through your nose,
See if you can inhale and feel the bottoms of your lungs filled with breath and the middles.
And then finally the tops.
On your exhale,
See if you can feel the breath leaving the lungs from the tops to the bottoms.
Imagine you can sense or feel the Wei Qi on the breath as you inhale it deeply to the lungs.
Inhaling health and exhaling any dis-ease,
Discomfort or anything that doesn't serve you today.
As we continue our practice,
Stay in touch with your slow rhythmic inhales and exhales.
We are going to begin by locating Lung 1 acupate point and Lung 1 is called Central Palace.
It is the central area that stimulates the lung meridian.
It's the first point on the lung meridian.
And when we take that breath,
The Qi enters this point.
So if you take your left hand and take the fingers under the right armpit where the left thumb touches the pec muscle or pectoralis muscle,
So kind of where the arm joins the body,
Is our Lung 1 area.
Now acupoints are a large area.
They're not a tiny pinpoint of a point.
So in that general area.
So find that point on each side of the body and then we're going to make little bird beaks with our hands.
We're going to take all of our fingertips,
Touch them to the thumb,
And then we are going to tap with our bird beak hands on that Lung 1 area.
While you are tapping,
Take three deep,
Slow breaths.
Then release your hands,
Bring them back to your lap,
Notice your breath,
Perhaps even notice this acupoint.
Take your index fingers now and come along each side of each nostril.
This is large intestine 20 and the English name of this point is welcome fragrance.
It unblocks the sinuses,
The nasal passages,
Helps us to take a deeper breath.
So as you press in on each side of the nostril,
Take three deep breaths.
Slowly release.
The next acupoint we're going to work with is large intestine 11.
This point is by the elbow crease.
It is known as the immune reflex area in Japanese acupuncture.
So if you take your palm of your hand,
Place it on your belly.
And then with the opposite hand,
Take the thumb where the elbow creases and massage or press in there.
It may be a bit tender.
We do a lot of work on devices these days and this muscle can be sore.
So massage around,
Take three deep breaths.
And then repeat on the opposite elbow,
Breathing deeply three times as you massage around the crease of the elbow.
And then release your hands back to your lap.
When we take a deep breath in Chinese medicine and bring the way Chi or the immunity into our body,
It is actually the job of our kidneys to grasp or take hold of this way Chi.
So you may know someone or you yourself may have difficulty taking a deep breath in,
Particularly if you have a type of asthma or other lung issue.
So we always want to work with our kidneys as well in the immunity Chi yoga practice.
So the most simple thing we can do is just take a loose fist and take that into the low back.
So right above the hips in the waist area.
And you can just tap as you take deep breaths and as you're taking your deep breaths and tapping,
Imagine that the lungs are going to send that way Chi that immunity to the kidneys and feel the kidneys grasp that immunity.
Three deep breaths as you lightly tap on the kidneys.
And then just release your hands back to your lap.
Take another deep breath in and a deep exhale.
The last acupressure point we're going to activate is in the center of the chest on the sternum,
Or the breastbone.
This point is known as conception vessel 17.
It is the point that is known as the sea of Chi of the chest.
So all the Chi of the chest gathers at this point.
The thymus gland,
Which is very important for producing cells that help our immunity is located directly behind this point behind the breastbone.
So we're going to take our hands,
Place your palms together and keep space between all of your fingers,
And then just practice moving your hands back and forth,
Almost like you're going to chop something and then bring them closer to the center of the chest and allow the thumbs to tap in the center of the chest on conception vessel 17.
And as you do this,
Take a deep breath in and on your exhale,
Make a ha sound.
So it'll sound like this inhaling chopping on that CV 17.
And continue to do that for three or four breaths.
The vibration you make with your voice will also help in times when you might have a chest cold or congestion in the chest.
And once you have practice that about three to five times,
Put your hands back down,
Connect with the sits bones,
The feet,
The crown of the head.
Inhaling,
Feel the breath,
Fill the bottoms of the lungs,
The middle and the tops.
Exhaling from the tops,
The middles,
And then the bottoms.
Inhaling,
I am healthy.
I am healthy.
Thank you so much for joining me for this Chi yoga acupressure for immunity.
I hope you have a healthy day.
