Introduction
I wrote a series of posts last year on frequency medicines at the end of which it was concluded that while these incredible machines are unquestionably effective we must also change the way we are living our lives if we wish to fix a problem permanently and even though mainstream thinking would have us turn to healthy eating or regular attendance at our local gym as the solution, i am here to tell you that a collection of motionless stretches known as Lajin, along with some slapping exercises known as Paida, will maintain our bodies in a way which goes far beyond conventional western wisdom.
When it comes to diet i have always advised people who are starting out to add more locally grown living food (fruit, salad, raw veg, nuts, seeds etc) to their daily routine rather than stopping with anything they particularly enjoy because in time the body will recognise that which is real food and that which isn't, pushing us subconsciously toward the nutrition it seeks. So when it comes to exercise the same thing can be said. Perhaps your life demands a huge amount of computer time? Well, no need to quit your job just yet when you can simply add practices to your daily routine which will counter the organ and posture damage you are inevitably developing by spending many hours per day in a hunched position.
Time is our biggest problem in this busy modern world which demands our attention consistently, so what i am personally looking for is a routine that takes no more than 30mins and while yoga has become a popular method for tuning the body in this respect i have not been able to make this modality stick in my life yet. Perhaps it was exclusively so i could, with the help of Fina my BQH guide, discover PaidaLajin and present it to you now as the most simple & effective life-extension technique i have personally found after 20 years of searching.
PaidaLajin for self diagnosis, treatment & prevention
The Chinese word is comprised of two parts, Paida & Lajin.
Paida means slapping.
Lajin means stretching.
The two practices are complimentary and if one is seeking to cure any kind of major problem in their body they absolutely must be done together, ideally in conjunction with a morning and evening meditation routine.
Practicing PaidaLajin boosts Qi (vital life energy) and also blood flow. In addition it will make a person's yang energy rise and their yin energy fall. This is important because the average human will naturally see a decline in yang energy and a rise in yin as they get older so PaidaLajin acts as the perfect counterbalance, keeping our yin and yang energy (and their associated meridians) in harmony.
Ancient Chinese wisdom states that if we stretch our tendons by one inch this will extend our lives by ten years, so Lajin was born as the simplest way to achieve this.
Chinese medicine also recognises the importance of the meridians as vital energetic channels in the body and the way in which we can clear blockages within them by using acupuncture and other such practices, so Paida was born as a simple way to clean these meridians on our own, without the need for a specialised practitioner.
Importantly, they believe that almost all disease stems from blocked meridians so PaidaLajin does not recognise individual disease names, regarding all of them as complex symptoms of simple blockages.
In stark contrast to western medicine which focuses on fixing these symptoms alone, PaidaLajin ignores the symptoms completely and focuses on identifying and fixing the root cause, preventing any chance of the disease reoccurring.
Most interesting of all PaidaLajin gives us the ability to make an accurate diagnosis of our meridians at home by slapping our body in particular places and observing the discolouration (sha) which rises to the surface of the skin as a result. The sha resembles a bruise but unlike a bruise it will disappear if one slaps the same area for long enough, ultimately fixing the blockage. So we can see straight away which meridians are blocked and which are working fine, getting directly to work on clearing the blocked ones with more slapping and stretching.
Finally PaidaLajin can be seen as an effective method for ongoing disease prevention and also as a way to slow the ageing process.
Now let's take a closer look at the two techniques.
Paida: pain medicine
While slapping may appear reminiscent of self flagellation, this stigma quickly disappears when a person begins to practice it, particularly if they use a mantra at the same time.
The following words work great for me: "I'm sorry. Forgive me. Thank you. I love you."
I am speaking of course to my body with these words and each slap is timed to fit each little sentence, with a gap of around half a second between slaps. One finds their own rhythm.
Here is the inner elbow of my left arm clearly displaying sha after slapping it consistently for 5mins.
It does hurt a fair bit if your meridians are blocked, but read further and you will understand why this kind of pain is very important.
