It’s not unusual for me to relax – stress-reduction is my stock in trade so I’m obliged to keep my hand in, but a short while ago I was whisked off to attend someone in my capacity as wayward Taoist physician, high above the alpine snowline and found myself, all requisite healing having been duly administered, walking outside, pondering the miracle of existence and admiring the surrounding peaks just as if they were magnificent sculptures on my living-room mantelpiece, they were that close. Looking around me was visually and spiritually thrilling but something far more profound than mere thrill was occurring. It dawned on me slowly that I was unusually, deeply, viscerally relaxed in a way I rarely feel even when in the throes of full-on meditation or tai chi practice. My joints were loose, my hips like rubber and even had my shoulders been burdened with all the woes of the world I would not have felt the weight. What could be this magic ingredient thrown into the internal mix to make me feel this damn good, I wondered, as you do - had someone spiked my morning tea with muscle relaxant? No, this was a much purer sensation of unmitigated serenity and absolute absence of stress in the midst of activity. Then I realised. It was the sound quality. The thick-pile carpet of snow all around was absorbing the higher audible sonic frequencies and producing a magnificently muffled effect as far and wide as the ear could hear. Of course! I shouted in a high-altitude eureka moment to the fir trees with their peroxide-punk hairstyles. You see, according to those more traditional Taoist physicians of ancient times, your ears and their hearing ability are the ‘flowers of your kidneys’, the external physical expression of your kidney energy. In other words, your kidney energy governs your relationship with sound. And it works both ways – the more abrasive the sound around you, the more strain there is on your kidney energy. The stronger-flowing your kidney energy, on the other hand, the louder and more abrasive the levels of sound you’ll be able to accommodate without feeling internal discomfort. Conversely, the more pleasant, soothing and soft the soundscape, the less energy your kidneys must use and hence, the more they relax. Moreover, your kidney energy is also responsible for overall management of internal stress levels. When strong you can manage more stress and feel less apprehensive, nervous or fearful of the future. When your kidney energy is weak you feel stressed even when life’s hunky-dory. When the sound around you is kind and gentle on your ears, your kidneys subtly relax, their energy flows more powerfully and you feel pleasantly flooded with what can only be described as liquid tranquillity. In light of the greater levels of abrasive high-frequency man-made sound assailing your eardrums on a daily basis and adding to your stress levels down here at sea-level, without your even knowing, I wondered how I could share this moment of aural and renal epiphany with you in a useful way, as I could hardly recommend a daily walk above the Alpine snowline as the universal panacea. I pondered those noise-cancelling headphones but felt that fell outside my remit. Then I remembered a wonderful old Taoist exercise that not only strengthens the energy in both the aural and renal regions, but also induces a wonderfully relaxing mildly altered state - and it goes like this. Relax your shoulders. With your fingertips resting on the sides of your skull, place your palms over your ears and press in with enough gentle force to muffle all sound completely. Now remove your palms enough to allow the sound back in. Moving in slow-motion – rushing won’t have the desired effect – and maintaining a steady rhythm, press and release again and continue to repeat the cycle 36 times. As you push in, you’ll start to notice a sensation of pressure being shunted down from your ears towards your mid-section. Mentally direct this pressure towards the mid to lower part of your back as this will boost your kidney energy. Practice this cheerfully and in good faith every day for a week and though the cumulative effect may not instantly transport you to alpine heights, it will certainly increase internal relaxation levels enough to help you more fully appreciate the miracle of your own existence - even if it does get a bit noisy at times.
