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Energy Medicine for Cold & Flu Season

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At the first sign of a sniffle or aches, you might be tempted to pop some extra vitamin C or make some spicy soup, but there’s another option in the world of alternative health—energy medicine.


Want to prevent a cold or flu this season? In addition to healthy habits, like washing hands more frequently and eating more green vegetables, you can work with your own energy to avoid getting sick.

Energy medicine directs and balances the body’s energy fields to help improve your health. It goes deeper than traditional Western medicine by addressing the subtle energies of the body at the level of your organs and cells, as well as your soul.

Dr. Mehmet Oz told Oprah in 2007 that energy medicine is “the next big frontier in medicine.”

“It's not the mechanistic part of the joints moving,” he said. “It's not the chemistry of our body. It's understanding for the first time how energy influences how we feel."

One of the innovators in the field is Donna Eden, developer of Eden Energy Medicine. She has discovered nine energy systems, which are backed by electromagnetic measurements and correlate with subtle energies known throughout the world, according to her book Energy Medicine. These subtle energies are known in different cultures as meridians, chakras, the aura, basic grid, Celtic weave, five rhythms, triple warmer, radiant circuits, and the electrics. 

“When you are sick, your body is ripe for finding another strategy than the one it has been using to maintain its equilibrium," Eden wrote in Energy Medicine. "Energy medicine is the art of helping it find such a strategy.”

Three of her exercises help specifically with cold and flu to help keep your immune system strong. These descriptions and benefits come from Energy Medicine.

The Daily Energy Routine

The Daily Energy Routine combines a few different exercises and is designed to align your energy and keep you well. It combines techniques developed by Eden to stimulate and stabilize each of the vital energy systems.

The Three Thumps

Demonstrated in the video above for the Daily Energy Routine, the three thumps asks you to tap or massage three different meridian points. Tapping on these points restores your energy when you are tired and keeps your immune system humming.

Point 1: K-27. To locate it, place the pointer finger of each hand on your collarbone and move your hands toward each other until you reach the two inside corners of your collarbone. Drop straight down from these points to about an inch below your collarbone and feel for a soft spot or indentation there. Tap or massage these points for about 30 seconds while breathing in and out.

Point 2: Thymus Gland. This point is located in middle of the chest, centered just below the K-27 points. Massage or tap on the center of your sternum (center of chest on breast bone) for about 30 seconds while breathing deeply in and out.

Point 3: Spleen Points. You can find them by moving your fingers down from your thymus, out to your nipples, and straight down beneath the breasts. Make fists and tap both points for about 20 seconds while breathing deeply in and out.

Connecting Heaven and Earth

This exercise helps rejuvenate the whole body by pulling in extra oxygen, releasing carbon dioxide, stretching the body so energy can more readily flow through it, and opening the joints to release trapped energy.

Step 1. Rub your hands together and shake them out.

Step 2. Place your hands on the front of your thighs with your fingers spread

Step 3. With a deep inhalation, circle your arms out to your side

Step 4. On the exhalation, bring your hands together in front of your chest in a prayer position.

Step 5. With a deep inhalation, separate your arms from each other, stretching one high above your head and flattening your hand back, as if pushing something above you. Stretch the other arm down, flattening your hand as if pushing something toward the earth. Look up to the heavens. Stay in this position for as long as is comfortable.

Step 6. Release your breath through your mouth, returning your hands to a prayer position in front of your heart.

Step 7. Repeat, switching the arm that rises and the arm that lowers. After this first set, do two more sets.

Step 8. Coming out of this pose the final time, drop your arms and allow your body to fold over at the waist. Hang there with your knees slightly bent as you take two deep breaths. Slowly return to a standing position with a backward roll of the shoulders.

“When it comes to energy, too much is just as problematic as too little,” said Vicki Matthews, a naturopathic physician who uses energy medicine in her practice with much success. “One of the best ways to stay healthy is to use the Daily Energy Routine to help all of your energy systems stay balanced. These are exercises that anyone can do.”

Matthews said the exercises help re-pattern your energy and reinforce good patterns. It’s similar to how yoga can help improve your mood and keep you feeling more balanced.

“Yogis use body postures to move energy,” Matthews said. “[In energy medicine], we use the hands because they have electromagnetic tracing patterns on our body.”

For preventing or fighting off sickness, Matthews recommends paying attention to the triple warmer, the meridian that connects the energies of the immune system. She describes the Triple Warmer Smoothie exercise below.

Triple Warmer Smoothie

Start by placing your fingers over your eyes. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. As you breathe in drag your fingers across your face to the temples. Breathe in and exhale. Then breathe in and trace your fingers over the tops of your ears. As you breathe out smooth your fingers down your neck and down to your shoulders. At your shoulders, breathe in and give them a squeeze. Breathe out, tracing your fingers across your shoulders and let your hands drop to your heart. Take a big breath in and out.

When your body is out of balance for any reason, you are more susceptible to illness. Energy medicine works with those subtle energies in the body to bring you back to your healthy, vibrant state.