According to Chinese Medicine, pain during PaidaLajin is the process of yang energy rising. It produces medicine in vivo (within the living.) Persistent pain indicates continuous production of the medicine. Pain directly stimulates and opens up the Heart, triggers willpower, and mobilizes yang energy. The Heart, King of Internal Organs, governs the spirit. Although pain can be felt all over the body, it is the Heart that feels pain first. It mobilizes the body’s resources to deal with the crisis. Qi and blood flow most rapidly to the problem area, in an attempt to protect the body.
According to Western Medicine, pain stimulates the endocrine system to secrete biochemical substances the body needs. Endogenous medicine means a treatment the body creates for itself. These include, but are not limited to, various hormones and stem cells. Pain is a natural response to the creation of these factors. Perhaps pain, itself, is the medicine. We are educated to regard pain as something negative—even evil—and try our best to avoid it. Seen from another perspective, pain and illness are good— they are warning signs that point us in the direction of healing.
---'Heal Yourself Naturally Now' by Hongchi Xiao
I have personally observed many times how if we push through the pain, benefits await us. The only painkillers i have taken in the last decade were for the crazy intense tooth pain i experienced earlier this year, so i am familiar with all kinds of pain. Particularly foot pain because i don't wear shoes and often catch the sharp points of rocks as i walk which push up into the cracks in my dry feet. But what i have noticed most of all about foot pain is that after a decade of experiencing it, the word "pain" has faded away because it is no longer an accurate way to describe what is happening. I feel the pain but it doesn't register as something negative, rather something which is building me up, making me stronger. And only now, having finally read 'Heal Yourself Naturally Now' by Hongchi Xiao, do i fully understand why that would be.
The thing is about disease is that it takes a long time to manifest fully and even if you don't feel it now, there is a reserve of pain inside you and no possibility of avoiding it. One way or another you are going to feel pain, but the good news is that by practicing PaidaLajin it can be released before the disease is even discovered and while the pain of slapping may feel uncomfortable this is massively preferable to the pain of a fully manifested disease.
Here is the inner elbow of my left arm clearly displaying sha after slapping it consistently for half an hour, repeating the mantra over and over.
The book says that it should stop hurting after three minutes but this was not true for me. It hurt the entire time! The book also says however that the more pain you experience, the more blocked the meridian is. Therefore, a person with perfectly functioning meridians will experience no pain at all when they slap and the skin will just turn a light shade of red, with no dark spots.
As you can see this was not the case for me when i tried it for the first time.
I didn't freak out because according to the book 90% of people doing this for the first time will feel pain and see the sha appear, a sign of blockages to the Heart Meridian, displayed below as the red line extending from our armpit to our little finger.
Since then i have been mostly focused on that left side of my heart meridian and after doing 5mins this morning i was encouraged to see there is a vast improvement now with almost no visible sha.
The right side of this meridian is a different story however and i still have some work to do yet.
But now at least i am fully in control of my own personal healing mission with a clear and achievable goal.
Lajin: tendon extension = life extension
Of the two practices i enjoy Lajin the most simply because it doesn't hurt after the first few weeks and actually feels very relaxing. This is in stark contrast to the Paida which does still case me pain, indicating the ongoing presence of blockages.
Just as there are many different places to slap the body in Paida (usually around the joints where the meridians run closest to the skin) there are many different ways in which we can stretch out our body and hold a motionless pose, increasing the length of our tendons over time.
The most popular position is known as a reclining (or reclined) Lajin and requires a bench of some kind.
You can also use two chairs and the corner of a wall like this.
For a while i did use the wall technique but found it a bit tiresome having to move the bench all the time to switch legs, so ultimately built one for the garden where i am much more at peace.
My first model of this Lajin bench felt like it might break so i have since then reinforced the board with two bamboo poles sunken into the ground.
Once you've had some practice with this position you will find it beneficial to pull your toes down like this, stretching out as far as possible.
