Qigong for Endometriosis
Is Qigong helpful for endometriosis? Endometriosis is a debilitating, painful, chronic condition that many women suffer from worldwide. It is not yet fully understood by medical science.
Qigong and my Journey with Endometriosis
After I struggled for years with endometriosis, a friend suggested that I try Qigong. Although I had tried lots of natural remedies and alternative therapies, I had never heard of Qigong. I was at a point in my life where I was willing to try anything, so I thought it was worth a go. It turned out that there was a REN XUE teacher living ten minutes away from me. I was living in the country so this was a bonus. I didn’t really know what to expect but was open to how it might help me.
After my first session, I instantly felt different. I remember walking with no pain in my back, feeling light and free all day. Prior to the session, my husband had had to help me out of bed most mornings as my body felt like it had set like concrete during the night. With Qigong, I had a feeling of finding something that I never knew was missing in my life.
How Endometriosis affects your Life
For years, I spent half the month rushing to accomplish the things I had been unable to in the prior weeks. Rushing led to overexertion and then a relapse during which I would spend most of the time in bed or on the couch. The cycle kept repeating. I was very emotional, up and down, in pain and in a state of “why me?”. I didn’t want to live the rest of my life like that. I tried my very best to eat all the right foods, exercise, and to look after myself in all the ways I could. This would work for a few months and I would feel ok, but I would quickly go downhill again and end up right back where I started. Even having surgery only improved the situation for six months before the severe pain returned. The cause was always endometriosis. When I was hospitalized for the condition, I was told that I just had to find a way to manage it. There were no answers as to why this had happened, every case was different and there was no one thing that pointed to why some people suffered from endometriosis, why some people had it while others didn’t, and why some people had it but did not suffer. It was such a mystery and there was no one thing that would cure it.
Endometriosis: How to relax?
Yuan Qigong has helped me to focus on the positive, be in the present moment, and be able to look at things from all perspectives. About six months after I started, I had a final surgery to remove my remaining ovary, tube, and uterus. From there, I started an amazing journey of recovery, learning to have love and compassion for myself, being able to start to heal all aspects of my life, mental, physical, and emotional.
I have so many wonderful tools under my belt now. I used to have a lot of anxiety, worry, and stress but now this is very minimal. If I do start to worry, I can easily bring myself back to the present moment, breathe, and send my best wishes to the thing I am thinking about. This brings me a lot of peace and hope. I have such a different feeling in my body and mind, between worrying about something or sending that same thing my very best wishes. Worry and anxiety are heavy; sending love and best wishes to this thing feels very light. Being able to connect with Qi helps me to connect with everyone and everything. Practicing Ren Yuan, the third method has been an absolute joy, I started out hardly being able to move my body and now there is so much more movement. I love the flow, the stretch, and the stillness of that method in particular. I also love Tong Yuan, the meditation method for opening the heart as this has helped me so much to see myself in such a different light. I vary my practices and love all of the Yuan Qigong methods in the system for different reasons and it is one thing that I do not miss out of my daily routine. When I get up in the morning and do my practice, whether it be long or short, moving or still, my day just flows so much better.
I am so very grateful for my body now, the way it can heal, the way it can function so well without me even thinking about it. I don’t have to program it like a computer or press certain buttons in a certain sequence for it to work – it just works!
I am so much more agile now, healthier and my body is much more relaxed. If there is tension in my body, I notice it and can relax it rather than not even realizing that I was tense.
Endometriosis and Trust
Being able to trust my body again has been a great revelation. I didn’t even know that I had no trust in my body’s ability to be healthy. I spent years living in pain and thinking that this must be how life goes. I was a very old lady in my early 30’s. Now, three and a half years later, I feel so much younger, more agile and so much more capable of doing anything that I wish to achieve. I invite you to feel the same.
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