Chi Nei Tsang - to help you enjoy life!

How long has it been since you experienced feelings of joy and inner peace from deep within?

Perhaps too long. Do you know that we are born to enjoy life? In our fast-paced existence, it's easy to forget that we are actually designed to feel good. And how about if healing was not about getting rid of a disease, but about allowing the body to really live, enjoy life and grow as a person?
Chi Nei Tsang is the physical branch of a comprehensive healing and personal development system called the Universal Tao, which was brought to the West in the 1970's by Master Mantak Chia, who's main centre is now located in Thailand. It is a deep healing technique of ancient Chinese origin which works by massaging the inner organs, bringing us out of our heads (where most of us spend most of our time) into our bodies, so that we can experience ourselves, and life, to the full.
Literally translated as Chi (energy / information) Nei Tsang(internal organs / guts), Chi Nei Tsang means 'Inner Organs Chi Transformation' or 'Internal Organs Chi Massage'. It uses massage, breathwork and applied chi kung (energy management) to clear the body of physical toxins and emotional charges, thereby unblocking stagnant energy, upgrading the quality of chi and training our inner organs to work more effectively. You could say that Chi Nei Tsang is applying meditation on a physical level, and it certainly has the added bonus of bringing greater mental clarity and spiritual freedom. That is why it was the secret practice of monks in Chinese monasteries for centuries.
Its other related practices include guided chi meditations to connect you with your inner organs, clearing them of emotional charges and transforming negative energy into purified chi that can be used to revitalize the body. It also uses chi kung exercises (energy management) to clear and strengthen all the body's meridiens and tissues, including the tendons, muscles and bones.

Our Internal Organs - the source of life and death

The ancient Egyptian ritual of preserving the inner organs was no random act. Says Gilles Marin, Director of the Chi Nei Tsang Institute: "people train to move better by doing all kinds of exercises; people educate themselves to perform better in society and in the workplace. Why not train our internal organs? Our internal hold our deepest secrets and are the source of life and death".
Most people are aware on some level that their abdomens are a sensitive place, and many cannot even bear the thought of being touched there. Have you ever wondered why? It's simple: our organs store all our emotions, good and bad. People do not like to be touched there because they do not want to get 'in touch' with the unprocessed and hidden emotional charges lying dormant in their bodies.

So, whilst a happy heart may be holding the virtues of joy, happiness, tolerance and compassion, a heart storing unresolved hurt and pain will manifest the feelings of dispiritedness, cruelty, hatred and impatience. Each organ plays a special role in storing negative feelings as a protective mechanism: and with a array of organs inside us including the spleen, stomach, liver, gallbladder, lungs, large intestine, kidneys, reproductive organs…you can imagine what a variety of emotions we are harbouring inside - without us even realizing it.

The power of being In Touch

So Chi Nei Tsang brings us back in touch with ourselves. And for good reason. Unresolved negative emotions may well eventually manifest themselves in a physical illness in order to get our attention - ie, as a physical condition we term a dis-ease. Whether you know it or not, YOU are everywhere in your body. It is not your 'colon' that is hurting - it is YOU in your colon that is hurting! So CNT works by connecting you via the breath and touch with the manifested condition such as irritable bowel and constipation [unprocessed emotional charges], cysts and fibroids [blocked creative energy] etc or by working preventatively to keep you in touch with yourself to the extent that your body does not even need to get to the point of developing an illness..

The fascinating thing is, when we 'think' we cannot bear anyone to touch our stomach, it's actually only the mind resisting and fearing, not the body. The paradox is that as soon as the body (or rather, YOU in your abdomen) is touched, it breathes a sigh of relief and gratitude so big that if it had an audible voice you would hear it next door! Our bodies want to be connected with, they want to be heard, and our hidden feelings really do want to be noticed. Which brings us to a very important point; Chi Nei Tsang is not about fixing or 'fighting dis-ease'(who ever won a war, how can you possible 'fight cancer'?)-it's about validating how we feel and who we are because emotions are irrational and cannot be thought away.

Fight Flight or Relaxation - where are you most of the time?
Many people are not aware that their body's nervous system can either be in fight/flight or relaxation mode. Our bodies are designed to be relaxed, only going into 'fight-flight'(stress) response for emergencies (such as avoiding an oncoming bus rather or running away from a stampeding bull). The problem is, in our fast-paced and pressured lifestyle, many (most) people are constantly living in stress response, without actually knowing it.
This puts a huge strain our bodies, as it constantly pumps adrenolin and cortisol to keep us going, putting the endocrine, nervous and immune systems into a constant state of overdrive. And unfortunately, our bodies are unable go into a healing mode while we are in this stress response - so it's a catch 22 as far as healing is concerned. The simple truth is, if we want to heal, we have to relax. And this is where CNT comes in. By breathing fully and shifting our attention from the head to the body during a treatment, the body will automatically come to a place of very deep peace and relaxation. It can then use its innate intelligence / body wisdom to send healing chi to wherever it needs to go - without any input from the intellect. And then there's one more key ingredient that makes a Chi Nei Tsang treatment unique from your average massage…

Chi - the secret ingredient
The three approaches possible to treat any illness are either the metabolic approach (in case of internal problems), the structural approach (in case of pain resulting from external or internal misalignment) and the emotional approach (for mental symptoms and psychosomatic responses). Marin, in his latest book "Five Elements Six Conditions" calls these the "Three Musketeers". And then there is the fourth character, Dartagnan, who is in fact the hero and without whom there is no story possible. Dartagnan is Chi: the power of life, the energy that uplifts the spirit. Chi Nei Tsang actively and simultaneously uses the three different approaches with the addition of the 'Chi' of the applied 'Chi-Kung' which practitioners use during a treatment. Simply put "No Chi - no Chi Nei Tsang".

Awareness - the Key to Change
Most of us are not aware of our habits, tendencies, and more importantly the feelings that have created these habits and patterns of tension in our bodies, (which then manifest themselves as dis-ease). For example, do you know that you breathe according to how you feel, or more accurately, according to how you don't want to feel? We have learnt to run away from painful feelings, and by doing so we are not in touch with ourselves.
Chi Nei Tsang addresses the origin of health problems, including psychosomatic responses, by working on the abdomen in a way that triggers internal adjustment through the client's insight. This insight is not necessarily mental and is not always conscious. It is a connection between workings in a person that weren't previously communicating and that may have been in conflict. CNT therefore focuses on increasing people's self-awareness, including the parts that are in pain and want to feel good and the parts that protect them from feeling pain. Such an approach brings about true healing rather than simply curing the symptoms and is a truly Wholistic approach.
As Marin says: "True healing requires transformation. This also requires moving through periods of confusion. Then one day you feel good. You don't understand why, but you feel good." And then you can enjoy life!