You Were Born a Healer

By Chunyi Lin
 

You were born a healer. You were born with the gift of healing.

In fact, each and every one of us is born with this amazing gift. We are all born with the ability to help ourselves to heal and to help others heal; physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Think about that for a minute. Think about how wonderful that is. You were born a healer. You have the gift of healing. You simply need to be made aware of your gift and learn how to use it.

You may find that hard to believe. Most people do. If I hadn’t experienced it for myself I know I never would have believed it. But, I know it’s true from what I have experienced in my own life and from what I see in the lives of my students every day.

There are many ways to awaken your natural healing ability and put it to use to help yourself and to help others. The way I prefer, and the way I know best, is called qigong.

I was born in China where the study and practice of qi-gong began more than five thousand years ago. But when I was growing up you could have been imprisoned or even killed if you were caught practicing qigong. Qigong was just one of many things that were outlawed during the Cultural Revolution which lasted for ten years.

I was just eight when the Cultural Revolution began and during the next decade I suffered great physical and psychological abuse, as did many millions of others. I survived but I grew into an angry and depressed young man.

I was in my early twenties when my life would be totally transformed by qigong and all because of a freak accident that severely damaged both of my knees. The injuries were so severe doctors offered little help and no treatment was effective. The pain was so severe at times I wanted to cut my legs off.

Then I heard of a qigong master who was coming to my town. I was ready to try anything so I went to see him.

I sat on the ground at a soccer field with thousands of others and followed the qi-gong master’s guidance, doing exactly what he said to do for a full seven and one-half hours. At the end of that time a miracle had happened, my knees were healed. The pain was gone. I could walk. I could run. I could jump. I thought it was a miracle. I would learn it was the power of qigong.

From that moment on I devoted myself to learning everything I could about qigong and sharing what I’ve learned with others. And one of the things I’ve learned is that qigong is simply a technique for awakening and focusing the natural healing ability each of us is born with.

Qi means energy or life force. Gong means to work or master. Qigong literally means working with your body’s energy. Let me give you an example of how your body’s energy system works. You can experience it for yourself right now.

Here’s what you do. Sit up straight. Take a long, slow, gentle, deep breath and notice how your sinuses feel. Notice how your lungs feel too. Now exhale but remember the feeling of your sinuses and your lungs.

Next extend your left arm, palm up. Then you pat or cup the inside of your left arm from your shoulder down to your wrist. Start at your shoulder and pat firmly all the way down to your wrists and then repeat. Do this five times. It should take about five seconds.

Now extend your right arm, palm up and do the same thing. Pat or cup the inside of your right arm from your shoulder down to your wrist five times.

Once you have done both arms take another long, slow, gentle, deep breath and notice how your sinuses feel now.

Notice the difference? Your sinuses are more open now, yes? Your lungs feel fuller.

Amazing, isn’t it? But, it’s not magic. It’s your body’s energy system at work. It’s also a simple qigong technique.

You see, energetically speaking, your skin is part of your breathing system. The lung energy channel runs through your arm and is very close to the surface on the under side of your arm. By patting your arm you are stimulating the lung energy channel and in doing so you open up your sinuses and your lungs take in more air.

While you may not be able to see your body’s energy system you’ve just experienced how it works.

This is one simple example of how you can learn to awaken and utilize the natural healing ability you were born with.

And I hope it is helping you to see why I believe that you were born a healer.

Chunyi Lin is a certified international Qigong Master with a master’s degree in holistic healing. He is the founder and creator of Spring Forest Qigong and director of the Spring Forest Qigong Center in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. He is co-author with Dr. Nisha Manek of the Mayo Clinic of a chapter on Qigong in a medical school textbook, The Textbook of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Second Edition. His vision is “a healer in every family and a world without pain.” The Spring Forest Qigong Center will hold an event in Encinitas, CA on February 19-25. For more information, visit http://www.springforestqigong.com