The MBD Podcast #005 Fortifying our Essence
Updated: Jun 22, 2022
Hello from the MBD!
To go straight to listen to this weeks Podcast visit the
Mind Body Detectives Podcast on PODBEAN
For future reference, if you wish to utilise the Meditation ONLY (for example if you want to revisit for repeated listenings in order to be supported in practicing the integration of the lung-kidney in this meditation), then please go straight to the Meditation at 18:33 (The ‘Fortifying our Essence’ Meditation begins at this point)
Welcome to the transcript of this weeks Podcast - all about "Fortifying our Essence - Focusing on the Breath and the Kidneys"
I want to talk to you today about fortifying our essence. And although that can sound like quite a grand and even ‘ephemeral’ idea, it is a fundamental aspect for us to think about if we want to nurture our essences, or our personal energy and bring balance and health to our personal energy system, and if we are interested in the idea of having a long and healthy life!
So today I want to talk to you a little about TCM and the aspect of the kidneys and the lungs in relationship to fortifying our essence.
The Kidneys are known to be the organs associated with something referred to as the “ROOT OF LIFE” - they are connected with the idea or energy of ‘Vitality’ and our potential to live a long and healthy life (‘longevity’). They are responsible for storing something called “JING” and we can think of this (in the West) as a form of ‘Essence’ - a dynamic, aspect of a non-physical living force. Our ‘QI’ - that essence of energy which motivates and moves all of life itself.
There’re two types of JING - one is Pre-Heavenly (that which we are born with) and the other is Post-Heavenly JING (that which we acquire and transform through life).
Pre-Heavenly essence (JING), is a one that we are born with, that from the moment of conception that is part of our ‘pre-Heavenly’ program - that aspect of our ‘SELF’, our essence that we ‘come here’ (to Earth) to live with on this physical Earth plane!
Then we have our Post Heavenly Essence (JING) is that which is acquired through ‘ingestion’. Through “taking in” aspects that are external to our body (air, water, foods) and we transform those through our bodily functions, through the digestion and the assimilation of the foods we eat; through the breath, the air that we breath. This can also be cultivated by taking part in activities such as qi gong, tai chi, meditation…through these very traditional and ancient practices which enable us to cultivate and to contain a build up of qi energy as we practice through the body itself.
There are also foods that are helpful to kidney jing - foods that contain the ‘essence’ of life itself. Often these are broths - bone broths and chicken broth that hold strong aspects of ‘qi’ within them.
This pre heavenly jing is a well of finite essence. It is allocated from conception (for the duration of our spiritual purpose during our Earthly lifetime), and can be directed through that genetic pool of information that we receive through our parents. It is thought of as a pool, which is finite, but it is gifted from this infinite pool of essence therefore it is connected to the infinite, even though that is being ‘contained’ in a vessel and therefore becomes finite.
There are some that do not believe that PHJ can extend to, or add to this pre-heavenly essence, but there are others that believe that we can increase this ‘pool’ of essence through the good usage of our daily essence and by following practices that foster and cultivate additional post-heavenly essence within our system.
Kidney JING is the Essence of “QI” - “QI” is the ‘energy’ that moves all life.
JING is the ‘Essence’ - that primal motivating “LIFE FORCE”, whereas ‘qi’ is the movement aspect of that. The Kidney is also the basis for physical Matter, and involved in the building of ‘blood’. The ‘building of blood’ is the physical aspect of that life force. So we have to have the physical vessel, but we also have to have the energy which animates and moves that - therefore qi and blood are integrally linked, and the balance of the qi and blood are essential for good health and longevity.
Fundamentally at the root of all illness, or disease, is an imbalance which is being caused by an excess or deficiency of qi or blood, in either this physical or non-physical aspect.
The second aspect that we are going to work with today is the Lungs.
They govern the “QI” and “Respiration”. There are many aspects to the lungs and how they are involved in the many aspects or processes of life.
