A little something to increase vitality and longevity in a trice

I’ve told you about this before and I’ll tell you about it again: there’s an acupuncture point below the outer corner of your knee joint, which when stimulated on a daily basis increases your natural lifespan (according to Taoist lore). It works on a more up-close level too, by increasing the span of your energy and stamina in any single 12 hour period. And when combined with another point in the web between thumb and forefinger, it also boosts your immune response considerably (thereby adding to the longevity effect).

Mao’s army were instructed to burn the lit end of a cigarette over it on the Long March, to make up for the lack of sustenance en route and were then said able to march an extra three miles (5 kilometers or so), and it has been nicknamed, rather prosaically, the three mile point ever since.

But because it’s hard without training to locate its precise position, the clever Taoists devised a simple method for ensuring its correct stimulation regardless.

Sit comfortably in a chair, both feet flat on the floor, feet under knees, knees parallel with outsides of hips, make fists and bend slightly forward from the hips till your fists lie flush with the outsides of your lower legs just below the outer knee joints.

With shoulders, elbows and wrists relaxed, using the surface created by the outer edge of the curved little fingers, drum a roll on both legs for the count of a slowish 81.

Then stop suddenly and feel the elation of the sensation of chi zooming all about and look at the back of your right hand.

On spotting the webby bit joining thumb to forefinger, press into its fleshiest, most central bit with thumb of the other hand, using the forefinger to press from the other side, thus forming a pincer movement, which you slowly increase in pressure till you feel quite a poignant, hand-paralyzing ache, hold for the count of a slowish 36 and repeat on the other hand.

Then sit for a moment or two, create a clear intention for this to energize you, see yourself going through the next passage of time energized and filled with stamina and zest, then come back to the everyday state and carry on as you were.

Within ten minutes you’ll feel your system’s subtly restarted and reset itself automatically.

I wish you boundless stamina now.

Love, B