The 5 Facilitators of Healing: Part 3

(Photo of Jackie Smith by Jub Davis, Scotland, 2021)

The Ultimate Healing Journey

By Paul Cavel

See Part 2

In the world we live in, we never know what is coming around the corner — or out of the sky — as I was reminded back in 2011. I returned home after a teaching tour in Germany to learn that my good friend and then 18-year student, Jackie Smith, had suffered a horrendous accident. (Many of you will know Jackie, as he's an Energy Arts and TTCS Senior Instructor, who offers courses in Scotland, York and London, UK.)

During a bout of storms in Scotland, Jackie took to helping school children off their bus and into the safety of his own home amidst falling trees from a period of intense rain and wind. The BBC even covered his heroic act. Just as he had secured the children's safety and returned to warn drivers approaching a blind corner of looming danger, a huge oak tree was uprooted and smacked him down, rendering him temporarily unconscious and pinned to the ground.

Upon hearing of the seriousness of the accident, I rushed to see him as I knew we had little time to expel the unanswered shock seeping deeper into his nervous system. I met Jackie not long after surgery and, as I expected, he was a mess. He sustained swelling, cuts and bruising all over his body. His jaw had been broken in several places and his nervous system was shot to pieces. I had just three days to do everything I could to help him recover, and first on the agenda was tapping off(1) and releasing the shock that was settling into his body with each passing moment.

(1) Tapping off is a tui na technique used to tune into shock within another person and release it from their body, especially the nerves, for the purpose of rebalancing and healing. The difficulty is accomplishing the release without the practitioner reabsorbing the shock.

We spent a lot of time together, Jackie trying to breathe and dissolve, while I worked to tap off the shock hardwired into his nervous system and the cells of his body. For brief moments we would seem to bring down the intensity a good notch or two. Then, Jackie would adjust his position due to pain or to take a drink, and the shock would reignite itself, reverberating throughout his system. We went around and around this cycle many times. Before I left, there was a distinct improvement. We also devised a practice protocol that primarily focused on breathing, dissolving and letting go with a minute or two of standing and micro-exercises to prevent stiffness and to aid circulation.(2)

(2) Pulsing techniques at this stage are an absolute no-go as increasing pressure in the blood vessels could burst any weakened vessels or the cuts he sustained from surgery.

Jackie practised as much as he could and when I returned 18 days later, his cuts and scrapes had started healing, the swelling had diminished considerably and he could move about without help. His recovery was remarkable, but we still had a lot to do. We focused on what he had been practising and began to work with his tai chi form, emphasising softness, circularity and relaxation. Any excess effort would simply trap tension in the nerves and cause more tension.

The Rule of Thirds: How the Body Learns to Trust the Mind

Tai chi is a particularly effective means for letting go, as long as you can also let go of any ideas about performing the movements correctly, allowing the injury to govern the size, shape and depth of postures and internals. This way of doing tai chi can be called a “lazy man’s form” because the lazy man has no ego about trying to be the best. He looks for relaxation and the release — that which allows him to let go.

At any sign of the nerves beginning to become tight, you back off on the amount of effort you exert, range of motion within which you move and the intent applied to open up your body. In this way, you can release deeper and deeper layers of shock and tension while the mind forges trust with the body. In this space, real healing can begin. This point is not just for people who have experienced a major, impact trauma, but for anyone who wishes to create positive and lasting change in their body, mind and qi.

The Rule of Thirds dictates that a healthy individual practises to two-thirds of their effort and range of motion, leaving a one-third reserve, which protects against emerging internal resistance. However, someone who has had their body broken or shock rammed into their core is advised to practise to one-third of their effort and range, leaving two-thirds in reserve.

Until the Rule of Thirds is implemented correctly, you cannot develop a good relationship between the body and the mind. Conversely, through respectful operation of the body, trust naturally arises. All practitioners must arrive at this point or their practice will only take them so far — definitely not into deeper healing.

If you met Jackie for the first time today, you might not be able to notice any visible signs of the serious physical trauma he suffered. To come this far he has had to let go of all external markers of success and practise for himself, adhering to the guidelines of the Five Facilitators for Healing. This is no easy task for a teacher of the internal arts, and I consider it his second act of heroism, requiring far more resolve.

I hope that his story of triumph will help you understand that to improve your current state of health, you must let go of any expectations or external goals. Listen to your body and accept when you have done enough, so you do not create internal resistance and undermine your good intent.

Attuning to Acceptance

The most fundamental instruments in the Water Method arsenal of practices must take full effect before you can embark on more advanced techniques and complex neigong. Then and only then can you manifest positive change — right down to the growth of new cells born from the positive flow of qi generated by sustainable, gentle practices.

For Jackie, myself and many others, the road to recovery was fully underway once we attuned to some level of acceptance. You must accept your state of being, and have the wisdom to see that gentle, persistent effort tempered with patience can elicit big changes in time. As you begin to gain ground in your practice, do not rush ahead and unravel your progress. When you get the mix just right— that is, which neigong and forms to train, for how long and to what intensity — you will be left feeling freer inside and more at ease with life.

The feeling you experience and the state of your body after a practice session reveal a lot about whether practice is having a positive impact or if you need to make further adjustments. After a practice session, feel and reflect on your training, and spend time developing a feedback loop that improves your understanding of your practice, of yourself. In this way, you can progress through the stages of healing and develop a body and mind capable of superior functioning.

Neigong itself is a science, but how you practice it truly becomes a form of art.