Of the 3 ‘additive’ forms of qi that we require (air, water and food) to build our Post Heavenly Essence, it is air that we can go least time without! We survive longer without water, and longer still without food, but a limited time we can survive without receiving air.
In Western Medicine we recognise that “Oxygen” is the aspect in ‘air’ that is required for oxygenation of all the cells in the body, and needs to happen continuously for the body to remain in a living state, and that it is a short limited time that those cells can go without oxygenation before they begin to die.
So in the Western ideology, oxygen holds the primary position.
However, I would like us to open up to the possibility that air itself, and the breath, is far greater than the single idea of oxygen and oxygenation.
That within the air itself there is this essential aspect of ‘qi’. That there is an aspect of ENERGY itself, of the movement of energy which is a part of the air, you could think of it as another aspect, not dissimilar to oxygen in that it is a non-physical aspect of energy that we can bring into us…this subtle fine energy that is ‘holding information and energy’ that moves from the outside of our being to the inside of our being.
An essential aspect of life and living, which connects us to the world that we live in - to the environment around us. To the connection of subtle information and energy that exists everywhere - not only within us, but externally to us.
So it is this connection which is really important to keep us in balance.
Other people looking into the importance of the lungs and the breath in relationship to the breath and the heart.
HeartMath is an organisation doing a lot of work in this area. We know through this modern scientific endeavour, but also through eons of breathing practices in meditation, we know that this keeps the whole body and the autonomic nervous system in a state of balance.
So I will cover the lungs in a future podcast, but for now I'd like you to recognise that whilst it is the lungs that bring in this ‘Post Heavenly Qi’ through breathing - it is the Kidneys that need to “GRASP that”!
It is their job to grasp that ‘qi’ and bring it down into the kidneys, in order fo fit to be combined with the pre heavenly qi already stored in the kidneys, and then to utilise this beautiful, alchemical combination of qi that combines the inner aspect and essence of who we are, to the connection of the essence of the world around us.
That through this marriage and this bringing together of these two aspects of qi energy - that that is transported and utilised throughout the body and is essential to initiate ‘life’ in its true harmonious balance.
So Todays Podcast includes a Fortifying Our Essence Meditative Sound Healing (starting at 18:33 in the audio track of the podcast) for you to work with (as often as you would like to) and to practice this breathing, nourishing connection between 'the breath' and 'the kidneys'.
In order for us to receive life force, and to merge the pre and post heavenly life force to balance this aspect of qi and blood in the body, both the lungs and the kidneys are essential and work together.
The Emotions connected to Kidney and Lung are FEAR and GRIEF.
So, if we are experiencing either of those emotions, they can have a detrimental effect upon the function of those two organs functions and how they may be connecting and interacting with one another.
Whilst the body is resilient and can cope with some dis-regulation through the experience of those emotions, if we find that we are caught in our experience of fear, or grief for long periods of time, then this can have a long term effect on how the kidney and lungs are interacting.
This sound healing meditation would be good for somebody who is experiencing both of those particular emotions.
The Kidneys associated with Fear, and the lungs to grief.
You could be experiencing any one of those emotions individually, but if you are aware that you have a combination of the two of these running together, then this can have an affect on the inner and outer balance of life.
This is why when people are in extreme experiences of combined fear and grief, there can be a real impact on their lust for life, on their vitality. We can see they are not expressing that energy of life through their biology - that they may be disconnected from this experience of life, seeming withdrawn and maybe depressed. Fearful and introverted. Disconnected from life itself - and feeling very separate from the world around them.
If you would like to gain access to more supportive Emotional Freedom videos to use alongside this meditation, to support you if you are experiencing fear or grief, please visit my website and subscribe to access the member site, where there are resources for you to use on your personal healing journey and to support you with your emotional freedom from fear and grief.
To listen to this weeks Podcast visit the
Mind Body Detectives Podcast on PODBEAN
To go straight to the Meditation in the Podcast go to 18:33 (The ‘Fortifying our Essence’ Meditation begins at this point)