Weights can also be placed on your toes to achieve the same goal of pulling those tendons as far as they will go, but that's more advanced level stuff. For beginners some people like to use velcro straps to attach the knee firmly to the board, but this is only if you are having a really hard time holding the position. If you simply cannot bend that knee, don't stress it and just practice with a bent knee, pulling it inward over the course of a few weeks more and more until it is flat with the board, reminding yourself the whole way that pain is good for you! For me it took 3-4 days of practice before i was able to put my leg flat on the board without feeling very uncomfortable.
The reclining Lajin stretch affects the bladder meridian which is the longest, running from the top of the head all the way to the toes.
It is interesting to note here that my most blocked meridian is this one and while i am not aware of any bladder or kidney problems i am extremely aware of my hot feet, which have been hot since my late teens. They are so hot all the time that i absolutely cannot sleep unless they are outside the covers and as you all know, i don't wear shoes except for around 4 months of the year in the coldest part of Winter. So i am wondering now if my hot feet are not a side effect of the blocked meridian? Time will tell.
When researching this subject in the Summer i came across an old friend Tim Shieff, someone who used to attend a weekly spiritual meeting i ran in London many years ago before going on to become a freerunning champion and so much more, now in the public eye with a clothing brand and big following. Tim is an incredible human being and i should probably give him a post of his own but for now i recommend you check out this excellent video he made two years ago on the reclined Lajin position and why it is the most important of these stretches. https://youtu.be/Ni9-JVoD_b4?si=pBeXqzLMyz5_Zxpx
Other stretches i do include hanging off the back of my Lajin bench to correct the hunched posture i mentioned earlier.
I also stretch my calves with a little board i made.
All you do is stand up straight on the board and hold the pose for as long as you can, ideally 3-5mins.
In the garden i am using this area where i have prepared the soil to fit my desired position.
Having a little ridge behind the feet to hold them in position is important if you're not wearing shoes on a grippy surface.
Most people just buy these kind of contraptions of course.
But having tried it now in the soil i can tell you this unquestionably feels better simply because we are fully grounded when our bare feet rest on the naked earth. Standing on dry grass will have less effect because it is less conductive but wearing plastic soled shoes will have no effect whatsoever, so take them off whenever you can and get grounded!
Finally i do a squat with each hand holding the opposite elbow, head bent forward resting on the knees.
Ever since the invention of chairs & toilets the squat has been largely forgotten in the west as the most natural position to hold both for 'sitting' and pooping, compressing the organs and tendons in just the right way to facilitate total relaxation and a sense of balance.
You can do this with your feet flat on the floor but for best results Tim recommends using a small wedge to raise the feet at the back and angle the posture slightly differently. https://youtu.be/c_ykYXxZIWk?si=bQayzLgxQvNw4eBa
I always do the squat last as it is the most relaxing, like a reward after all that stretching.
In Summary
My 30min routine is as follows:
10mins - meridian slapping (different each day as i feel directed) 4mins - reclining lajin left leg 4mins - reclining lajin right leg 4mins - back stretch (hunchback correction) 4mins - calve stretch 4mins - squat
Only in the last few weeks have i begun in earnest with this routine so i don't have too much to say about it yet. Plus it has been raining a lot so i've missed some days recently but i can report that having done the reclining Lajin on an almost daily basis for the last three months i am much better at touching my toes comfortably now without bending the knees. In addition there was a muscle tension behind my left knee which isn't gone but unquestionably feels better. When i stop doing this Lajin daily however the tension returns, so the underlying problem (bladder meridian blockage) still needs to be resolved with further slapping and stretching.
I've heard some pretty amazing testimonials involving CPR professionals who found Paida to be more effective at resuscitating patients than any of our modern techniques and also people claiming that doing Paida on their head made their white hair re-gain its colour. https://youtu.be/9OoFt5W5ZKg?si=zBTDWxNLoJ13Ryhw
Will be interested to try this one out for myself!
I even heard a story about a little girl who was able to save the life of her grandmother after she suffered a heart attack by giving her Paida (as instructed on a telephone) while she waited for the ambulance. You see, the thing about Paida is that it is so crazy simple, even a scared little girl can get it right.
Final thoughts
The idea that we have forgotten our true healing abilities resonates with me deeply and so too does the idea that some of us are starting to remember! We are