Ever since I had the opportunity to live in Asia and study some Mandarin, I have always been struck by the pictorial nature of Chinese culture. The Chinese are a clear example of the famous say "a picture is worth a thousand words". Not only because each character of their language paints what it means, but also because every time they have studied and explained something, they have done it through analogies and/or more images.

Thus, for example, under the context of traditional Chinese medicine, the body is considered a microsystem, which is part of, and behaves similarly, to the macrosystem that is planet Earth, and as a microsystem it is compared to an empire where each organ has a responsibility that allows the empire to function as such.

Under this scheme, the heart is the emperor, it is the sovereign of all organs. It is responsible for intelligence, wisdom, and houses the Shen, or spirit, so the mind and perception reside in the heart, not the brain, as Western medicine proposes.

The lungs are advisors, they help the heart regulate the body, or the empire in this analogy. The liver is like a general and works in conjunction with the gallbladder, which is like a judge for its power of discernment. The stomach and spleen take care of extraction and storage of nutrients and the small intestine do the distribution, delivering the turbid stuff to the large intestine for elimination. The kidneys store vitality, mobilize the limbs, have coordination functions, and support the bladder where fluids converge and after being catalyzed, they are eliminated.

All organs must work together harmoniously so that the empire stays in place. However, the decision-making responsibility remains on the emperor, that is, on the heart.

For this reason, if the Shen or spirit residing in the heart is clear, all the functions of the other organs will be normal, it is in this way that one’s life is perpetuated, just as a country becomes prosperous when all its people are fulfilling their duties. If the spirit is disturbed and unclear, the other organs will not function properly, and health will be impaired. In other words, following the analogy, all residents of the empire will be affected.

Although Western medicine places the brain as the commander of all organs, there are scientific research studies which have compared the heart's response and the brain's response to highly emotional negative and positive images and such studies have revealed that the heart responds first than the brain.

Having said that, the Chinese seem to be right, the heart is the emperor, the heart knows what the brain knows and much more, so keep your heart healthy and your spirit clear.

Help yourself by massaging two or three minutes, two or three times a day, the center of your palms on both hands, with the thumb from the other hand, in the place where the tip of the middle finger falls when bending that finger.

Additionally, practice The Five Morning Habits to Win the Day, I didn’t put them together to heal your heart, but they sure will.

Every time I introduce people to the practice of Qigong or the stimulation of energy points, aiming to fix a specific health issue, I always tell them to follow the instructions consistently every day and give them three months, which is almost 100 days.

Frankly speaking, in many cases I’ve seen results in a month and sometimes in a week, but the truth is that traditional Chinese medicine, in all its forms, is not meant to provide “instant gratification”, it is meant to cure the root cause of the problem, not only the symptoms, and that usually takes longer.

Of course, the symptoms will also disappear, because the root cause of the problem gets solved, not because they become dormant and/or replaced by other symptoms or side effects, however when it comes to pain, the symptoms might worsen for some time, while vital energy qi finds it way, and gets to the right place. Remember that solutions come down to Qi flow.

Going back to practicing Qigong consecutively for 100 days straight, it is absolutely the BEST thing you can do for your immune system so it is the best thing you can do to prevent and/or fix any problem.

Why so? Because when you practice Qigong for 100 consecutive days, especially when you don’t feel like it, you trigger more of your vital energy to transform into a special energy known in Traditional Chinese Medicine as the Wei Qi.  Wei Qi is an innate armor or protective barrier, and it determines the strength of your immune system.

When you exercise your Wei Qi every day, it gets stronger, and 100 days build critical moment!

Remember that The Five Morning Habits to Win the Day are based on Qigong… I can’t stress it any further, practice them consistently, I guarantee you that in 100 days (most likely sooner), you’ll notice incredible results in your Qi flow….and in many other things.