Chronic fatigue – a different perspective

The last couple of months, I meet more and more people who suffer from (chronic) fatigue. Often it is related to a severe health condition and/or intense medical treatment. As I told one of my clients at a certain moment ‘It is as if your cells have forgotten how to store the energy’. From a TCM perspective that is exactly what is going on. Let’s explore how this perspective can help restore your energy.

Fatigue from being too busy

A bit more than I year ago I was suffering from fatigue myself. Since I am a Qigong teacher, I was able to restore my energy levels quite quickly time and time again, but in essence my battery was low. Even though in the act of doing all day-to-day activities there wasn’t any problem, I felt exhausted as soon as I had a break. It was clear that I had taken too much upon myself. With a combination of taking more rest, skipping some activities and the practice of Qigong, I was able to restore my energy levels quite soon.

This kind of fatigue and the feeling of exhaustion probably happens to everyone from time to time. As long as you do not wait too long to address it and take action to restore your energy levels from the inside out, it is ok.

What happens when fatigue changes to chronic fatigue?

If you do not address it on time, your energy systems get so exhausted that their upload and storage function becomes distorted. This can also happen as a side effect of chemo, other intense medical treatments or lungCovid. It is as if the cells of the body have forgotten how to store the energy. In order to understand what happens here, the TCM / Qigong perspective can help.

#1 The Yang can no longer protect the Yin

In the Traditional Chinese medicine, great emphasis lies on the healthy functioning of the organ’s Qi. Each organ not only refers to the physical organ, but actually complies a whole set of functions and structures in the body and mind. Basically we distinguish five sets of one Yin and one Yang organ, with each of these sets relating to one of the five elements:

When we would put this in a picture on how they relate to each other, it would look like:

As you can see in this picture, the Yin organs are on the inside and the Yang organs are on the outside. TCM states:

the Yang organs protect the Yin organs.

When we live under stress and with fatigue too long, or through sickness and intensive medical treatments, this Yin/Yang balance in the organs is lost. Not only the Yang (active, outgoing) energy is low, but also the Yin energy is depleted. In other words, the Yang functions can no longer protect and keep the energy in the Yin organs.

In this case be loving, careful and above all patient with yourself!
Qigong can certainly help, but do take your time to heal.

#2: The kidneys are the battery of the body

In the Traditional Chinese medicine, the kidneys have a special place. It is said that the kidneys store the life energy that we received from our parents in conception and birth. When we grow older, this initial energy decreases. Since the kidneys are regarded as the battery of our body, it is extremely important to keep your battery charged. If we do not recharge the kidneys in time, the pre-natal energy decreases faster. That is not per se a problem, but it does require some attention.

How to restore your energy levels and solve fatigue?

There’s probably not one answer that fits for everyone. At the same time, we do have some suggestions:

# Rou Fu / Massage navel

This is a basic exercise to gradually increase and strengthen your inner Qi. One of my students who suffered from energy loss due to concussion for already one year, started to do this on a daily basis and after a few weeks reported that finally she felt her energy levels were back again!

# La Qi

Connect with the universal Qi, so that it can flow into your system. Teacher Ning shared his experience with this exercise and guided a powerful La Qi meditation in ‘The meaning of Open & Close (La Qi).

When the Yin/Yang balance is disturbed, this can best be combined with Rou Fu or any other exercise that helps restore the inner Qi levels.

# Exercises to restore your kidneys energy

Depending on your energy level and your personal preference, you can make use of Qigong sound healing techniques, or some exercises in which Mingmen is involved.

Want to learn more?

This is what we understand from it now. However, especially on these specific topics we are still learning as well. That’s why we are so happy that teacher Ning will share with us his understanding on this topic in the weekend webinar ‘How to solve fatigue & how to effectively make use of the Qi Field’.