​“In every culture and in every medical tradition before ours, healing was accomplished by moving energy.” Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Biochemist and Nobel Prize Winner.
 
We all have energy within us. The Chinese call this energy ‘qi’ or “chi” and the Indian Yogis call it ‘prana’ – many cultures have different names for it. Regardless of the name you assign to the energy, it flows through humans via channels or meridians.  

In fact, Korean scientists have definitively proven that meridians do in fact exist. They injected dye into specific acupuncture points, and the dye flowed through and highlighted the classical meridian lines.  When they injected dye into portions of the skin where there are no acupuncture points present, there was only a pooling of the dye and the lines were not defined.  This was a major scientific revelation for western science, though it was a well-known fact in Eastern Medicine.  This medical knowledge, which has been observed for thousands of years in other cultures, is finally being seen as valid in western society.  Qi does exist.

Our bodies can actually help this energy to flow by utilizing physical movements, or  point stimulation. Think of Tai Chi, where the artists execute very specific movements, with the goal of activating and moving energy to specific parts of the body, or external to the body, in particular ways.

The opposite scenario can also occur, wherein our energy can cause the body to move. Your brain thinks of a movement, and the energy of that thought activates your nerves and muscles, causing your body to move. It can also be subconscious, where a nervous energy can cause you to shake or tremble. It’s something that we all take for granted, but it is truly amazing.

Advanced Bodywork Practitioners who teach at the Advanced Therapy Institute of Touch know how to move energy and the body synergistically.  By facilitating a very methodical and specific form of therapy called Integrative Meridian Therapy, we move both the body and the energy at the same time, achieving more efficient and dramatic results.
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The ultimate goal of Integrative Meridian Therapy is pandiculation, which sends a signal to the central nervous system to release and relax the entire body instead of just one system at a time.  Moving the body and energy simultaneously, in a specified manner, allows for deep releases and a drastically accelerated healing timeline. The reason is: while moving the body helps the client’s brain relearn appropriate movement, moving the client’s qi balances their energy in a way that allows the natural healing processes of the body to operate, unobstructed.  Simultaneous activation is a highly efficient way to allow the body to achieve optimum health.  Until next time.  Kim  www.advancedtherapyinstitute.net
 
Kim M. Green, has been a life long student of various cultures and unique alternative healing practices from all over the world since her interest was piqued at a very young age.  She started training with scholars and traditional Judo Masters in the late 80’s/early 90’s and since then has developed her own style of bodywork which she’s used to help clients gain optimal health as well as help herself heal from a life-threatening accident in 2008.  Her philosophy  ~  All Things Are Possible!

Have you ever watched a Judo master and wondered how he could make such a strong impact with such subtle movements? Or watched a very small martial artist easily disable a much larger opponent? These people are not using just physical force, or external arts. They are using a combination of the external and internal arts of Judo.

The internal martial art of Judo is, essentially, energy awareness within and externally to the body. It complements the external art by allowing the martial artist to sense the energy of his opponent. That empathic sense identifies areas of weakness and allows him to strike where he will make the most impact physically.

From a defensive standpoint, he can also use that awareness to mask his own energy, or qi, and approach his opponent undetected, like a ninja.

An experienced martial artist can use that same energy awareness to heal rather than hurt, gauging where a person’s qi is weak, so that he can work to balance that energy and create an atmosphere where the body can create its own optimal health. In traditional martial arts schools in Asia, the internal, healing, and martial arts were all taught together. Advanced martial arts were one of the last forms to be taught after internal and healing was mastered by the student. "One must first learn to heal their opponent before harming them." 

A well-trained Judo master keeps his body loose and flowing while keeping perfect alignment and activating the specific muscles needed for movement. As skill and practice is developed he can read his own energy, his opponent’s, and anyone coming at him. This takes discipline, training, and time to achieve. The internal and healing arts of Judo is a skill Advanced Therapy Institute of Touch teaches, based on years of instruction from traditional Judo Masters and developed practice. 

Over time, students learn to apply this skill with their clients when studying Integrative Meridian Therapy and Somatic Trauma Release. It is like a dance where students are deeply aware of internal qi, but know exactly how to impact the physical body to benefit the client most. The flow also allows for the energy and physicality to communicate together effortlessly and symbiotically for integrated releases. The practitioner understands this form of language which allows them to facilitate what is necessary for the client’s body and their own. Our bodies communicate very well if we will only listen. The internal art teaches you to listen to your qi, and to the qi of others. The healing arts teach you how to positively effect the body to allow it to heal itself.

You don’t have to be a martial artist to develop energy awareness. We all have the ability. Every human body puts out information about itself that other people can read. In western culture, especially, we’ve lost the ability to understand what our bodies are telling us. We sometimes don’t even know if we’re dehydrated, much less have an awareness of the energy of another person. With practice, though, we can learn to increase our empathic energy awareness.

Bodyworkers who study with Advanced Therapy Institute of Touch understand how to strengthen their own qi and practice cultivating awareness of their own energy and the energy of others. We can use that awareness to bring balance, much like the internal martial artist, and to intuit where a person is experiencing an imbalance resulting from or causing a serious illness. Once that imbalance is identified, Bodyworkers can work with the channels, points, areas, structure, and any system in the body through which your qi flows to strengthen weak qi, or lessen excess qi. Your body then uses its own natural healing abilities to make things right. 
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Kim M. Green, Founder
www.advancedtherapyinstitute.net